Social Psychology Quiz: Bystander Effect and Obedience

Social Psychology

• Social Psychology: Studies how people think, feel, and behave in social situations. It differs from sociology, which focuses on social structures and groups.

Bystander Effect

• Bystander effect: The tendency for individuals to be less likely to help in an emergency when others are present.
• Causes: Diffusion of responsibility (assuming others will help), pluralistic ignorance (misinterpreting the lack of response as a sign that help isn't needed), ambiguity (uncertainty about the situation), and conformity (following the behavior of others).
• John Darley and Bibb Latané's Research: Their studies demonstrated the bystander effect in various scenarios.

Obedience

• Stanley Milgram's Experiment: Participants were instructed to administer increasingly intense electric shocks to another person. The study showed high levels of obedience to authority figures.
• Motivations for Obedience: Authority figures, social pressures, and potentially personal factors.

Conformity

• Conformity: Altering one's behavior or beliefs to match those of a group.

• In-groups and Out-groups: In-groups are those a person identifies with, out-groups are those they see as different.

• Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment: Demonstrated how easily people adopt roles, which can be detrimental. The experiment highlighted the dangers of conformity and the power of social roles.

• Factors Affecting Conformity: Group size, group cohesiveness, and perceived status of the group.

• Asch's Conformity Experiment: Participants were asked to identify which line matched a standard. The study highlighted how social pressure could affect individual judgments. It showed that group pressure, even in unambiguous situations, can affect conformity.

Compliance vs. Acceptance

• Compliance: Going along with a request, even though you may not agree with it.
• Acceptance: Agreeing with a request and adopting the belief or behaviour in accord with it.

Intro to Psychology + Psychodynamic Theory

• Psychology: The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
• Schools of Thought: Various theoretical perspectives, including psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, etc.
• Psychodynamic Theory and Psychoanalysis: A perspective emphasizing unconscious mental processes and early childhood experiences.

Personality Theories

• Nature vs. Nurture: The debate on the relative contributions of genetics and environment to personality development.
• Sigmund Freud: Proposed the unconscious mind, defense mechanisms such as repression.
  • Tripartite Mind: Id, ego, and superego.
  • Psychosexual Stages: Oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital stages.
• Karen Horney: Criticized aspects of Freud's work, and developed feminist psychology perspectives.
• Carl Jung: Collective unconscious, archetypes, emphasis on the importance of the unconscious mind and self-discovery.
• Erik Erikson: Psychosocial development across the lifespan – addresses stages of conflict.
• Alfred Adler: Personality is formed through striving for superiority and experiences with inferiority.
• Thomas Bouchard: Studies on twins—helped show relative role of nature and nurture in personality development.
• Abraham Maslow: Humanist approach, including the concept of self-actualization.
• Viktor Frankl: Existentialist approach; studied human experiences during tragedy and difficult situations; believed in finding meaning in life.
• Carl Rogers: Humanistic approach, client-centered therapy emphasizes empathy, unconditional positive regard, and congruence.

Behaviourism

• Learning: A relatively permanent change in behavior produced by experience.
• Classical Conditioning: Learning through association (Ivan Pavlov).
• John Watson’s Experiment: Demonstrated how learned fears can be conditioned (Little Albert).
• Operant Conditioning: Learning where behaviors are strengthened or weakened by consequences (B.F. Skinner).
• Observational Learning: Learning by observing and imitating others (Albert Bandura).

Review Questions

• Social Media & Bystander Effect: Social media can increase or decrease bystander intervention; depends on the context.
• Overcoming Bystander Effect: Identify yourself more visibly and make direct appeals to the bystanders.
• Helping Behavior Differences: Depends on factors such as perceived risk, responsibility, and cost/benefit analysis. (e.g., if one person is in danger but there is a crowd, the perceived cost of helping them might be higher for oneself).
• Milgram's Experiment: Revealed the power of authority and the dangers of obedience..

Test your knowledge on key concepts in social psychology, focusing on the bystander effect and obedience to authority. Learn about the influences that shape human behavior in social situations, including research by Darley and Latané, and Milgram's experiments. This quiz will challenge your understanding of how social dynamics operate in real-world scenarios.