PSY220H5 Study Guide - Comprehensive Final Guide: Social Comparison Theory, The Literary Digest, Attachment Theory
Document Summary
It focuses on how social situations can influence thoughts, feelings and behaviours of an individual. A theme to remember is the power of the situation. We often fail to recognize the power of the situation. Fundamental attribution error attribute internal characteristics and forget all of the social factors that are guiding their behaviour. People are standing facing the back of the elevator, and the people actually turn around and do the same, to conform to the situation. Trust in what everyone else is doing, assume there is a norm. We don"t always remember the power that others have over us. Although we may think of ourselves as an individual person we are influenced by the social factors. Most people will disobey a person in authority who orders them to hurt a stranger. Milgram had middle class men come into the lab and randomly assigned roles and made sure that the participant was always the teacher.
