w11 social group

Question 1

social cognition is

Answer 1

thinking about self and others

this is biased and socially constructed

Question 2

3 demonstrations of power of the situation

Which 2 are ethically contentious?

Answer 2

1. Asch’s 1956 conformity study
2. Milgram’s 1963 obedience study
3. Zimbardo’s prison experiment

Obedience and prison are ethically contentious

Question 3

1. Asch’s conformity study

Answer 3

conformity - influenced by those around us
confederates + participant
asked which of 3 lines matches the original line length
all confederates say same

Question 4

conformity study results

Answer 4

participants conformed to confederates choice 37% of time
75% conformed on at least 1/12 trials

groups of 3 or more conformed more

conformity effect is reduced when:
private responses
others dissented

Question 5

Deutsch + Gerard

Types of social influence

Answer 5

1. informational - conform to others because you think they know something you dont
2. normative - conform with others to fit in

Question 6

we change our behaviour/belief in response to…

Answer 6

real or imagined influence of others

influence can sometimes be intentional

Question 7

2. Milgram’s obedience study

Answer 7

participants assigned role of teacher
instructed by experimenter to administer ‘shocks’ to learners when errors
learner was an actor
no actual shocks given
told to ‘continue with experiment’

Question 8

Milgram’s study results

Answer 8

2/3 volunteeers were going to administer what was believed a very dangerous shock

successive prompts from experimenter (authority) - ‘experiment requiries that you continue’ ‘it is essential’

65% of participants continued past ‘danger’ shock on machine

Question 9

milgram - obedience adjusted depending on how proximal to the experiment

Answer 9

someone else gave shock 92.5%
milgram 65%
office building 48%
teacher + learner in same room 40%

Question 10

milgram critiques

Answer 10

• were they just following instructions?
• not obedience?
• did they identify with the experiment?

Question 11

3. Zimbardo’s prison experiment

Answer 11

males for 2-week prison life study
randomly assigned as ‘guards’ or ‘prisoners’
- prisoners were arrested and given ID
- guards had uniform and instructed to do whatever necessary to maintain law

Question 12

Zimbardo observations

zimbardo acting as prison warden

Answer 12

day 1- guards harass prisoners
2 - prisoners rebelled, guards retailated
3 - prisoners act crazy
4 - guards exhibited ‘genuine sadistic tendencies’
6 - study was abandoned

Question 13

zimbardo results

Answer 13

quickly took on assigned roles
– the situation led ordinary people to behave in extraordinary ways

Question 14

critiquing Zimbardo

Answer 14

• participants behaving how they think they should act/what ZImbardo wanted
• zimbardo - people looking to him as authority
• haslam + richter - recreate study, different behaviours observed

Question 15

thoughts and behaviours are shaped by:

Answer 15

what other people are doing
what we expect them to do
authority structures

Question 16

social situations have…

Answer 16

PoWeRfUL influence over actions

Question 17

what is a group?

Answer 17

a number of people/things that are located/gathered together

Question 18

social psyc - what is a group?

Answer 18

1. Campbells notion of entitativity
2. tajfels notion of social identity

Question 19

1. Campbell - entitativity

Answer 19

the property of a group, appear to be distnct and bounded entity
1. common fate - individuals experience inter-related outcomes
2. similarity - extent individuals resemble each other
3. proximity - distance btwn individuals

Question 20

Entitativity scale

Answer 20

low - unstructured + independent
high - interdependent + structured

groups in terms of real perceivable properties of group

group research - group perormance

Question 21

audience effects:

social facilitation

Answer 21

presence of others
- eg cyclists rode faster with others
- chickens, fish eat more when others present

Question 22

social inhibition

Answer 22

eg. higher quality philosophical arguments when alone

Question 23

drive theory

Answer 23

presence of others is autonomically arousing + increases dominant response

Question 24

Zajonc

how drive theory works

example

Answer 24

asked to play instrument at party
gets nervous increase dominant response
1. well-learned = performance increases (facilitation)
OR
2. dont know the song well, dominant response incorrect = performance decreases (inhibition)

Question 25

social loafing

Answer 25

ringlemann effect
pull rope - individual productivitty decreases with group size
obtained output less than potential

Question 26

steiner model of group productivity

Answer 26

actual perfomrnace = potential subtract loss
potential is sum of individual
process loss = motivation + cooridination loss

Question 27

factors that increase social loafing

Answer 27

larger group size - diffusion of responsibility
lower identifiability
low expectation - dispense efforts
lower importance and motivation

Question 28

2. social identitty theorty tajfel

Answer 28

social idenitiy = part of self-concept that related to our group memberships

Question 29

Social Ideneity theory

being part of a group means:

Answer 29

1. have cognitive knowledge that you belong
2. membership has positive/negative value
3. membership leads to emotions towards own in group, and out-group

Question 30

social identity (Fajtel) vs social entitativity (campbell)

Answer 30

1. campbell ignores sense of self, SIT is group in terms of self
2. defining self in terms of group =positive group distinctivness, vs campbell - distinctiveness as state of being and social perception
3. 3. group is distinctive in intergroup relations, vs campbell - entitative group doesnt need relation to other groups

Question 31

cyclists

Answer 31

entitative group - move in unison with uniforms

social identitiy - ride on road with cars, compete for road, outgroup members

Question 32

group memberships are good/bad

Answer 32

• belonging is a predictor of health
• multiple social identities helps life changes

Question 33

overall

Answer 33

2 different thinkings of groups - social identity vs entitativity
Performance in group better (facilitation) and worse (inhibition) than alone
Group memberships/social identities good for health
Us vs them dynamics can negative impact social change