situational factors

• a situational factor is an external factor that influences the way we behave
• four situational factors are majority influence, authority, deindividuation and culture
• majority influence explains why someone might conform
• two types of comformity to majority influence is normative and informational conformity
• normative conformity is when people yeild to group pressure because they want to fit in and dont want to be rejected by the others
• solomon asch conducted an experiment into normative conformity
• asch's findings were that participants conformed to the wrong answer because they were embarrassed to go against the group
• informational conformity is when people conform because they want to be seem as right and so follow the others lead
• authority explains why someone might obey
• stanley milgram's eletric shock study investigated obedience
• 65% of participants to milgrams study obeyed and went to 450 volts
• the situational factors that explained why people obeyed in milgrams study were the presense of a 'authority figure', the location, the learner was in the other room so people couldnt see him, the researcher took responsibilty
• milgrams agency theory was the idea the people obey orders because they move from an autonomous to an agentic state
• autonomous state is where the person feels responsible for their actions
• agentic state is where a person doesnt feel responsible as they are under orders from authority
• deindividuatio is why people might particpaite in crowd/collective behaviour
• deindividuation can lead to someone particpating in crowd/collective behaviour as when people lose sense of self they feel they are not responsible for their actions
• crowd behaviour examples where deindividuation can happen are football hooliganism and rioting
• culture can explain pro/anti social behaviour
• an example of pro social behaviour is altruism-helping w/o expecting a reward
• collectivist culture is a culture that emphasizes working together and dependency, group needs are seen as more important
• individualistic culture is a culture that encourages independency, needs of one are more important
• collectivist culture is more likely to show altruism
• an example of collectivist culture is mexico,phillipenes, israel
• example of individualistic culture would be the uk or usa
• collectivist culture shows prosocial becasuse children are expected to help their families they show more altruism
• critisisms of the theory of situational factors are

  -deindivdalisation doesnt always lead to violence

  -not everyone conforms the same

  -ignores the role of personaliy

  -prosocial behaviour research was heavily based on children

  -doesnt explain why people dont obey

  -ignores influence of free will
• free will is the idea we have conrol over our lives and can change behaviour and our way of thinking
• dterminism is the idea that how we think and how we behave is determined by internal forces like genetic or environmental factors
• issue with free will is that the concept does not support the view of psychology as a science
• the issue with determinism is that it suggest we have no free will of our behaviour so then suggest we cant change it