讲义教案心理social influence

1、Social Influence Dr Maureen Vincent 16/61Examples of social influenceWhat might we do in private that we would never do when there are other people around?Who are you most likely to take orders or instructions from?Under what circumstances would you be motivated to help someone?Why do some people en

2、gage in extremist beliefs and actions at the expense, and sometimes lives, of othersSocial InfluenceSocial Influence: Is the process whereby one persons behavior is affected by the words or actions of othersWe are influenced by a variety of social influences, or factors, across various situations th

3、roughout our livesFor example:how we dress how we act around certain peoplewho we will obeyOur actions are guided by Social NormsSocial norms: Are learned, socially based rules that prescribe what people should or should not do in various situations. Social norms are communicated to children by:Pare

4、ntsTeachersreligious leaderspeers and other individuals within ones culture Greetings: Different Social norms Different social norms: Appropriate dressCialdini describes 2 types of social norms1. Descriptive norms: Indicate how most people actually behave in a given situation What actions are common

5、 and acceptable within societyGive us permission to act in a certain wayFor example:cross the road when the lights are green Wait in a line to be served2. Injunctive norms: Give more specific information about the actions that others find acceptable and/or unacceptableThese are subtle social pressur

6、es to behave in a specific way For example:your friend says that it is inappropriate to cross the road when the lights are redyour friend says that you should buy a particular t-shirt because you look goodA powerful injunctive norm is the.Reciprocity norm: Tendency to respond to others as they have

7、acted towards youFor example:the distance we stand when talk to each other display the same degree of passion when playing sports as your team mates Both descriptive and injunctive norms can exist within the same situation.however.Descriptive norms are generally defined by what is common and accepta

8、ble across society while injunctive norms are subtle pressures that are experienced from one person to another Social NormsSocial norms exerted social influences to create orderly social behaviors However, specific group norms can also lead to a breakdown in orderDeindividuationDeindividuation: Wher

9、e a person es submerged in a group, loses their sense of individuality, and has a tendency to do things not normally done when alone.They e emotionally aroused and feel intense closeness with the groupThis may create greater adherence to the groups norms, even if those norms promote antisocial behav

10、iourFor example:fans at a rock concert and athletic events have trampled one another to death in their frenzy to get the best seatsnormally mild-mannered people may find themselves throwing rocks or fire bombs at police during political protestsDeindividuationSocial Facilitation and Social Interfere

11、nceMotivation and presence of others can lead to:Social facilitation: Where the presence of others can improve performance; e.g. delivering a brilliant and inspiring lecture when others are watchingSocial interference: Where the presence of others sometimes hurts performance; e.g. playing a sport mo

12、re poorly when you know that your parents are watchingHOW CAN THE PRESENCE OF OTHER BOTH IMPROVE AND HURT PERFORMANCE?Social Facilitation and Social interference ExplainedZajonic (1095) - The presence of others increases a persons general level of physiological arousal or motivation Why? The pressur

13、e of being watched by others -increases our sense of being evaluated - produces worry - increases emotional arousalExamples: Riding a bikeIf you are performing an easy or familiar task (e.g. riding a bike) the increased emotional arousal caused by the presence of others should result in better perfo

14、rmance (allow you ride faster)If you are performing a difficult task or unfamiliar task (e.g. learning to ride a bike for the first time) this should hinder or result in worse performanceSocial Facilitation and Social interference ExplainedThe impact of other people on performance depends on whether

15、 the task is:EASY (or familiar) e.g. riding a bike ORDIFFICULT (hard or unfamiliar) e.g. trying new dance steps, learning a new piano pieceSocial LoafingSocial loafing: Exerting less effort when performing a group task than when performing the same task alone EXAMPLESIn a tug-of-war competition, a p

16、erson in one group may choose to exert less effort pulling the rope if (s)he sees that other team members are working really hard. A student may choose to work less efficiently on a group project if (s)he sees that members are working hard. Social Loafing: 3 reasons why3 reasons for social loafing:E

17、asier to engage in social loading because it is more difficult to evaluate the performance of individuals when they are working as part of a group Rewards may come to the group regardless of whether every member works hard; e.g. the same score is given to each memberRewards are divided equally among

18、st group members rather than according to individual effort Social Loafing: Other informationSocial loafing is LESS common in Eastern cultures (China and Japan)In fact, in collectivist cultures, working in a group produces SOCIAL STRIVING which is greater individual effort when working in a group Wh

19、y? Collectivist cultures place greater emphasison coordinated and cooperative group activitiesSocial loafing can REDUCE productivity in business Managers need to find ways to evaluate the efforts of every individual in a work group Not just the overall output of the teamConformity and ComplianceConf

20、ormity and compliance are usually generated by spoken or unspoken social norms Conformity: Changing ones behaviour or beliefs to match those of others, generally as a result of real or imagined, though unspoken, group pressure. Compliance: Adjusting ones behaviour because of an explicit or implicit

21、request Conformity: Sherif (1937) ExperimentSherif showed how group norms form using a perceptual illusion - called the autokinetic effectIn this illusion:a stationary point of light in a dark room appears to moveParticipants asked how far the light had moved in repeated trials:When observer is alon

22、e - estimates of the amount of movement tended to stay the same over timeWhen tested people in groups, their estimates tended to converge. They had established a group norm. More important, when individuals from the group were later tested alone, they continued to be influenced by this norm. Conform

23、ity: Asch (1956) ExperimentParticipants in this experiment saw a standard line (left) AND three comparison lines (right) They were asked to pick which of the comparison lines was most similar to the standard line Conformity: Asch (1956) ExperimentEach participant performed this task with a small gro

24、up of people This small group of people were actually Aschs assistants who were trained to give correct and incorrect answers at specific points during the experiment There were two conditions:Control condition: Real participant responded firstExperimental condition: The real participant did not res

25、pond until after the assistants did. The assistants chose the correct response on six trials, but on the other 12 trails, they all gave the same obviously wrong answerSo on 12 trials, each participant was confronted with social pressures created by a group norm that conflicted with reality RESULTSOn

26、ly 5% of real participants in the control condition ever made a mistake on this easy task70% of real participants made at least one error during the experimental condition by conforming to group norms Conformity: Why do people conform?People want to be correct, and social norms provide information a

27、bout what is right and wrong. For e.g. a person conforms because norms indicate that the right thing to do is to help those in need People want others to like and accept them, so they may seek favour by conforming to the social norms that those others have established. For e.g. a person may listen t

28、o specific types of music because she wants to be accepted by her peers People may want to increase their sense of self-worth, especially if the group is valued or prestigious.For e.g. a person will buy clothes/cars/watches/jewelry/etc associated with rich people because he/she wants to identify wit

29、h them and feel better about him/herself People perceive that social rewards and punishments are distributed on whether they follow social norms.For e.g. a student may agree to a point of view (e.g. sexist) in order to be accepted into a social group (i.e. reward) and avoid being excluded (i.e. puni

30、shment).Conformity: When do people conform?Situations are ambiguousThis occurs when people are unsure of what to do, and thus rely on others to provide the right answer or what is the right thing to do Unanimity and size of the majorityPeople experience pressure to conform as long as the majority is

31、 unanimous Latane (1981), conformity is also more likely to occur if the proportion of the majority increases significantly. That is, a change in the majority from 2 to 3 people (50% change), is more likely to cause conformity in Person A, than if the majority changed from 100 to 101 people (1% chan

32、ge) Minority influenceConformity can also occur when a minority in a group influences the behaviour or beliefs of a majority. This is less common than majority influence, and occurs more slowly, and when members of the minority are seen as loyal members of the group Compliance Compliance involves ch

33、anging what you say or do as the result of a requestHave you ever done something you didnt really want to do simply because someone else asked you to? Buying something after being persuaded by a pushy salespersonBuying a particular brand of soft drink after seeing a commercial endorsement featuring

34、your favorite celebrityCompliance: 3 techniques to ensure complianceThree compliance techniques:Foot-in-the-doorDoor in- the faceLow ballCompliance: Foot-in-the-doorWorks by getting a person to agree to a small request and then gradually request larger ones EXPERIMENTHome owners were asked to either

35、: Condition 1: allow a large, unattractive Drive Carefully sign to be placed on their front lawns. Approximately 17% complied.Condition 2: Other home owners were initially asked to sign a petition supporting a Drive Safe legislation. Several weeks later, these same people were asked to place a large

36、, unattractive Drive Carefully sign on their front lawn. 55% of home owners complied in this instance Compliance: Doorin-the-faceBegins with a request/favour that is likely to be deniedThe person making the request then concedes that this initial request was excessive and asks for a lesser alternati

37、ve, which is what she really wanted in the first place. The perception that the asker appears to be willing to compromise , and because the second request is modest compared to the initial request, it may increase the likelihood that it will be granted. Compliance: Low-BallThe key is to ensure that

38、someone is committed to do something and then gradually increase the cost of their commitmentEXAMPLE if a person commits publically to buy a car at a certain price, a salesperson will gradually increase the cost of car for various reasons (e.g. accidental errors in the salespersons calculations, lux

39、ury add-ons, etc) Compliance occurs: Because a person feels obligated to fulfill their commitmentBecause the commitment was made in publicIf the person who obtained the initial commitment is the one who tells the person who is complying about changes to his/her commitmentObedienceObedience: Changing

40、 behaviours in response to a demand from an authority figure Obedience: Stanley Milgram (1960s) ExperimentDeveloped a procedure to study obedience.Recruited 40 male volunteers between 20-50 years old from a newspaper advertisement. Volunteers were professionals who worked as white-collar businessmen

41、 and unskilled workers. On the day of the experiment, volunteers joined another participant (who was really Milgrams assistant) who was scheduled for the same session. The experimenter explained that the purpose of the experiment is to examine the effects of punishment on learning. One person will p

42、lay the role of the teacher, while the other will play the role of the learner. All 40 volunteers were pre-selected to play the role of the teacher, while Milgrams assistant would play the role of the learner. All learners were led to a room and strapped to a chair with electrodes attached to his ar

43、m. All teachers were led to another room where an electric shock generator was located and were instructed on how to administer electric shocks to the learner. Switches on the generator showed that shocks of varying intensive could be administered to the learner. These ranged from slight shocks at 1

44、5V, all the way to danger-severe shocks at 450V. The last two switches on the generator were labeled XXX. Obedience: Stanley Milgrams (1960s) ExperimentTeachers were instructed to read pairs of words to the learner. Teachers were then tasked to read only one word from each pair again, while the lear

45、ner would be required to remember the associated missing word. At the first mistake made by the learner, teachers were instructed to administer 15V. For every mistake made by the learner after that, the teacher would increase the intensity of the shock by flicking switches from 15V through to 450V,

46、and then XXX. es:No electric shocks were actually administered to the learner. Any noises (i.e. moans, shouts, yells, etc) were prerecorded and played back during the experiment.Only five of the 40 participants stopped before 300V, and 26 participants (65%) went all the way to the 450V level. The de

47、cision to continue was difficult and stressful the for the volunteers. Many protested, but each time the experimenter told them to continue in a calm voice, they did so. Experimenters never yelled at volunteers. Obedience: Stanley Milgrams (1960s) Experiment4 Factors that contribute to obedience (Mi

48、lgram)Experimenter status and prestigeExpert power: the ability to influence people because they assume that the person in power is a knowledgeable and responsible expertLegitimate power: the ability to influence people because they assume that the person in power has the right or legitimate authori

49、ty to tell them what to do. 2. The behavior of other peopleThe presence of others who disobey appears to be a powerful factor in reducing obedience4 Factors that contribute to obedience (Milgram)3. The behaviour of the learnerIf you remind the learner of their right to be released this will influenc

50、e whether teachers will disobey the experimenters instructions to continue with the experiment Interestingly, hearing the learners pain did not lead to disobedience 4. Personality characteristicsMilgram noted that most the teachers were nice people who were influence by experimental situations to be

51、haviour in antisocial ways Being a nice person did not necessary stop teachers from doing bad things Variations to Milgrams ExperimentAggressionAn act that is intended to cause harm to another person Aggression: Why are people aggressive?1. Genetic and biological mechanismsAnimals: can be interbred

52、over generations to be aggressive or docile Humans: there MAY BE a genetic component to aggression within humansBut, it is MORE LIKELY that humans inherit temperaments such asimpulsiveness or emotional oversensitivitythat in turn makes aggression more likely BrainDamage to structures in the brain (e

53、.g. amygdala and hypothalamus) may cause people to experience heightened aggressiveness to stimuli that are not usually threatening or be less able to inhibit their aggressionTestosterone levels high testosterone levels are associated with higher levels of aggression. This has been shown to be true

54、amongst criminals who have committed violent crimes compared to those who haventPrenatal development People who were exposed to high doses of testosterone during prenatal development have been shown to experience higher levels of aggression than their peers who were not exposedAggression: WHY are pe

55、ople aggressive?2. Learning and cultural mechanismsA persons:accumulated experiences (including culturally transmitted teachings)combined with daily rewards and punishments influence whether, when and how aggressive acts occur In particular, people can e aggressive because of:Learning mechanismsAggr

56、essive acts can be reinforced through rewards or punishments. People e more aggressive when rewarded for their aggressiveness, and less aggressive when punished for it Aggression can be learnt through observation and modeling; as seen in Banduras Bobo Doll experiment Cultural mechanismsAggression is

57、 more common in individualistic (Western) cultures than those collectivist (Eastern) culturesAggression: When are people aggressive?1. Frustration-Aggression hypothesisThe proposition that emotional frustration always leads to some form of aggressive behaviorHowever this may be too simplistic as:agg

58、ression can also lead to depression and withdrawal (Berkowitz, 1998) and not all aggression is caused by frustration (Berkowitz, 1994) Berkowitz (1998) proposes instead that stress may be a leading cause of aggression Stimulated aggression theory: Stress produces a readiness to act aggressively Once

59、 this readiness exists (stress), cues (e.g. guns, knives, watching people arguing on TV, songs, video games, etc) in the environment that are associated with aggression will often lead a person to behave aggressively Aggression: When are people aggressive?2. Generalized arousalIncreased physiologica

60、l arousal may intensify a persons reaction to negative events and lead to aggression This occurs because arousal from one experience (e.g. going for a job) may carry over to an independent situation (i.e. ing aggressive because someone insulted you while jogging) Referred to as an excitation transfe