Social Psych - Chapter 7

Social Influence

the exercise of social power by a person or group to change the attitudes or behavior of others in a particular direction

Social Hierarchy + Influence

• Social power = more influence

• at times those with lower power can change majority held power beliefs

Conformity

Yielding to perceived group pressure by copying the behavior and beliefs of others

Independence

not being subject to control by others

Compliance

publicly acting in accord with a direct request

External compliance

acting in accord with a direct request, despite privately disagreeing with it

Obedience

the performance of an action in response to a direct order

Social Power

the force available to the influencer to motivate attitude or behavior to change

• having access to certain resources

  • rewards, punishments, information

  • High status ( political groups)

  • Those who respond positively are “soft”

3 studied of Classical and Contemporary Conformity

1. Muzafer Sherrifs work = norm development

2. Solomon asher’s = group pressure

3. Stanly schachter = reaction to nonconformist

Muzafer Sherifs

• he thought a group was more than the sum of it’s individuals nongroup thinking

• Paritipants estimate how much a dot moves

  • answers converged on a norm

  • even later when apart

Social Norm

an expected standard of behavior and belief established and enforced by a group

Pluralistic Ignorance

the tendency to think that everyone else is interpreting a situation in a certain way, when in fact they are not

Priming

is the process by which recent exposure to certain stimuli or events increases the accessibility of related memories, categories, or schemas

• Priming is an example of automatic thinking

Ash Experiment Conformity ( lines)

• easier for people to conform rather than challenge the opinions of others.

• Participants judged length of lines

  • confederates gave wrong answers

• 76% partiipants gave some wrong answer

Normative Influence

Conformity based on a desire to gain rewards or avoid punishment

Informational Influence

conformity based on the belief that others may have more accurate information

Situational Influences

• Size of the influencing group

  • Conformity increases, so does a group

  • depends on normative influence

• Group Cohesiveness + Topic Relevance

  • members are attracted to one another

  • our own friendship networks

• Social support

  • diminish group normative influence

Personal Factors

• self-awareness

• self-presentation

Psychological reactance

the tendency to react against and resist attempts to limits one’s sense of freedom

Anti conformity

opposition to social influence on all occasions, often causes by psychological reactance

Minority influence

• The process by which dissenters produced change within a group

Minority Slowness effect

the tendency to those who hold a minority opinion to express that opinion less quickly then people who hold the majority opinion

External Conformity

act of adjusting visible behaviors

internal conformity

an individual changes there belief

Compliance

following a direct request

Milgram Theory

• Authority orders partiipants to give shocks to a learner

  • 65% obeyed the experimenter completely

  • No difference tor age, gender, country

• Obediance decreased ( partipants refused ) when

  • authority was an average person

  • authority not in room

  • victim was close + visible

  • Confederate teacher rebels

  • Partipants challenged authority early on

Ostractism ( exclusions) happen when

• few aviates

• important value threatened

• deviate share with outsiders

• group member seeks social control

Social Rejection leads to

• depression, loneliness

• inflated opinion of group ( or opposite)

• anterior cingulate activation

  • same areas as physical pain

• impaired reasonign and logic

• all these worse for teens

• increase in religious affiliation

Changing group norms

• changing social norms is difficult

• to influence majority, minority must be

  • confident and consistent ( but not rigid)

  • get people to think

• Social impact increases with

  • numebr: diminish returns

  • Strength: status, expterise, power, targets not united

  • Immediacy: time + space

• Example: changing views on gun control