Social Psychology 2017 Flashcards
(32 cards)
Define the social psychology
“the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual behaviour in social situations” - Baron, Byrne & Suls (1989)
Explain social norms.
Standards that govern what is expected in society and in social situations.
- sometimes these rules are stated or written down.
- at other times the rules are simple ‘understood’ without being written down. e.g. how members dress, whom they mix with.
Explain social roles.
Activities taken on by individuals for the benefit of the group.
- for each role there is a set of social norms or rules that set out the expected behaviour for the person in that position.
Define social status
The position or rank of a person in their group, or a group in society.
Define self-concept
How an individual sees or describes themself. “The individual’s belief about himself or herself, including the person’s attributes and who and what the self is.” - Baumeister, 1999.
Define social identity.
The part of our self-concept that is based on our membership in particular groups.
Define socially dependent.
Members of a group rely on each other for emotional outcomes, feelings of belonging and social identity.
Define task dependent.
Having to work together to complete a collective task successfully.
Describe group cohesion
- Groups need to be organised.
- Members need to know each others strengths and weaknesses.
- Roles and tasks need to be assigned.
- Crucial tasks cannot be left undone.
- Members should not compete for scarce resources.
- Smith and Mackie; plane crash instances are due to poor coordination of personnel rather than pilot error.
How to increase cohesion.
- Make group membership an important part of an individual’s social identity.
- Encourage cooperation rather than competition
- leads to positive feelings among members
- make rewards for the individual dependent on group outcomes. - Developing group norms
- members usually conform to agreed-upon rules, boosts productivity.
Describe competition
- The rivalry of two or more parties over something
- Competition within groups reduces group cohesion and hinders efforts to achieve group goals, competition between group increases group solidarity.
Define realistic conflict theory
Intergroup hostility arises because of competition between groups for scarce but valued resources.
Define theory of relative deprivation
Feelings of discontent ares from the belief that others are better of than you and your group.
Describe brainstorming
A group or individual creativity technique by which efforts are made to find a conclusion for a specific problem gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its members. It is believed that groups generate more ideas that individuals working separately.
Describe deindividuation
The loss of social identity and inhibition, causing a person to lose responsibility for their own actions and causing them to ignore possible consequences.
- particularly in large groups
- influenced by a sense of anonymity.
Describe LeBon (1895) deindividuation study
Individuals behaviour changes in the presence of large crowds
“Descends several rungs of the ladder of civilisation”
- anonymity
- shift in attention (internal -> external)
Describe Zimbardo (1970/1973) study
Built upon LeBon’s original idea - deindividuation is more than anonymity
- increased arousal
- reduced responsibility
- sensory overload
- altered consciousness (drugs/alcohol)
Describe Diener’s (1980) study
Acted in scripted ways without conscious control, only become aware when:
- elevated by others
- behaviour does not follow a script (social norms)
- crowds block an individual’s capacity for self-awareness and therefore become deindividuated but do not discount the effect of social arousal.
Explain Prentice Dunn and Rogers (1982) public self awareness
- concern about impression
- can be reduced by anonymity (diffusion of responsibility)
- loss of public awareness leads to a loss of public standards of behaviour and lowers our inhibitions
Explain private self awareness
- own thoughts and feelings
- can be reduced by becoming so involved in an activity that we forget ourselves
- loss of private awareness leads to a loss of internal standards and over reliances on environmental cue
What are factors that interact to cause deindividuation?
Group presence and size leads to social arousal and physical anonymity. Social arousal leads to decreased self awareness, physical anonymity leads to diffusion of responsibility. Decreased self awareness leads to diffusion of responsibility, which leads to deindividuation. Deindividuation leads to increase responsivity to situational cues and loss of normal inhibitions.
What is social loafing?
The tendency for an individual to reduce their effort in a group.
- A sense of anonymity can lead individuals to reduce their effort.
- Latane, Williams and Hawkins (1979) created an experiment where participants were asked to clap or cheer loudly when alone and with others. Results found they cheered louder when they were alone.
Why does social loafing occur?
- Individuals feel less accountable
- Individual might feel their efforts are not as important
- Social loafing occurs less when: the task is interesting, members are highly motivated, individual contributions are essential for success, individuals performance is monitored, individuals identify strongly with the group
What is the effect of group size on group behaviour?
Studies have shown that the number of conforming participants increase dramatically as the size of the group grew from two to four. This means that if you were in a group with just one other person you would be less likely to conform than if there was a group of four people.
