Social Sychology - 2 Flashcards
What is inter-group contact? (Prejudice reduction)
A strategy that aims to increase the amount of contact between the holder of the prejudice and the group they are prejudice towards. It impacts on the cognitive (thoughts) component of an attitude. It makes people aware that members of various groups share the same goals, ambitions, feelings and frustrations.
What is sustained contact? (Inter-group contact)
Close, prolonged contact of a fairly direct nature (one-on-one or face-to-face) leads to a re-evaluation of incorrect stereotypes about the other group. Involves cooperative activity rather than casual and purposeless contact. This allows the holder of the stereotype to understand the person as an individual, rather than just seeing them as part of the group.
What are superordinate goals? (Inter-group contact)
Shared goals, which groups or individuals cannot achieve alone or without the other person or group. All members are forced to work cooperatively, which usually leads to a lessening of hostilities and prejudice. “We are all in the same boat”.
What is mutual interdependence? (Inter-group contact)
The groups must be dependent on each other to meet their goals – that is, they cannot succeed without the help of the other group. When each person’s needs are linked to those of others in the group, cooperation in encouraged.
What is equality? (Inter-group contact)
The members of both groups must have equal status to each other, that is, they must perceived themselves as being at the same level of importance.If one group perceives itself as having higher status, this can increase prejudice.
What is cognitive interventions? (Prejudice reduction)
Involves teaching the individual about prejudice including how it is formed and how it can be changed. Learnt skills and behaviours that we can use to fight prejudice.
Describe the Robber Cave Experiment.
Aim, participants, groups and allocation, procedure, results, conclusion, ethical issues, generalisations
Aim: To investigate whether contact and mutual interdependence will reduce prejudice
Participants: 22 white, middle-class, Protestant boys aged 11 – 12 with no record of any social, emotional or behavioral problems
Groups and allocation: 2 groups of boys, Children were randomly allocated to each group
Procedure: Phase 1: Sherif wanted to promote the development of cohesion within each group, create a sense of belonging and togetherness. This was achieved by having the boys participate in activities which required cooperation and interdependence (e.g. building a rope bridge and diving board)
Phase 2: Sherif pitted the boys against each other in a week long tournament involving competitions with prizes and awards. He also stirred up negative feelings between the groups by treating one better than the other
Phase 3: Sherif wanted to determine whether he could improve relationship between the two groups by increasing contact through intergroup cooperation in non-competitive situations. He set up three situations where the members of one group alone could not accomplish the task
Results
Phase 1- Boys bonded closely with their group
Phase 2 – Boys had become ‘two gangs of brawling, trouble-makers full of hostility towards each other”
Phase 3 – Boys made friendships across the groups and they rating the others with far less negative ratings
Conclusions: Mutual interdependence can reduce prejudice and conflict between groups. This can be created by setting the groups superordinate goals (a goal that cannot be achieved by one group alone).
Ethical issues
Informed consent
Voluntary participation: Possible harm to the boys (fighting, stealing, hostility)
Generalisations
The results of this study CANNOT be generalised to other populations because:
small sample size
only boys aged 11 – 12
only American
What is a group? Include its characteristics.
A Group is: formed when two or more people interact together with a purpose. It must consist of 2+ people. Individuals must influence each other. Members of a group must have a common purpose.
What is status?
Status: Within a group, each member has an identifiable status. Status is the importance of an individual’s position in the group, as perceived by the other members of the group.
An individual’s status can have an important effect on their behaviour towards others in the group.
It may influence how they are expected to behave, how they should be treated and/or how much power or control they have over the group
What is power?
The amount of influence that an individual can exert over another person.
Most of our interactions and relationships involve power to some degree, even if we are unaware of it.
Describe Zimbardo’s Prison experiment?
Aim, procedure, findings
Aim: Investigated whether prison guards and prisoners behave the way they do because of their personal characteristics or because of the roles in which they are given.
Procedure: Created a ‘stimulated prison’ at Stanford University. Participants were randomly assigned to be prison guards (high status) while others were prisoners (low status).
Findings: The roles adopted by individuals influences the amount of power exerted
What is reward power?
The ability to give positive consequences or remove negative consequences in response to specific behaviour. Example: Giving an employee a pay rise
What is coercive power?
Ability to give negative consequences or remove positive consequences in response to specific behaviour. Punishing a person for failure to comply. Example: Firing an employee
What is legitimate power?
The individual’s status in a group or society in general gives them the right to exercise power over those with a lower status. Based on acceptance of their role. Example: A policeman or a teacher
What is Referent power?
Individuals identify with or want to be like or liked by this person. We refer to the person for direction. Example: A celebrity or sports start
What is expert power?
Having special knowledge and skills that are desirable or needed. Example: A doctor or a mechanic
What is informational power?
Having resources or information that are useful and not available elsewhere. Example: A witness to a bank robbery
What is obedience?
Compliance with an order issued by an authority figure or someone who has power over you.
Describe Milgrams Obedience experiment.
Aim, participants, method, shock generator, results, conclusions, ethics
Aim: Wanted to investigate scientifically how people could be capable of carrying out great harm to others simply because they were ordered to do so. To investigate at what point people would disobey a direct command issued by the experimenter.
Participants
40 males between 20-50 years of age. 15 skilled or unskilled workers, 16 white collar sales or business men and 9 professional men.
Method
Participant arrives and is seated next to another subject (who is actually a confederate). Participant is given role as teacher and the subject (confederate) learner. Participant witnessed ‘learner’ being strapped to chair with electrodes on their wrists. Teacher instructed to teach pairs of words to the learner, and then test the learner to see how well they memorised the word pair. They are told by the experimenter they must give the learner an electric shock when the incorrect answer is given. The shock generator ranges from 15 to 450 volts. Each time the electric shock is given it must be increased by 15 volts. The learner would moan after each shock, however the experimenter assures you to continue.
The Shock Generator
This device was designed with 30 toggle switches labelled with voltage levels starting at 15 volts and increasing by 15 volt intervals to 450 volts. The switches are labelled in groups such as slight shock, moderate shock and danger: severe shock.
While the machine looked very real, it did not actually administer any shock to the learner.
Results:
Of the 40 participants, none stopped before 300 volts. 26 continued to administer shocks to the 450 volt level. Only 5 participants refused to go on after 300 volts, when the learner was kicking the wall. 65% obeyed an authority figure to the extent that they potentially put someone else’s life at risk by doing so.
Conclusions:
Participants were influenced by the gradual nature of the task – as they went on it became more inconsistent with their beliefs. No clear point where to start disobeying, by obeying the first small command they felt they had to keep going and obey larger commands.
Ethics:
Unacceptable levels of stress were created in the subjects during the experiment.
The potential for lasting effects existed, as when the deception was revealed to subjects they may feel used, embarrassed and possibly distrust legitimate authority figures in their future lives. Raised questions about using deception in experiments and what is acceptable.
What is social proximity? (Factors influencing obedience)
Refers to the social distance between two individuals. Obedience is increased when the distance between the authority figure and person giving instructions is decreased. Obedience is decrease when the distance between the person giving instructions and the person receiving instructions increases.
What is legitimacy of authority? (Factors influencing authority)
Individuals are more likely to obey individuals whom they perceive to have a higher status. This higher status allows individuals who are following commands to conclude that the person who issues the instruction is responsible for their behaviour and they were only following orders.
What is group pressure? (Factors influencing obedience)
Individuals are more likely to disobey orders if other members of the group have the courage to go against the command also.
What is conformity?
Individuals change their behaviour as a result of real or implied pressure from others.
Conformity is considered to be a powerful force that can make us do things that conflict with our attitudes, ethics or morals.
Describe Asch’s conformity experiment?
Aim, procedure, results, conclusions
Aim: How powerful the need to conform is in influencing behaviour.
Procedure: Participants walk into a room with 4 other participants (confederates) in the room. Participants were required to assist with a perception task. Shown a ‘standard line’ and ‘comparison lines’. Participants were asked which line was the same length.
18 trials were completed. In the first 6 trials all participants gave the same obvious ‘correct’ response. In the next 12 trials the other 4 participants (confederates) gave an obvious ‘incorrect’ response.
Results: Approximately 75% of participants ‘made a mistake’ and went along with the group’s consensus at least once.
24% never conformed.
Conclusions: Participants were strongly influenced by the actions of those around them.
People may conform to a majority opinion even in a situation in which they are likely to behave differently when alone.
