SOCPSY Exam Notes PDF

WEB MODULE: Week 8 Social Influence and Persuasion Introduction - What social influence is - How persuasion works - How compliance works - How obedience and resistance works Social influence When one person ( the source) does something to get another person (the target) to...

WEB MODULE: Week 8 Social Influence and Persuasion Introduction - What social influence is - How persuasion works - How compliance works - How obedience and resistance works Social influence When one person ( the source) does something to get another person (the target) to engage in a certain behavior - Can result in attitude change - Can result in compliance - Can result in both attitude change and compliance - case of patty hearst - Can result in neither Persuasion - Is defined as “changing the beliefs, attitudes or behaviors of a target through the use of information or an argument” Communication-Persuasion Paradigm - The source - the message - the target - the response The source The credibility of the source - Expert - Likable - Attractive - Trustworthy Hierarchy of credibility - Scientists, politicians, activists, celebrities The Message - Can be based on fact or emotion - Discrepant message - Relationship between the credibility of the source and discrepancy of message The Target Factors that may be impact whether the target is persuaded - Intelligence - Degree of involvement - Personality - Degree of focus/distraction Complying with Threats and Promises - “Do as you are told” - Compliance through threat or promise - reward vs punishment - Magnitude and credibility Obedience - Recognition of social system - authority figures Authority - Authority must be accepted - “Civil order hinges and obedience…” - Milgram’s experiment Milgram’s Obedience Experiment - Created hierarchy in which one person (experimenter) directs another (subject) to engage in actions that hurt a third person (confederate) - Research subject instructed to shock the “lerner” (the confederate) when he gives an incorrect answer, with the “voltage” increasing as the learner makes additional errors - Findings: - 65% continued to the end of the shock series (450 volts) - Not a single participant stopped prior to 300 volts - Many participants became distressed, pleaded with experimenter Factors that Impact Obedience - Outward sign of authority - Backing up threat of punishment - Where you are in the chain of command Resistance - Not just passive actors Forms of Resistance Inoculation - Exposure to weak discrepant info as well as counter arguments supported by target Forewarning - Warning target prior to act of persuasion Reactance - Boomerang effect - When persuasion goes too far, target reacts forcefully Chapter 5 Summary What paths lead to persuasion? - Sometimes persuasion occurs as people focus on arguments and respond with favorable thoughts. Such systematic or central route, persuasion occurs when people are naturally analytical or involved in the issue - When issues don’t engage systematic thinking, persuasion may occur through a faster peripheral route as people use heuristics or incidental cues to make snap judgements - Central route persuasion, being more thoughtful and less superficial, is more durable and more likely to influence behavior What are the elements of persuasion? - What makes persuasion effective? Researchers have explored four factors: the communicator (who says it), the message (what is said), the channel (how it is said), and the audience (to whom it is said) - Credible communicators have the best success in persuading. People who speak unhesitatingly, who talk fast and who look listeners straight in the eye seem more credible. So do people who argue against their own self-interest. An attractive communicator is effective on matters of taste and personal values - The message itself persuades, associating it with good feelings makes it more convincing. People often make quicker, less reflective judgements white in good moods. Fear-arousing messages can also be effective, especially if recipients can take protective action - How discrepant a message should be from an audience’s existing opinion depends on the communicator’s credibility. And whether a one or two sided messages most persuasive depends on whether the audience already agreed with the message, is unaware of opposing arguments, and is unlikely later to consider the opposition - When two sides of an issue are included, the primacy effect often makes the first message more persuasive. If a time gap separates the presentations, the more likely result will be a recency effect in which the second message prevails.  - Another important consideration is how the message is communicated. Usually face-to-face appeals work best. Print media can be effective for complex message, the mass media can be effective when the issue is minor or unfamiliar and when the media reach opinion leaders - The age of the audience makes a difference, young people’s attitudes are more subject to change. What does the audience think while receiving a message? Do they think favorable thoughts? Do they counter-argue? Were they forewarned? Extreme Persuasion: How do Cults Indoctrinate? - The successes of new religious movements, or cults provide an opportunity to see powerful persuasion processes at work - It appears that the success of cults has resulted from three general techniques: eliciting behavioral commitments, applying principles of effective persuasion and isolating members in like-minded groups Persuasion and Climate Change: How do we address global warming? - There is overwhelming scientific evidence and consensus that global warming is a fact and caused by human activity. Global warming has psychological costs in that people must cope with the natural disasters, wars and aggression that are promoted by global warming. Many people in Canada, US and Britain accept that climate change is caused by human activity - Humanity can prepare for a sustainable future by increasing technological efficiency. We can also create incentives and change actions and attitudes to control population and moderate consumption - Attending concepts in social psychology that address our attitudes and our behaviors may help accomplish those objectives. Rapid cultural change has happened in the last 40 years, and there is hope that in response to the global crisis it can happen again How Can Persuasion Be Resisted? - Attitude strength is important: the stronger our attitudes, the more likely we are to avoid, dismiss, forget or counter-argue information that is inconsistent with our existing attitudes - If we feel that our freedoms to think and behave in a certain way are being unreasonably challenged, we will react ex. Reactance and often end up strengthening our pre-existing attitudes and beliefs - How do people resist persuasion? A prior public commitment to one’s own position, stimulated perhaps by a mild attack on the position, breeds resistance to later persuasion - A mild attack can also serve as an inoculation, stimulating one to develop counter-arguments that will then be available if and when a strong attack comes  - This implies, paradoxically that one way to strengthen existing attitudes is to challenge them, though the challenge must not be so strong as to overwhelm them Wed Module: Conformity and Nonconformity Conformity - Circumstances where we may act or think differently in our govern situation than we would if we were alone ➔ Different forms of Conformity: - Compliance - Obedience - Acceptance Why Do We Conform? - Normative conformity - Informational conformity Classic Social Psychological Studies of Conformity - Sherif - Asch - Milgram Sherif and the Auto-Kinetic Experiments - Muzafer Sherif - 1935 - How are Social Norms formed? Asch’s Conformity Experiment - Soloman Asch - 1950s - How are our opinions shaped by those around us? What is Deviance? Anomie Theory - Merton - People are guided by culturally appropriate goals and means - Strain occurs when these goals/means cannot be attained Innovation - Accept the goals - reject the means Ritualism - Reject the goals - accept the means Retreatism - Reject the goal - reject the means  Rebellion - Reject goals and means - seek to replace them with other goals and means Control Theory - Social control keeps us in line - Strength of our social ties Social Bonds Theory Hirschi Our bonds impact our likelihood to be deviant 4 components - Attachment - Commitment - Involvement - Belief Differential Association Theory - Sutherland - Learning theory - Learn criminal behavior from our primary groups - Classical conditioning Differential Identification theory - Glaser building off the gaps in sutherlands work - We can learn from non significant others - Example of slender man Labeling theory - Grounded in symbolic interactionism - Becker - Focus is on reaction to “Deviance” - Eye of the Beholder - Emphasis on Rule breaking, not norm violations Primary and Secondary Deviance - Primary deviance: the initial act - Secondary deviance: the internalization of deviant identity Techniques of Neutralization - Denial of responsibility - Denial of injury - Denial of victim - Condemning the condemners - Appeal to a higher loyalty Reactions to Deviant Behavior Informal Labeling - Informal rules broken - Informal social control Formal Labeling - Label placed by institution, social service - Documented - Formal social control Societal Benefits of Formal Labeling - Point of reference - Scapegoat to Release tension - Sense of community and solidarity Formal Labeling pros and cons: the case of “problem” children - Children diagnosed with learning, behavioral and or emotional problems - Benefits: get help - Consequences: only seeing the label, all or nothing, self-fulfilling prophecies and stigma, over-medicating Chapter 6: Conformity What is conformity - Changing one’s behavior or belief as a result of group pressure - comes in two forms. Compliance is outwardly going along with the group while inwardly disagreeing, a subset of compliance is obedience, compliance with a direct command. Acceptance is believing as well as acting in accord with social pressure What Are the Classic Conformity and Obedience Studies? Three classic sets of experiments illustrate how researchers have studied conformity - Muzafer Sherif observed that other’s judgements influenced people’s estimates of the movement of a point of light that actually did not move. Norms for “Proper” answer  emerged and survived both over long periods of time and through succeeding generations of research participants - Solomon Asch had people listen to other’s judgments of which of three comparison lines was equal to a standard line and then make the same judgment themselves. When the others unanimously gave a wrong answer, the subjects conformed 37% of the time - Stanley Milgram’s obedience studies elicited an extreme form of compliance. Under optimum conditions - a legitimate, close at hand commander, a remote victim, and no one else to exemplify disobedience - 65% of is adult male subjects fully obeyed instructions to deliver what were supposedly traumatizing electric shock to a screaming, innocent victim in an adjacent room - These classical studies expose the potency of several phenomena. Behavior and attitudes are mutually reinforcing, enabling a small act of evil to foster the attitude that leads to a larger evil act. The power of the situation is seen when good people, faced with dire circumstances, commit reprehensible act (although dire situations may produce heroism in others) What Predicts Conformity? - Using conformity testing procedures, experimenters have explored the circumstances that produce conformation. Certain situations appear to be especially powerful. For example, conformity is affected by the characteristics of the group: people conform most when faced with the unanimous reports of three or more people, or groups who model the behavior or belief - Conformity is reduced if the model behavior or belief is not unanimous - Conformity is enhanced by group cohesion - The higher the status of those modeling the behavior or belief, the greater the likelihood of conformity - People also conform most when their responses are pubic (in the presence of the group) - A prior commitment to a certain behavior or belief increases the likelihood that a person will stick with that commitment rather than conform Why Conform? - Experiments reveal two reasons people conform - Normative influence results from a person’s desire for acceptance, we want to be liked. The tendency to conform more when responding publicly reflects normative influence - Informational influence results from others providing evidence about reality. The tendency to conform more on difficult decision making tasks reflects informational influence: we want to be right Who Conforms? - The question “who conforms” has produced dew definitive answers. Personality scores are poor predators of specific acts of conformity but better predictors of average conformity. Trait effects sometimes seem strong in weak situation where social forces do not overwhelm individual differences - Although conformity and obedience are universal cultural and gender socialize people to be more or less socially responsive - Social roles involve a certain degree of conformity and conforming to expectations is an important task when stepping into a new social role Do We Ever Want to Be Different? - Social psychology’s emphasis on the power of social pressure must be joined by complementary emphasis on the power of the person. We are not puppets. When social coercion becomes blatant, people often experience reactance - a motivation to defy the coercion in order to maintain a sense of freedom - We are not comfortable being too different from a group, but neither do we want to appear the same as everyone else. Thus, we act in ways that preserve our sense of uniqueness and individuality. In a group, we are most conscious of how we differ from the others. Week 9: Groups and Group influences What is a group? - A social unit consisting of 2 or more people who adhere to the following: membership, interaction among members, shared goals, shared norms Types of Groups - Primary groups - Secondary groups Group Cohesion - Ultimately refers to the strength of the group - Characteristic of a Cohesive group: strong ties, higher levels of commitment, higher levels of loyalty, “we”, positive vibes Group Norms - How group members are expected to act and behave - Help to define group identity Social Facilitation - The tendency for people perform better in the mere presence of others Social Loafing - The tendency for people to exert less effort when working in a group Deindividuation - A phenomenon where we lose our self-awareness in large groups that foster anonymity - May do things we wouldn’t typically do Group Polarization - Tendency to shift towards more “extreme” decisions whilst in a group of like-minded people - The risk-shift phenomenon Group think - Irving Janis (1972) - Striving for group consensus by setting aside personal opinions and beliefs - Failure to think critically Possible Symptoms of Groupthink - Illusions of invulnerability - Unquestioned beliefs - Self-censorship - Direct pressure Causes of Groupthink - High levels of group stress - Group members are very similar to each other - Insulated from the rest, insulated from experts - High levels of cohesion Chapter 7: Group Influences What is a group? - A group exists when two or more people interact for more than a few movements, affect one another in some way, and think of themselves as “us” Social Facilitation: How are we Affected by the presence of others? - The presence of others is arousing and helps our performance on difficult tasks - Being in a crowd, or in a crowded conditions, is similarly arousing and has the same types of effects on performance - But why are we aroused by other’s presence? This occurs partly because we worry about how we are evaluated by others. The presence of others is also distracting and that  accounts for some of the effects as well. Still, the mere presence of others seems to be arousing throughout the animal kingdom and may be a part of our evolutionary heritage Social Loafing: Do individuals Exert Less Effort in a group? - When people’s efforts are pooled and individual effort is not evaluated, people generally exert less effort in groups than individually - Such social loafing is common in everyday life but when the task is challenging, the group is cohesive, and people are committed to the group, social loafing is less evident Deindividuation: When do people lose their sense of self in groups? - Deindividuation occurs when people are in a large group, are physically anonymous, and are aroused and distracted - The resulting diminished self-awareness and self-restraint tend to increase people’s responsiveness to the immediate citation, be it negative or positive Group Polarization: Do groups intensify Our Opinions - When researchers originally studied the ways that groups make decisions differently from individuals, they found that groups make riskier decisions but as they examined more types of decisions, they found that groups make more polarized decisions. If individuals would tend to be risky, then groups would make riskier decisions, but if individuals would tend to play it safe, then groups would make less risky decisions Groupthink: Do Hinder or Assist Good Decisions? - Analysis of several international fiascos indicates that group cohesion can override realistic appraisal of a situation, leading to bad decisions. This is especially true when group members strongly desire unity, when they are isolated from opposing ideas, and when the leader signals what he or she wants from the group - Symptomatic of this overriding concern for harmony, labeled group, are 1: an illusion of vulnerability, 2: rationalization, 3: unquestioned belief in the group’s morality, 4: stereotype views of the opposition, 5: pressure to conform, 6: self-censorship of misgivings, 7: an illusion of anonymity and 8: mindguards who protect the group from unpleasant information - Critics have noted that some aspects of Hain’s groupthink model (such as directive leadership) seem more implicated in flawed decisions than others (such as cohesiveness) - Both in experiments and in actual history, groups sometimes decide wisely. These case suggest ways to prevent groupthink: upholding impartiality, encouraging “devil’s advocate” positions, subdividing and then reuniting to discuss decision, seeking out input, and having a “second chance meeting before implementing a decision  - Research on group problem solving suggest that groups can be more accurate than individuals, groups also generate more and better ideas if the group is small or if in a large group, individual brainstorming follows the group session Leadership: how do leaders shape the group actions - Some leaders focus more on tasks and other leaders focus more on the social functioning of the group. Leaders who focus on tasks are often more effective for high and very low functioning groups - Some leaders, however, combine social and task leadership by listening to followers and seeking to meet their needs but at the same time holding them to high standards for performance. These transactional leaders are often very effective - Other leaders gain a following through their charisma and by offering personal attention. These transformational leaders inspire people to make self-sacrifices for the sake of the group and can lead others to be committed and engaged in the task at the hand The Influence of the Minority: How do individuals influence the group - When minority group members are consistent, they are more likely to influence the group - When minority group members have self-confidence, they are more likely to influence the group - When minority group members are consistent and self-confident, they create an atmosphere in which defection from the majority viewpoint can occur Module 9: Altruism Prosocial Behavior - Actions that are considered to be beneficial to others and have positive outcomes - Helping - Philanthropy - Altruism - Volunteering Altruism - The belief that the well-being of others is equal to or greater than your own - Selfless acts that put the welfare of others before yourself What motivates us to help? - Social exchange theory - Altruism and empathetic concern - Evolutionary perspectives Social exchange theory - Combines psychology, sociology and economics to understand social interactions and hep behavior - Cost-benefit analysis  - Egoism Altruism and empathetic concern - People as generous unselfish - Empath drives our need to help Evolutionary perspectives - Prosocial behavior as beneficial for survival - Genetic trait passed down from generation to generation Characteristics of Those We Help - A number of factors - Knows the person - Like the person - Similarity to us - Deserving of help The impact of norms - Cultural norms dictate when it is appropriate and inappropriate to help - Social responsibility norm - Norm of reciprocity - Personal norms Bystander intervention and effect - A number of factors determine whether we intervene: - Notice the situation - Interpreted as an emergency - Feeling of personal responsibility - Belief that we can provide help - The decision to act Bystander effect - The more people in the crowd, the less likely one is to help - Ambiguity of the situation - What others will think - Diffusion of responsibility Chapter 8: Altruism - Helping others Why do we help? We help for the following reasons: - Because of social exchange: we help those who have helped us - Because of social norms dictate helping in some situations - To aid our survival - helping kin and those who may help us makes it more likely for us to pass on our genes When Will We Help?  We will help under the following circumstances - When there are few bystanders - When we observe someone else helping - When we are not in a hurry - When the person needing help is similar to us Who Helps? The following determines who will help - People high in emotionality, empathy and self-efficacy - Men in risky situations but women in less risky situations, overall men and women do not differ in helpfulness How Can We Increase Helping? We can increase helping by doing the following - Reducing ambiguity and increasing responsibility - Evoking feelings of guilt, socializing prosocial behavior Module 11: Aggression Different Types of Aggression - Physical - Social - Hostile - Instrumental What motivates us to be aggressive? - Aggression as Instinct - Frustration-aggression hypothesis - Aversive emotional arousal - Social learning and aggression Aggression is instinctual - It is inherent - Essential to our species survival Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis - Frustrating circumstances lead to aggression - This theory posits that 1 every frustration leads to an aggressive act and 2 every aggressive act is a result of some past frustration Aversive Emotional Arousal - Averse emotional as the cause of aggression - Negative emotions such as anger, discomfort - Aggression reduces or eliminates negative emotions Social Learning and Aggression - Learned through imitation or reinforcement - Classic case: Bandura and the Bobo Doll experiment Targets of Aggression  - Gender - Race - Whether there was intent - Whether there might be retaliation Situational Factors - Potential rewards - Modeling - Norms - Stress - Aggressive cues Aggression in Society - Sexual Assault Reducing Aggressive Behavior - Reducing frustration - Catharsis, punishment Chapter 9: Aggression What is aggression? - Aggression (defined as behavior intended to cause harm) can be physical (hurting somebody) or social (hurting someone’s feelings or status). SOcial aggression includes bullying and cyberbullying (bullying carried out online or through texting) - Aggression (either physical or social) can be hostile aggression, which springs from emotions such as anger, or instrumental aggression, with aims to injure as a means to some other end What are some theories of Aggression? - The instinct view, most commonly associated with SigmundFreud and Konrad Lorenz, contended that aggressive energy will accumulate from within, like water accumulating behind a dam. - Although the available evidence offers little support for this view, aggression is biologically influenced by heredity, blood chemistry and the brain - According to the sound view, frustration causes anger and hostility. - Given aggressive cues, anger may provoke aggression - Frustration stems not from deprivation itself but from the gap between expectations and achievements - The social learning view presents aggression as learned behavior - By experience and by observing others' success, we sometimes learn that aggression pays. - Social learning enables family and subculture influences on aggression, as well as media influences What are some influences on Aggression?  -Many factors exert influence on aggression. One factor is adverse experiences, which include not only frustrations but also discomfort, heat , pain and personal attacks, both physical and verbal - Arousal from almost any source, eve physical exercise or sexual stimulation can be transformed into other emotions such as anger - Aggressive cues such as presence of a gun, increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior - Viewing violence (1) breeds a modest increase in aggressive behavior, especially in people who are provoked, 2 desensitizes viewers to aggression and 3 alters viewers perceptions of reality - These findings parallel the results of research on the effects of viewing violent pornograpy, which can increase men’s aggression against women and distort their perceptions of women;s responses to sexual coercion - Tv and online videos permeate the daily life of millions of people and portray considerable violence - Correlational and experimental studies converge on the conclusion that heavy exposure to video violence correlates with aggressive behavior - Playing violent video games may increase aggressive thinking, feelings and behaviors even more than tv or videos do because the experience involves much more active participation than those other media - Much aggression is committed by groups - Circumstances that provoke individuals may also provoke groups - By diffusing responsibilities and polarizing actions, group situations amplify aggressive reactions How can Aggression be reduced? - Contrary to the catharsis hypothesis, expression aggression by catharsis tends to breed further aggression, not reduce it - The social learning approach suggests controlling aggression by counteracting the factors that provoke it - By reducing aversive stimulation, by rewarding an modeling nonaggression and vy eliciting reactions incompatible with aggression Week 5: Prejudice W.E.B. Du Bois - “The discovery of whiteness among the world’s peoples is a very modern thing... The ancient world would have laughed at such a distinction...Today we have changed all that, and the world in a sudden, emotional conversion has discovered that it is white and by that token, wonderful!” “I have seen a man – an educated gentleman – grow livid with anger because a little, silent, black woman is sitting by herself in a...car. I have seen a great grown man curse a little child, who had wandered into the wrong waiting room” (Du Bois, 1920) Definition  - Prejudice: a negative prejudgement of a group and its individual members - Discrimination: unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group or its members - Stereotype: beliefs about the personal attributes of a group of people Implicit vs explicit prejudice - Implicit prejudice: unconscious, implicit - Explicit prejudice: conscious Source of prejudice - Inequality, socialization, ethnocentrism, religion Unequal status - Inequality breeds prejudice - also perpetuates - Social dominance orientation - When groups want to achieve and maintain a higher social position Socialization - Prejudice as learned behavior - Role of family - Role of the media Ethnocentrism - The process where we judge another culture through the lens of our own - Use our lens to determine what is right and wrong - Ex. female vs male circumstances Case: Relationship between religion and prejudice - Are religious people prejudiced? Is religion itself prejudiced Motivations of prejudice - Scapegoat theory - Social identity theory Scapegoat theory - Competition of resources fuels prejudice - Tendency to blame another group fro problems you face Social identity theory - Social identity is our identity that is based on group membership - Part of this process includes: categorization, identifying and comparing Consequences - Self-fulfilling prophecy: victims of discrimination can internalize and blame themselves - Stereotype threat: the experience of self-confirming apprehension when entering into a situation that you will be judged based on a negative stereotype