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