ATC Psychology Chapter 18 “Social Influence”
Jan 15, 2016
ATC Psychology
Chapter 18 “Social Influence”
Social Influence
• Norms—learned social rules that prescribe what people should or should not do in various situations.
Social Influence
• Descriptive Norms—communicate what other people do.
• Injunctive Norms—tell us what others would approve or disapprove of.– The social influence exerted by norms creates
orderly social behavior.– We learn from parents, teachers, clergy, peers,
and other cultural agents.
Social Influence
• Social influences also create deindividuation, a personal loss of individuality that occurs as people become “submerged” within a group.– A deindividuation experience can cause people to
perform acts they normally wouldn’t because of personal accountability is diminished and attention shifts from internal standards to external group standards.
Social Influence
• Social factors often influence motivation– Social facilitation occurs when the presence of
another person improves performance, and social impairment occurs when another’s presence harms performance.
Social Influence
• Levels of arousal, task complexity, the expectations of peer evaluation, and increased self-evaluation interact to produce these phenomena.– Social loafing occurs when people in a group exert
less effort than they would when performing alone.
Conformity and Compliance
• Conformity results from unspoken group pressure, real or imagined.– Compliance occurs when people adjust their
behavior in response to a request.
Conformity and Compliance
• The Role of Norms– Group norms tend to affect people’s behavior
even after the people are not longer members of that group.
Conformity and Compliance
• Why Do People Conform?– Groups create norms; they decide what is right,
wrong, and expected in a situation.– Norms determine who will be liked and disliked in
a group and who will receive rewards and punishments in a given social situation.
Conformity and Compliance
• When Do People Conform?– Ambiguity of the Situation—The more difficult it is
to determine what is physical reality, the more people rely on the opinions of others.
Conformity and Compliance
• When Do People Conform?– Unanimity and Size of the Majority—Conformity is
greatest when a group decision is unanimous.• The more people making independent assessments in a
group, the higher the degree of conformity will be by an individual.
Conformity and Compliance
• When Do People Conform?– Minority Influence—When they are persistent and
united, minorities can influence the behavior or beliefs of a majority.
Conformity and Compliance
• When Do People Conform?– Gender—On tasks equally familiar to men and
women, no gender differences in conformity are found.
Conformity and Compliance
• Inducing Compliance– People can be induced to comply with requests by
starting with small requests, as in the “foot-in-the-door” technique
– By starting with an unreasonable request, as in the “door-in-the-face” procedure
– By gaining verbal agreement for one request and then demonstrating the need to escalate the cost of the original commitment, as in the “low-ball” approach
Obedience
• Obedience is a behavioral change in response to a demand form an authority figure.– Milgram created a procedure to measure obedience.
• Developed a situation in which subjects thought they were delivering shocks to a person, but the person was never actually shocked.
• When confederates complained about the pain of the shock they were supposedly receiving, Milgram demanded that the subjects continue to deliver the shocks.
• Despite feeling stressed, 65% of the subjects delivered the full 450 volts of shock possible.
Obedience
• Factors Affecting Obedience– Prestige—When the status and legitimacy of the
experimenter were reduced, obedience decreased, but only from 65% to 48%
Obedience
• Factors Affecting Obedience– Presence of Others Who Disobey• The presence of other who disobeyed decreased
obedience to 10%
Obedience
• Factors Affecting Obedience– Personality Characteristics• Although social influences are the strongest factors in
obedience, people high in authoritarianism were more likely than others to shock the learner.• People with an external locus of control were also more
likely to obey.
Obedience
• Evaluating Milgram’s Study– Recent tragedies that occurred as a result of
unquestioning obedience to authority suggest that Milgram’s findings are still relevant and important.
Obedience
• Milgram– Ethical Questions—Some observers say that the
experiment was unethical.• However, Milgram argued that his debriefing procedure
and continued contact with his subjects showed that it was a positive experience.• Ethical questions are difficult ones. Milgram’s study
would probably not approved by today’s ethics committees.
Obedience
• Milgram– Questions of Meaning—It has been suggested that
alternative explanations could account for the participants’ behavior.• However, most psychologists believe that, under
certain circumstances, human beings are capable of extreme acts of brutality toward other humans.
Aggression
• Aggression—An act intended to harm another person.– In 1995 in the U.S. a murder occurred every 24
minutes, a rape every 5 minutes, and an aggravated assault every 29 minutes.
Aggression
• Why Are People Aggressive?– According to Freud, aggression is an inborn
instinct that needs release in behavior.– Evolutionary psychologists believe that aggression
aided the survival of gene pools and was passed down through generations.
Aggression
• Why Are People Aggressive?– In some societies, aggression is rare and peaceful
coexistence is the norm. • Aggressive behavior results from a nurture/nature
interaction.
Aggression
• Why Are People Aggressive?– Genetic and Biological Mechanisms• Research demonstrates heredity influences on
aggressive behavior.• Lesions within certain brain areas can lead to
aggression, and male hormones such as testosterone are associated with higher levels of aggression.• Drugs may also affect aggression.
Aggression
• Why Are People Aggressive?– Learning and Cultural Mechanisms• People learn to be aggressive by watching others or by
being reinforced for aggressive acts.
Aggression
• When Are People Aggressive?– Frustration and Aggression• According to the modified frustration-aggression
hypothesis, stress produces a readiness to respond aggressively, but aggression is displayed only if there are environmental cues associated with an aggressive response.– The direct cause of most kinds of aggression is negative affect
(emotion).
Aggression
• Generalized Arousal– In transferred excitation, an internal characteristic
and environmental conditions interact to produce aggression.• Generalized arousal is most likely to produce aggression
when the situation contains some reason, opportunity or target for aggression.
Environmental Influences on Aggression
• Environmental Psychology is the student of how people’s behavior is affected by the environment in which they live.– Hot weather, air pollution, noise, and crowding
can all lead to increased aggression.
Altruism and Helping Behavior
• Helping behavior is any act that is intended to benefit another person.– Altruism is an unselfish concern for another’s
welfare.
Altruism and Helping Behavior
• Why Do People Help?– Arousal: Cost-Reward Theory• People feel upset when they see a person in need and
are motivated to do something to reduce the unpleasant arousal.– People then weigh the costs of helping versus not helping.– The clearer the need for help, the more likely people are to
help.– The presence of others inhibits helping behavior due to
diffusion of responsibility, a belief that someone else will help.– Environmental and personality characteristics also influence
helping.
Altruism and Helping Behavior
• Why Do People Help?– Empathy-Altruism Theory• Helpfulness is seen in those who have empathy with
the person in need.
Altruism and Helping Behavior
• Why Do People Help?– Evolutionary Theory• Propose that people help others to ensure the survival
of their genes, at risk of endangering themselves.
Altruism and Helping Behavior
• Focus on Research Methods: Does Family Matter?– Researchers cannot ethically put people in danger to
see who will help them; therefore, researchers used a laboratory simulation. • Participants were asked to imagine situation in which they
could help only one of three people.• The outcome of the experiment indicates that people
describe themselves as more likely to save the life of, or do a favor for, a close relative than an unrelated friend.
• Since this was a laboratory situation, caution must be used in making generalizations to the real world.
Cooperation, Competition, and Conflict
• Cooperation– Any type of behavior in which people work
together to attain a goal.
Cooperation, Competition, and Conflict
• Competition– Exists whenever people try to attain a goal for
themselves while denying that goal to others.
Cooperation, Competition, and Conflict
• Conflict– Results when people believe that another stands
in the way of achieving a goal.
Social Dilemmas
• Social Dilemmas are situations in which an action that is most rewarding for each individual will, if adopted by all, become catastrophic for the group.
Social Dilemmas
• The Prisoner’s Dilemma– A game in which cooperation guarantees the best
mutual outcome but in which there are incentives to compete.• Players cannot be certain that their partners will
cooperate.• Research shows that people tend to respond
competitively because winning is rewarding and competition seems to beget more competitive behavior.
Social Dilemmas
• Resource Dilemmas– When people share a common resource, conflicts
exist between the individual and the group, and between short- and long-term interests.
Fostering Cooperation
• Cooperation increases when nonthreatening and relevant communications increase.– Playing tit-for-tat, or rewarding cooperative
responses with cooperation, and punishing exploitive strategies with like actions, produces a high degree of overall cooperation.
Interpersonal Conflict
• When one person can win only at another’s expense, it is a zero-sum game.– This can lead to interpersonal conflict.– Causes:• Competition for scarce resources• Revenge• Attributing another’s motive to selfishness or
unfriendliness• Faulty communication
Interpersonal Conflict
• Managing Conflict– Conflict can lead to beneficial changes.• It is much better to manage conflict than to eliminate it.• Bargaining, third-party interventions, and the
introduction of subordinate goals are all methods of managing conflict.
Group Processes
• Group Leadership– In general, good leaders are intelligent, ambitious,
and flexible.• Leadership ability also depends on the situation and on
the person’s style of handling it.
Group Processes
• Group Leadership– Both task-oriented and person-oriented styles of
leadership are effective, depending on the structure of the group’s task and time pressure the group is under.
Group Processes
• Group Leadership– Research has uncovered gender differences in
leadership.• Women are more democratic and tend to use the
person-oriented style of leadership.• Men tend to be more task oriented.
Group Processes
• Groupthink– In small, closely-knit groups, decisions can reflect
a process called groupthink.• A pattern of thinking that renders members unable to
evaluate decisions realistically.
Group Processes
• Groupthink– Occurs when the group feels isolated from outside
forces, intense stressors are experienced, and the leader has already made up his or her mind.• Assigning someone a “devil’s advocate” role and
arranging ways to gather opinions anonymously can help avoid groupthink