Social Psychology: Conformity and Imitation Notes
Mimetic Desire
What is Social Psychology?
- Definition: The scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behavior of individuals in social situations.
- What social psychologists study:
- How people are influenced by others.
- How people make decisions.
- The inferences we make about the attitudes and personalities of others.
- The influence of situational variables on behavior.
- How we make sense of our world.
Social Psychology as a Sub-field of Behavioral Psychology
- Social psychology is a sub-field of behavioral psychology (behavioralism).
- Behavior of others is the most influential factor in social psychology.
- Behavior is contagious; we tend to follow norms, copy others, and change our behavior.
- We analyze the behavior of others to confirm our own behavior.
- Normative reasons: sensitivity to social norms; the aim is to be socially accepted and to avoid appearing different.
- Informational social influences: we look to others for the right answer when we are unsure.
Good or Bad? Social Facilitation and Social Loitering
- Social Facilitation: The presence of others leads to increased arousal, in which our performance of simpler and more familiar tasks is enhanced.
- Social psychology can cause problems in certain situations (e.g., social loitering, prejudice, etc.).
- The murder of Kitty Genovese and the bystander effect is an example of negative social psychology.
- No one reacted because everyone thought someone else would help (diffusion of responsibility), and everyone conformed to doing nothing.
Cognitive Dissonance
- When people become aware that their attitudes are incompatible with their behavior, a state of uncomfortable tension arises. This is cognitive dissonance.
- How people behave in the face of cognitive dissonance:
- They change their attitudes so that they are consistent with the behavior.
- They change their beliefs about the behavior.
- They acquire new information to justify the behavior.
- They minimize the importance of the behavior.
- During the Stanford experiment, the guards justified their actions by using the above reasoning in the face of feelings of cognitive dissonance.
- Example: "I am not responsible for the terrible actions against the prisoners. I am a good person and my actions are like that because experience requires these types of actions."