Social Psychology

Question 1

Define attitude. When might attitudes influence behaviour more strongly?

Answer 1

Attitude = a positive or negative evaluative reaction toward a stimulus, such as a person, action, object, or concept
Attitudes influence behaviour more strongly when situational factors that contradict our attitudes are weak

Question 2

1) A message is more effective in changing an individuals attitude if it is/does what?
2) More persuasive messengers are what?

Answer 2

• Reaches recipient
• Is attention-grabbing
• Easily understood
• Relevant and important
• Easily remembered
• Credible e.g. doctors
• Trustworthy e.g. objective
• Appealing e.g. well presented

Question 3

What is meant by ‘framing’?

Answer 3

Refers to whether a message emphasises the benefits or losses of that behaviour e.g. loss-framed messages to encourage people to be screened or tested; gain-framed messages to promote prevention behaviours

Question 4

Define cognitive dissonance

Answer 4

The state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes

Question 5

Define stereotype

Answer 5

Generalisations made about a group of people or members of that group, such as race, ethnicity,
or gender.

Question 6

Define prejudice

Answer 6

To judge, often negatively, without having relevant facts, usually about a group or its individual members

Question 7

Define discrimination

Answer 7

Behaviours that follow from negative evaluations or attitudes towards members of particular groups

Question 8

Define social loafing/diffusion of responsibility

Answer 8

The tendency for people to

expend less individual effort when working in a group than when working alone

Question 9

List the situational factors which would make social loafing more likely to occur

Answer 9

• The person believes that individual performance is not being monitored
• The task (goal) or the group has less value or meaning to the person
• The person generally displays low motivation to strive for success
• The person expects that other group members will display high effort

Question 10

What intrinsic factors (describing the group itself) affect the likelihood of social loafing?

Answer 10

• Depends on gender and culture
• Occurs more strongly in all-male groups
• Occurs more often in individualistic cultures

Question 11

Define conformity and list the factors that affect conformity

Answer 11

The adjustment of individual behaviours, attitudes, and beliefs to a group standard

• Conformity increases as group size increases (except after 5)
• One person disagreeing with the others greatly reduces group conformity
• Conformity greater in collectivistic cultures

Question 12

Describe the Asch study on conformity and what it showed.

Answer 12

Set a very simple vision test comparing the lengths of lines and 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, less than 1% conformed

Question 13

Define the Bystander Effect. Briefly describe the Latane & Darley experiment

Answer 13

Presence of multiple bystanders inhibits each person’s tendency to help

• Participants were invited into the lab under the pretext they were taking part in a discussion about ‘personal problems’
• Participants were all in separate rooms in the lab and communicated via an intercom system
• Helping student having an epileptic seizure in an adjacent room.
• 87% helped if they believed it was just them and the other student.
• But only 31% helped when they believed they were in a group of 4 people, hardly anyone helped if group was above 4.
• If participant had not acted within first 3 minutes they never acted.

Question 14

State the 5-step Bystander Decision Process, according to the Latané & Darley 1970 study

Answer 14

1. Notice the event
2. Decide if the event is really an emergency; Social comparison (i.e. look to see how others are responding)
3. Assuming responsibility to intervene; Diffusion of Responsibility (i.e. believing that someone else will help)
4. Self-efficacy in dealing with the situation
5. Decision to help (based on cost-benefit analysis e.g. danger)

Question 15

List the ways of increasing ‘helping behaviour’

Answer 15

Reducing restraints on helping:

• Reduce ambiguity and increase responsibility
• Enhance guilt and concern for self image

Socialise altruism:

• Teaching moral inclusion
• Modelling helping behaviour
• Attributing helpful behaviour to altruistic motives
• Education about barriers to helping

Question 16

Define obedience.

Answer 16

Compliance with commands given by an authority figure

Question 17

State some factors influencing obedience.

Answer 17

• Remoteness of the victim
• Closeness and legitimacy of the authority figure
• Diffusion of responsibility (obedience increases when someone else takes the blame)
• NOT personal characteristics

Question 18

Describe the Milgram experiment on obedience.

Answer 18

There was one learner and one teacher
They were told that the experiment studied the effect of punishment on memory and they were told to deliver more and more intense shocks as the actor made more and more 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

Question 19

Define Groupthink. When is it most likely to occur?

Answer 19

The tendency of group members to suspend critical thinking because they are striving to seek agreement

Most likely to occur when a group:

• Is under high stress to reach a decision
• Is insulated from outside input
• Has a directive leader
• Has high cohesiveness

Question 20

Professor Kurt Lewin, widely recognized as the founder of social psychology, undertook studies on leadership and defined three distinct styles. Describe these three styles

Answer 20

Autocratic or authoritarian style:
Under the autocratic leadership style, all decision-making powers are centralized in the leader, as with dictator leaders. They do not entertain any suggestions or initiatives from subordinates.

Participative or democratic style:
The democratic leadership style favours decision-making by the group as shown, such as leader gives instruction after consulting the group. They can win the co-operation of their group and can motivate them effectively and positively.

Laissez-faire or “free rein” style:
A free-rein leader does not lead, but leaves the group entirely to itself as shown; such a leader allows maximum freedom to subordinates, i.e., they are given a free hand in deciding their own policies and methods.