Psychology - Social-cultural approach (DP1)

Conformity

is the tendency to adjust one's thoughts, feelings or behaviour in ways that are in agreement with those of a particular individual or group

Normative social influence

when a person follows a social norm to not be isolated

Informational social influence

where a person conforms because they have a desire to be right, and look to others who they believe may have more information

Sherif's study (subjects were alone)

- subjects were told a light was moving (was actually stationary)
- told to estimate how far it moved
- the results varied enormously

Sherif's study (subjects were with confederate)

- the confederate would make their estimate a lot higher or lower than the subject
- the confederate was trained what to say beforehand
- the subjects changed their estimate to fit the confederate more

Autokinetic phenomenon

a small point of light that appears to be moving but is actually stationary

Sherif's study (estimations changed)

- if the estimates changed this would be an example of conformity
- at the end of the series (multiple trials) the subject's estimates were very similar to those of the confederate

Sherif's study (disad)

1. low ecological validity
2. artificial situation (highly unlikely to happen in real life)
3. autokinetic phenomenon is an optical illusion (deception - the participants were told the light was moving even though it definetely was not)
4. blind conformity

Recipricol detreminism

an individual affects the group and the group affects the individual

Factors of conformity (Asch)

1. group size - 3, 4, or 5 people (more people ≠ more conformity)
2. unanimity - more when all confederates agreed
3. confidence - medical students and engineers had more confidence in their answers
4. self-esteem - may not be the same in different people
(individual effect->personality theory)

SCREAM evaluation method

Sample
Credibility (only for qualitative data)
Reliability
Ethics
Applicability (generalization)
Method

SCREAM evaluation (Asch)

S: biased sample (gender, culture)
C: -
R: high reliability, it is structured (a lot of people replicated), high cross-culture validity
E: deception, social pressure (anxiety), high tension, psychological harm
A: wide applicability, high generalization, ecological validity is low
M: lab experiment, easy to interpret data

In-group

"us"

Out-group

"them"

Social comparison

- finding benefits of belonging to the in-group versus the out-group
- may contribute to positive or negative distinctiveness between groups

Self-esteem

people use group membership as a source of increasing self-esteem

Identity salience

one of our 'social selves' can become more salient - when it becomes salient it will have an impact on our behaviour

Reasons for higher salience of one identity

1. we are labeled by others
2. situational factors
3. visual perception
4. feeling threatened because of one's personal identity
5. when a group member (in-group) is praised, condemned or has passed away

We are labeled by others

whether you are a member of their group or not

Situational factors

e.g. you are a fan of a football team and you are sitting amongst other fans

Visual perception

wearing the same uniforms, t-shirts or having the same skin color as others in the group

In-group favoritism

regardless of salience, we will show favoritism to someone in an in-group that are similar in attitude and behaviour that leads to a bond - favoritism shown through behaviour and benefits

Minimal group paradigm

the natural tendency for members of a group to favor their in-group and make it visible through behaviour (stereoptypes, prejudices or discriminating) towards the out-group

SCREAM evaluation (Tajfel)

S: gender, age and culturally biased
C: -
R: high reliability and is easy to replicate
E: deception, children could have long term hostility, no information about if there was a consent form/if parents were informed
A: high possibility of generalization
M: experiment

Abrams et al (what)

a replication of Asch paradigm with psychology and history students.

Abrams et al (result)

social categorization can play a key role in one's decision to conform.

Drury et al (what)

a virtual reality simulationo of a fire in the London underground.

Drury et al (result)

those who shared a common identity were more likely to help one another, even at risk to their own safety.

Eron 1986 (what)

longitudinal study about social learning theory

Eron 1986 (result)

positive correlation with hours of violence watched on TV and level of agression (criminal record or not)

Social learning theory strengths

- explains why behaviours may be passed on from within a family or culture
- explains why children acquire behaviour without trial and error learning

Social learning theory limitations

- does not explain why some people never learn/copy the behaviour
- hard to establish 100% that the behaviour comes from the observation model
- they may not show the learned behaviour directly (learned behaviour could surface/show later in life)

Stereotypes

- a social perception (often individual) of group membership or physical attributes
- it is a generalization made of a group and then attributed to the members of that group (positive and/or negative)

Two ways stereotypes can develop (Shneider 2004)

indirectly and directly

Indirect stereotype

as a product of our culture or society

Direct stereotype

as a result of our experience with other people

Illusionary correlation (Hamilton and grifford 1976)

people see a relationship between to variables even when there is none (e.g. someone rich must be happy)

Confirmation bias (social context)

people pay attention to behaviours that confirm what they believe about a group and ignore those behaviours contrary to their beliefs

Effects of stereotyping

stereotype threat and spotlight anxiety

Stereotype threat

when one is in a situation where there is a threat of being judged or treated stereotypically or a fear of doing something that would confirm that stereotype

Spotlight anxiety

causes emotional distress and pressure that may cause the person to undermine their performance