Social Psychology

Question 1

What does agency theory say?

Answer 1

It says that people will obey an authority when they believe that the authority will take responsibility for the consequences of their actions.

Question 2

What is ‘agentic state’?

Answer 2

Moving from an autonomous state (acting freely) to an agentic shift (seeing themselves as the agents of others); they shift responsibility , surrendering their conscience to serve others.

Question 3

What is ‘moral strain’?

Answer 3

A state of mental discomfort or anxiety experienced in the agentic state when a person’s actions conflict with their personal morality/beliefs.

Question 4

What is ‘legitimacy of authority’?

Answer 4

It refers to the perceived right of an authority figure to have power and control over others.

We are taught from an early age about who is at the top of the social hierarchy and we trust these people to use their power appropriately; some do not. Since we think their power is legitimate, we act in an agentic state believing we are simply following orders.

Question 5

What is the social impact theory?

Answer 5

The idea that other people’s real or imagined presence can change the way a person thinks, feels or acts.

Question 6

What are the three laws of behaviour associated with the social impact theory?

Answer 6

Social force, psychosocial law and divisions of impact.

Question 7

What is social force?

Answer 7

Pressure that is put on people to change their behaviour.

If it succeeds, we call it ‘social impact’. It is usually generated by persuasion, threat, humor, embarrassment etc.

It is made up of strength (how much power the influence has), immediacy (how recent the influence was) and numbers (the amount of people influencing you).

Question 8

What is psychosocial law?

Answer 8

The idea that the first source of influence has the most effect on people. The second, third, fourth sources generate less social force.

For example, being watched by one person makes you feel awkward but being watched by a crowd won’t.

Question 9

What are the divisions of impact?

Answer 9

If the social force is being directed at a single person, that puts a huge pressure on them to obey. If there are 2 people, the pressure goes down by 2. This is known as the diffusion of responsibility.

Question 10

What are some of the factors affecting obedience?

Answer 10

Situational factors, empathy, gender, culture and personality.

Question 11

How do situational factors affect obedience? - momentum of compliance, status of authority, personal responsiblity

Answer 11

Momentum of compliance - small requests that gradually build so the ppts feel bound to continue.
Status of authority - when the status of the authority figure was deemed legitimate.
Personal responsibility - ppts would be more obedient in a situation where personal responsibility is removed and placed onto someone else.

Question 12

How does empathy affect obedience?

Answer 12

People who have high levels of empathy would be less likely to obey.

Question 13

How does gender affect obedience?

Answer 13

Research conducted by Milgram found that, despite prior research, females’ obedience levels were virtually identical to males in their level of obedience. However, females’ levels of anxiety were much higher than the males.

Question 14

How does culture affect obedience?- collectivistic and individualistic

Answer 14

Collectivistic cultures tend to behave as one based on interdependence whilst individualistic cultures tend to behave more independently and resists conformity.

Question 15

How does personality affect obedience?

Answer 15

An authoritarian personality would tend to be hostile towards people of an inferior status but obedient to people of high status.

Question 16

What is the locus of control theory by Rotter (1966)?

Answer 16

A person’s perception of personal control over their own behaviour.

Question 17

What does it mean to have a strong external locus of control?

Answer 17

A strong external locus of control describes when someone believes what happens to them is luck or fate and that they are not in control of their life.

Question 18

What does it mean to have a strong internal locus of control?

Answer 18

A strong internal locus of control describes someone who believes they are in control of what happens to them.

Question 19

What is social identity?

Answer 19

A person’s sense of who they are based on their group membership.

Question 20

What are the 3 parts of Social Identity Theory?

Answer 20

Social categorisation, social identification and social comparison.

Question 21

What is social categorisation?

Answer 21

People tend to categorise themselves and others in social groups based off external or internal criteria. If we assign people to a category, that tells us things about these people.

Question 22

What is social identification?

Answer 22

The idea that you identify with the group, taking on the norms and attitudes of the group and starting to invest emotionally.

They also start to change their behaviour due to their membership.

If you adopt the identity of a student, you’ll begin to act like them.

Question 23

What is social comparison?

Answer 23

When a person becomes prejudiced towards the out-group and sees the in-group as superior in order to improve their self-esteem.

Question 24

What is realistic conflict theory?

Answer 24

Whenever there are two or more groups that are seeking the same limited resources, this will lead to conflict and discrimination between the groups.

Question 25

What did Sherif suggest about prejudice?

Answer 25

He suggested that the key to prejudice is competition in any form; intergroup competition.

He suggested that when two or more groups are striving for the same goal, prejudice and hostility will increase. The struggle between the groups could be due to scarce material/physical resources, like food or territory.

Question 26

When does negative interdependence occur?

Answer 26

It occurs in situations where two groups are both seeking to achieve a goal that is important for both of them, yet only one group can reach it. This means there is a conflict of interest and each group will keep the other group from winning.

Question 27

What is positive interdependence?

Answer 27

It is when neither group can achieve their goals unless the other does too.

Question 28

What are the factors that affect prejudice?

Answer 28

Personality, situation and culture.

Question 29

How does personality affect prejudice?

Answer 29

An overly harsh parenting style can create a personality style that is both highly obedient and highly prejudiced.

The parents offer conditional love - the child only gets love if they behave well.

Children with authoritarian personalities sometimes behave hostile towards conditional love.

Their feelings of hostility are then pushed onto someone more inferior.

Question 30

How does situation affect prejudice?

Answer 30

Social norms are part of the situation. They refer to the unwritten rules about what is acceptable and desirable in certain social groups. A part of social identity theory is that people follow the norms created by their ingroup. Violations of the norms created could lead to rejection. People like to avoid rejection because belonging has strong links to self-esteem.

Question 31

How does culture affect prejudice?

Answer 31

Some cultures believe their own culture is superior to others and some cultures are more prejudiced than others.

The norm in some cultures is to be more accepting of diversity.
However , benevolent intolerance still exists - ingroups behave differently towards outgroups and justify this as a kindly attempt to support people with lower social status i.e giving money to a homeless person but not wanting a homeless shelter to be born on your street.

Outward expression of prejudice still exists i.e racial segregation in South Africa.