Social Psychology 2
Josée L. Jarry, Ph.D., C.Psych.
Introduction to Psychology
Department of Psychology
University of Toronto
July 2, 2003
Social Influence on Behaviour
• Social Pressure– Social Impact Theory– Self-monitoring Theory– Social facilitation and Interference– Conformity
• Obedience• Cooperation
Social Pressure
• Concerns for other’s judgement• The entire set of psychological forces
that are exerted on an individual by other people or by the individual’s beliefs about other people
• People care about what others think of them
• It is a powerful source of pressure to do what we believe others want us to do
The Field Theory• Kurt Lewin (1951)
– developed a theory that compares social pressure with physical forces
– people exist in a field of forces that push or pull them in various directions
• Forces from within– the person's own self perceived desires,
goals, and abilities
• Forces of social pressure– the person's perception of other people's
expectations or desires
Social Impact Theory
• Bibb Latané (1981)– the theory identifies factors that
increase or decrease social pressure – predicts the impact of social pressure
on the person at any given time– factors are understood in terms of
sources of social pressure
Social Pressure & Sources• Number of sources
– number of people perceived by the target person as exerting pressure
• Strength of a source– the degree to which that person's opinions
are valued by the target person
• Immediacy of a source– the physical or psychological proximity of
that person to the target person, either in physical distance or as prominence in memory
Impression Management
• The entire set of ways by which people consciously and unconsciously modify their behaviour to influence others’ impressions of them
• Because we care what others think of us, we strive to influence of their thoughts
Self-Monitoring
Mark Snyder (1974)• The degree to which people project a
varied impression of themselves as they go from audience to audience
• High self-monitors– watch themselves vigilantly to assess
how they must look to others– adjust their behaviour accordingly
• Low self-monitors– are less vigilant in self-scrutiny – greater consistency in behaviour
Items from the Self-monitoring Scale
Social Facilitation & Interference
• Early experiments in social psychology showed that people performed tasks better when one or more observers were present than they did when alone
• Other experiments, however, demonstrated an opposite effect: social interference
Social Facilitation & Interference
Robert Zajonc (1965)– the presence of others facilitates
performance of dominant (habitual, simple, or instinctive) actions and interferes with performance of non-dominant (non habitual, complex, or unnatural) actions
• Arousal– facilitates performance of dominant or
simple, well learned tasks– worsens the performance of non-dominant
or complex, poorly learned tasks
Conformity (1)• Informational influence
– other people's behaviour provides information about the nature of a situation or an event
• Normative influence– stems from the person's desire to be part of
the group and to have other people's approval– conforming promotes group cohesion and
acceptance by the group
• Conformity is essential to group cohesion
Conformity (2)
Solomon Asch (1956)• Asch's original purpose was to
demonstrate the limits of conformity• He did his work in the early 1950s
when conformity was very strong• Asch expected to demonstrate that
people will not conform when evidence is very clear
Conformity Explained
• Informational influence– subjects claimed that they doubted
their own perceptual ability
• Normative influence– when confederates responded out loud
as before, but the subjects responded privately in writing, the amount of conformity dropped to about one-third of that in the earlier experiments
Conformity and Helping (1)
Latané & Rodin (1969)• 70 % of those who witness an
accident alone provide help• only 20 % of those who witness an
accident in pairs provide help• Apparently an accident victim is
better off with just one potential helper present than with two
Conformity and Helping (2)
• Diffusion of responsibility– the more people present, the less any one
person feels it is their responsibility to help
• Informational influence– other’s action or inaction is a source of
information
• Normative influence– other’s inaction establishes an implicit social
norm– fear of evaluation
Influence of others’ requests: Obedience
• Obedience refers to those cases of compliance in which the person making the request is perceived as an authority figure or a leader
• The request is perceived as an order or a command
• Obedience has evolutionary value
Obedience
Stanley Milgram (1960s)– conducted a series of experiments at
Yale University.– was impressed by events like the
Holocaust of World War II– the Nazis claimed that they were
simply obeying orders– Milgram wanted to test that claim
Obedience Explained• Pre-existing beliefs
– volunteers’ faith in the value of science
• Diffusion of responsibility– the experimenter took responsibility
• The immediacy of the experimenter– obedience declined when the
experimenter was not in the room
• Conformity– a non-conforming confederate caused a
decline in obedience
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