Social Psychology- Lectures 4,5,7 & 8

Question 1

MacDougall (1917)

Answer 1

The role of social regulation is important. In advanced societies, self-regulation is necessary too.

Question 2

Gustave Le Bon (1898)

Answer 2

Group mind whereby crowds revert to primitive origins
Individual reactions absorbed into ‘mob’
Charismatic leaders have a mesmeric effect on the audience.

Question 3

Durkheim (1858-1917)

Answer 3

Social facts are not properties of individuals but of collective representations. The role of language is central.

Question 4

W.D.Scott (1903)

Answer 4

Psychology of advertising

Question 5

Rensis Likert (1932)

Answer 5

Devised the Likert scale, taken up in marketing.

Question 6

Asch: conformity in the laboratory

Answer 6

Experimentally generated social pressure.
Manipulation of genuine participants to produce obviously wrong answers.
Only 25% of Ps answered correctly on all trials
5% answered wrongly on all trials.

Question 7

Schachter & Singer (1962): labelling theory of emotion

Answer 7

Social cues influenced participants’ emotions despite the same dose of adrenaline.
Albeit only when incorrect feedback given

Question 8

Kitty Genovese

Answer 8

The murder of Kitty Genovese sparked a ‘moral panic’ about modern apathy.
Later evidence has cast doubt on the details, however.

Question 9

Latane and Darley: series of bystander intervention studies in the 1960s and 70s.

Answer 9

Varied characteristics of ‘victim’ and nature of the situation.
These influenced, along with a number of bystanders, people’s willingness to intervene.

Question 10

The 1970s: influence of the ‘cognitive revolution’ offered an alternative.

Answer 10

Instead of creating social proxies, why not ask people?

Attitude research, psychometrics, Likert scales, multivariate statistics all involved.

Question 11

Ajzen & Fishbein (1970): Theory of Reasoned Action

Answer 11

Beliefs and attitudes predict intentions

Question 12

Ajzen (1991): Theory of Planned Behaviour

Answer 12

Added factor of perceived behavioural control

Question 13

Tajfel (1969)

Answer 13

Also sought answers to Nazi atrocities in WW2.
Prejudice as a result of ‘normal’ cognitive processing.
‘Heuristic’ preference for thinking in categories.

Question 14

Group psychology

Answer 14

UK-focused field with emphasis on social identities

Question 15

Crowd psychology

Answer 15

UK-based, has contributed to the ‘Sage’ expert panel

Question 16

Replication crisis’

Answer 16

Many findings fail to hold up over time (for various reasons)

Question 17

Group Type: Incidental

Answer 17

low commitment

minimal impact on individual behaviour

Question 18

Group Type: Membership

Answer 18

some stake in group’s fortunes

moderate positive impact of group

Question 19

Group Type: Identity-reference

Answer 19

individual incorporates group into social identity

strong investment in group’s fortunes

Question 20

Sherif & Sherif (1969): Robbers’ Cave study

Answer 20

Created two random groups of boys at US summer camp.
Engineered situations where group membership became salient.
Needed to create ‘cooperative’ situations to reduce hostility.

Question 21

Tajfel & Turner (1979): Social Identity Theory

Answer 21

Positive self-esteem achieved by:
Promoting ingroup
Derogating outgroup
The need for distinctiveness leads us to favour the ingroup (esp. when in a minority).

Question 22

Stereotypes

Answer 22

Depends on context.
Not always unfavorable.
Sometimes very harmful.
May influence our intergroup behaviour.

Question 23

The 1930s/40s: chiefly concerned with attitude change.

Answer 23

Fears about media propaganda
Festinger (1950): ‘anchored in a group’
1980s revival in social cognition tradition
Now a private, internal process

Question 24

Rosenberg & Hovland (1960): 3-part model

Answer 24

Attitude Object —-> Attitude —–> Affective, Cogntive or Overt Response.

Question 25

How is attitude conceptualised?

Answer 25

As a cognitive process It should be consistent across the three factors It should be consistent over time (‘reliable’) It can be measured (as strong/weak) It can be changed

Question 26

Ways to Measure Attitudes:

Answer 26

Likert Scales Semantic differential (Osgood, 1957) Implicit Association Test (IAT)

Question 27

Fiedler et al (2006) critiqued the IAT’s methodology

Answer 27

Statistical bias, not racial bias ‘Attitudes’ need to be reliable, but most participants deny holding negative views towards the social groups involved Participants are ‘fed’ with the stimuli (same effect as ‘leading questions’ in surveys)

Question 28

Ajzen & Fishbein (1977): 4 necessary degrees of correspondence between attitudes and behaviors

Answer 28

Action Target Context Time

Question 29

Davidson & Jaccard (1979): contraception study

Answer 29

Birth control (.08) Oral contraception (pill) (.32) Using oral contraception (.53) Using oral contraception in next 2 years (.57)

Question 30

Attitudes can be changed by persuasive communication | Lasswell (1948) defined this as:

Answer 30

WHO says what to WHOM, in which CHANNEL, and with what EFFECT.

Question 31

Typical experimental paradigm: pretest-posttest design

Answer 31

Pretest (measure existing attitude) Intervention (exposure to persuasive ‘message’) Posttest (repeat same attitude scale as in 1)

Question 32

Milgram's definition of Conformity and Obedience.

Answer 32

Conformity as: “the abdication of individual judgment in the face of some external social pressure” Obedience as the above, plus INSTRUCTIONS.

Question 33

Milgram: the original study

Answer 33

``` 1963, Yale University Two essential components ‘Mr. Wallace’, the learner “very mild and harmless-looking” The shock generator Meticulously designed to appear convincing. ``` Descriptions 15v: slight 75v: moderate shock 135v: strong shock 315v: intense shock 375v: danger, severe shock 450v: XXX Mr Wallace’s reaction Increasing wrong answers 300v: pounded on wall 315v: silent Teachers given mild shock (45v) as an illustration.

Question 34

Milgram Results:

Answer 34

All Teachers went up to 300v 65% went up to 450v Seen to “sweat, stutter, tremble, groan, bite their lips and dig their nails into their flesh” Three subjects had ‘seizures’, one leading to termination of trial.

Question 35

Milgram's Explanations.

Answer 35

Diffusion of responsibility (‘only carrying out orders’): University, science, lab coat etc. Perception of legitimate authority: When lost, zero compliance. Agentic state: Participant becomes agent of authority (“a person comes to view himself as the instrument…he is not responsible for his actions”).

Question 36

Other Studies of Obedience.

Answer 36

Hofling et al (1966): fake doctor instructs nurses to give the fake patient a fake drug at 2x maximum dosage 21 of 22 complied, 11 without checking dosage Sheridan & King (1972): 75% of participants gave ‘fatal shock’ to a puppy in a discrimination task. Shocks mild, or anesthetic was given. Some participants were very upset.

Question 37

What can we take from Milgram's study?

Answer 37

If skepticism predicts compliance, what does this suggest? Were obedient Ps ‘in denial’ (Russell, 2009)? Might this actually support the ‘agentic state’ explanation? Still the issue of ecological validity Haslam & Reicher argue that real-life cases explained by political/historical factors. To what extent can we really ‘model’ this kind of situation in the laboratory? And, are all cases of ‘obedience’ the same?

Question 38

Armistead (1974), Harré & Secord (1972): Social psychology has lost touch with the real world, needs ‘reconstruction’.

Answer 38

Psychology blindly following ‘natural sciences’ model Over-reliance on statistics and experiments Low ecological validity of simulations (Milgram, Zimbardo etc) Fails to engage with ‘the real world’.

Question 39

Serge Moscovici (1925-2014)

Answer 39

Need to study ‘collective (social) representations’ e.g. how psychoanalytic ideas entered popular culture Not quite critical, but a step into ‘the real world’

Question 40

Ethogenics

Answer 40

Rom Harré: Need to study social life in ‘micro’ environments A society governed by rules, e.g. rituals, conversation Marsh et al (78): ethogenic study of football hooliganism Even ‘disorder’ has an internal logic.

Question 41

Psychology Making a Difference

Answer 41

Emergence of community psychology Kelly (1966): need to understand behaviour in the social environment Action research: Interventions to help overcome challenges.

Question 42

Marxism

Answer 42

Psychology an ‘ideological strategy’ to promote individualism (Parker, 2007) Need to study the influence of social class and power inequalities on psychology Psychology should be about social change (to empower certain groups)

Question 43

Feminism

Answer 43

Psychology as androcentric - theory based on research with males: women as other e.g. Stressful Life Events scale (Magnusson & Maracek, 2017) Focus on individualism is culturally biased as well as gender-biased. ‘Autonomy’ a male privilege

Question 44

Psychoanalysis

Answer 44

Focus on relationships and social environment challenges the dominant model of the individual Methods and insights of psychoanalysis have inspired the rise of ‘psychosocial studies’.

Question 45

Social constructionism

Answer 45

Meaning is not fixed and inevitable...[it is] the product of historical events, social forces and ideology” The social construction of a phenomenon can be uncovered by deconstructing it.

Question 46

Key Arguments in Social Psychology

Answer 46

The distinction between the individual and society is largely trivial. There are few (if any) aspects of psychology that are truly timeless and universal. Knowledge, and claims to truth, are fundamentally rhetorical statements. Psychologists are encouraged to use the discipline for challenging taken-for-granted ideas.

Question 47

Mainstream Social Psychology

Answer 47

Social cognition (e.g. measuring ‘the self’) Social identity theory Focus on artificial groups and imaginary situations Experiments Psychometric scales Statistics

Question 48

Critical Social Psychology

Answer 48

Deconstructing ‘taken for granted’ phenomena (e.g. gender). Discursive psychology. Focus on ‘real world’ social interaction. Discourse and conversation analysis. Qualitative methods.