Social Influence (2)
What is a social factor?
an external environmental factor influencing a person's behaviour or thought process
what is a dispostional factor
a personal characteristic that influences their behaviour and thought processes
Outline piliavin's subway study
A - to investigate wether victim characteristics woukd affect prosocial behaviours
M - a confederate falling over on a busy NYC subway.
• one condition : appeared drunk (smell of alchohol, dirty)
• other confition : appeared disabled (black cane)
two observers recorded wether help was given and how long it took
R - 95% in the disabled condition recieved help whereas only 50% in the drunk condition. help was quicker for the disabled
C - characteristics of the victim do affect wether people display prosocial behaviour
what is prosocial behaviour?
a voluntary action or behaviour intended to benefit others
what are the social factors affecting prosocial behaviour? (piliavins study)
presence of others
cost of helping
what are the dispositional factors affecting prosocial behaviour? (piliabin's study)
similarity to victim
expertise
what is a strength of piliavin's subway study?(pea)
p - high ecological validity, ppts behaviour was unmanipulated
e - field study taking part in an everyday setting
a - generalisable to the whole population, high external validity
what is a weakness of piliavin's study? (pea)
p - failed to observe ethical issues
e - participants didnt know they were being studied therefore couldn't give informed consent
a - the study was unethical
outline asch's study
A - to see if participants would respond to group pressure during an unambiguous task
M - 123 male ppts, lab study
• each participant was sat at a table with 8 confederates who they believed to be participants, and were told they had to identify which line (a,b or c) was the longest out of the 3 given lines.
• everyone had to state their answer out loud
• on the 12 critical trials for each participant all confederates picked the wrong answer on purpose to see how ppts wpuld respond
R - 75% conformed at least once
ppta gave the wrong answer 37% of the time
C - in group settings people are more likely to conform to the group's answer even when they know it's wrong
a strength of Asch's study (pea)
p - accurate result
e - controlled settings, low ev's
a - high internal validity
2 weaknesses of asch's study (peax2)
p - limited sample size
e - only men used
a - not generalisable to the whole population
p - low ecological validity
e- mundane realism
a- dont apply to real world situations
what are social factors affecting conformity (asch's study)
group size
anonymity
task difficulty
what are some dispositional factors affecting confirmity (asch's study)
locus of control
expertise
what is locus of control?
the degree to which people believe they have control iver their lives as opposed to external forces.
internal lovus of control: you believe you have control over your life and actions
external locus of control : you believe in things such as luck or god- you believe you have less control over your life
what is cost of helping?
the degree to which helping another person will inconvenience or harm you and the potential risks associated
what are the social factors for crowd and collective behaviour?
social loafing
culture
what are the dispositional factors for crowd and collective behaviour?
locus of control
morality
what is social loafing?
a person exerting less effort when doing something within a group than they would when doing the same thing individually
Outline milgram's agency theory of obesience (4points)
- you are normally in the autonomous state which means you feel responsible for your own actions
- the agentic shift happens when a percieved authority (may differ based on culture) gived you an order
- you then go into the agentic state which means that you no longer feel responsible for your actions, acting as an "agent" for the percieved authority
- this is because you displace the responsability onto the authority giving you the order
social factors affecting obedience
agency
authority
culture
proximity
dispositional factors affecting obedience
authoritarian personality
what is meant by agency as a factor affecting obedience?
after going through the agentic shift, acting as an "agent" for the percieved authority
what is meant by proximity as a factor affecting obedience?
the closer you physically are to the percueved authority figure, the more likely you are to obey them
what is meant by authority as a factor affecting obedience?
people are more likely to obey someone they see as an authority, official (eg. police) or unofficial (eg. gang leader)
what is meant by authoritarian personality as a factor affecting obedience
people with the authoritarian personality type have a higher tendency to obey authority figures without question and have a higher respect for social hierarchies, and see the world in a more rigid and inflexible way. They also exibit 'black and white' thinking.
what is meant by similarity to victim?
people are more likely to help someone they identify with and are similar to
how did piliavin find similarity to victim to be a factor in his study?
he found people more often helped people of their own race
what is meant by expertise as a factor affecting prosocial behaviour?
if someone has prior knowledge on how to help in a certain situation theyre more likely to help
what is meant by presence of others as a factor affecting prosocial behaviour?
if there were more people present the bystander effect was more common
what are characteristics if the authoritarian personality?
- exaggerated respect for authority
- very likely to obey orders
- very aware of position in social hierarchy
- look down on those below them in social hierarchy
what is scapegoating?
displacing anger from one source (ofter uncontrollable or people 'above' in the social hierarchy) onto people below you in the social hierarchy
what is the cognitive style of those with an authoritarian personality?
absolutist - black and white thinking
rigid thinking such as believing stereotypes
what are common themes in the childhood of soleone who's grown up to have the authoritarian personality?
- strict&critical parents
- high standards for achievement
-conditional love on meeting expectations
- growing up feeling anger about the unfair situation but can't retaliate fir fear of punishment
-this causes displaced anger
outline adorno's theory
- obedience is caused by authoritarian personality
- authoritarian personality means absolutist / black&white rigid thinking, being very aware of the social hierarchy and having exaggerated respect for authority
- authoritarian personality caused by conditional love from parents as a "reward" for meeting expectations and a strict amd critical parenting dtyle
- authoritarian personality leads to higher chance obeying superiors and more likely to take out anger on tjose percieved as inferior
weaknesses of adornos theory (PEA)x3
p - authoritarian personality based on f- scale which can be inaccurate
e- all multiple choice questions in the same direction which means it has response bias
a - challenges validity - poor evidence
P- based on correlations
E-correlation≠causation there could be a third factor affecting both things eg education
A- not possible to say authoritarian personality causes obedience
p- cant explain all cases of obedience
e- eg nazi germany, unrealistic to suggest they all had the same personality type
a- not a complete explanation