Social Psychology

One type of social influence is incidental social influence which is caused in public settings and involves the interactions with others. One of the most obvious examples of incidental influence is that the presence of other people, even though they are not trying to influence us, has an impact on our B. This has been demonstrated in Triplett’s (1898) classic observation of cyclists, who rode faster when racing together than when racing alone. This is claimed to be the first demonstration of t...

Social Influence 1. Types of social influence There 3 main types of social influence; These are: 1. Conformity: Changing one’s B to match another person’s B 2. Obedience: Changes B to respond to a direct order from an authority 3. Compliance: Changing B under direct pressures of others. Compliance is similar to conformity as it can come from anyone. However, it differs from conformity as there is a direct pressure. Regarding obedience their similarity is that it can come from authority and ...

Through the process of social perception people form first impressions of others based on their perceived characteristics. Asch (1946) shaped the way ψs investigate and understand perceptions of other people. What mostly interested Asch is how quickly people arrive at impressions, despite the diversity of info that needs to be combined. One of Asch’s 1st studies compared 2 lists of adjectives that were identical except from a single word. The 1st list contained the words; intelligent, skillfu...

According to Alport (1954) an attitude is defined as a mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s responses to all objects and situations in which it is related. Understanding differences in attitudes across people and uncovering the reasons why people like and dislike different things has long interested social psychologists. An attitude can also be defined as an overall evaluation of an object that is...

The need to belong is a basic and vital need of all human animals. It is a fact that adult individuals spend 80% of waking time in the company of others and also according to Emler (1994) time spent with others is preferred. Biological evidence also supports the importance of belonging, as it has been shown that parts of the brain that are related to processing social info, such as the medial prefrontal cortex are always active. According to researchers the need to belong is a fundamental human ...