Chapter 13: Social Psychology

Psyc 100 – Introduction to Psychology Other Social Influence: Overview • How does the presence of others affect Chapter 13: Social performance? Psychology • Social influences on altruism Module 13.3: Social Influence: Conformity, • The power of the group Compliance, Obedience •Conformity Psychology 100 • Group decision-making Introduction to Psychology • The power of authority: Obedience • Milgram’s obedience experiment Listen to the audio lecture while viewing these slides • The role of culture 1 2 Psyc 100 – Introduction to Psychology Psyc 100 – Introduction to Psychology How Does the Presence of Others Affect Performance? Social Influences on Altruism • In the presence of others, performance can be • Altruism: Acting in a way that shows unselfish affected in several ways: concern for the welfare of others • Social facilitation: Performance enhanced • Bystander effect: Reluctance to come to • Social interference: Performance impaired someone’s aid when others are present • Interacts with task difficulty • Famous example: Kitty Genovese case • Others help spur performance of easy tasks, but • Diffusion of responsibility: Allowing sense of they hinder performance of new or difficult ones responsibility to spread out among those • May happen becaus e pres ence o f ot hers rais es present arousal • Derives from belief that others have already • Recall: Performance is best when arousal is not too done something to help or soon will low (as for easy tasks) or too high (as for difficult • The more witnesses, the less likely any single one ones) will help 3 4 Psyc 100 – Introduction to Psychology Psyc 100 – Introduction to Psychology Conformity The Power of the Group • Social loafing: Tendency to put in less • Tendency to comply with the wishes of the group effort when working in a group than • Opinions, feelings, behaviors when working alone generally move toward the • May be connected to the bystander norm • Especially likely when pressure effect, diffusion of responsibility comes from in-group, or • Deindividuation: Loss of individuality individuals with whom you that comes from being in a group identify • Can be extreme, as in Asch’s • Example: People might do things when in (1951, 1955) studies: a large, rowdy group that they would • Confederate subjects lied never do alone about easy visual judgments • Many subjects conformed to • May also relate to diffusion of these wrong judgments responsibility 5 6 1 Psyc 100 – Introduction to Psychology Psyc 100 – Introduction to Psychology Fig. 13.7 Group Decision-Making • Group polarization: Tendency for a group’s dominant point of view to become stronger, more extreme with time • May relate to conformity, wish to be liked by other group members • Groupthink: Tendency for members to become so interested in seeking consensus that they ignore, suppress, dissenting views • Can be countered by encouraging 7 dissent, awareness of the tendency 8 Psyc 100 – Introduction to Psychology Psyc 100 – Introduction to Psychology Compliance: Getting Others to Respond to Requests The Power of Authority: Obedience • foot–in–door (small req. followed by • Form of compliance that occurs when people respond to orders of larger one; self-perception) an authority figure • Why do people often carry out • door–in–face (large req. followed by extreme or horrifying orders, for moderate one; reciprocity) example during war? • Milgram (1963) designed an • attraction/liking (thus similarity, experiment to test the resistance attractiveness, etc.) of average people to authority when demands are extreme • low–ball (changing the riles of the game • Experimenter ordered participants after it starts; similar to “bait and to administer increasing levels of shock to an unwilling “victim” switch”) •IMPORTANT: “Victim”was a confederate; all shocks were fake 9 10 PsycObedience 100 – Introduction to Psychology Psyc 100 – Introduction to Psychology E = Experimenter (originally, Milgram himself) Fig. 13.9 S = The Subject L = The Learner (actually a confederate of E) E SL Fig. 13.8 11 12 2 Psyc 100 – Introduction to Psychology Psyc 100 – Introduction to Psychology Results of the Milgram Experiment The Role of Culture • Over half delivered “shocks” up to the • Western cultures promote an maximum level, despite realistic protests independent view of the self and screams of the “victim” • Leads to devaluing conformity, • Ethical concerns: obedience, altruism • Participants clearly distressed • Many non-Western cultures promote an interdependent view • Were debriefed, however, and long-term effects were minor • Example: Japanese culture strongly emphasizes belonging to, contributing to • What we learn from it: Under certain a collective circumstances, average people will obey extreme orders 13 14 3.

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