Chapter 21

1. Chapter 21 Social Interaction

2. Group Behavior • How people behave as part of a group often differs from how they behave as individuals

3. Social Facilitation • Refers to the concept that people often perform better when other people are watching • Presence of others may improve performance due to evaluation apprehension, or the concern about the opinion of others. • Evaluation apprehension may motivate people to try harder in order to impress others.

4. Social Loafing • Refers to members of a group tending to slack off when working together for a common goal. • Social loafing may occur due to diffusion of responsibility, or the tendency for members of a group to feel less responsible for accomplishing a task when the effort is shared among the group.

5. Risky Shift • The tendency for people to take greater risks as part of a group than they would as individuals. • People may feel more powerful or less vulnerable as part of a group.

6. Group Decision Making • Many important decisions are made by groups rather than individuals. • Psychologist shave identified a number of social decision schemes, or rules that govern group decision making.

7. Majority-Wins Scheme • Group comes to agreement on a decision that was initially supported by a majority of group members. • Most often applies to situations in which there are no right or wrong answers.

8. Truth-Wins Scheme • Members of a group come to realize that one option is clearly better than the others.

9. Two-Thirds Majority Scheme • Groups concur with a decision after two thirds of their members come to an agreement about the correct choice.

10. First-Shift Scheme • Applies to groups that are deadlocked 50-50. • If one person changes his or her mind, the others may follow and shift their vote.

11. Polarization • Members of a group often share similar attitudes • The shared attitudes that group members hold are likely to grow stronger, or more extreme, through time. • Polarization can be positive or negative (prejudice example).

12. Group Leadership • Leaders often differ in how they operate. • Leaders may fit into authoritarian, democratic, or laissez-faire categories.

13. Authoritarian Leaders • Absolute control over group. • Give orders, expect orders to be carried out without questioning.

14. Democratic Leaders • Encourage groups member to express and discuss ideas and to make their own decisions. • Consensus builders • Will often follow the vote of the majority

15. Laissez-Faire Leaders • Encourage group to express and explore own ideas. • Leader takes a less active role in the process, gives minimal feedback. • Allows group to dictate decisions, even if they seem to be poor.

16. Section 2: Conformity • Conform: modify one’s attitudes and behavior to make them consistent with those of other people.

17. Importance of Groups • Groups could be, for example, friends, those in a school extracurricular activity or members of a family. • Groups can fulfill our needs for belonging, affection and attention. • Groups also offer support when we are facing tough times in our lives or difficult situations. • Groups may also help us in accomplishing a task by dividing up the workload.

18. Social Norms • Refers to the standards that people share regarding behavior in a given situation. • Tell you what is appropriate to wear to school, church, a wedding, or around the house on a Sunday afternoon. • Social norms can be explicit or implicit. • Explicit norms are spoken or written rules. Example: speed limit. • Implicit norms are unspoken, unwritten rules. Example: What to wear in a given situation.

19. Asch’s Studies of Conformity • Psychologist Solomon Asch wanted to know to what extent people will conform to social norms. • When study participants were faced with a question with an obvious answer but accompanied by other participants who gave the wrong answer, 75% of participants went against their own judgment at least once and conformed to the rest of the group.

20. Why Do People Conform? • Factors may include: • Cultural Influences: some cultures, particularly those of many Asian countries, the group is valued over the individual. • Need for Acceptance: people desire to be liked or accepted by others. • Other Factors: when there is a unanimous viewpoint held in a group, it is often tough for others to go against everyone, however when there is not unanimity, it may not be as difficult. Example: Asch experiment.

21. 3. Obedience • Necessary to protect safety and community • Has led to people following terrible orders: Nazis/Jews, Serbs/Muslims, Turks/Armenians

22. Milgram’s Studies of Obedience • Yale psychologists, studies from 60s and 70s • Influenced by Holocaust • Wanted to determine bounds of obedience to authority, how we react to commands, etc.

23. Procedure • Ads for participants in newspaper • Only men solicited, 40, age 20-50 • Supposed to be a study on learning, effects of punishment on memory • Told volunteers split into teachers and learners, really only teachers • Learner had to memorize word pairs • If correct answer given, nothing, if wrong answer, shocks administered, increasing in voltage with each mistake • Teachers given sample shock, 45 volts, not harmful, but unpleasant • Told they could quit at any time, but when hesitant, pushed continue by researcher in room

24. Results • At 300 volts, learners pounded on wall, screamed in pain, 35 of 40 teachers continued • 9 teachers quit between 300 and 450 volts • Approximately 2/3 gave shocks up to 450 volts • Teachers showed great stress (sweating, stuttered, nervous laughter, told researcher they wanted to stop, etc.) • Experiment repeated with women, college students • In each case, at least half went all the way to 450 volts

25. Why do People Obey? • Socialization – taught from childhood to obey authority figures • Foot - in- the- Door Effect – tendency to give in to major demands once given in to minor ones • Ex. Small shocks lead to large shocks • Ex. Soldiers trained to follow small orders, more likely to follow life and death orders in combat • Confusion About Attitudes – chaotic environment (screaming, pounding on wall) makes it more likely for people to be confused about their own beliefs than in a serene setting • Buffers – when buffered, people more likely to follow hurtful, immoral orders, than when personally confronted with recipient • Ex. Current military conflict often happens at distance, may be easier to kill from distance than up close, hand to hand combat

26. 4. Aggression • Words or actions meant to hurt others • Why are we aggressive? • Views: biological, psychoanalytical, cognitive, sociocultural

27. Biological View • Much of social behavior is genetic • Aggression help people survive, reproduce • Aggressive humans historically more likely to survive, pass on genes

28. Psychoanalytic View • Freud viewed aggression as natural response to frustrations of daily life • Thought people feared hurting others, thus repressed them • Encouraged venting aggressive impulses, or catharsis • Ex. Watching aggressive sports • Studies have found it unclear whether catharsis decreases or increases aggressive tendencies

29. Cognitive View • Aggression not influenced by: biological tendencies, repressed urges • Aggression is influenced by: values, perception, choices • Implies choice trumps biology, subconscious forces

30. Learning View • People learn to repeat behaviors that are reinforced • Violent acts may create positive results for perpetrator (control over others, respect of peers, etc.)

31. Sociocultural View • Argue some cultures encourage independence and competitiveness • May promote aggression • Children in communal cultures such as Thailand/Jamaica less aggressive than children in US