1. How people think, influence, and relate to one another
Social Psychology
How people think, influence, and relate to one another

2. Objectives
Identify the factors that may cause individuals to conform

3. Conformity - groups defines a group as
‘two or more interacting persons who share common goals, have a stable relationship, are somehow interdependent, and perceive that they in fact are part of a group’
(Robbins, 1989 cited in Niven, :74) .

4. Conformity
Society as a group exerts pressure on individuals to conform in specific ways
YouTube - Foot in the Door technique
There are certain unwritten rules or social norms which indicate the way in which people should behave

5. How much of behaviour is governed by norms?
Rules for accepted & expected behaviour
Descriptive, prescriptive, proscriptive (small minded)

6. Social norms Some norms provide a useful function such as …
Queueing at a bus stop
Wearing appropriate clothes for formal or informal function
others such as wearing a tie seem to serve no useful purpose

7. How much of behaviour is governed by norms?
Rules
When you try to break from social constraints, you realise just how strong and powerful they are

8. Conformity - why Adopting the behaviours or opinions of the group
often results from a desire to be liked
Normative Influence

10. Asch experiment
A small group of people can influence a person ( only 3 people are required for maximum influence)

11. The Asch Experiment YouTube - The Asch Experiment

12. The Asch Experiment
A group of 8 people are asked to look at 3 lines of different lengths A, B, C and compare them to a standard length x
Asked to estimate which of the 3 lines were of the same length as the standard line

13. Conformity

14. The Asch Experiment 7out of the 8 people were accomplices
Truthful answers were given for the 1st 12 requests to compare lines BUT on the next 8 were told to give false answers
Group in turn asked which of the 3 lines A,B, or C was the same length as the standard line X

15. The Asch Experiment The 1st 6 said A
Imagine you were the 7th person in the group- what would you do
75% of the people tested went along with the group

16. The Asch Experiment
Normative social influence- people do not want to ‘rock the boat’

18. The Asch Experiment
Informational social influence – if a number of people in front of you have answered in a way that contradicts your opinion – you are likely to doubt your ability make correct responses
In situations of uncertainty we look to other members of the group for information on how to behave

19. Implications for care ??
Morris et al., (1977) found that the conformity effect is reduced if someone speaks out at the start of the questioning procedure.
Speaking out in group discussions is an important way of resisting conformity which might inhibit the potential to improve practice (Niven, 2006:77)

21. The Power of the Situation
Zimbardo’s Prison Study
One of the most dramatic illustrations of roles on social behaviour
Physically & mentally healthy young men who volunteered to participate for money
Randomly assigned to be prisoners or guards

22. The Power of the Situation
Those assigned the role of prisoner became distressed, helpless, and panicky.
Those assigned the roles of guards became either nice, “tough but fair,” or tyrannical.
Study had to be ended after 6 days.

23. Stanford Prison experiment
YouTube - Stanford Prison Experiment

24. The Power of the Situation
Study illustrates central tenet of social psychology:
SITUATIONAL FORCES!!
Personalities & predispositions

25. The Power of the Situation
Powerful effect of SOCIAL ROLES
Shows how that which was unreal can evolve into that which is real

26. The Power of the Situation
Social influence exerted by norms creates orderly social behaviour, but can also lead to a breakdown in order

27. The Power of the Situation
The Prison study was an examination of deindividuation
Loss of a sense of personal identity, and sometimes reduced accountability

28. Deindividuation
Zimbardo (1970)
Deindividuation is the opposite of self-awareness (Individuation)

29. Deindividuation
When self-aware, our behaviour is likely to be determined by internal attitudes and beliefs;
when deindividuated, our behaviour is likely to be determined by the situation

30. Deindividuation Less reliance on personal beliefs
More reliance on group norms – whatever they are at the moment
Become part of the herd, perform acts would not do otherwise

31. Normative influence
People will sometimes conform, even in the most unambiguous situations
Social pressure vs social support
Sometimes only takes 1 person

32. Normative influence Personality factors influence tendency to conform
Varies by culture and within cultures
Conformity can be massive
Sometimes subtle
Automatic mimicry – behaviour is contagious – related to empathy

34. Reasons for Obedience - Eichman defence
He claimed that someone was "only doing their job" or "merely following orders" to excuse causing grief to someone else when they could have just as easily been helpful.
Eichmann was the chief organizer of the Nazi 'final solution' to the 'Jewish question' and claimed (unsuccessfully) at his trial that he had only done what he had been ordered to do.

35. Obedience – Milgram
Asked participants to act as ‘teacher’ in a learning situation, giving increasingly larger electric shocks for each wrong answer
Experiment

36. Unexpected Results

37. Unexpected Results

38. Unexpected Results

39. : Obedience -Highest when
proximity of person giving orders
authority figure
prestigious institution
victim depersonalized
no role models for defiance

40. Obedience
Do these effects occur in "real life"?

41. ‘Situations win, People lose’ Zimbardo, 2004
Toxic Situations
‘Situations win, People lose’
Zimbardo, 2004

42. Social Psychology “The social psychology of this
century reveals a major lesson:
often it is not so much the kind
of person a man is as the kind of
situation in which he finds himself
that determines how he will act.”
(Milgram, 1974)

44. Social Psychology
Is the attempt to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of individuals are influenced by:
the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings

45. Solomon Asch
A study by Solomon Asch suggests that attractiveness is a central trait,
and we presume all the other traits of an attractive person are just as attractive and sought after.
We make assumptions

46. Social Cognition
Halo effect/Primacy effect Impression formation First impressions

47. Social Cognition- The Halo effect
The perception of one trait (i.e. a characteristic of a person or object) is influenced by the perception of another trait (or several traits) of that person or object.
e.g. - judging a good-looking person as more intelligent.

48. The Halo effect
Occurs especially if the perceiver does not have enough information about all traits, so they make assumptions based on one or two prominent traits –
these one or two prominent traits "overshadow" other traits.
Good / Bad

49. References
Hewstone, E Strobe, W, Jonas, K., 2008, Introduction to Social psychology A European perspective fourth edition, Oxford, Blackwell publishing.