social psych unit 3 notes

social influence: exercise of social power by a person/group to change the attitudes and behavior of others

the power of the situation: situations contain a variety of subtle yet powerful forces that direct and constrain behavior

  • we often fail to appreciate theses forces (you might feel pressure while others don’t)

a) recall the fundamental attribution error

conformity: yielding to perceived group pressure by copying the behavior and beliefs of others

  • pressure may be real or imagined

  • going along with the group

the power of majority

  • social norms: expected standard of behavior established and enforced by a group

a) unwritten rules for expected behavior

b) local norms may arise in particular situation

c) global norms pervade cultural or social context

why do we conform to group norms?

  1. we want to be right

  • informational social influence

  1. we want to be liked

  • normative social influence

informational social influence: conformity out of desire to gain information

  • arises when:

  1. uncertainty is high; desire to gain information is high

  2. situation is a crisis

  3. others are experts

  • we conform not out of weakness, but out of uncertainty

  • we use the behavior of others as a guide

informational social influence IN ACTION

  • research example: Sherif’s “Autokinetic” effect

- light shone on a dark background in a dark room

normative social influence: conformity out of desire to gain rewards and avoid punishments (outcome dependence)

  • arises when:

  1. “objectively” correct behavior is obvious

  2. dominant behavior pattern shown by most people (the majority) produces conformity

  3. we conform out of a desire to be liked or to avoid social punishments

normative social influence IN ACTION

  • research example: Asch’s Line Studies

- brought 5 confederates and 1 P into a lab

two factors that influence conformity

  1. group size

  • larger group = more conformity (to a point)

- 4 is the perfect group

- 6+ people or anything more conformity takes place

  1. group cohesiveness

compliance (directly asking for something)

  • publicly acting in accord with direct request; trying to “get our way”

  • target recognizes that he or she is being urged to respond in s specific way

- external compliance: acquiescing to request despite disagreeing with it

- internal compliance: both acting and believing in line with a request

mindless compliance

  • following requests/norms without deiberating

- we conform to requests not because we think meaningful about them but because we dont

- internalized norms can act as heuristics

  • research example: photocopier line-jumping (Langer et al.)

two human motivations that facilitate compliance

  1. consistency motives

  • we like to see ourselves behaving consistently

- (remember: dissonance)

  • inconsistency can be aversive

  • foot-in-the-door technique

- small request first —→ acceptance —→ change in self-defintion

- large request later —→ accepted because of change in self-defintion

“low-balling” (or bait + switch) technique

  • make low offer to get compliance

- commitment is made

- leads to post-decision dissonance reduction

a) bolstering good and derogating bad facets

  • increase cost and commitment remains

  • research example: French Cigarettes (jolue)

obedience

  • the performance of an action in response to a direct order

  • stricter than compliance

  • why do we obey?

- we want to be right and liked

- norm of obedience

- authorities as experts

- (remember expertise heuristic)

  • Milgram invited 40 participants into the laboratory who were assigned the role of “teacher”

  • Ps were given increasing powerful shocks to “learner” for wrong answers

  • how many people would obey and give most powerful (450 volt) shocks?

factors that influence obedience

  1. legitimacy of authority

  • an authority perceived to be legitimate increases obedience

  • research example: the unknown doctor (Hofling, et al.)

- >95% obeyed and attempted to administer an overdose of the drug

- 46% of polled nurses reported obeying a doctor’s order they considered potentially harmful to patient

  1. conformity

  • obedient confederates, more obedience

  • disobedient confederates, less obedience

  1. incremental orders

  • consistency motives: Ps began small and slowly increased in shocks (remember: foot-in-the-door)

  • how torturers are trained

what is a group?

  • two or more individuals that influence one another

what is entitativity?

  • seeing a group as a meaningful social entity

  • more entitativity = more perceived group-ness

- common fate

- simalrity

- permeability

4 types of groups

  1. intimacy groups

  • family, friends, gangs

  1. task groups

  • workplace, school group

  1. social categories

  • gender, ethnicity

  1. clusters of people

  • line at the bank

different groups types fulfill different motivations

what motivates us to belong to groups?

  1. need to belong (baumesiter & leary, 1995)

  • fundamnetal human need

  • motivates adherence to intimacy groups (and social categories)

  1. need to achieve goals

group processes: group influences on individual behavior

  • social fa