PSYC1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Floyd Henry Allport, Social Facilitation, Ingroups And Outgroups
12 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Interested in human beings - why are we here? Why do we think and do certain things?
•
To understand human nature
•
For the first time, in hundreds of evolution, we no longer have closed primary groups --> implications
•
Incredibly easy to tap into people's identity needs and in group identification
•
Our willingness to be collective and submit ourselves to larger groups
•
Social psychology is about everyday life but also different from common sense knowledge
•
Scientific knowledge is systematic, predictable and causal
•
To be analytical and critical; not just accept things the way they are
•
SOCIAL INFLUENCE PROCESSES
Social influences are everywhere
•
Way you look, what you wear etc.
•
Asked a friend fashion advice?
○
Performed a stupid act on a dare or a bribe?
○
Have you ever…
•
All situations in which we are subject to social influence processes
•
Simplest social influence occurs when people are in each other's company
▪
Triplett interested in simple performance and motor behaviour - studied how long it takes reel up a
fishing line - how efficient
First empirical social psychology experiments
Noticed that when he studied participants would come into the same time slot - several doing same
task --> doing better in performance
Called the dynamogenic factor theory: presence of another person is a stimulus to arousing the
competitive instinct.
Does so spontaneously --> people do task better when not alone
Also works in real life situation
Social Facilitation Triplett (1989)
□
Driver's take 15% less time to travel the first 100 yards at an intersection where there is another driver
beside them, than when they are alone
Tower (1986)
□
Looked at the eating behaviour of chickens alone and in company
Apparently full chicken then ate 2/3 again as much grain as it had already eaten
Social psychology also happened in the animal kingdom
Bayer (1929)
□
Ants digs alone - excavates 232mg
Ant digs with another ant - excavates 765mg
Chen (1937)
□
Nobody makes you do anything; you just happen to be together
▪
Mere Presence and Audience Effects
○
Mere presence
□
Co-action - more than one person performs the same task
□
Audience effects - when one person perform and others watch
□
Floyd Allport, 1924 - Social facilitation
▪
When students ask are to write an essay - do less well than when they are not alone
□
Contrary evidence: evidence for social inhibition
▪
Social influence occurs simply in the simple presence of another
○
Minimal Social Influence
•
Social Psychology
Social Influence Processes
Social Loafing
Conformity
4B - Social Psychology
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
9:00 PM
PSYCH 1001 Page 1
When students ask are to write an essay - do less well than when they are not alone
□
If dominant response correct - facilitation (when task is good - do better)
Thus what you do well (highly skilled) - you will tend to do best in front of others
◊
If dominant response incorrect - inhibition (when task is complex --> do worse)
Arousal increases dominant responses (having an audience arouses your performance - performance
increases)
□
Learned arousal helps performance
Task/behaviour is easy or well
◊
Arousal hinders performance
Task/behaviour is hard or not well learned
◊
Depends on location of response in your hierarchy
Arousal has different effects on performance (i.e. helps or harms performance)
□
Zajonc, 1965: Drive Theory
▪
Mere presence
▪
When others are looking at you - they are an evaluative audience (making judgements of you)
□
Evaluation apprehension
▪
When other people are there, they distract you --> arouses
□
Distraction-conflict
▪
First and third apply to both humans and animals; second only applies to humans
▪
Put cockroach in a maze; switch on light (cockroaches avoid light) - need to navigate to box
◊
Runs from light in a straight line
◊
When introducing an audience cockroach into the performance
◊
Alone condition - cockroach will run at a normal time
◊
Mere presence condition - task will be performed faster
◊
Cockroaches - dominant response
Arousal facilitates the performance of the dominant response
Alone condition - faster
◊
Mere presence - slower
◊
What happens in a complex maze - the opposite happens
Arousal inhibits the performance of the non-dominant response
Zajonc, Heingartner & Herman (1969)
□
Participants have to perform an unfamiliar or familiar task - putting on own clothes or a strangers
clothes - timed
Either did it alone, did it with an audience that is non-evaluative (people weren't looking) and people
looking (evaluative)
Faster - evaluative audience
◊
Less well - alone
◊
Putting on own clothes
Best - alone
◊
Putting on unfamiliar clothes
Same case with humans
□
Evidence for mere presence effects in animals
▪
Potential sources of the arousal
○
PSYCH 1001 Page 2
Document Summary
For the first time, in hundreds of evolution, we no longer have closed primary groups --> implications. Incredibly easy to tap into people"s identity needs and in group identification. Our willingness to be collective and submit ourselves to larger groups. Social psychology is about everyday life but also different from common sense knowledge. To be analytical and critical; not just accept things the way they are. All situations in which we are subject to social influence processes. Simplest social influence occurs when people are in each other"s company. Nobody makes you do anything; you just happen to be together. Triplett interested in simple performance and motor behaviour - studied how long it takes reel up a fishing line - how efficient. Noticed that when he studied participants would come into the same time slot - several doing same task --> doing better in performance.
