Social Psychology Flashcards
Define attitude.
A positive or negative evaluative reaction towards a stimulus, e.g. a person, action, object or concept
Define prejudice.
To judge, often negatively, without having relevant facts, usually about a group or its individual members
Define conformity.
The adjustment of individual behaviours, attitudes + beliefs to a group standard
State 3 factors that affect conformity.
Group size: increases up to a group size of 5 (no increase thereafter)
Presence of a dissenter: 1 person disagreeing greatly reduces conformity
Culture: greater in collectivistic cultures
Describe the Asch study on conformity and what it showed.
Simple vision test comparing lengths of lines + put a subject in the room with several actors who all chose the wrong answer
Majority of people conformed when everyone else chose the wrong answer
In the control group, < 1% conformed
Define obedience.
Compliance with commands given by an authority figure
State 4 factors influencing obedience.
Remoteness of the victim
Closeness + legitimacy of the authority figure
Diffusion of responsibility (obedience increases when someone else takes the blame)
NOT personal characteristics
Describe the Milgram experiment on obedience.
1 learner + 1 teacher
They were told the experiment studied the effect of punishment on memory + to deliver increasingly intense shocks as the actor made increasing mistakes
Even though the shock had reached a fatal level when the actor seemed unconscious or even dead, the majority of subjects still obeyed the commands
Define Social Loafing.
The tendency for people to expend less individual effort when working in a group than when working alone
State 4 factors that make social loafing more likely to occur.
Person believes that the individual performance is not being monitored
Task/ group has less value or meaning to the person
Person generally displays low motivation to strive for success
Person expects other group members will display high effort
In which gender and cultures are social loafing more likely to occur?
All male groups
Individualistic cultures
When might social loafing disappear?
Individual performance is being monitored
Members highly value their group/ task goal
Groups are smaller
Members are of similar competence
Define group polarisation.
The tendency for people to make decisions that are more extreme when they are in a group as opposed to a decision made alone/ independently
Define group think.
The tendency of group members to suspend critical thinking because they are striving to seek agreement
State 4 situations that make group think more likely to occur.
Group... is under high stress to reach a decision is insulated from outside input has a directive leader has high cohesiveness
What are the 5 steps of the Bystander effect?
Notice the event
Decide whether it really is an emergency (social comparison: see how others are responding)
Assuming responsibility to intervene (diffusion of responsibility: believe someone else will help)
Self-efficacy in dealing with the situation
Decision to help (based on cost-benefit analysis e.g. danger)
State 2 methods of overcoming the Bystander effect.
Reduce restraints on helping: Reduce ambiguity + increase responsibility Enhance guilt + concern for self-image Socialise altruism: Teaching moral inclusion Modelling helpful behaviour Attributing helpful behaviour to altruistic motives Education about barriers to helping
Describe the Bystander effect experiment by Darley and Latane and describe the results it obtained.
Participants to take part in a discussion about ‘personal problems’ over the radio
An actor in the adjacent room pretended to have a seizure
When alone: majority of participants helped
When in a group of 4: ~30% helped
When in a group of >4: hardly anyone helped
Outline the 3 leadership styles described by Kurt Lewin.
Authoritarian/autocratic style: all decision making done by leader. Don’t listen to suggestions of subordinates
Democratic/participative: makes decisions after consulting group
Laissez-faire/ free reign style: leaves the group entirely to itself
According to planned behaviour theory, what might externally influence our attitudes?
Beliefs about important others’ attitude towards a behaviour
Builds a subjective norm
Define cognitive dissonance
A conflict between thoughts, beliefs or attitudes
How may cognitive dissonance be resolved?
Behavioural change e.g. quit smoking
Acquire new information e.g. seeking exceptions- old aged smokers
Reduce importance of cognitions e.g. convince themselves it is better to “live for the moment”
How can a message be more effective in changing attitudes?
If it: reaches recipient is attention grabbing is easily understood is relevant + important is easily remembered
How can a messenger be more persuasive in changing attitudes?
Credible e.g. DR
Trustworthy e.g. objective
Appealing e.g. well presented
