Studies have shown that people often adjust their actions and opinions in order to fit in with others. People have an effect on each other just by being there. The presence of others does not just effect how hard one works, it has a direct effect on how one responds to others and how one thinks. In a study about perception Sherif (1936) asked people to sit in a dark room and focus on a point of light. The light appeared to dance around. This was a visual illusion - known as the Autokinetic Effect - caused by the continuous slight movements made by the eye muscles. Initially Sherif tested his participants alone. Their guesses though consistent were widely ranged. However, when groups of people were tested together and the participants could hear each other person's estimates, Sherif found that people began to give the same answer until the whole group finally agreed on a single measurement. Later on when the participants were once again tested alone, they tended to stick to the group measurement. Therefore, the group norm was so strong that it affected the participants' judgement from then on.
COMPLIANCE
Compliance is the process of going along with other people, ie conforming, but without accepting their views on a personal level. Compliance is the most superficial type of conformity because it means going along with the majority in order to avoid rejection and gain rewards such as social acceptance and approval.
IDENTIFICATION
When relating identification to social influence this refers to the process of adopting the views of a group because one wants to be with or be liked by the group. However, such views may not be maintained if the group is no longer present because people conform at a particular time and in a particular way. For example, a person might conform in order to maintain a relationship.
INTERNALISATION
Internalisation is a social influence process that results in a true and enduring change of views. It is about doing what we believe in.
OBEDIENCE
Obedience is a type of social influence where a person acts according to the orders of some authority figure. It is normally assumed that without such an order the person would not have carried out that behaviour.
Sometimes we are asked to do things that as an individual we regard as morally wrong. For example, if one joins the army then one might be asked to kill someone. In any other circumstances this might seem inconceivable but in the army people are trained to kill.
OBEDIENCE STUDY
Hofling (1966) conducted a study in a hospital to see if individual nurses would comply with the doctor's instructions even if they went against the hospital's regulations. Whist on duty a nurse received a telephone call from the doctor - a psychiatrist - about a particular patient. The nurse was asked to check that a certain drug - Astroten - was in the drug cabinet. The nurse first had to check that the drug was there and then return to the telephone for the doctor's instructions. The doctor requested that the nurse administer 20 mg of the drug to the patient. The maximum dose of the drug to administer was 10 mg and this instruction was written clearly on the bottle. The request required the nurse to contravene two hospital regulations. One contravention was administering a higher dosage of the drug and the other was taking orders over the telephone. Despite this Hofling found that twenty-one out of twenty-two nurses would have complied with the doctor's order. Nurses are expected to take orders from doctors and are not expected to disobey them. The study illustrates how powerful these types of social pressures can be.
REFUSING TO OBEY
Sometimes an individual might be obstinate and might stick to their beliefs or actions regardless of the amount of social pressure they are under.
SOCIAL FACILITATION
Social facilitation is the observation that the presence of other people can influence how well we perform a task and that the presence of other people often improves our performance.
AUDIENCE EFFECT
A person's performance may also be affected when someone is watching. Audience effects can be defined as the way that people will often behave differently when there are others present or others observing from the way that they would act if they were alone and unobserved.
SOCIAL LOAFING
Social loafing is the tendency in some situations for individuals to devote less effort to a group task than they would give to the same task if they were doing it on their own. Max Ringelmann (1913) measured the amount of effort that men put into a tug of war task and found that the greater the number of men, the less effort that each individual put in.
ATTITUDE
An attitude is a learned disposition to act in a certain kind of way towards a target.
PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION
PREJUDICE
Prejudice is a fixed, pre-set attitude which is usually negative and hostile, and which is usually applied to members of a particular social category.
Although prejudice can be positive as well as negative, psychologists tend to be concerned with the negative aspects because of the damaging effects.
STEREOTYPE
To stereotype a person or persons is to classify members of a social group as if they were all the same and to treat individuals belonging to that group as if no other characteristics were salient. A stereotype is a fixed and often simplistic generalisation about a group or a class of people. Stereotypes are frequently unflattering, eg the 'humourless German' or the 'careful Scot'. The social consequences of stereotyping are often negative and they can lead to prejudice and discrimination.
THE ABC OF ATTITUDES
A - affective - feelings of dislike, superiority, hostility and fear.
B - behaviour - insults, avoidance and physical attack.
C - cognition - the knowledge based on stereotyping.
THE SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
This approach maintains that prejudice is learned through observational learning and reinforcement eg passed down the generations via parents and other relatives.
THE PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY
This explanation focuses on the emotional and motivational reasons for stereotyping and prejudice. According to this view prejudice has its roots in the unconscious.
THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
This theory was proposed by Theodore Adorus (1950) in the USA. Adorus interviewed hundreds of people to try to find an explanation for the behaviour of the Nazis during World War Two. Adorus and his colleagues found a pattern of personality characteristics which they called the authoritarian personality. People with these behaviours were found to be:
a) hostile to those they perceive to be of inferior status
b) obedient and servile to those of higher status
c) intolerant of uncertainty and ambiguity
d) conventional ie upholding traditional values
e) quite rigid in their opinions and beliefs, seeing most things in terms of black and white
DISCRIMINATION
Discrimination is usually the behavioural expression of prejudice. Discrimination is a way of behaving towards members of a categorized group so that all members of that group are treated in the same, usually unfair, way.
