PSY1022 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Social Comparison Theory, Mind Control, Mass Hysteria
26 May 2018
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PSY1022 – lecture – Week 9 – Social Psychology
- study of how people influence others
• behaviour
• beliefs
• attitudes
- highly social brains
• predisposed to form intimate personal networks
- the need to belong
• humans have a biological need for interpersonal bonds
• need to belong theory
•
o evolutionary adaptive
• social exclusion consequences
•
o mood and anxiety problems
o engagement in unhealthy behaviour
o increases aggression
• belonging and being socially accepted are fundamental for human beings
- social comparison theory
• upward - we compare ourselves to people superior to us
•
o highly motivated people - upward comparison
• downward
•
o we compare ourselves to people inferior to us
- social contagion
• looking at others in ambiguous situations, crowd behaviour
• mass hysteria - contagious outbreak of irrational behaviour and even
collective delusions
• urban legends - false stories released and believed to be true, accuracy
with retelling
- social facilitation
• enhanced perforce brought about by thre presence of others - occurs only
with easy tasks
• social disruption - worsening of behaviour in front of other - occurs with
difficult tasks
- fundamental attribution eerier
• attributions - assigning causes to behaviours
• tendency to explain behaviour in terms of internal factors like personality
traits, and to underestimate impact of situational factors
- social influence
• how the presence of other influence our behaviour
• conformity - the tendency of people to alter their behaviour as a result of
group pressure - horizontal
•
o Solomon asch’s - asch paradigm
o
▪ 1 participant - 4 participants under asch
• obedience- the group influence springs from our leaders - vertical
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Psy1022 lecture week 9 social psychology. Study of how people influence others: behaviour, beliefs, attitudes. Highly social brains: predisposed to form intimate personal networks. Social comparison theory: upward - we compare ourselves to people superior to us, highly motivated people - upward comparison, downward, we compare ourselves to people inferior to us. Social contagion looking at others in ambiguous situations, crowd behaviour: mass hysteria - contagious outbreak of irrational behaviour and even collective delusions, urban legends - false stories released and believed to be true, accuracy with retelling. Social facilitation: enhanced perforce brought about by thre presence of others - occurs only with easy tasks social disruption - worsening of behaviour in front of other - occurs with difficult tasks. Fundamental attribution eerier: attributions - assigning causes to behaviours tendency to explain behaviour in terms of internal factors like personality traits, and to underestimate impact of situational factors.
