Social influence

• What is obedience

  Complying with the orders of an authority figure
• What is an authority figure

  Someone with more power and control than another
• How can obedience be useful

  It maintains social order and is an important social process
• Why did research into obedience begin

  After WW2, psychologists wanted to know why German soldiers were willing to harm Jewish people and prisoners of war after being ordered to
• What is conformity

  Matching the behaviour and beliefs of others to fit in or because we don't know how to behave in an unusual situation
• What are the 3 types of conformity

  Compliance, internalisation, identification
• What is compliance

  Going along with the majority even though privately, we do not agree
• What is normative social influence

  Compliance because of the need to fit into a group
• What can conformity be explained by

  Normative social influence
• What is internalisation

  Going along with the majority because we do not know how to behave in a situation - we adopt the beliefs of the group
• What is informational social influence

  Conformity because we do not know how to behave; others provide this information so we adopt their beliefs and behaviours
• What can internalisation be explained by

  Informational social influence
• What is identification

  Temporarily adopting the behaviours of a role model or group
• Describe identification

  • Person will change their behaviour and beliefs temporarily and it will only last when the group is present
  • This can be explained by short-term normative influence
  • We don't actually believe or act in this way
• What is deindividuation

  Loss of personal self-awareness and responsibility as a result of being in a group
• Describe deindividuation

  • We lose our individual identity and become anonymous in the group
  • We tend to act differently and feel less responsible for our actions
• • Riots are an example of deindividuation
  • Members of a riot will damage property because of a loss of self-awareness
• What is bystander effect

  When we fail to help others in need (also called bystander apathy)
• What is an example of bystander effect

  The case of Kitty Genovese where a woman was murdered and despite many witnesses, none helped her
• What are the 2 types of factors that influence bystander intervention

  Situational and personality
• What are situational factors

  Features of a situation that influences whether or not we intervene in an emergency
• What are personality factors

  Features of an individual that influence how likely they are to intervene in an emergency
• What are the situational factors that affect bystander intervention

  1. Diffusion of responsibility
  2. Noticing the event
  3. Pluralistic ignorance
  4. Cost of helping

  Do Not Pay Cash
• What is diffusion of responsibility

  When we believe others will help so we do not have to
• Explain diffusion of responsibility

  • When we are in a large crowd, we feel less personally responsible
  • The larger the crowd, the less responsibility individuals feel
  • We justify our inaction because there are many more people who could have helped
• Explain noticing the event

  • When we are in a large crowd, we tend to keep to ourselves and pay less attention to what is happening around us
  • We are less likely to notice an emergency if we are in a crowd
  • Latane and Darley (1969) found that groups were slower to react to fires compared to individuals
• What is pluralistic ignorance

  When we interpret the situation according to others' reactions
• Explain pluralistic ignorance

  • We look to others and see what they are doing in emergencies
  • If we see many people not helping, we are more likely to interpret the situation as a non-emergency and not help
  • Similar to informational social influence
• Explain cost of helping

  • If a situation has a high cost of helping (eg. a fire), we are less likely to help
  • If the cost of helping is not too great, we will intervene because the cost of the victim is greater
  • This may seem selfless but it may be because we are trying to avoid guilt if we hadn't helped
• What are personal factors affecting bystander intervention

  1. Competence
  2. Mood
  3. Similarity

  Come Make Slime
• Explain competence

  • If we think we are competent enough, we will help
  • If we feel we are incompetent, we are less likely to help
  • If we choose to help when we feel incompetent, it is most likely indirect intervention (eg. calling the police)
• Explain mood

  • We are more likely to help if we are in a good mood
  • When we feel sad, we focus our attention inwardly
  • When we feel happy, we focus attention outwardly and look to other which makes it more likely to see people in need of help
• Explain similarity

  • If we perceive ourselves as similar to the victim, we are more likely to help
  • We identify with the victim and see how we could be in the same situation
• What factor is bystander intervention mainly affected by

  Situational factors
• Arthur Jenness (1932) asked participants to guess how many beans were in a glass bottle. He found participants were more likely to change their first answers following discussions with a group. This is an example of informational social influence
• What are the situational factors affecting conformity

  1. Size of the majority
  2. Unanimity of the majority
  3. Task difficulty/ambiguity

  Snake's unique teeth
• Explain size of majority

  The greater the majority, the greater influence on behaviour
• Explain Asch experiment

  • Solomon Asch had participants were placed in a room of confederates
  • The participant was shown 3 lines of different lengths labelled A, B, and C by an experimenter, then a card with a single line and asked which one of the 3 lines were the same
  • The confederates lied and upon hearing the confederates' answers, the participant chose wrong
  • With only 1 confederate, the conformity rate was 3% but at 2 confederates, the rate was 13%, and 3 confederates, it was 32%
  • The experiment shows normative social influence
• What was the optimal number of majority in Asch

  • 3-4 people
  • More than 4 people aroused suspicion as too many people were picking the wrong line
• What is a confederate

  A researcher or other person who is acting in a study but does not know what the study is about