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A level Psychology > Social Approach > Flashcards

Social Approach Flashcards

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1
Q

What is social psychology?

A

The study of how thoughts, feelings and behaviour of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.

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2
Q

Name one of the earliest experiments examining conformity.

A

Jenness (1932)

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3
Q

How was Jenness (1932) conducted?

A

He used an ambiguous situation that involved a glass bottle filled with 811 white beans. His sample consisted of 101 psychology students, who individually estimated how many beans the glass bottle contained. Participants were then divided into groups of three and asked to provide a group estimate through discussion. Following the discussion, the participants were provided with another opportunity to individually estimate the number of beans, to see if they changed their original answer.

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4
Q

What does ambiguous situation mean?

A

Seeing as ambiguity is something unclear, an ambiguous situation may mean you’re unsure of how to proceed because the goal is vague, or you are not well informed on the situation.

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5
Q

What were the results of the Jenness study?

A

Jenness found that nearly all participants changed their original answer once provided with another opportunity to estimate the number of beans in the glass bottle. On average male participants changed their answer by 256 beans and female participants changed their answers by 382 beans.

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6
Q

What did the results of the Jenness study demonstrate?

A

How powerful conformity is in an ambiguous situation and are likely to be the result of informational social influence. The participants in this experiment changed their answers because they believed the group estimate was more likely to be right, than their own individual estimate.

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7
Q

What is conformity?

A

When we are part of a group, we may choose to follow other people by agreeing with their opinions or behaving as they do. This is known as conformity. In reality no one tells us how to behave or what opinions to have but conformity is the result of invisible pressure from others. A lot of the time we’re unaware of conforming until later.

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8
Q

State the two-process theory social psychologists Morton Deutsch and Harold Gerard (1955) devised to explain why people conform.

A

The Dual-Process Model: Normative Social Influence and Informational Social Influence.

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9
Q

What is Social influence?

A

The idea that people conform because they depend on other people.

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10
Q

What is Normative social influence?

A

It’s about group norms. In any group of people there are behaviours and beliefs that are considered ’normal’ or typical. Norms guide the behaviour of the individuals in the group.

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11
Q

Normative Social Influence (NSI) is an _________ process because it is about how you feel. It may be stronger in _________ situations where people have a greater need for support. Its socially rewarding and avoids __________.

A
  1. emotional
  2. stressful
  3. punishment
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12
Q

What did Schultz et al (2008) find that hotel guests did once they were exposed to normative message? What did this suggest?

A

‘75% guests reused their towels each day (rather than acquiring a fresh one)’, reducing their own towel use by 25%. This suggested that people shape their behaviour out of a desire to fit in with their reference group.

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13
Q

What did McGhee and Teevan show about students in need of affiliation?

A

That they’re more likely to conform seeing as showing the desire to be liked is what leads to conformity.

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14
Q

Give an example of how NSI doesn’t affect everyone’s behaviour in the same way.

A

People less concerned about being liked are less affected by NSI.

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15
Q

What is a strength of NSI?

A

Studies like McGhee and Teevan show the desire to be liked is what leads to conformity.

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16
Q

What is a weakness of NSI?

A

Research shows NSI doesn’t affect all people behaviour in the same way.

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17
Q

What is Informational social influence?

A

Often, we are unsure about what behaviours/beliefs are right or wrong. But if most students agree on one answer you accept it because you feel it is probably right.
So, we may conform to the views of others because we want to be right. It’s about who has the better information (you or someone else).

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18
Q

This means that Informational Social Influence (ISI) is a ________ process because it is about what you think. ISI is most likely to happen in situations that are ___ to you or situations where it isn’t clear what is right (ambiguous). It also occurs when one person is regarded as being more of an ______.

A
  1. cognitive
    2.new
  2. expert
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19
Q

What did Lucas et al find? What did this suggest?

A

When participants were presented with difficult maths problems to solve, they were more likely to conform to the majority answer. This showed that people will conform due to the need for information (ISI).

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20
Q

What did Wittenbrink and Henley (1996) find?

A

That PP exposed to negative information about African Americans (in which they were told was the majority view) later reported more negative beliefs about a black individual.

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21
Q

Despite students in Lucas et al conforming more to the incorrect answers when they found the task difficult in, which study found very little conformity and that those were less likely to seek information from others?

A

Perrin and Spencer

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22
Q

What is a strength of ISI?

A

Lucas et al showed people conform in situations where they feel they don’t know the answer seeing as participants conformed to an incorrect answer when they found the task difficult in a maths problem

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23
Q

What is a weakness of ISI?

A

Perrin and Spencer found individual differences such as little conformity and some less likely to seek information from others.

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24
Q

Normative= want to be _____ (gain social approval)
Informational= want to be ____ (often takes place when there is some ambiguity)

A
  1. liked
  2. right
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25
List 3 factors affecting conformity:
1) Group size- With 2 confederates who conformed to the wrong answer was 13.6% and with 3 it rose to 31.8% 2) Unanimity of the majority- A dissenting confederate reduced conformity by 25%, having a dissenter enabled independence for the ppt 3) Difficulty of the task- Conformity increased with a more difficult task suggesting that ISI plays a greater role in an ambiguous task.
26
What did Herbert Kelman (1958) argue are the three types of conformity?
Compliance, internalisation, and identification.
27
What is the definition of dissenting?
Holding or expressing opinions that are at variance with those commonly or officially held.
28
What is internalisation?
Where you privately as well as publicly change our view to behave and follow other group members. You continue to conform even when other group members are not present, so this is a permanent type of conformity.
29
What is internalisation most likely to occur because of?
Informational social influence (ISI) – we think the group view is right.
30
What is compliance?
This is a temporary type of conformity where your agreement with the majority ends as soon as the group is no longer present (and there is no group pressure felt).
31
What is compliance most likely to occur because of?
Normative social influence (NSI) – we want the group to accept us.
32
What is identification?
The combination of compliance and internalisation: It is stronger than compliance because we privately change some of our views (as well as publicly). However, it is weaker than internalisation because we conform only as long as we are part of the group. You conform because we identify with other members of the group. Its temporary public and private agreement.
33
What did Asch conformity study 1951 examine?
The extent to which social pressure from a majority could affect a person to conform.
34
How was Asch’s study conducted?
He used 50 male students from Swarthmore College in America, who believed they were taking part in a vision test. The participants consisted of seven confederates (actors), who had agreed their answers in advance, and one real one. The experiment consisted of lines labelled A, B and C next to a separate line. The question a sked was ‘Does the length of the line match A, B, or C?’. The real participant always sat second to last. Each person had to say out loud which line (A, B or C) was most like the target line in length. The correct answer was always obvious unlike the Jeness Study. Each participant completed 18 trials and the confederates gave the same incorrect answer on 12 trials, called critical trials.
35
What were the results of Asch (1956) The Line Study?
On average, the real participants conformed to the incorrect answers on 32% of the critical trials. 74% of the participants conformed on at least one critical trial and 26% of the participants never conformed. Asch also used a control group, in which one real participant completed the same experiment without any confederates. He found that less than 1% of the participants gave an incorrect answer.
36
After interviewing his participants, what did Asch find out as to why they conformed?
Most of the participants said that they knew their answers were incorrect, but they went along with the group in order to fit in, or because they thought they would be ridiculed. This confirms that participants conformed due to NSI and the desire to fit in.
37
What did Perrin and Spencer when repeating Asch's experiment in 1980?
That only 1/396 of the participants conformed, where Asch found 36.8% rate of conformity.
38
Name 2 strengths of Asch's research.
- Research supports NSI - Level of control seeing as it was carried out in lab conditions.
39
Name 2 weaknesses of Asch's research.
- It is most likely that both NSI and ISI are operating, especially in real-life conformity. - Limited application of findings as it only used male and American participants.
40
What is social categorisation?
The way we place individuals into social groups depending on their shared characteristics, often based merely on appearance (e.g. gender, ethnicity, age). Then perceiving people in a category to be similar, for example we think all young people are the same. At the same time, we perceive the people in one category to be very different from the people in another, for example all girls are different from boys.
41
What is social identity theory?
The idea around the formation of stereotypes and prejudice. These are the groups we place people in according to such features as race, gender, and ethnicity and which allow us to make quick judgements about a person or group.
42
What is social comparison?
Where we compare ourselves with other groups, raising our self-esteem by being negative towards the other group either through negative stereotypes or by being prejudice towards them.
43
What is a stereotype?
A fixed view we hold of a person based on the fact we have placed them into a social category (e.g., student, old people etc).
44
How are stereotypes formed according to the social learning theory?
That we learn stereotypes from sources of social information. We observe and imitate these sources.
45
Many stereotypes reflect norms of appropriate behaviour that are rooted in _______. This is why they are so powerful – we learn them while becoming a member of a culture.
1. culture
46
What is a positive effect of stereotypes?
They simplify our interactions with other people in a complex social world. We assume the individuals we meet have certain characteristics and this saves time and cognitive processing effort.
47
What is a negative effect of stereotypes?
Stereotypes can lead to prejudice (e.g., racism, sexism). We assume each person shares the stereotyped characteristics of their social group.
48
How was the Chatard et al. (2007) ‘How good are you at math?’ study conducted?
French high school students rated their agreement (on a 7 point scale) with statements about the maths and arts abilities of males and females in general (e.g. ‘Women are gifted in the arts’). They then rated their own abilities (e.g. ‘I am gifted in the arts’. Another group rated their own abilities first, so the gender stereotype could not affect their ratings. All participants finished by recalling their last school marks in maths and the arts.
49
What were the results of the Chatard et al. (2007) ‘How good are you at math?’? What did this show?
Boys and girls who were given the stereotype reminder overestimated their arts performance (boys much less so than girls). Girls who were given the gender stereotype reminder underestimated their maths performance and the boys who were given the gender stereotype reminder overestimated their maths performance. This showed that when boys and girls accept a gender stereotype about maths ability, their recall of their past performance is biased in the direction of the stereotype.Accepting this gender stereotype could have consequences for career choices.
50
What is a strength of research supporting stereotyping?
There is other psychological research that confirms how stereotypes can distort evidence.
51
How was Gordon Allport and Leo Postman (1947) conducted? What were the results?
Participants a drawing that reversed a well-known stereotype. The image was viewed by a participant, who described it to another, and so on for 6 or 7 participants. This procedure was carried out many times. In 50% of these sequences, the black man was described as holding the razor. This shows that a racist stereotype (black men are more likely to be violent than white men) can bias memory in a way that supports the stereotype (at least in a substantial proportion of people).
52
True or false: The drawing in the Allport and Postman (1947) study reversed a commonly held stereotype of the time, that black men are dangerous and more likely than white men to commit violent crimes.
True
53
Name a strength of study's surrounding stereotypes.
It helps us become aware of the effects of stereotypes so we can take steps to overcome them.
54
Name two weaknesses of study's surrounding stereotypes.
1) Stereotypes do not always result in prejudice. This suggests that stereotypes should not always be seen as ‘bad’ and inevitably resulting in prejudice. 2) The findings of the key study might have been affected by participants trying to work out what the study was about. Therefore some of the participants might have written down grades they thought the researchers wanted instead of what they really could remember.
55
What are group dynamics?
A system of behaviours and psychological processes occurring in a social group (intragroup dynamics), or between social groups (intergroup dynamics).
56
Define intragroup.
This refers to the conflict between one or more people in the same group or team.
57
Define intergroup.
These involve several different teams and are often difficult to handle without external support or preventative/corrective action.
58
What is group cohesion?
The forces that keep the group together, e.g., we all love football.
59
What are group dynamics?
A system of behaviours people use to interact with others.
60
What are group roles? Give an example.
The roles someone adopt within the group, e.g., the ‘loud’ or ‘aggressive’ one.
61
Define common goals in psychology, with examples.
What the group wishes to build towards? E.g., winning a football match by 2 points
62
What is social facilitation?
The presence of members of the group improves performance, e.g., being loud and excited around other supporters.
63
What is social categorisation?
he process by which people categorise themselves and others into differentiated groups. This can be in ingroups (your own group) and outgroups (the other person’s group).
64
What are stereotypes?
A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.
65
What is prejudice?
An unfair feeling of dislike for a person or group based on their race, sex, religion, etc.
66
What is discrimination?
The process of acting on prejudice by making unfair distinctions based on certain factors, therefore treating them differently.
67
What is the definition of self-esteem?
A person’s overall subjective sense of personal worth and value.
68
What is the definition of self-image?
The way we view ourselves, including physical, characteristics and personality traits.
69
What is the definition of self-efficacy?
The idea proposed by Bandura that an individual's belief in their capacity to act in the ways necessary to reach specific goals (to execute behaviours).
70
What is consumer behaviour?
This refers to how people make decisions about what services and products to buy as well as the activities that influence those decisions.
71
Identify and explain 2 types of advertising:
- Product recognition: Making customers more aware of the product. - Campaigns to change public opinion: Changing the views of customers altogether.
72
What are social norms?
A set of informal/implicit rules for society to follow. The opposite would be legislative laws that are explicit/written.
73
How do social norms relate to advertisement?
Adverts try to influence us by promoting narratives that if you do something, you will be liked by others.
74
What is social proof?
Situations where we are unsure, and we may look to others for guidance (ISI- the want to be right).
75
How does the social proof relate to advertisement?
This explains rating systems.
76
What is the Bandwagon effect?
Behaviour change or purchasing decision that can result from the perception that ‘everyone else is doing it’ (NSI- the want to be liked).
77
How does the Bandwagon effect relate to advertisement?
Adverts exploit this by creating the allusion that the product is already popular in order to stimulate demand for it.
78
What is the strength of the social approach in relation to advertisement/consumer psychology?
It is supported by research. E.g., Burger placed signs next to lifts that read ‘90% of the time people in this building use the stairs instead of the elevator’. They found that 46% more people used the stairs. This is a strength because it shows that conformity can impact social and consumer behaviour.
79
What is the weakness of the social approach in relation to advertisement/consumer psychology?
It can be counterproductive- one study found that when students discussed why they used the toxic products, none were persuaded to switch. It reaffirmed why people used the toxic products and is a weakness because it shows conformity isn't always positive.
80
What are subliminal messages?
Messages sent to the brain below consciousness.
81
How do you subliminal messages bias to consumer psychology?
These hidden messages within advertising are a manipulation tactics in order to make an individual buy a product.
82
What is authority bias?
The tendency to be influenced by the opinions and judgements of authority figures.
83
How do you apply authority bias to consumer psychology?
The consumers are more likely to trust and purchase products endorsed by authoritative/influential figures like celebrities and influencers (even if they lack experience).
84
What are brand schemas?
Mental frameworks that help organise, process, and store information about an individual’s environment. In consumer psychology specifically, they connect attributes, beliefs, attitudes, or experiences to a brand name to create a meaning of the brand for the consumer.
85
How do you apply brand schemas to consumer psychology?
To analyse how consumers perceive brand information and use this to help design effective advertising campaigns that appeal to specific audiences.
86
What is brand loyalty?
When customers continue to purchase from the same brand despite competitors offering similar services or products.
87
How do you apply brand loyalty to consumer psychology?
Such customers continue engaging and purchasing from the same brand, also associating positive feelings toward that brand. This means they recommend the brand to friends and family, acting as a rand advocate.
88
Describe conformity to social norms.
Where an individual aligns their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours with those of the people around them.
89
How do you apply conformity to social norms bias to consumer psychology?
Seeing as it involves people tendency to conform to the expectations and opinions of others, especially when they are uncertain or insecure, businesses can make people buy they’re products by showing others endorsing in their product (creating a sense of popularity or scarcity of their product).
90
How does conformity to social norms bias link to NSI?
It relates to how norms regulate the behaviour of groups and individuals, so it is not surprising that we pay attention to them. We desire to behave like others and not look foolish.
91
What are neuromarketing techniques?
Brain scanning techniques such as EEG or fMRI to understand how consumers brain react to marketing stimuli.
92
How do you apply neuromarketing techniques to consumer psychology?
Brain scanning techniques such as EEG or fMRI to understand how consumers brain react to marketing stimuli.
93
What is facial coding?
The process of measuring a human’s emotions through facial expressions.
94
How do you apply facial coding to consumer psychology?
Businesses can assess the subtle emotion displayed by customers when reacting to adverts, packaging, the product itself, etc.
95
What is eye tracking?
A technique used to detect eye movements and analyse the human processing of visual information for interactive and diagnostic applications.
96
How do you apply eye tracking to consumer psychology?
It gives insight into what attracts customers attention.
97
Describe brain scanning techniques.
A neuromarketing technique which measures neural activity and physiological tracking. The two primary tools for scanning the brain are EEG and fMRI.
98
How do you apply brain scanning techniques to consumer psychology?
By measuring the brain activity and physiological responses of consumers.
99
What assumption of the social approach can influence our behaviour towards gender?
Conformity to social roles, cultural norms, and cultural bias.
100
What does Egan and Perry (2001) suggest?
That gender-identity is just one element of self-identification within gender groups and membership. They believe children who self-select their groups, whether boy or girl and this is done as early as 3 years old. This is the beginning of gender segregation as children show interest in playing wit their selected groups.
101
Describe the effect of NSI on gender identity.
The adolescence feels social pressure to conform to the norms of gender roles from parents/carers, teachers, peers, and the media. This may include pressures to be gender-typical or atypical ways.
102
Describe the effect of ISI on gender identity.
The adolescence also has peers and the media serves as a source of information which they readily accept. The information these sources provide may be considered gender-appropriate behaviours. Same gender peers become norms of gender-typical behaviour.
103
What might cause stress to those who don’t conform to gender-role norms or behaviour in society?
The pressure felt by adolescents to conform.
104
What is meant by a 'third gender’?
Those who don’t fit the traditional binary classification of women or man. For example, millions of people in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh identify and live as transgender. Another example is the Hijras are recognised in passports as a legal identity.
105
How does NSI lead to aggression?
People become aggressive because they want to fit in and avoid rejection. This is especially if the group has an aggressive group identity.
106
How does ISI lead to aggression?
People become aggressive seeing as they’re unsure of how to act in a situation and so they live up to the group identity.
107
Name 1 strength of the social approach in terms of aggression.
It’s supported by research: Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment found that children were ore likely to imitate the same sex role model for both verbal and physical aggression. This is a strength because it shows that aggression can be socially influenced.
108
Name 2 weaknesses of the social approach in terms of aggression.
1) It's unethical 2) The social approach doesn’t account for other factors of aggressive like ignoring the role of biology (testosterone).

A level Psychology (6 decks)

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