Social Influence - IB Psych SL

Social Norm

A generally accepted way of thinking, feeling, or behaving that most people in a group agree on and endorse as right and proper (Smith & Mackie, 2007). Norms allow a group to appraise whether a behavior should be viewed as 

• right or wrong

• appropriate or inappropriate

Cultural Norm

Shared beliefs, values, customs, and traditions of a particular group or society

Implicit Social Norms

Rules/guidelines that are generally understood without having to be stated 

• Don’t stare at others for a long time

• Don’t speak while your teacher is speaking

• You don’t date another girl’s ex-boyfriend. It’s like, girl code.

Explicit Social Norms

Expressly stated

• Teachers may wear jeans only on Fridays

• When you’re finished with your test, put it in the red basket at the front of the room.

• You can only wear your hair in a ponytail once a week.

• On Wednesdays we wear pink.

Social Cognitive Theory

We learn by observing and imitating others.

• We watch the behavior of others (models) and notice the consequences it has on them or their environments. 

• As opposed to traditional behaviorist learning approaches, which are passive, SCT requires cognition from the observer for learning to take place.

• Reinforcement allows for observers to predict the future by associating behaviors (our own or others’) with their consequences.

• Founded by Albert Bandura

4 Primary Factors of SCT

Attention, Retention, Reproduction, Motivation

Attention (SCT)

In order for learning to occur, a person must be paying attention. If they are distracted or unable to input the information from the environment, then learning will not occur.

Retention (SCT)

The information must be retained and stored in memory.

Reproduction (SCT)

Each person has limitations and may need practice in order to reproduce the actions they have observed.

Motivation (SCT)

A person must be motivated to perform the observed behavior. Motivation can come from wanting a reward or avoiding a punishment.

Social Identity Theory

A theory based on how we group ourselves and others.

4 main categories of SIT

• Social Categorization

• Social Identity

• Social Comparison

• Positive Distinctiveness

Social Categorization

The tendency for people to divide social environments into ingroups and outgroups. 

Ingroups

•  collectives to which an individual belongs 

Outgroups

• collectives to which the individual does not belong 

Category Accentuation Effect

Our tendency to exaggerate group differences and intragroup similarities.

• Reduces perceived variability within the ingroup 

• Reduces perceived variability in the outgroup

• Increases perceived variability between ingroups & outgroups

Social Identity

The part of our self-concept that is based on knowledge of our membership of one or more social groups. This is separate from personal identity, which is based on how we perceive our personality traits and the personal relationships we have with others.

• Social identity is associated with intergroup behaviors.

• People have several social and personal identities, reflecting the groups they identify with and the close relationships and personal characteristics that define them.

Social Comparison

Our constant comparing of our ingroups to relevant outgroups.

• According to SIT, we strive for a positive self-concept.

• Because our social identity contributes to how we feel about ourselves, we seek positive social identities to maintain and enhance our self-esteem.

Positive Distinctiveness

• The motivation to demonstrate that our ingroup is preferable to an outgroup.

• Fuels social comparison.

• By establishing our superiority as an ingroup, we ensure that our social identities, and therefore our self-esteems, remain positive.

Minimal Group Paradigm

Tests Social Identity Theory by defining ingroups and outgroups on arbitrary criteria (ex: tossing a coin).

• Group members never meet or interact with each other, nor do they know who belongs in their ingroup or the outgroup.

• Testing still demonstrates SIT qualities such as ingroup favoritism, outgroup discrimination, and positive distinctiveness.

• Stronger when allocating positive resources than negative ones. Weakens when participants have to justify their choices.

Strengths of Social Identity Theory

• SIT assumes that the intergroup conflict is not required for discrimination to occur. This is supported by empirical research (Tajfel).

• SIT can explain some of the mechanisms involved in establishing “positive distinctiveness” to the ingroup by maximizing the differences to the outgroup.

• SIT has been applied to understanding behaviors such as ethnocentrism, ingroup favoritism, conformity, social norms, and stereotyping.

Limitations of Social Identity Theory

• Minimal group research has been criticized for artificiality. The experimental setup is quite far from natural behavior, and should be questioned as to whether it reflects how people would react in real life.

• SIT cannot fully explain how ingroup favoritism may result in violent behavior toward outgroups.

• SIT cannot explain why social constraints such as poverty play a bigger role in behavior than social identity.

Conformity

• Doing what everyone else does

• A change of behaviour as a result of real or imagined group pressure or norms.

Conformity is the result of which 3 factors?

1. Informational Social Influence

2. Normative Social Influence

3. Referential Social Influence

Informational social influence

• The need for certainty. When we are in ambiguous situations, we engage in social comparison.

Normative Social Influence

• The need for social acceptance and approval.

Referential Social Influence

• We see ourselves as belonging to a group (one of our social identities) and uncertainty arises when we find ourselves in disagreement with group members. 

  • When we categorize ourselves in groups, we are concerned, above anything else, to uphold the norms of the group, even when other group members are not present.

Factors that Influence Conformity

• Group Unanimity

• Private vs. Public Responses (Anonymity)

• Social Identity

• Cultural Dimension

Group Unanimity

• When there was one confederate who did not give the wrong answer, the level of conformity dropped. 

• In Asch’s study, he found that conformity dropped from 33% to 5.5%

  • This was also true when a confederate gave a wrong answer that was different from that of the rest of the group. What mattered was that the entire group wasn’t unanimous in their answer

Private vs. Public Responses (Anonymity)

• When a participant doesn’t have to share his/her responses publically, conformity decreases dramatically. 

  • In Asch’s study, he found that conformity dropped from 33% to less than 2% when responses were recorded privately.

  • This can also be seen within Abrams’ study.

Social Identity

Abrams’ study shows us that belonging to an in-group makes us more likely to conform to that group than to an out-group.

Cultural Dimension

•  Some researchers argue that collectivistic societies are more likely to conform.

• Based on research that suggested that hunting and fishing societies tend to be individualistic, whereas agricultural societies tend to be collectivistic.

Stereotype

A widely-held evaluative generalization about a group of people (Aronson et al., 2007)

• Stereotypes assign similar characteristics to all members of a group, despite the fact that group members may vary widely from one another.

• Some psychologists define stereotypes and schemas as the same thing, while others say that they are just very similar.

• Typical stereotypes are based on obvious characteristics, such as race, or gender, but there are many others such as age, ethnic, and occupational stereotypes.

Social Cognitive Theory and Stereotypes

• Our social world is very complex and presents us with too much information, so we need to simplify our social world.

• One of the ways we avoid information overload is by social categorization.

• The categories used in social categorization are stereotypes.

In Social Cognitive Theory, stereotypes ARE _______, and have the following characteristics

Schemas

• They are energy-saving devices

• They can be automatically activated

• They are stable and resistant to change

• They affect behavior.

Social Identity theories state that stereotypes are formed based on-

1. Category Accentuation Effect

2. Positive Distinctiveness

We pay more attention to those ingroup and outgroup members who maximize positive distinctiveness.

The process is facilitated by the ethnocentric way that we attribute positive/negative behaviors to ingroup/outgroup members.

Ethnocentrism

Judging another culture/group based solely on the principles and values important to your own culture/group.

Social Identity theories state that stereotypes and schemas-

Are NOT the same thing, but similar.

• Instead of simplifying social perception, social categorization in social identity theory enriches social perception.

• SIT theorists claim that stereotypes are flexible and context-dependent whereas mental schemas have fixed content that waits to be activated.

Stereotype Threat

The effect of stereotypes on an individual’s performance

Occurs when one is in a situation where there is a threat of being judged, treated stereotypically, doing something that would inadvertently conform the stereotype.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

People who hold the stereotype may influence the behavior of the stereotypes group.

Confirmation Bias

When we focus on information that is consistent with our existing beliefs.

Illusory Correlation

We will often correlate behaviors that we see with specific groups of people, if the two statistically infrequent events co-occur.