psy 270 1

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Social Influence
- •Efforts
- by one or more individuals to change the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions or
- behaviors of one or more others
Conformity
- •A
- change in a person’s behavior or opinion as the result of the real or imagined
- pressure from a person or group of peoples (Aronson)
- Can
- be disastrous and result in tragedy
- Can
- be adaptive and establish order
3 Types of Conformity
- Compliance- driven by
- the promise/threat of reward or punishment
- •Obedience-
- Ordered to comply
- Identification-
- desire to be like the influencer or to get closer to them
- Internalization- the
- beliefs of the influencer are internalized and held independently
conformity is due to ....

social influences
compliance is a type of

conformity
obedience is a type of ...

compliance
dissent

is a form of being unique
wwhy do we conform

because of social influences
how do social influnces work
- •We use others as a source of information
- •The behaviors of others create social norms
- •The behaviors of others suggest possible actions
what is group think - irving janis
- •A
- way of thinking where maintaining group cohesiveness becomes so important that
- group members ignore facts and override realistic appraisal of information and
- alternatives
- •Leads
- to perceived invulnerability
- •Narrow
- focus and maladaptive decision making
mindguard
- :
- group members who take on the role of a censor that stops or hides incoming
- information and who supports consensus see
what are the two factors that affect conformity
ambiguity And uncertaintly
- •Conform
- more in ambiguous situations ad when we are unsure of our own judgment
- Unanimity
- Conform
- less if even just one other person dissents
- •If
- others in the group unanimously agree, the pressure to conform is relatively
- the same whether there is 3, 6, 9 or more people in the group.
- Private versus Public Decisions
- •Conform less if decision is made in private
- Commitment
- •Conformity decreases if an individual is asked to voice
- opinion or initial judgment before others in the group do.
- Accountability
- •Conform more if held accountable to the group only
- •Conform less if you are held individually accountable
- for your decision/judgment
- The Person and the
- Culture
- •People
- with high self-esteem and individualistic (vs. collectivistic) cultures tend to
- conform less.
- The Group Exerting
- Pressure
- •More
- conformity if the group:
- Has 3 or more members
- Has experts
- Is important to the individual
- Is comparable/similar to the individual in some way
- Strong norms for conformity
two types of conformity
- 1.Informational Social
- Influence
- - The need to be accurate
- 2.Normative Social
- Influence
- - The need to feel accepted
Informational
social influence can lead to
- Private acceptance:
- conformity occurs because we genuinely believe others are right
- •Public compliance: conforming publicly even though you may not believe in
- what you are doing or saying
Contagion
- Contagion: rapid
- spread of emotions and behaviors through a crowd
- •During an emergency, other people may not know what is
- going on more than we do. We are likely to adopt their mistakes and
- misinterpretations.
- War of
- the Worlds Incident
Mass psychogenic illness
- Mass psychogenic illness: a group
- of people experience the same physical symptoms of illness when there is no
- physical cause
- •1998 HS teacher in Tenn. reports smelling gas
When will people conform to informational social
influence?
- When the
- situation is ambiguous
- •When the situation is a crisis
- •When other people are experts
Normative Social Influence
- results in public compliance but not necessarily private
- acceptance
Social Norms
- rules for acceptable behaviors, values, and beliefs that
- are determined by people in social situations
Social impact theory
- : the likelihood that people will respond to normative
- social influence depends on:
- •Strength: importance of the group
- •Immediacy: closeness of the group
- •Number: size of the group
People
will conform to normative social influence:
When
- People
- will conform to normative social influence:
- •When the group is important
- •When one has no allies in the group
- •When the group’s culture is collectivistic
- •When the group size is 3 or more
Self-esteem
and gender have no effect on normative social influence
- Self-esteem
- and gender have no effect on normative social influence
Deindividuation
- The loss of a
- person’s sense of individuality and the reduction of normal constraints against
- deviant behavior.
- •
- Increased sense of
- anonymity
- Doing together what
- we would not do alone.
Environmental cues
Obedience
- •One
- person directly orders one or more others to behave in specific ways, and the
- other person complies
- Social Influence
Conformity influences the formation and maintenance of
social norms and allows society to function smoothly and predictably
•Conformity can be a shortcut for how to act in a
situation
- Conformity influences the formation and maintenance of
- social norms and allows society to function smoothly and predictably
- •Conformity can be a shortcut for how to act in a
- situation
Social Facilitation
(pro)
- •Effects
- on performance resulting from the presence of others
Social Loafing (con)
- Decreased
- effort resulting from diffusion of responsibility when others are present
Evaluation
apprehension (con)
- •Concern
- over being evaluated by others
Zajonc (1965) – Drive
theory of social facilitation
- •The
- presence of others will improve individual’s performance when they are highly
- skilled at the task, but will interfere with performance when they are not
- highly skilled.
Social Loafing
- •Reductions
- in motivation and effort that occur when individuals work collectively in a
- group compared with when they work individually as independent co-actors.
- Occurs
- with additive tasks
- Effort
- produced by individuals decreases
Decision making
- •Combining
- and integrating available information in order to choose one out of several
- possible courses of action.
•Group
polarization
- The
- tendency of group members to shift toward more extreme positions than those
- they initially held as a result of group discussion
Antecedents of Groupthink
- •The group is highly cohesive
- •The group is isolated
- •The group has a directive leader
- •The group is under high stress
- •Decision-making procedures are poor
•Six common factors in decision making across major
fiascos
- 1.Group’s decision
- limited to a few alternatives
- 2.Members failed to re-examine their initial decision from the standpoint of
- non-obvious
- 3.They neglected courses of action initially evaluated as unsatisfactory
- 4.Made little or no attempt to obtain information from experts who could supply
- sound estimates of losses and gains to be expected from alternative courses
- 5.Selective bias was shown in the way the members reacted to information
- and judgments from experts, the media and outside critics
- 6.Spent little time deliberating how the decision might be hindered
Avoiding groupthink:
- •Remain impartial
- •Seek outside opinions
- •Seek anonymous opinions
- •Create subgroups
Diffusion of
responsibility
- •Responsibility
- assumed by bystanders in an emergency is shared among them
- •the
- number of bystanders increased the # of individuals who helped decreased and
- the time before one helped increased.
•
- A
- victim is less likely to get help if a large number of people are watching the
- distress à Bystander effect
Pretrial interview of
potential jurors to uncover signs of bias.
- Juror Bias: towards
- defense or prosecution
- •Own-race
- Bias
- •Death
- Qualification
- •
Majority bias in
deliberating
- •Reason
- for unanimous verdict- forces careful consideration of evidence
- •Larger
- juries- minorities are more likely to be represented, so less pressure to
- conform
- •Elects
- a foreperson to act as moderator

Author

juicey

22761

Card Set

psy 270 1

Description

psy 270 1

Updated

2010-06-09T04:27:45Z

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