Social Psychology

• Conformity is the tendency to adjust one's thoughts, feelings, or behavior to align with those of a group or the norms of a social situation.
• Obedience is a form of social influence where the behaviour of an individual is influenced by a real or imagined pressure from another
• Following real or imagined demands of an authority figure is known as obedience, while rejecting it is known as dissent
• • Agentic shift is the process of a person moving from an autonomic state to an agentic state
  • Moral strain: experiencing anxiety when asked to do something against moral judgement
  • Dissent to authority can relieve moral strain
• Agency theory of obedience:

  • Society is in a hierarchical structure
  • Milgram believed obedience is needed to maintain this structure
  • Mechanism to maintain obedience is the "Agency Theory"
  • Autonomic state: when a human acts according to their own free will
  • Agentic state: when a human acts as an agent to their authority and follows their order, believing the authority will take responsibility for their actions
  • People are more likely to obey in the agentic state as they believe they are acting on behalf of their agent
• Evaluating the agency theory:

  • Credible as supported by Hofling (1966) and Burger (2009)
  • Supports Milgram's study in 1963
  • Explains behaviors during the Holocaust and aims to prevent similar events
  • Biased towards male participants in America
  • Moral strain observed in Milgram's study, contradicting the agency theory
  • Lacks ecological validity
  • Does not explain individual differences in obedience
  • Concept is difficult to measure
  • Social power theory by French and Raven is suggested as a better way to observe obedience
• Social Power theory:

  • French and Raven's 5 bases of power (1959) + the 6th base of power added in 1967
  • Power changes another person's belief, attitude, or behavior
  • Leaders' behavior and effectiveness can depend on the source of their power
  • Formal types of power:
  • Legitimate: based on the formal right to make demands and expect compliance
  • Reward: results from one person's ability to reward another
  • Coercive: based on the ability to punish noncompliance
  • Personal Power:
  • Expert: based on high levels of skill and knowledge
• • Referent: based on perceived attractiveness and worthiness
  • Raven added an extra power base: Informational, where people are attracted to gain specific information
• Obedience is a form of social influence where the behaviour of an individual is influenced by a real or imagined pressure from another
• It is the process of following real or imagined demands of an authority figure
• Following these demands is known as obedience, rejecting it is known as dissent
• Social influence affects an individual's behaviour, attitudes, and emotions by those of another
• Agency theory of obedience:

  • Society is always in a hierarchical structure: A system of social organisation that is ranked from top to bottom
  • Obedience is needed to maintain this hierarchical structure
  • Autonomic state: when a human acts according to their own free will
  • Agentic state: when a human acts as an agent to their authority and follows their order, believing that the authority will take responsibility for their actions
  • Agency theory states that people are more likely to obey when in the agentic state as they believe they are acting on behalf of their authority
• • Agentic shift is the process of a person moving from an autonomic state to an agentic state
  • Moral strain is experiencing anxiety when asked to do something against moral judgement
  • Being in an agentic state relieves moral strain as responsibility is displaced to the authority figure
  • Dissent to authority is another way to relieve moral strain
• Evaluating the agency theory:

  • Credible as supported by Hofling (1966) and Burger (2009)
  • Supports Milgram's study in 1963
  • Explains behaviors during the Holocaust to prevent recurrence
  • Weaknesses include bias towards male participants in America, moral strain in Milgram's study, lack of ecological validity, inability to explain individual differences in obedience, difficulty in measuring the concept, and the suggestion that social power theory is a better way to observe obedience
• Social Power theory:

  • French and Raven's 5 bases of power (1959) + the 6th base of power added in 1967
  • Power changes another person's belief, attitude, or behavior
  • Leader behavior and effectiveness of work can depend on the source of power
  • Related to obedience, providing insight into why people may follow authority's orders
• Formal types of power:

  • Legitimate power comes from the belief in the formal right to make demands and expect compliance
  • Reward power results from one's ability to reward others
  • Coercive power comes from the belief in the ability to punish noncompliance
• Personal Power:

  • Expert power is based on high levels of skill and knowledge
  • Referent power results from perceived attractiveness, worthiness, and right to respect
• Raven's additional power base:

  • Informational power is when people are attracted to you for specific information you possess
• Obedience is a form of social influence where the behaviour of an individual is influenced by a real or imagined pressure from another
• It is the process of following real or imagined demands of an authority figure
• Following these demands is known as obedience, rejecting it is known as dissent
• Social influence affects an individual's behaviour, attitudes, and emotions based on those of another
• Agency theory of obedience:

  • Society is in a hierarchical structure, ranked from top to bottom
  • Obedience is needed to maintain this structure
  • Autonomic state: when a human acts according to their own free will
  • Agentic state: when a human acts as an agent to their authority and follows their order
  • People are more likely to obey in the agentic state as they believe they will not suffer consequences
  • Agentic shift is the process of moving from an autonomic state to an agentic state
  • Moral strain: experiencing anxiety due to actions conflicting with moral judgement
• • Dissent to authority can relieve moral strain
• Social Power theory:

  • Power is a form of social influence that changes beliefs, attitudes, or behaviour
  • French and Raven's 5 bases of power + the 6th base added later
  • Formal types of power: Legitimate, Reward, Coercive
  • Personal Power: Expert, Referent
  • Informational power: when people seek information from you
  • Power depends on the source and motivation behind obedience
• Milgram's research into obedience:

  • Aimed to investigate if ordinary people would follow orders to harm others
  • Participants were male and diverse in occupation and age
  • Experiment involved giving electric shocks to a confederate
  • Experimenter gave commands to continue shocking
  • Variations of the experiment tested different factors affecting obedience
  • Results showed high obedience rates, especially when the learner was not visible or audible
  • Variations like telephonic instructions and changing the authority figure affected obedience levels
• Factors affecting obedience and dissent/resistance:

  • Situational factors like momentum of compliance, proximity, status of authority, and personal responsibility influence obedience
  • Personality traits like locus of control (internal vs external) and authoritarian personality impact obedience
  • Empathy may reduce willingness to harm others under authority
  • Gender can also play a role in obedience levels
• Gender:

  • Females' level of obedience was identical to males in Milgram's experiment (65% went to 450 volts, 27.5% breaking off at 300-volt level)
  • Females had higher anxiety levels than males when obedient
  • Sheridan and King (1972) found that all 13 females gave maximum level shocks compared to men
  • Kilham and Mann (1974) found that females were less obedient (16%) than male participants (40%)
• Culture:

  • Culture can be individualistic or collectivistic
  • Collectivistic cultures are more likely to be obedient
  • In Italy, there was an 85% obedience level compared to 65% in America from Milgram
• Conformity:

  • Conformity is a change in belief or behavior in response to social pressure
  • Types of conformity: compliance, identification, internalization
  • Explanations for conformity: informational social influence, normative social influence
• Asch's Study (1951):

  • 32% conformed, 25% never conformed, 75% conformed at least once
  • Asch found that group size influenced conformity levels
• Minority Influence:

  • Minority influence occurs when a smaller group makes a larger majority conform to their view via internalization
  • Consistency, commitment, flexibility, and confidence are factors affecting minority influence
• Factors affecting conformity:

  • Situational factors like group size, group status, and group observation influence conformity levels
• Factors influencing conformity:

  • People are more likely to conform in professions like doctors and lawyers
  • People are less likely to conform if they know the group won't judge them for their opinion
  • Public response affects conformity, with people less likely to conform if they believe the public will accept their opinion
• Personality and conformity:

  • Insecurities increase conformity
  • Moods affect conformity
• Cultural influences on conformity:

  • Individualistic cultures like the US are less likely to conform compared to collectivist cultures like China and Korea
• Methods of data collection:

  • Questionnaires and self-report methods are used to gather information directly from participants about their behavior or thoughts
  • Questionnaires can be accessed through various means like post, email, face to face, or online
  • Advantages and disadvantages of questionnaires:
  • Advantages include being a cheap method to gain information, highly replicable, and easy to score and quantify data
  • Disadvantages include misinterpretation of information, social desirability bias, and bias in question construction
• Steps to design a good psychological survey:

  • Keep the language simple
  • Keep questions short and on one issue
  • Avoid technical terms
  • Avoid leading questions
  • Avoid emotive or moral questions
• Types of interviews:

  • Structured interviews involve standardised questions for all respondents
  • Semi-structured interviews have pre-set questions but allow for a more conversational flow
  • Unstructured interviews gather qualitative data through free-ranging questions