Psychology 1000 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Deindividuation, Minority Influence, Normative Social Influence
4 Jun 2018
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Social Influence on behaviors
• Many peoples actions involve social influence
The Mere Presence of Others:
• Norman Triplett – the presence of others energizes performance
o He studied bicycle races and found that speed in individual races was slower and
the speed of group competition increased
o Another experiment of his showed that performance improves when people are
in each other’s presence
• Even ants carry more dirt in the presence of other ants
• Other experiments found that performance on learning tasks worsened when coactors
or an audience were present
• Social facilitation – an increased tendency to perform one’s dominant response in the
mere presence of others
• 1. Presence of others (audience or coactors) 2. Heightened arousal 3. Enhanced
tendency to perform dominant responses 4 a. If dominant responses are correct in
the present situation 5 a. performance is enhanced or 4 b. If dominant responses are
incorrect in the present situation 5 b. performance is impaired
• Therefore, when learning complex tasks, minimize the presence of other people
Social Norms: The Rules of the Game
• Social norms – shared expectations about how people should think, feel, and behave
• Social role – a set of norms that characterizes how people in a given social position
ought to behave
• Role conflict can occur when the norms accompanying different roles clash
Culture and Norm Formation:
• Social norms are culturally constructed
• Humans placed together seem to develop common standards for behaviour and
judgments
Conformity & Obedience:
• Norms can influence behaviour only if people conform to them
• Without conformity there would be social chaos
Why Do People Conform?
• Informational social influence – we follow the opinions or behaviours of others
because we believe that what they are doing is right
• Normative social influence – we conform to obtain rewards that come from being
accepted by other people, this is also avoiding rejection
Factors That Affect Conformity:
• Asch manipulated different independent variables and measured their effects on
conformity:
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