Social Psychology

Question 1

What is social psychology trying to understand

Answer 1

How others can influence our behaviour

Question 2

Define what is meant by an attitude

Answer 2

• Attitude: a positive or negative evaluative reaction toward a stimulus, such as a person, action, object, or concept e.g. can include behaviour such as healthy eating

Question 3

How does attitude relate to behaviour

Answer 3

Attitudes influence behaviour more strongly when situational factors that contradict our attitudes are weak

By changing attitudes we can change behaviour

Question 4

Explain Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour

Answer 4

Explanation: our intentions are influenced by three factors, which then lead to a certain behaviour
Subjective norm: beliefs about important others’ attitudes toward behaviour
Attitude towards behaviour: own beliefs and evaluation of the outcome
Perceived behavioural control: internal and external control factors

Question 5

How can we exploit the theory of planned behaviour in helping someone to stop smoking

Answer 5

The Theory of Planned Behaviour would suggest the importance of exploring social norms in changing health behaviour

• What do your friends/family think about smoking?
• What do your friends/family think about you smoking?
• Whose opinion is most important to you?
• What are the pros and cons of following that opinion?

Question 6

What can asking a patient about their beliefs regarding their behaviour generate

Answer 6

Cognitive dissonance
They smoke, but are fully aware that smoking can increase their risk of developing lung cancer, yet they continue to smoke anyway.

Question 7

What is meant by cognitive dissonance

Answer 7

Cognitive Dissonance: holding two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values, or participating in an action that goes against one of these three, leading to psychological stress - e.g. Smoking causing cancer

Question 8

How will the patient attempt to resolve their dissonance

Answer 8

Change behaviour: In the case of smoking, this would involve quitting, which might be difficult and thus avoided • Acquire new information: Such as seeking exceptions e.g. “My grandfather smoked all his life and lived to be 96” • Reduce the importance of the cognitions (i.e. beliefs, attitudes). A person could convince themself that it is better to “live for the moment”

Question 9

When we want to change an attitude, how can we make the message more effective

Answer 9

Message more effective if: • Reaches recipient • Is attention-grabbing • Easily understood • Relevant and important • Easily remembered

Messengers are more effective if: credible (e.g. Doctors), trustworthy (e.g. Objective) and attractive (e.g. Well-presented)

Question 10

What is meant by framing

Answer 10

• Refers to whether a message emphasises the benefits or losses of that behaviour

Question 11

What does research show about framing

Answer 11

Research shows that:
When we want people to take up behaviours aimed at detecting health problems or illness (e.g. HIV testing) loss-framed messages may be more effective
When we want people to take up behaviours aimed at promoting prevention behaviours (e.g. condom use) gain-framed messages may be more effective

Question 12

Which of the these two statements will be most effective for encouraging breast self-examination?

Answer 12

If you do not undertake breast self-examination you may be more likely to die from cancer

Question 13

Which of the these two statements will be most effective for promoting sunscreen use?

Answer 13

If you do use SPF15 sunscreen, your skin will stay healthier and you may prolong your life

Question 14

What is meant by a stereotype

Answer 14

Stereotype – Generalisations made about a group of people or members of that group, such as race, ethnicity, or gender. Or more specific such as different medical specialisations (e.g. surgeons)

Question 15

What is meant by prejudice

Answer 15

Prejudice – To judge, often negatively, without having relevant facts, usually about a group or its individual members

Question 16

What is meant by discrimination

Answer 16

Discrimination – Behaviours that follow from negative evaluations or attitudes towards members of particular groups

Question 17

Describe the relationship between stereotype, prejudice and discrimination

Answer 17

All inter-linked

Question 18

Describe the Lawrie et al study which showed how stereotype and prejudice can affect medical care

Answer 18

Stereotypes and prejudice can affect medical care • Lawrie et al. (1998) demonstrated GPs were reluctant to take on patients with a mental health history despite it being well controlled • This study was further replicated in a sample of over 1000 medical students

Question 19

What did the Borkhoff study show about the effect of prejudice and stereotype on medical care

Answer 19

• A study gave orthopaedic surgeons and family practitioners vignettes featuring a patient with moderate unilateral knee pain and a radiograph revealing osteoarthritis. • Identical vignettes were randomly ascribed to a female or male patient. • Family physicians were twice as likely to recommend knee arthroplasty for a male patient • Orthopaedic surgeons were 22 times more likely to recommend knee arthroplasty for a male patient

Maybe they thought males could handle the pain more

Question 20

What did the ringleman study show on the force generated on the rope as the number of rope pullers increased

Answer 20

The weight pulled began to pateau as the total number of workers increased.
The average weight pulled by each worker also decreased.

Question 21

Define what is meant by social loafing

Answer 21

Definition -the tendency for people to expend less individual effort when working in a group than when working alone

Question 22

Describe the collective effort model

Answer 22

Collective Effort Model: on a collective task, people will put forth only as much effort as they expect is needed to reach their goal

Question 23

When is social loafing more likely to occur

Answer 23

• The person believes that individual performance is not being monitored • The task (goal) or the group has less value or meaning to the person • The person generally displays low motivation to strive for success • The person expects that other group members will display high effort

Question 24

Describe how social loafing depends on age and culture

Answer 24

Depends on gender and culture • Occurs more strongly in all-male groups • Occurs more often in individualistic cultures

Question 25

When may social loafing disappear

Answer 25

• Individual performance is monitored • Members highly value their group or the task goal • Groups are smaller • Members are of similar competence

Question 26

Define what is meant by conformity

Answer 26

Conformity: the adjustment of individual behaviours, attitudes, and beliefs to a group standard

Question 27

Describe the Asch study on conformity

Answer 27

Set a very simple vision test comparing the lengths of lines and put a subject in the room with several actors who all chose the wrong answer Majority of people conformed when everyone else chose the wrong answer In the control group, less than 1% conformed

Question 28

Describe the factors that effect conformity

Answer 28

Group size: • Conformity increases as group size increases • No increases over five group members * Presence of a dissenter: • One person disagreeing with the others greatly reduces group conformity- good to have this person on the team- ensures no assumptions are being made when performing critical thinking. * Culture: • Greater in collectivistic cultures

Question 29

What did the beran study show about conformity in medical students

Answer 29

Students viewed an instructional video on knee arthrocentesis • They were then asked to aspirate a knee model • They were randomly assigned to either using a model with holes - left by peers - or a knee with no marks in the skin those that had a model with previous (incorrect) holes were more likely to do it wrong - choosing to follow the holes present

Question 30

Summarise some other factors that predict conformity

Answer 30

o Group size – conformity increases as group size increases (up to 5). o Unanimity – presence of someone who disagrees with the group. o Cohesion. o Status. o Public response. o Lack of prior commitment.

Question 31

Summarise the bystander effect

Answer 31

The Bystander Effect: presence of multiple bystanders inhibits each person’s tendency to help Due to social comparison or diffusion of responsibility We rely on other people's interpretation on emergency-as emergencies occur so infrequently in our own lives.

Question 32

Describer the darley and latane experiment

Answer 32

Participants were invited into the lab under the pretext they were taking part in a discussion about ‘personal problems’ • Participants were all in separate rooms in the lab and communicated via an intercom system

Question 33

What were the results from the darley and latane experiment

Answer 33

Helping student having an epileptic seizure in an adjacent room. • 87% helped if they believed it was just them and the other student. • But only 31% helped when they believed they were in a group of 4 people, hardly anyone helped if group was above 4. • If participant had not acted within first 3 minutes they never acted. • Compared to those who did report the emergency, those that didn't appeared in distress; many were sweating, and had trembling hands. • They reported shame and guilt for not helping. • Reasons given include not wanting to expose themselves to embarrassment or to ruin the experiment which, they had been told depended on each participant remaining anonymous from the others.

Question 34

Describe the 5-step bystander decision process that was derived from the darley and latane experiments

Answer 34

1) Notice the event 2) Decide if the event is really an emergency Social comparison: look to see how others are responding 3) Assuming responsibility to intervene Diffusion of Responsibility: believing that someone else will help 4) Self-efficacy in dealing with the situation 5) Decision to help (based on cost-benefit analysis e.g. danger)

Question 35

Outline the ways by which we could increase health behaviour

Answer 35

``` Reducing restraints on helping • Reduce ambiguity and increase responsibility • Enhance concern for self image Socialise altruism • Teaching moral inclusion • Modelling helping behaviour • Attributing helpful behaviour to altruistic motives • Education about barriers to helping ```

Question 36

What did the study in Yale Medical School show about the potential impact of the bystander effect in clinical practice

Answer 36

Example from Yale University School of Medicine: • 32 year old male admitted with unexplained rash and renal, hepatic and pulmonary failure • 9 specialties and 40 doctors were involved in his care on ICU • >25 diagnostic laboratory tests and two imaging procedures were performed daily • A diagnosis was never confirmed

Question 37

What behaviour theories could explain the Francis report

Answer 37

Poor care in the Mid Staffordshire Foundation NHS Trust between 2005 and 2009 reportedly contributed to the avoidable deaths of many patients. • The Francis report (2013) provided a comprehensively damning account of organisational failure and lack of care • In particular, systematic investigation revealed evidence of “non-compassionate behaviour” • ?Bystander apathy • ?Cognitive dissonance

Question 38

Describe the Milgram experiment

Answer 38

One “learner”, one “teacher” – told that experiment studied the effect of punishment on learning and memory. • Shock generator used to apply punishment •Shocks grew increasingly intense with each mistake person leading experiment told to keep shocking, and most participants continued to deadly levels

Question 39

Define obedience

Answer 39

Compliance with commands given by an authority figure

Question 40

Describe the factors that influence obedience

Answer 40

• Remoteness of the victim • Closeness and legitimacy of the authority figure • Diffusion of responsibility: obedience increases when someone else administers the shocks • Not personal characteristics NB A more recent study replicated the experiment and found similar results

Question 41

What is meant by groupthink

Answer 41

The tendency of group members to suspend critical thinking because they are striving to seek agreement

Question 42

What is meant by group polarisation

Answer 42

• Group polarization - the tendency of people to make decisions that are more extreme when they are in a group as opposed to a decision made alone or independently

Question 43

When is groupthink more likely to occur

Answer 43

Is under high stress to reach a decision • Is insulated from outside input • Has a directive leader • Has high cohesiveness

Question 44

What are the symptoms of groupthink

Answer 44

Direct pressure applied to people who express doubt Mind Guards: people who prevent negative information from reaching the group Members display self-censorship and withhold their doubts An illusion of unanimity is created

Question 45

Give a clinical example of groupthink

Answer 45

* Study looked at how two different panels evaluated appropriateness of carrying out carotid endarterectomies in a sample of 1302 patients * Panel one was all-surgical * Panel two was a multidisciplinary team (MDT) of surgeons, neurologists, a GP and a radiologist * 70% were appropriate by the all-surgical panel versus 38% by the MDT panel • 19% of the operations were inappropriate by all-surgical criteria, versus 31% by the MDT panel ratings

Question 46

Describe the autocratic leadership style

Answer 46

Under the autocratic leadership style, all decision-making powers are centralized in the leader, as with dictator leaders. • They do not entertain any suggestions or initiatives from subordinates.

Question 47

Describe the participative, democrative leadership style

Answer 47

The democratic leadership style favours decision-making by the group as shown, such as leader gives instruction after consulting the group. They can win the co-operation of their group and can motivate them effectively and positively.

Question 48

Describe the laissez-faire 'free reign' leadership style

Answer 48

A free-rein leader does not lead, but leaves the group entirely to itself as shown; such a leader allows maximum freedom to subordinates, i.e., they are given a free hand in deciding their own policies and methods

Question 49

Describe the advantages of autocratic leadership style

Answer 49

Pros: Enables quick decision making Clear hierarchy of responsibility Cons: Can be demotivating Can lead to errors

Question 50

Describe the pros and cons of a democratic leadership style

Answer 50

Pros: Can win cooperation and motivate team Can improve quality of decision making Cons: Time consuming Can lead to disagreements

Question 51

Describe the pros and cons of a laissez-faire leadership style

Answer 51

Pros: Allows autonomous working Allows expertise to be utilised Cons: Can lead to lack of direction Lack of ultimate responsibility holder

Question 52

Describe the medical leadership competency framework

Answer 52

``` Demonstrate personal qualities Work with others Set direction Manage and improve services All leads to improvement of the service. ```