Download session five- social psychology part one

PSYC 112
PSYCHOLOGY FOR
EVERYDAY LIVING
SESSION 5 – SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY PART I
Lecturer: Dr. Paul Narh Doku, Dept of Psychology, UG
Contact Information: [email protected]
College of Education
School of Continuing and Distance Education
2014/2015 – 2016/2017
Session Overview
• This session offers a broad introduction to social
psychology, the scientific study of human social
influence and interaction. The session will explore
the various ways people think about, affect, and
relate to one another. The session will cover topics
such as the attitudes, conformity, helping behavior,
compliance, obedience, social judgement
(attribution) and social presence.
Slide 2
Session Outline
The key topics to be covered in the session are as
follows:
• Topic One – Social Psychology and its scope
• Topic Two – Attitudes and Behaviours
• Topic Three – Compliance
• Topic Four – Attribution Theory
• Topic Five – Prosocial Behaviour
• Topic Six – Influence of Social Presence
• Topic Seven – Conformity
• Topic Eight – Obedience to Authority
Slide 3
Reading List
• Refer to students to relevant text/chapter or reading materials
you will make available on Sakai
Slide 4
Topic 1 - Social Psychology
• Social Psychology is concerned with studying the way people
relate to others and how we relate to them….…how our
behaviours affect others and how others’ behaviours affect us.
Attitude
Attraction
Group Behavior
Aggression
• This session will deal with issues of attitude and the
influence of social presence on behaviours
Slide 5
Topic 2 -Attitudes and
Behaviour
• An attitude is a set of beliefs
and feelings. The covert, unseen
views and thoughts that we have
on issues.
• Advertising is sometimes based
on attitude formation.
Attitude and Behavior
• Do attitudes tell us about
someone’s behavior? Yes.
The two are supposed to
be consistent
You have a belief
that cheating on
tests is bad.
But you cheat on
a test!!!
The teacher was
really bad so in
that class it is OK.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
• People want to have
consistent attitudes and
behaviors….when they are
not they experience
dissonance (unpleasant
tension).
• Usually they will change
their attitude.
Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance (proposed by a social
psychologist called Festinger): discomfort caused by
inconsistencies between attitudes and behavior
• We need to have consistency in our thoughts,
perceptions, and images of ourselves
• Underlies attempts to convince ourselves we did the
right thing
Example of Cognitive Dissonance
Topic 3 - Compliance and
Compliance Strategies
Compliance is acting in accordance with a mere or
direct request from another person or group. Below are
two common compliance strategies:
• Foot-in-the-door
phenomenon
• Door-in-the-face
phenomenon
Compliance Strategies
• Foot-in-the-door technique: compliance to a
large request is gained by preceding it with a
very small request.
• Door-in-the-face technique: compliance is
gained by starting with a large, unreasonable
request that is turned down, and then following it
with a smaller, more reasonable request.
Topic 4 - Attribution Theory
Attribution: the process by which we explain our own behavior and that
of others. We can attribute behavior to either:
• External Causes (situational): That is to causes and factors that lie
outside of a person, such as doing of God, demons, the weather, the
teacher, the exam was very difficult, etc
• Internal Causes (dispositional): Attributing the cause behind behavior
to factors within the individual (Ones that lie within a person) such as I
worked hard, I am very intelligent or gifted.
Topic 4 - How Do We Explain Behaviour?
How others influence our Thinking
• Attribution Theory: This
tries to explain how people
determine the cause of their
own behaviour and that of
others they observe.
It is either a….
• Situational Attribution
OR
• Dispositional Attribution
Fundamental Attribution Error
• Fundamental attribution
error: the tendency as an
observer to overestimate
dispositional influences
(internal causes) and
underestimate situational
influences (external
causes) upon others’
behavior than for one’s
own behaviours.
• We tend to
overestimate the role
of dispositional factors
for others.
If you win it is
because you are
awesome…if you
lose, it must have
been the coach or
weather or….
Topic 5 - Prosocial Behavior (Helping
Behaviour)
Kitty Genovese case in Kew
Gardens NY (read about in on
the internet).
Bystander Effect:
•
This concept explains that conditions in
which people are more or less likely to
help one another. In general…the more
people around…the less chance of
help….because of…
1.
Diffusion of Responsibility - The
lessening of a sense of individual
responsibility for a task when
responsibility is shared among members
of a group.
2.
Pluralistic Ignorance - People decide
what to do by looking to others.
Offering Help: Decision Tree
Number of Bystanders
& Offers of Help
Topic 6 – Influence of Social
Presence
Social Facilitation Theory
• If you are really good at
something….or it is an easy
task…you will perform
BETTER in front of a group
(Social Facilitation)
• If it is a difficult task or
you are not very good at
it…you will perform WORSE
in front of a group (social
impairment).
Social Loafing
• When working in groups individuals tend to
reduce their own level of effort...this is commonly
known as the Social Loafing.
• The more people = Less effort.
• When Latene researched this he found that when
asked to clap individually and in groups that the
larger the group the less clapping occurred
individually.
Social Loafing
• Sport education provide opportunities for
social loafing as you can participate in teams
and hide your work rate.
• Combat- Target setting in these areas allows
for the assessor to identify individuals in a
large groups.
Social Facilitation or Social Loafing?
Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Topic 7 - Conformity Studies
• Adjusting one’s
behavior or thinking
to coincide with a
group standard.
Conformity
• Conformity is shaping one’s behavior or attitudes to
conform to that of others, e.g., group norms
• A change in behavior and/or belief to conform to a
group norm as a result of real or imagined group
pressure
• A famous study about conformity was completed by
Solomon Asch in the 1950’s
• Asch had subjects come into a laboratory setting and give
answers to a simple line matching task.
Asch’s Study of Conformity
Asch’s findings
• Asch’s subjects conformed (i.e., gave the WRONG
answer) 1/3 of the time.
• 76% of the subjects conformed at least once at some
time during the experiment
• This is especially important when one realizes that
these are groups of people with whom the subjects
have no enduring relationships
• Examine Asch’s data presented in the tables in the
following slide to see what they suggest about
conformity.
Asch’s Results
• About 1/3 of the participants
conformed.
• Over 70% conformed at least
once.
To strengthen conformity:
•
The group is unanimous
•
The group is at least three people.
•
One admires the group’s status
•
One had made no prior commitment
Topic 8 - Obedience to Authority
Obedience: Following the commands of a person in authority OR the
behavior change that comes in response to a demand from an
authority figure
Most authority figures have been given their authority by
society
We are just told to follow what they tell you to do
Every person at some time in their life has followed a
superior without questioning why they are doing what they
are doing
For example we never question why we take tests in school
We just take them because we are told to do so
Milgram’s Study
Of
Obedience
Milgram’s (1963) study of
“obedience to authority”
• The study by Stanley Milgram specifically looked at
how cooperative people are willing to be when
responding to the request of an authority.
• At the time that Milgram designed his study, a famous
former Nazi was on trial and using the defense that he
was just obeying orders. Milgram wanted to see if
there was a certain personality that would be more
willing to comply with orders from an authority.
Obedience
• Classic Milgram study: Volunteer were told to teach
another person (actually a confederate in the experiment)
word pairs by applying an electric shock each time the
learner was wrong. The learner was made to tell the
volunteer that he had a heart condition.
Results of Milgram’s Obedience Experiment
65% obeyed by going all the way to 450 volts on the “shock machine” even
though the learner eventually could not answer any more questions.
Factors Affecting Obedience in original study
• Prestige and status of authority figure
– Supported by prestigious institution
• Person giving orders was close at hand
– Milgram was right there
• Victims were depersonalized
– Out of sight
• Presence of others who disobey
– Here, no role models who disobeyed
In replication studies…the same
factors identified
• Legitimacy of Authority
– When a “clerk” gave the orders, compliance was 20%
• Proximity of Authority Figure
– When Milgram gave commands by telephone,
compliance dropped to 21%
• Emotional Distance
– When learner was in the same room, full compliance
dropped to 40%
– When teacher applied learner’s hand to shock plate,
compliance fell to 30%
• Group Influence
– When two confederates “refused” to keep going, only
10% of real subjects fully complied with the orders
Situational Factors in Obedience
Obedience to authority
was lowered by:
• increased personal
contact with victim
• social support of others
(e.g., two volunteers
working together)
• “Authority figure”
appearing more
disreputable
• Disagreement between
2 authority figures
What did we learn from Milgram?
• Ordinary people can
do shocking things.
• Ethical issues….
• Would not have
received approval
from today’s IRB
(Internal Review
Board).
Some observations….
• The Asch & Milgram studies all demonstrate
the impact of situation on our behavior—how
strong it’s influence can be.
• Milgram’s & Asch’s study also demonstrated
that subject exhibit less conformity &
obedience when others were also modeling
willingness to disagree & refuse to
participate. So one person who disagrees
with an incorrect group decision or resists an
inappropriate order or an injustice can make a
big difference!
Questions to ask yourself…
• Are you surprised to find how many people were
willing to obey the experimenter in this study? Why
or why not?
• Some people have criticized the Milgram study. They
have argued that it was unethical to deceive subjects
in this manner, and they feel that the study never
should have been done. What do you think?
References
• Coon, D. and Mitterer, O. J (2013). Introduction to
Psychology (13th ed). Wadsworth Cengage learning. Pp.
547-591
• Feldman, S. R, Collins, J. E. and Green, M. J (2005).
Essentials of understanding psychology (2nd ed). McGrawHill Ryerson. pp. 457-482
• Kosslyn, M. S, and Rosenberg, R. (2006). Psychology in
context. pearson. Pp. 732-781
• Weiten, W. (2009). Psychology: Themes and variations (8th
ed). cengage learning. Pp. 664-699
Slide 40