groups social psychology

descriptive norm

what most people do in a situation

injunctive norm

situations where descriptive norms are what we should do

autokinetic effect

visual illusion where a stationary point of light in a dark room will cause perception that the light is shifting or moving

describe the sherif study

he asked participants to sit in a darkroom with a point of light, and then estimate roughly how much the light moved. did trials where participants sat alone, and then sat with others and they had to come up with a correct estimate togther. Would talking to others influence their estimates?

what were the sherif study results

people’s estimates became more similar to one another over trials, and estimates were adjusted to meet where others were at. They converged, meaning they got more similar to each other, which was attributed to uncertainty about the situation. Others were looking to each other for information on what the correct answer could be.

what did sherif attribute the convergence of estimates to?

uncertainty of the participants

what are social norms?

they are specific to groups, and are a set of beliefs about one’s group which is shared consensually by group members. they make up the group’s prototype

what is an injunctive norm for uofa students that is also a social norm?

not using phones during lecture, consistent studying

how did the sherif study show conformity?

It showed that conformity can happen in situations where people are uncertain about a correct response.

summarize the Asch (1951) experiment

There was a standard line and 3 comparison lines where participants had to select the correct line. For the first 2 trials, confederates gave the right answers, then after that they gave incorrect unanimous answers.

what were the key findings of the asch experiment?

There was a 1% error rate when answering alone, and it increaed to 37% with an incorrect majority. 76% of participants conformed at least once with incorrect majority. He showed that conformity can also happen in situations where the correct answer is clear. This rate dropped to 5% when a partner also shared the correct answer.

What did explaining conformity (Deutsch and Gerard) propose?

It proposed 2 sources of social influence explaining Sherif and Asch’s findings:

-informational influence

-normative influence

informational influence

Conformity is based on a desire to gain information and reduce uncertainty (proposed as an explanation for the findings of Sherif’s study)

normative influence

to gain acceptance and praise, or to avoid punishment and exclusion. proposed for the findings of Asch’s study, and focuses on fitting in with a group.

what is compliance and which influence is it associated with?

when a person’s public attitude changes, but not their private attitude. it tends to be short lived, and evidence of attitude change tends to go away when they are not being watched. it is associated with normative influence

what is conversion and which influence is it associated with?

conversion is when a person’s public and private attitudes change, effects are longer lasting and persist without surveillance. it is associated with informational influence.

key points of referent informational influence (Hogg and Turner 1987)

proposes that for important group memberships, informational and normative influence can blend. you may conform to group norms because you want to gain information and because members are a valuable source of self relevant information.

what are the 4 main elements of referent informational influence?

moderators, group cohesiveness, group size, and social support

moderator

factors that increase or decrease the level of social influence in a situation

how does group cohesiveness affect influence?

having more interdependent group members increases normative influence

how does group size affect referent informational influence?

normative influence increases with group size but levels off after 3 people. after a group of 3, it does not increase normative influence

how does social support affect influence?

having social support decreases normative influence (e.g having another dissenter in Asch’s study decreased conformity)

What are the 3 main moderators for informational influence?

Self confidence: being sure of yourself decreases informational influence

Task difficulty: more difficult tasks increase informational influence

cultural norms: increases informational influence in people who value conformity in or view themselves as linked to others

what are the 3 main moderators for referent informational influence?

social identity salience: being made aware of a social identity increases referent informational influence

group identification: having a group membership strongly defines your identity and increases referent informational influence

identity related uncertainty: feeling uncertainty about who you are or your place can increase reference informational influence

what is group polarization?

the tendency for the starting attitude of a group to become more extreme after engaging in discussion. the attitude they leave the conversation with is more extreme than what they started with

what is the normative influence explanation of group polarization?

people take on slightly more extreme views to gain group acceptance

what is the informational influence explanation for group polarization?

people learn more information supporting the starting attitude which makes it stronger, building on ideas would make a general attitude more extreme

referent informational influence explanation for polarization

people want to make their group’s position distinct from that of the outgroups (meta contrast principle)

what is groupthink?

a group making a poor decision due to excessive desire to achieve a consensus (the decision MUST be negative)

what are the hallmarks of groupthink?

-deteriorating mental efficacy (willingness to take in and consider information)

-decreased reality testing (willingness or ability to test ideas)

-decrease in moral decision making (ability to apply moral principles when making decisions)

It is more likely in situations with high group cohesion, high stress situations, and a strong leader. Can make members defer to the leader.

how do we avoid groupthink?

appointing a devil’s advocate (whose job is to dissent), having a diverse team, create a culture that values dissent, have the leader express their opinions last

what is minority influence? what are the 3 ways the group can be considered?

the study of when and how minority and majority groups can exert influence

-status: having lower status than the majority

-power: having less power than the majority

-numbers: having fewer members than the majority

what is entativity?

the degree to which a group of people appear as a cohesive entity (how group-y is the group?

-can include visual attributes (similarity, proximity, synchronicity) and structural features (interaction, shared goals, independence, importance)

what are examples of visual attributes?

Dance team example:

-proximity: members are physically close together

-similarity: members look alike

-common fate: members movements are synchronized

structural elements example

example: members of a basketball game are not synchronized or physically close together, so they don’t share as many visual attributes. but they use interaction, shared goals, common outcome: they will all experience the same outcome, and importance of the group: members value being a part of the group

4 variations in entitativity

loose associations, social categories, task groups, intimacy groups

what is an example of a loose association?

people at a bus stop, strangers at a concert. in the moment, they are not very cohesive as a group.

what is an example of a social category?

broad group memberships that sort of shape our identity, like gender, nationality, and religion

what is an example of a task group?

a group that is formed to carry out a goal, like group projects and juries. put together to finish a task and then the group is done.

what is an example of an intimacy group?

people you are close to and your membership to that group defines your identity. friend groups and family is an example. romantic relationships wouldn’t necessarily be since it is only 2 people.

why do we join groups? (2 main points)

groups can help us meet our basic needs: food, protection, water, shelter

groups can help us meet psychological needs: belonging (sociometer theory) uncertainty reduction, sense of identity, self relevant information (e.g norms)

what is social facilitation?

social facilitation is performance improving in the presence of other people

-Triplett’s study: cyclists tend to ride faster in head to head competitions than in timed trials

-they also reeled in fishing line faster with another person than when alone

what is social inhibition?

performance worsens in the presence of other people, both have been observed in human and animal studies.

when is social inhibition more common? when is social facilitation more common?

social inhibition is more common for complex tasks. social facilitation is more common for simple tasks.

describe the cockroach maze experiment and the key findings

there was an easy maze in a glass box where they shine a flashlight and the cockroach moves away from the light. Then there was a complex maze with a hiding hole on the right and several other path options. IV2 was if they had an audience. Cockroaches ran the simple maze faster when they had an audience (social facilitation) and ran the complex maze slower when they had an audience (social inhibition)