social approach

• What are the assumptions of the social approach?

  -Behaviour occurs in a social context (influenced by people around us)

  -Wider society and culture influence people's behaviour.
• What are two types of social influence?

  -Normative social influence.

  -Informational social influence.
• Darley and Latane (1968) NSI


  Experiment on normative social influence: Group of People take test in a room whilst there is a fire in the next room.

  See if participant moves whilst rest of the group remains in their seats.
• Lucas (2006) ISI


  Students were given a maths test to complete, and if they were of poorer ability, they were more likely to conform to the incorrect answers of those they believed to be better at maths. Although only conformed if the questions were hard.
• Scultz (2008) ISI +NSI


  Guests in hotel were placed into two separate conditions, one group was given a door hanger describing the environmental effects of reusing towels, whilst the other groups coat hangers quoted '75% of guests choose to reuse their towels each day'

  
  

  ISI-conformed to statistical data, believing its right.

  NSI-conformed to the number of people also doing the same thing

  Results showed guests reduced their need for towels by 25%.
• Jenness (1932) ISI


  Participants were asked to estimate how many coffee beans were in the jar, then all were placed in a room and asked to re-estimate the number of beans in the jar, nearly all participants changed their answer.

  12% average answer decrease in males

  5% average answer decrease in females
• Aschs (1951) NSI-ISI


  Sat a group of confederates in a room with one participant, they were shown a series of lines and were asked to choose either the shortest or longest.

  results: 75% of participants conformed at least once to the incorrect answer.

  Most participants said they conformed in public because they did not want to be ridiculed however, knew the answers were wrong 'Distortion of action'.

  Some participants became doubtful of their own judgement 'Distortion of judgement'
• Kelman (1958) 3 ways of conformity.

  Compliance

  Identification

  Internalisation
• What is compliance?


  Compliance results only in a superficial change, it does not result in any change in the person's underlying attitude, only in the views and behaviours they express in public.

  The particular behaviour/opinion stops as soon as the group pressure stops.
• What is Identification?


  The person changes their public behaviour (the way they act) AND their private beliefs, but only while they are in association with/in the presence of the group they are identifying with. This is usually a short-term change.
• What is internalisation?


  Internalisation occurs when a person genuinely accepts the group norms, this results in private AND public change of opinion/behaviour. The change is permanent because attitudes have been internalised (they have becomes part of the way a person thinks). The change in opinion/behaviour persists even when other group members are absent.
• What are social roles?


  There are behaviours expected of an individual who occupies a given social position or status, e.g. a parent is expected to be caring, nurturing and to look after their children. A students is expected to be obedient and respect authority.
• What is social categorisation?

  Social categorisation describes how people categorise themselves and others into groups to make sense of a complex environment, it relies heavily on social identity, social roles and stereotypes. This may lead people to display in-group favouritism in their social interactions.
• What are stereotypes?


  Stereotypes are a fixed view we hold of a person based on the category we have placed them into. Stereotypes can be formed through experience (social learning theory). We could learn them from parents, friends, peers.
• What does prejudice mean?

  Preconceived opinion/attitude towards a group/category based on no reason/evidence.
• What are in-groups?


  Group membership(s) with which a person identifies with are referred to as this.
• What are out-groups?

  Group membership(s) with which a person does not identify with are referred to as this.
• What is discrimination?


  Acting on a prejudiced opinion
• What is group cohesion?


  Cohesion is the unity or solidarity of a group.

  Groups that are similar in both external characteristics (age) and internal characteristics (beliefs/attitudes) are less likely to experience intra-group conflict.
• What are group roles?


  A group role is a clear set of behaviours that are expected of a person in a specific position within the group.
• What are common goals?

  People who compromise groups are brought together for a reason or purpose.

  Whilst most members of a group have individual roles, a group is largely defined by the common goals of the group.

  Common goals motivate group members to increase their efforts, provide direction and focus, giving meaning to their tasks.
• What is groupthink?


  Groupthink is a phenomenon established by Irving Janis (1972) and proposes that individuals overlook potential problems in pursuit of consensus thinking; they do not want to upset the balance of the group.

  It is not always problematic, in the best cases it allows a group to make decision, complete tasks and finish projects quickly and efficiently.
• What is social facilitation?


  Social facilitation refers to the improvement in performance induced by the real, implied, or imagined presence of others when completing relatively simple tasks.

  However, the same is not rue for complex tasks- this is called social inhibition.