Social Psychology Part 1

Social Psychology Part 1

• Social psychology studies how other people influence thoughts, feelings, and actions.
• Social psychologists investigate how others' behavior affects individuals.
• Social psychologists examine how people behave differently in groups.
• Social psychologists are interested in how people think about others.
• Connections with others are important for human survival.
• Humans have a fundamental need to belong.

Learning Outcomes

• To define social psychology.
• To understand how groups can help or harm individuals. Examples include social loafing, deindividuation, group polarization, and groupthink.
• To understand how obedience and conformity influence individuals. This includes the Milgram experiment and the Asch line experiment.
• To understand the bystander effect.

What is Social Psychology?

• Social psychology investigates how people are affected by others.

Why Do We Care?

• Connections with others are crucial for survival.
• People have a fundamental need to belong to groups.

How Other People Influence Us

• The presence of others can influence how people behave.
• Behavior in the presence of others can depend on the circumstances.
• A 1897 study by Norman Triplett found that bicycle racers perform better in competitions than when riding alone.
• The presence of others increases physiological arousal.

Social Facilitation

• Social facilitation strengthens dominant responses in the presence of others.
• Heightened arousal is linked to presence of others
• Performance on difficult tasks is poorer with the presence of others, compared to easier tasks

Hypothetical Situation

• A final research project requires a chosen topic, summary of relevant research, a research question, study design, data collection/analysis, and presentation of results.
• Students could choose between individual and group projects.

Groups

• A group is a collection of two or more individuals working or interacting together.
• Groups help get things done and make accurate decisions.

Problem with Goal 1: Social Loafing

• Social loafing is the reduction of individual effort in a group setting.
• Examples include tug-of-war.
• Individuals work less hard in groups when tasks are less meaningful.
• Loafing decreases when working with friends instead of strangers.
• Identifiable personal effort incentivizes harder work.

Another Problem with Goal 1: Deindividuation

• Deindividuation occurs when people lose their self-awareness and feel less accountable in a group.
• This can occur at night, in costumes, or online.
• Deindividuation can lead to more social loafing and antisocial behavior.

Problem with Goal 2: Group Polarization

• Group polarization refers to the strengthening of initial leanings during group discussions.
• This can make attitudes more extreme.
• For example, discussion among cat & dog lovers will likely intensify their stances favouring cats or dogs.

Problem with Goal 2: Groupthink

• Groupthink occurs when a group's desire for agreement overrides the critical evaluation of alternative actions.
• Groupthink can lead to poor decisions.
• Groupthink is seen in situations where people avoid generating or evaluating different ideas in order to maintain group harmony. Examples include Challenger space shuttle explosion, Salem Witch trials, and Nazi Germany.

Preventing Groupthink

• Heterogeneous groups are more likely to generate novel ideas and different perspectives.
• Having a devil's advocate can challenge the dominant viewpoint.

Obedience and Conformity

• Conformity is changing behavior to match the opinions and behaviors of others.
• Obedience is changing behavior in response to an order from an authority.

Conformity

• Conformity occurs for normative and informational influence.
• Normative Influence involves adhering to the crowd to avoid appearing foolish or to fit in.
• Informational Influence means that people conform because they believe a group opinion to be correct.

Conformity: Normative Influences

• The Asch line study (1955) showed that individuals often conform to group errors, especially when the group size increases.
• Dissension reduces likelihood of conformity.
• Written responses, independently of the group, reduce errors.

Obedience

• This can lead to actions individuals consider to be wrong.
• The Milgram experiment, conducted in the 1960s, tested obedience to authority.
• Participants were instructed to administer increasingly stronger electric shocks to another person (an actor) when the participant answered questions incorrectly. Results showed a strong tendency towards obedience, with 62.5% of participants continuing to the maximum voltage.

The Experiment (Methods)

• Participants thought they were delivering a shock to another person for mistakes on a quiz.
• The other person was an actor, not receiving real shocks.
• The voltage increased with each error.
• The experiment demonstrated how far individuals are willing to go to obey authority.

The Experiment (Results)

• Psychiatrists predicted minimal obedience in the Milgram study.
• The results showed a high level of obedience.
• A significant percentage of participants continued to deliver shocks even when the other person reacted with increasing distress or screams.

Milgram's Findings

• Obedience changes based on the proximity of the participant to the person receiving the shocks.
• A greater percentage of participants administered high voltage shocks when the teacher and learner were in different rooms.
• The experimenter's presence, or absence and instructions, influenced the level of obedience.
• Other people's willingness to disobey impacted obedience levels.

Milgram's Conclusion

• Obedience in the Milgram study was a lot more about the situation than the personality of the participant.

Positive Side of Social Influence

• Conformity creates better functioning groups and organizes larger groups and keeps society running smoothly.
• Belongingness and obedience can help organise society.

Bystander Effect

• The bystander effect is a situation where individuals do not help someone in need due to the presence of others.
• The Kitty Genovese case, where a woman was murdered while multiple witnesses failed to intervene, highlighted this phenomenon.

Latane & Darley - 5 Steps to Helping

• Helping someone in need depends on people noticing an emergency.
• Interpreting the situation as an emergency.
• Taking personal responsibility for helping.
• Deciding on how to help.
• Providing help.
• The presence of others can hinder any of these steps.

Bystander Effect - Why?

• The diffusion of responsibility means people believe someone else will step up to help.
• Fear of social blunders can deter helping actions.
• Individuals may be more hesitant to help out of concern for public perception.
• Individuals may be disinclined to help if in an anonymous setting.