MCAT: P/S Khan Academy - Social Psychology

What is social psychology?

how individuals think, feel, and behave in social interactions

What is conformity?

peer pressure

tendency to bring behavior in line with group norms

-important to have positive peers

What is informative influence?

look to a group for guidance when you don't know what to do and assume the group is right

What is normative influence?

even if you know whats right, do what group's negative actions to avoid social rejection

What is private conformation?

change behaviors and opinions to align with group

What is public conformation?

outwardly changing but inside, maintain core beliefs

What is group polarization?

the enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group

What is confirmation bias?

a tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions

What is groupthink?

maintaining group harmony is more important than carefully analyzing problem at hand

What is obedience?

following orders/obey authority with no cognitive component

What is social anomie?

breakdown of social bonds between an individual and community

What is compliance?

situations where we do behavior to get a reward or avoid punishment

-go along with behavior without questioning why

• Compliance = A change in behavior in response to a direct request from someone who does not have formal authority.

• Example: Agreeing to donate to a charity because a volunteer asked, not because you’re legally required.

• Often studied with techniques like foot-in-the-door, door-in-the-face, lowball, etc.

What is identification?

when people act/dress a certain way to be like someone they respect

Will do this as long as they maintain respect for that individual

What is internalization?

idea/belief/behaviour has been integrated into our own values. Stronger than other types of conformity.

What is normative social influence?

influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval

What is informational social influence?

influence resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality

-we feel that others are more knowledgable than us

What was Asch Conformity study?

line study with confederate to influence group to pick the obviously wrong answer

*inspired by holocaust

What is perceptual error?

truly believed answer given by others were correct

Why would someone not conform?

very confident in your answer

What is the Milgram experiment?

Study on Obedience;

Measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience.

Teacher vs Learner in shock administration

What was the percent compliance in the Milgram experiment?

~65%

What is the just world phenomenon?

idea that universe is fair so people must get what they deserve

-belief good things happen to good people and vice versa

• The Just World Phenomenon is the belief that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

• When outside observers heard about Milgram’s results, some explained the “teacher’s” willingness to shock the “learner” by thinking:

  “If the learner was getting shocked, they must have done something to deserve it.”

• This bias allows observers to maintain a sense that the world is fair, even when harm is happening — instead of confronting the uncomfortable idea that ordinary people can commit harmful acts under authority.

What is the self-serving bias?

the tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal factors and put the blame for failures on external factors

What is the fundamental attribution error?

The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others

What was the Zimbardo prison experiment?

study of how conformity/obedience can result in actions different from usual or even contrary to how they think they would act when placed in certain social norms/conventions (guard vs. prisoner)

How was dispositional attribution observed in the Zimbardo prison experiment?

it becomes much easier to behave badly towards individuals who suffer from deindividuation

How was cognitive dissonance observed in the Zimbardo prison experiment?

guards know their behavior was inappropriate but they reduced mental distress by justifying behavior because prisoners deserved it (changed cognition)

How does group size influence conformity/obedience?

more likely to conform in groups of 3-5

How does unanimity influence conformity/obedience?

when opinions of groups are unanimous, others more likely to conform

How does group status influence conformity/obedience?

if status higher than our own (popularity or merit), more likely to conform

How does group cohesion influence conformity/obedience?

if we feel connected to the group, feel less need to go along with that group

How does observed behavior influence conformity/obedience?

if we believe our behavior is observed by the group, more likely to conform

How does public response influence conformity/obedience?

if we are met with acceptance from the public, more happy to conform

prior commitments (if we say something earlier that goes against group, we will decrease conformity because we are less likely to say something different later. If we said something earlier that is along the lines of the group, we will have increased conformity because we will say the same thing now. We are not likely to change what we say). § feelings of insecurity – more likely to follow judgements of others (conformity)

What factors will increase our likelihood to obey?

• Type of authority giving orders – obedience depends on who is giving the commands.

• Closeness to authority – more likely to accept orders from someone we respect.

• Physical proximity – more likely to comply with someone physically close. In Milgram, obedience increased when the authority figure stood close behind the teacher.

• Legitimacy of authority – symbols like a lab coat or clipboard increase obedience (shown in Milgram).

• Institutional authority – well-respected institutions (e.g., universities, police, government) increase obedience due to trust they won’t give harmful commands.

• Victim distance – in Milgram’s original study, when the teacher could not see the learner, obedience was higher; seeing the learner reduced obedience but didn’t eliminate it (30% still gave all shocks).

• Depersonalization of victim – when the learner/victim is seen as less human through stereotypes/prejudices, objection decreases.

• Role models for defiance – seeing others disobey increases likelihood of disobedience.

• Personality effects – no single personality trait predicts obedience.

• Mood effects – people in a bad mood (e.g., after a rough day) are less likely to conform.

• Status and culture – lower socioeconomic status and cultures emphasizing collectivism (vs. individualism) are more likely to show conformity.

What is the bystander effect?

the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present

What is the diffusion of responsibility theory?

when individuals are in the presence of others where help is needed, feel less personal responsibility and less likely to take action

What amplifies the bystander effect?

amount of people in the group

What is deindividuation?

Deindividuation – those in group are more likely to act inappropriately because crowd conceals person’s identity. Good example is behavior of some on Black Friday. Presence of large group there is violence (shoppers trample employees, shot shoppers, stolen goods from stores). Presence of large group decreases their inhibition/guilt, hence increases antisocial/deviant behavior. Another example is the internet – anonymous platform causes people to express opinions they typically would not express. (ex. Youtube comments people are nasty, cyber bullying)

What is social facilitation?

• How would presence of others affect your behavior?

• Would it help or hinder your performance?

• According to social facilitation, the most dominant response for a particular behavior would be shown.

• Dominant response refers to the response most likely to occur.

• Example: In a presentation, if you have practiced thoroughly, the presence of others will lead you to perform well.

• If you haven’t practiced well, the presence of others will make you perform more poorly (exacerbate your mistakes).

The presence of others increases ________.

arousal

What is the Yerkes-Dodson Law?

the principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases

What is social loafing?

the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable

Group-produced reduction of individual effort

• This is basically the outcome of social loafing. It means that when social loafing occurs, the overall group performance suffers because each member is putting in less effort.

• The group becomes less productive and performs poorly because individual effort is diluted.

What is the Hawthourne effect? also called

type of reactivity in which individuals modify or improve an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed

also called the observer effect

What are agents of socialization? define and give examples

parts of society that are important for socialization

-people, organizations, institutions

family peers school mass media

What is socialization?

life-long process where we learn how to interact with others

-everything we consider normal is actually learned through socialization

What is the most important agent of socialization?

family

How does school act as an agent of socialization?

teach life skills and social skills (interactions with teachers and other students) as hidden curriculum

How do peers act as agents of socialization?

teach us to develop social behaviors

-peer pressure

How does mass media act as an agent of socialization

TV, radio, internet, books, magazines

enforces gender and other stereotypes

ecological validity

– do the conditions of the study mimic those of the real world. If they don’t, we can only make limited conclusions. A line in lab (in this experiment) is not same as conformity in the real world

demand characteristics

– describes how participants change behaviour to match expectations of experimenter. Conformed because that’s what experimenter wanted them to do

replicated

Study has been replicated, and results remain same, no matter what country/time period/location. Full compliance always hovered at 61-66%- milgram

in milgram study, this made participants more comfortable shocking

Also, many participants were comforted by passing responsibility of actions to others (when experimenter said they’d take full responsibility and participant would not be responsible for the harm, participants felt more comfortable). “I was just following orders”. (seen in other cases of atrocities

selection bias and which study

selection bias – no deception in study, so what kind of student willingly signs up to be in prison for 2 weeks? So, was this really random sample?