Social Sychology - 2

Question 1

What is inter-group contact? (Prejudice reduction)

Answer 1

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.

Question 2

What is sustained contact? (Inter-group contact)

Answer 2

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.

Question 3

What are superordinate goals? (Inter-group contact)

Answer 3

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”.

Question 4

What is mutual interdependence? (Inter-group contact)

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

What is equality? (Inter-group contact)

Answer 5

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.

Question 6

What is cognitive interventions? (Prejudice reduction)

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

Describe the Robber Cave Experiment.

Aim, participants, groups and allocation, procedure, results, conclusion, ethical issues, generalisations

Answer 7

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

Question 8

What is a group? Include its characteristics.

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

What is status?

Answer 9

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

Question 10

What is power?

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

Describe Zimbardo’s Prison experiment?

Aim, procedure, findings

Answer 11

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

Question 12

What is reward power?

Answer 12

The ability to give positive consequences or remove negative consequences in response to specific behaviour. Example: Giving an employee a pay rise

Question 13

What is coercive power?

Answer 13

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

Question 14

What is legitimate power?

Answer 14

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

Question 15

What is Referent power?

Answer 15

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

Question 16

What is expert power?

Answer 16

Having special knowledge and skills that are desirable or needed. Example: A doctor or a mechanic

Question 17

What is informational power?

Answer 17

Having resources or information that are useful and not available elsewhere. Example: A witness to a bank robbery

Question 18

What is obedience?

Answer 18

Compliance with an order issued by an authority figure or someone who has power over you.

Question 19

Describe Milgrams Obedience experiment.

Aim, participants, method, shock generator, results, conclusions, ethics

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

What is social proximity? (Factors influencing obedience)

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

What is legitimacy of authority? (Factors influencing authority)

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

What is group pressure? (Factors influencing obedience)

Answer 22

Individuals are more likely to disobey orders if other members of the group have the courage to go against the command also.

Question 23

What is conformity?

Answer 23

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.

Question 24

Describe Asch’s conformity experiment?

Aim, procedure, results, conclusions

Answer 24

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.

Question 25

What is informational Influence? (Factors influencing conformity)

Answer 25

We conform because we want to be right and not stand out. We seek information on how we should behave. The social environment or situational cues are used by individuals to help them monitor or adapt their behaviour to fit in with the behaviour of those around them.

Question 26

What is unanimity? (Factors influencing conformity)

Answer 26

if there is unanimity (agreement) in the opinions of the group we are likely to conform. When everyone in the group agrees or does the same thing.

Question 27

What is group size? (Factors influencing conformity)

Answer 27

Conformity is likely to increase as the number of people in the group increases. Example: In a group of 2 you would be less likely to conform, though in a group of 4 where 3 people shared the same view you would be more likely to conform.

Question 28

What is deindividuation? (Factors influencing conformity)

Answer 28

‘If everyone else is doing it, it must be ok’. When in a larger group we can behave in ways which we would never alone. Behaviour influenced by a sense of anonymity. The loss of social identity and inhibition, causing a person to lose responsibility of their own actions and causing them to ignore possible consequences.

Question 29

What are cultural influences? (Factors influencing conformity)

Answer 29

Individuals from collectivist cultures such as many Asian cultures are more likely to conform to group norms than people form more individualistic cultures such as Australia.

Question 30

What is pro social behaviour?

Answer 30

Occurs when a person selflessly does something to help somebody else, with little regard for their own self-interest or personal safety and is viewed positively by society.

People are more likely to help others when:
They are in a good mood
They have the skills or competence to help
They are alone (no others around to help
It is socially acceptable to help (social responsibility)
They have been helped by this person/group before and are returning the favour. (reciprocity principle)
They weigh up helping as more important than not helping (cost-benefit analysis)
They have high empathy

Question 31

What is anti social behaviour?

Answer 31

Selfish voluntary behavior that deliberately causes physical or psychological harm to another person and is viewed negatively by society.

People are less likely to help others when:
Others are around and they think someone else will act (diffusion of responsibility)
They are afraid of making a mistake, feel self-conscious about helping or scared of looking dumb (audience inhibition)
Others are not helping, so they think “If others aren’t helping, then why should I?” (social influence)
They weigh up the costs of helping to be greater than the benefits (cost-benefit analysis)
They are in a bad mood
They lack or perceive a lack of skills or competence to help
They don’t empathise with the person needing help