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SOCIAL INFLUENCE: HOW DO GROUPS INFLUENCE AN INDIVIDUAL’S BEHAVIOR? AP Psychology Chapter 18

SOCIAL INFLUENCE: HOW DO GROUPS INFLUENCE AN INDIVIDUAL’S BEHAVIOR? AP Psychology Chapter 18

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SOCIAL INFLUENCE: HOW DO GROUPS INFLUENCE AN INDIVIDUAL’S BEHAVIOR?

AP Psychology Chapter 18

Quick Write:

If you could do anything humanly possible with complete assurance that you would not be detected or held responsible, what would you do?”

David Dodd – 5 years worth of experiments

developed 4 categories to classify responses Prosocial (behavior intended to help others) Antisocial (intended to injure or deprive

others of rights) Nonnormative (violates social norms, but

doesn’t specifically help or harm others) Neutral (doesn’t fall into the above)

Social Influence = The process where the words or actions of other people influence a person’s behavior

Norms – learned, socially based rules that prescribe what people should or should not do in a situation Norms are not

universal – vary by culture

Deindividuation

A psychological state in which a person becomes submerged in the group and loses a sense of individuality Become a part of a “herd” – may perform

acts they would not normally do otherwise

The Impact of the Presence of Others… Social facilitation – the presence of other people

improves a person’s individual performance Social impairment – the presence of others impairs

performance Social loafing – people exert less effort in group

situations, than when performing alone “hide in the crowd” “get away” loafing

Group polarization – opinions are strengthened after listening to an extreme position that favors that opinion

Groupthink – members of a group stress unity over a potential conflict

Conformity & Compliance Conformity – Changing behavior or beliefs

to match those of others – result of group pressure

Compliance – People adjust their behavior because of a request

Asch Experiment – examined how people would respond when they were faced with a norm that existed, but was obviously wrong – 75% of his test subjects agreed with majority’s wrong answer in his experiment

Inducing Compliance

Foot-in-the-door – getting people to agree to a small request and then gradually presenting larger ones

Door-in-the-face – begins with a large request that will likely be denied – person making request substitutes it with a lesser alternative

That’s-not-all – offering an additional product to someone before presenting them with the actual product, thus enticing them by adding more options

Low-ball approach – obtaining oral commitment from someone to do something…once commitment is made, the cost of fulfilling is increased and the person feels obligated to comply

Obedience

Change in behavior in response to a demand from an authority figure

Stanley Milgram – studies on obedience – “shocking” experiments 3 main factors that affect

obedience:1. Status or prestige of the person

giving the order2. Behavior of others in the same

situation3. Personal characteristics of the

individual

The Stanford Prison Experiment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0jYx

8nwjFQ http://www.prisonexp.org/

Helping Behaviors

Altruism – unselfish concern with another person’s welfare

Cost-reward model – People feel badly when they see someone suffering. C-R model = weighing several options in order to reduce the unpleasant feeling associated with witnessing distress

Reciprocal altruism – assisting another person with the expectation that the person will repay the deed

Non-Helping Behavior

Bystander effect – the more people there are who witness an emergency, the less likely it is that any one of them will help – you think someone else will help the victim Kitty Genovese

Diffusion of responsibility – not intervening in the presence of others because the person thinks that others are going to intervene in the situation

Why is all this important?

Deindividuation = loss of restraint when part of a group

Groups = tendency to see in black and white

Individual = can see “gray areas”

What would you do? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sam3deneMgk

Homework: Violate a Social Norm

Choose a behavior that you believe will violate a common social norm.

Carry out that behavior.

Write up: Why did you select

this behavior? How did other people

react? How did you feel

while violating the norm?

Example Violations: Face backward in an elevator Go into a restaurant, be

seated, examine the menu, leave w/o ordering

Wear a big winter coat on a hot day

Sing in a quiet room or a public place where that doesn’t normally happen

Have a conversation with an imaginary friend in the presence of others

Sustain eye contact with someone’s foot during an entire conversation