PSYC2001 Lecture Notes - Collectivism, Attitude Change, Road Rage
19 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Social Psychology Exam Study
Lecture 1
Social psychology: scientific study of feelings, thoughts, and behaviours in social situations!
Cross- Cultural perspective in social psychology: Human behaviours are rooted in influences from
culture, which is a collection of beliefs, values, rules and customs that are shared among a group
of people.!
Individualistic Culture (independent self): Cultures in which people tend to think of themselves as
distinct social entities and seperate from other people, having attributes that are absent to the
connection of others!
Collectivistic cultures (interdependent self): Cultures in which people tend to think of themselves
as part of a collective, tied to others in their group. Little personal control over their lives.!
Lecture 2 - Social Influence
Social influence: changes in attitudes, beliefs, feelings and behaviour that result from the
comments, actions or even mere presence of others.!
Obedience: Behaviour or belief is elicited by someone in power or authority. Command - not a
request.!
Conformity: changing one’s behaviour or beliefs in response to (often) implicit pressure from
others!
Compliance: responding favourably to an explicit request by another person. As a result, endorse
a certain belief or perform a certain behaviour !
Individualist
Collectivist
Be unique
Belong, fit in
Express self
Occupy one’s proper place
Realise internal attribues
Engage in appropriate action
Promote own goals
Promote others’ goals
Be direct; “ say whats on your mind”
Be indirect; ‘read other’s minds’
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Factors that influence conformity:
1. Group size - in large group, people are more likely to conform.!
2. Unanimity - If a participant has an ally (does not have to be the same answer), conformity
decreases significantly!
3. Expertise and status - judgments of experts pose greater influence!
4. Behaviour is transparent to others - when participants answer privately, conformity decreases!
5. Culture - Less conformity in individualistic societies!
Conformity to be accepted ( or not rejected )
- Normative Influence. Research indicates deviants are liked less that conformists (Schacter, 1951)!
Conformity to be correct
-Informational Influence!
Pluralistic ignorance: when each individual in the group privately rejects a group’s norms but
believes that the other members of the group accept those norms.!
Mass psychogenic illness: !
“the occurrence of similar physical symptoms with no known physical cause” !
•Starts with environmental trigger (eg. Strange smell), that makes people in a group believe that
they have been exposed to a germ, chemical.!
•Many of them start believing that they have been exposed to something dangerous. This
spreads anxiety and the symptom.!
•Such outbreaks are more common at schools and in other close-knit communities.!
~ Nov, 1998 - A school teacher notices a funny smell in the school kitchen and felt sick to her
stomach. Soon the students throughout the school started complaining of symptoms and felt sick
too. Investigators looked for causes, germs, viruses, but found NOTHING - CONFORMITY was
the cause! ~!
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Compliance
Foot - in - the - door technique/condition : get people say yes first with a small request. Then,
follow it up with a real request.!
Lowballing: two step technique - influencer secures compliance with a request but then increases
the size of the request by revealing hidden costs.!
-sneaky persuasive technique which once you’ve said yes to an expensive item, without
knowing the inclusions and exclusions, you will likely then feel obligated to accept series of
smaller ‘add ons’ for items not included in the original prices. ( car sales, flight agency etc. )!
Norm based approach for compliance
Descriptive norm: your belief about how most people behave in a given context!
Prescriptive norm: your belief about what behaviour is appropriate or discouraged!
6 PRINCIPLES of Compliance
We are inclined to agree with someone’s suggestion when:
1. When we feel we owe them ( reciprocity ) !
2. The choice will net us a scarce commodity (scarcity) !
3. We think that person is a credible expert (authority)!
4. Doing so will be consistent with our beliefs of prior commitments (commitment) !
5. We regard him or her a s trusted friend (liking)!
6. We think the choice is popular (consensus)
Power: defined as the capacity to influence others, can derive from many sources.!
Compliance is affected by how much power is perceived.!
1. Reward power: give or promise rewards for compliance !
2. Coercive power: give or threaten punishment for non-compliance !
3. Informational power: the targets belief that the influencer has more information that oneself!
4. Expert power: targets belief that the influencer has greater expertise and knowledge than
oneself!
5. Legitimate power: The targets belief that the influencer is authorised by a recognised power
structure to command and make decisions !
6. Referent power: Identification with, attraction to or respect for the source of influence !
Power and social Influence!
•Individuals with power are included to go after their goals more directly whereas low power
individuals are more likely to constrain behaviours and attend to others carefully ( Galinsky et al.,
2003).!
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Social psychology: scienti c study of feelings, thoughts, and behaviours in social situations. Cross- cultural perspective in social psychology: human behaviours are rooted in in uences from culture, which is a collection of beliefs, values, rules and customs that are shared among a group of people. Individualistic culture (independent self): cultures in which people tend to think of themselves as distinct social entities and seperate from other people, having attributes that are absent to the connection of others. Collectivistic cultures (interdependent self): cultures in which people tend to think of themselves as part of a collective, tied to others in their group. Be direct; say whats on your mind . Social in uence: changes in attitudes, beliefs, feelings and behaviour that result from the comments, actions or even mere presence of others. Obedience: behaviour or belief is elicited by someone in power or authority. Conformity: changing one"s behaviour or beliefs in response to (often) implicit pressure from others.
