De-individuation Flashcards
(13 cards)
what does zimbardo say deindividuation is
a psychological state which promotes higher levels of aggression as a result of a loss of personal identity
what is Diener’s theory
- we are likely to become deindividuated if the following factors are present
- anonymity, storng group feelings and external focus, increased arousal
- in these circumstances, we lose self awarness. this means we stop monitoring our own behaviour
what is /causes the anonymity factor
- feeling unidentifiable as an individual
- crowd behaviour
- war
- uniform
- darkness
what is /causes the strong group feelings/external focus factor
- being more aware of the feelings/ actions of the group than your own
- identification with a group (gang, sport team) and being concerned about behaviours they display
what is /causes the increased arousal factor
- experiencing heightened emotions such as excitment and/or anger
- sensory overload (anger and excitment)
- grougs and alcohol
- altered consciousness
what does zimbardo say about de individuation
- leads to aggressive behaviour becuase it promted emotional and irrational behaviour due to a loss of self awarness
- in an individuated state, behaviour is rational and normative and is therefor likelt to become aggresive
what are the two types of self awarness
zimbardo
- private self awarness - reduced attention to inwardly thoughts, feelings and behaviour. focused on events outwardly around us
- reduced concern for how others judge us, feel less accountable for actions
what does zimbardo say about loss of private self awarness
more deindiviudating since it involves losing one’s true sense of self
when we are in stae of deindiviudation why are we more likely to act aggressively
- more impulsive and irrational
- less concerned about judgemnt by others - ingore social norms
- lose our sense of responsibility
strength: supporting real life
I: supporting evidence for deindiviudation, based on real life acts of aggression
E: Watson investigated warriors in 23 cultures. those cultures in which warriors wore facepaint were significantly more likely to kill and tourture their enemies than those with exposed faces
Mullen analysed newspaper reports of 60 lynchinga that took place in america in the early 1900’s. more ppls in the lynch mob, more savage the killing of the victim
C: findings increased validity of the idea that deindividuation causes aggression by showing a link between crowd behaviour and anonymity and aggressive behaviour
weakness: methodological flaws
I: methodological flaws with the evidence supporting deindividuation, as the research lacks internal validity
E: its non experimental research where de-individuation has not been manipulated by the researchers and varied naturally.
means other EV’s that were not controlled may have influenced the levels of aggression seen in the groups being studied, like whether the deindiviudated indivs had been exposed to more aggressive role models or had more biological abnormalities making them more vulnerable to aggressive behaviour
C: findings decrease the validty of the idea deindiviudation causes aggression, as it suggests that aggression may be caused by other situational and bioloigcal factors
strength: supporting experiemental
I: supporting evidence for deindiviudation from experiemental research
E: zimbardo conducted a lab experiement in which female undergrads were required to give ‘electric shock’ to another student as an aid to learning
4 women in the deindiviudation group wore chunky white lab coats, werent introduced to each other, couldn’t see each other, given instructions as a group
individuation control group wore their own clothes and had name tags prominently displayed, introduced and given instructions seperatley
experimental gave more intense shocks
C: findings increase the validity of the idea that deindividuation causes aggression, by showing that when deindividuation is manipulated anonymity leads to aggressive behaviour
weakness: contradictory
I: contradictory findings against deinidivudation as an explanation of aggression
E: Johnson and Downing conducted labaotry expieriment where female ppts had to give fake shocks to a confederate when they were either dressed in Ku Kluk Kland outfits, nurses outfits, or own clothes. the KKK condition gave most intense electric shocks and nurses gave the least, often showing compassion towards their ‘victims’
C: decreases the validy of idea that deindividuation causes agression by showing that conditions of anymoty and uniform do not directly cause aggressive behaviour, and can be releated to social norms
