Social groups and Culture
The three parts of the Tri-Component Model of Attitudes
Affective
Behavioural
Cognitive
What is groupthink?
Groupthink is a way of thinking by individual members of a group characterised by a strong tendency to seek agreement when decision-making or problem-solving
What is status?
The importance of an individual's position in the group, as perceived by members of the group.
What is obedience?
Obedience is when we follow the commands of someone with authority or the rules and laws of our society
What is social cognition?
Social cognition involves how we interpret, analyse, remember and use information to make judgements about others in different social situations
What are heuristics?
Information processing strategies that enable individuals to form judgements, make decisions and solve problems quickly and efficiently.
An individual (or group's) ability to control or influence the thoughts, feelings or behaviour of another person (or group)
What is conformity?
Conformity is the tendency to adjust one’s thoughts, feelings or behaviour so that they become more consistent with those of other people, or with accepted standards about how a person should behave in certain situations
What are the 3 biases affecting attributions
- fundamental attribution bias
- actor-observer bias
- self-serving bias
What is cognitive dissonance and give an example
Cognitive dissonance is the psychological tension that occurs when our thoughts, feelings, and/ or behaviours do not align with one another
e.g. you know smoking causes cancer and you want to be healthy, but you still smoke. You ease the guilt by telling yourself it helps you relax or that you will quit later
Give 2 examples of ethical considerations that weren't upheld in the Stanford Prison Experiment
- withdrawal rights
- informed consent
- protection from harm
Name the 3 factors affecting obedience
- social proximity
- legitimacy of authority figures
- group pressure
How is an attitude formed?
1. Must be an evaluation of something
2. Must be settled and stable
3. Must be learnt through experience
What is a cognitive bias and give an example of a type of cognitive bias
unconscious, systematic tendencies to interpret information in a way that is neither rational nor based on objective reality e.g. halo effect, self-serving bias, false-consensus bias
Name 3 types of power
- reward power
- coercive power
- legitimate power
- referent power
- expert power
- informational power
Name and explain 2 factors affecting conformity
examples include: group size, unanimity, social loafing, informational influence, normative influence, culture
Explain what a fundamental attribution error is and give an example
The tendency to explain other people’s behaviour in terms of internal factors, whilst ignoring the possible external factors.
e.g. thinking a student is disorganised for always coming to school late (internal), but the reason they’re late is because they need to look after their mum who is sick (external).
Name and explain the four different types of heuristics.
1. anchoring heuristic - using the initial information we receive about an idea or concept as a mental anchor
2. availability heuristic - form a judgement, make a decision or solve a problem based on information that is easily accessible
3. representative heuristic - making a categorical judgement about an idea, event or person based on their similarity to other items
4. affect heuristic - using emotions to make a judgement or decision
Explain how status and power can influence obedience, and give an example in relation to the Stanford Prison Experiment
e.g. in the Stanford Prison Experiment, guards were given higher status and power than prisoners. This allowed them to control the prisoners' behaviour and contributed to some guards becoming increasingly authoritarian and abusive.
A participant in Milgram's experiment continues administering shocks despite showing signs of distress. Explain two factors that may have contributed to their obedience.
- social proximity - experimenter present
- legitimacy of authority figures - the experimenter presented as a credible authority figure