Introduction to psychology
Chapter 12: Social Psychology
Social Psychology: the study of how people influence other people’s thoughts,
feelings, and actions.
12.1 How Does Group Membership Affect People?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Describe the advantages and disadvantages of groups.
Explain factors that determine ingroup and outgroup formation.
Describe the effects of group membership on personal identity and on brain activity.
Define social facilitation, deindividuation, group polarization, groupthink, and social
loafing.
Differentiate between conformity, compliance, and obedience.
To survive and reproduce, animals need food, water, shelter, and mates. Over the course of
human evolution, being kicked out of the group would have dire consequences, so people
are motivated to maintain good relations with members of their groups.
Social Brain Hypothesis: places good group leadership in account to brain size.
▪ Primates have large brains, particularly large prefrontal cortexes because
they live in dynamic and complex social groups that change over time.
People Favor Their Own Groups
Banding together in a group provides numerous advantages, such as security from predators
and assistance in hunting and gathering food (also provides mating opportunities). Because
human ancestors banded together for survival, people are powerfully connected to the
groups they belong to sororities, fraternities, sports teams etc. Groups to which particular
people belong to are ingroups, to groups which they do not belong are outgroups.
Formation of Ingroups and Outgroups
Two conditions appear to be critical for group formation:
, Reciprocity: if person A helps/harms person B, then person B will help/harm person
B.
Transitivity: people generally share their friends’ opinions of other people. If person
A and person B are friends, then if person A likes person C and dislikes person D, then
person B will also tend to like person C and dislike person D.
Outgroup Homogeneity Effect: the tendency to view outgroup members as less
varied than ingroup members. (People also tend to dehumanize members of
outgroups).
Social Identity Theory
Social Identity Theory: the idea that ingroups consist of individuals who perceive
themselves to be members of the same social category and experience pride through
their group membership.
Ingroup Favoritism: the tendency for people to evaluate favorable and privilege
members of the ingroup more than members of the outgroup.
Minimal Group Paradigm: (Tajfel and Turner, 1979) a methodology employed in
social psychology. May be used for a variety of purposes but most well known as a
method for investigating the minimal conditions required for discrimination to occur
between groups.
Women show a larger ingroup bias towards other women than men do toward other men.
Brain Activity Associated with Group Membership
Being a good group member requires recognizing and following the group’s social rules. They
need to be able to understand what other group members are thinking, especially how
others are thinking about them.
- Medial prefrontal cortex is important for thinking about other people. Research
found higher levels of medial prefrontal activity when people evaluate ingroup
members than when they evaluate outgroup members.
- Mirror neurons – more active when ingroup members are being harmed.
Groups Influence Individual Behavior
Most people are easily influenced by others, conform to group norms, and obey commands
made my authorities. The desire to fit in with groups and avoid being ostracized is so great
, that under some circumstances people willingly engage in
behaviors they otherwise would condemn.
Social Facilitation
Social Facilitation: the idea that the presence of
others generally enhances performance.
▪ Arousal leads animals to emit a dominant
response
▪ You want your best work to be your
dominant response, so that you do well even
under pressure
Deindividuation
Deindividuation: a state of reduced individuality,
reduced self-awareness, and reduced attention to
personal standards’ this phenomenon may occur
when people are part of a group.
▪ Stanford Prison Study
▪ When self-awareness disappears, so do restraints
▪ Deindividuated people often do things they would not do if they were alone
or self-aware, e.g. crowd behavior.
▪ People especially become deinvidualised when aroused and anonymous and
when responsibility is diffused.
Group Decision Making
Risky-Shift Effect: groups often make riskier decisions than individuals would.
Group Polarization: the process by which initial attitudes of groups become more
extreme over time.
Chapter 12: Social Psychology
Social Psychology: the study of how people influence other people’s thoughts,
feelings, and actions.
12.1 How Does Group Membership Affect People?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Describe the advantages and disadvantages of groups.
Explain factors that determine ingroup and outgroup formation.
Describe the effects of group membership on personal identity and on brain activity.
Define social facilitation, deindividuation, group polarization, groupthink, and social
loafing.
Differentiate between conformity, compliance, and obedience.
To survive and reproduce, animals need food, water, shelter, and mates. Over the course of
human evolution, being kicked out of the group would have dire consequences, so people
are motivated to maintain good relations with members of their groups.
Social Brain Hypothesis: places good group leadership in account to brain size.
▪ Primates have large brains, particularly large prefrontal cortexes because
they live in dynamic and complex social groups that change over time.
People Favor Their Own Groups
Banding together in a group provides numerous advantages, such as security from predators
and assistance in hunting and gathering food (also provides mating opportunities). Because
human ancestors banded together for survival, people are powerfully connected to the
groups they belong to sororities, fraternities, sports teams etc. Groups to which particular
people belong to are ingroups, to groups which they do not belong are outgroups.
Formation of Ingroups and Outgroups
Two conditions appear to be critical for group formation:
, Reciprocity: if person A helps/harms person B, then person B will help/harm person
B.
Transitivity: people generally share their friends’ opinions of other people. If person
A and person B are friends, then if person A likes person C and dislikes person D, then
person B will also tend to like person C and dislike person D.
Outgroup Homogeneity Effect: the tendency to view outgroup members as less
varied than ingroup members. (People also tend to dehumanize members of
outgroups).
Social Identity Theory
Social Identity Theory: the idea that ingroups consist of individuals who perceive
themselves to be members of the same social category and experience pride through
their group membership.
Ingroup Favoritism: the tendency for people to evaluate favorable and privilege
members of the ingroup more than members of the outgroup.
Minimal Group Paradigm: (Tajfel and Turner, 1979) a methodology employed in
social psychology. May be used for a variety of purposes but most well known as a
method for investigating the minimal conditions required for discrimination to occur
between groups.
Women show a larger ingroup bias towards other women than men do toward other men.
Brain Activity Associated with Group Membership
Being a good group member requires recognizing and following the group’s social rules. They
need to be able to understand what other group members are thinking, especially how
others are thinking about them.
- Medial prefrontal cortex is important for thinking about other people. Research
found higher levels of medial prefrontal activity when people evaluate ingroup
members than when they evaluate outgroup members.
- Mirror neurons – more active when ingroup members are being harmed.
Groups Influence Individual Behavior
Most people are easily influenced by others, conform to group norms, and obey commands
made my authorities. The desire to fit in with groups and avoid being ostracized is so great
, that under some circumstances people willingly engage in
behaviors they otherwise would condemn.
Social Facilitation
Social Facilitation: the idea that the presence of
others generally enhances performance.
▪ Arousal leads animals to emit a dominant
response
▪ You want your best work to be your
dominant response, so that you do well even
under pressure
Deindividuation
Deindividuation: a state of reduced individuality,
reduced self-awareness, and reduced attention to
personal standards’ this phenomenon may occur
when people are part of a group.
▪ Stanford Prison Study
▪ When self-awareness disappears, so do restraints
▪ Deindividuated people often do things they would not do if they were alone
or self-aware, e.g. crowd behavior.
▪ People especially become deinvidualised when aroused and anonymous and
when responsibility is diffused.
Group Decision Making
Risky-Shift Effect: groups often make riskier decisions than individuals would.
Group Polarization: the process by which initial attitudes of groups become more
extreme over time.
