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Social Psychology
Wjhat is meant by social psychology? - 2
Agency Theory - 3,4
Social Impact Theory - 4,5
Milgram variations - 6,7
Factors affecting obedience - 8
Realistic conflict theory - 9,10
Social Identity Theory - 11
Factors affecting prejudice - 12, 13

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
● Social psychology examines the effects of our environment on
our behaviour and how our actions are influenced by
individuals, groups and culture
...

● Our thoughts and feelings are strongly influenced by the social
setting in which we find ourselves and we will behave in ways
we perceive it as being consistent with the social setting
...

● These are carried out in real-life settings and can be universally
applied when studying individuals, groups and culture
...


AGENCY THEORY
-

-

-

Agency theory, a theory by Stanley Milgram in the 1960s argues that there are
two mental states in response to obedience ; autonomy and agency
...

Milgram developed his ideas as a response to Nazi war crimes, especially the
trial of Adolf Eichmann
...
Early humans who were disobedient did not
survive the dangers of the prehistoric world and we have not inherited their
genes
...


DEFINITIONS
Obedience = A form of social influence whereby an individual is influenced by a real or
imagined pressure from another
...

Dissent = Rejecting the demands from authority figures
...

Agentic state = If a person is perceived as having more authority than us, we make the
agentic shift and defer responsibility by acting on their behalf and can fall victim to moral
strain
...

Cognitive Dissonance = State of discomfort occurs when we are told two ideas that
conflict with each other
...

Procedure : 40 male participants, aged 20-50
Results : 65% of participants continued to the highest level of 450 volts
...

Conclusion : Ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by an authority figure,
even to the extent of killing an innocent human being
...
People tend to obey orders from
other people if they recognize their authority as morally right and/or legally based
...


EVALUATION
-

-

Credibility : Later studies (like Burger, 2009) have tended to back up Milgram’s
conclusions
...
Agency Theory also explains
events like the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide and the ethnic cleansings in
the Balkans in the ‘90s and in Syria today when these crimes are ordered by
authority figures
...
Milgram’s theory suggests that the Agentic State is an escape
from moral strain, but this is not what is observed in his studies
...
The artificial and unusual nature of the supporting research might
count against the theory
...

Evaluate one of Milgram’s variation studies
...

Compare the agency theory with the social impact theory as an explanation of
obedience

SOCIAL IMPACT THEORY
An explanation of the extent to which other people’s real or imagined presence can alter
the way an individual thinks, feels or acts
...
(Bibb Latane, 1981)
...


EVALUATION
-

-

Application of principles can be observed in everyday life
Predicting behaviour in unusual circumstances is useful
Growing research
Social Impact pays a lot of attention to the characteristics of the person giving the
orders but not much to the person receiving them
...

Treats people as passive
Milgram is simplistic compared to SIT
No discussion of moral strain
Can be measured

EXAM QUESTIONS
-

Compare the agency theory with the social impact theory as an explanation of
obedience
Evaluate Social Impact Theory
Sakina has been told by her teacher that she should do her homework this week if she is
to improve on her current grades
...


MILGRAM VARIATIONS
EXPERIMENT 7 - Telephone instructions / closeness of authority
Aim : To see if having the experimenter in the room affected the level of obedience
...
Initial
instructions given face to face and then the experimenter would leave the room and
would give instructions via telephone
Results : The number of participants that gave full volts (450V) sharply fell from 65% to
22
...
Participants continued to give lower shocks rather than increasing the voltage
and if asked they would lie
...


EXPERIMENT 10 - Rundown office block / Institutional context
Aim : To see if the outcome would be similar to the original research carried out at Yale
University
...

The same procedures were followed as the original, although the building was sparsely
furnished
...
5%) gave 450V and Milgram didn’t see much of a significant difference
...
Participants questioned the credentials of the
company, but still obeyed
...
In
particular to see if an order given by an ordinary man, who it is clear holds no authority
...
There is an accomplice in the room who was
initially given the task of recording the times and the participant thinks is another
participant like him and the learner
...

Results : The experimenter leaving makes an awkward atmosphere, which undermined
the credibility of the experiment
...
80% of
participants broke away from the ordinary man’s instructions, even though the
accomplice urged them to continue
...
The accomplice suggested that they switched roles and the
participant took over recording
...
All 16 protested and 5 tried to disconnect the generator or physically restrain
the accomplice
...

Conclusion : Levels of obedience fell dramatically with no perceived authority
...


FACTORS AFFECTING OBEDIENCE
Authoritarian personality is a person who favours an authoritarian social system and
admires obedience to authority figures
...
believed parenting style had a
huge impact on personality traits and measured traits such as toughness,
destructiveness and cynicism on the F-Scale (fascism)
F-Scale aims to measure prejudice and anti-democratic views
Elms and Milgram used the F-scale with participants

LOCUS OF CONTROL
Internal : Takes more responsibility for their actions as they believe they’re in control
...

External : Takes less responsibility for their actions and feels what happens to them is
down to other people and chance
...

-

Schurz, 1985 - Austrian participants were instructed to give painful doses of
ultrasound to a female student
...
”, personal autonomy
Collectivist - group focused, “We…”, value loyalty to group

Hofstede, 2011 - PDI (Power, distance index) how accepting people are of hierarchical
order and inequality in society, countries ranked low will have lower obedience levels
and more dissent
...

- Suggested when two or more groups are striving for the same goal, prejudice
and hostility will intensify
...

The negative aspect relates to the fact that each group will act to obstruct the other
group’s achievement
...

Leads to intergroup relations deteriorating
...

If the struggle between the groups may be for scarce material or physical resources,
such as food or territory
...


POSITIVE INTERDEPENDENCE
Prejudice can be reduced through groups working cooperatively to accomplish a goal or
introducing subordinate goals which are goals that can only be achieved through
intergroup cooperation (tasks that are only completed if they work together)

ROBBERS CAVE EXPERIMENT
Researchers created intergroup competition with a sporting tournament where only one
group could win exhibiting negative interdependence
...


EVALUATION
-

Robbers cave experiment - The findings demonstrate competition leads to
intergroup hostility and prejudice like suggested

-

-

Competition may not be the only determinant - Prejudice can arise from the
simplest reason, therefore it may be more about our own knowledge of self-worth
over competition
Can be applied to reducing prejudice - Introducing subordinate goals

SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY
The view that your behaviour is motivated by your social identity
...
Personal identity is based on your
characteristics and achievements
...
- Tajfel and Turner, 1979

1
...
Categorisation is a basic characteristic of human thought and we have
little control over this automatic sorting process
...
Social identification - The individual begins adopting the beliefs, values and
attitudes of the groups to which they see themselves belonging
...

3
...
As we perceive the ingroup as
superior, we consequently view the outgroup as inferior
...

Ethnocentric - Replicated in New Zealand and found that Indigenous Polynesian
students were more generous giving points to those in the outgroups unlike their
white New Zealand classmates, who may have a more collectivist culture
...


FACTORS AFFECTING PREJUDICE
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Situation - Social norms, competition and resource stress
...


COMPETITION AND RESOURCE STRESS
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-

RCT highlighted the importance of competition (can lead to prejudice)
Esses et al 2001 - The problem that occurs when believe believe resources like
jobs and money are limited, prejudice occurs if an ingroup perceives themselves
to be in direct competition for scarce resources
Heightened if the situation is seen as “zero-sum” (immigrants seen to be getting
things at the cost of natives)

SITUATION EVALUATION
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-

Akrami et al 2009 - experimentally manipulated social norms
...
As a result, mean
levels of sexism were significantly lower for a group who had heard the statement
compared to a control group who hadn’t heard the statement
...

Research provides evidence of how to combat prejudice
Critical if we want to live in a harmonious society
...
However measures of social
conformity susceptibility to cultural pressure and adherence to culturally
approved norms showed significant correlations with prejudice towards black
South Africans
...

The participants were 16 year old school children who may want to fit in more

CONTEMPORARY STUDY
Reicher and Haslam study 2006 :
Aim : To explain antisocial group behaviour in terms of social identity theory
...

Procedure : A mock prison was created and a volunteer sample of 15 socially and
ethnically diverse males were screened for psychological and medical issues, and
recruited via national newspapers and leaflets
...

1
...
On day 3, one prisoner was promoted but then the
roles were fixed (groups became impermeable)
2
...
On day 3 they were told it was random, creating a
sense of unfairness (lack of legitimacy)
3
...

Results : In general, RWA increased over the study
...

Conclusion : Subordinate group members will challenge inequality when they identify
with their own group and when permeability and legitimacy of the dominant group are
low
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