Defining Social Psychology:
- The scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual
behaviour and thought in social situations [Baron & Byrne, 1997, p. 6]
- An attempt to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviour of
individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others
[Allport, 1968]
- Any psychology must be a psychology of a society, it must be concerned with specific
contexts, contexts inhabited by real living people, people inhabiting bodies, living in
specific communities, with particular histories [Ratele, 2003, p. 13]
Social Psychology has its roots in Psychology and Sociology:
- Studies a wide range of topics and influenced by a number of disciplines
- It is not a static field, it has and continues to change across national, interdisciplinary
and contextual boundaries [Foster & Louw-Potgieter, 1991]
- Humans are social beings, which means we have an impact on each other
Social psychology helps us understand:
- How we interact with and influence each other’s thoughts and behaviour
- The factors that inform/cause our behaviour
Social Influence
- Conformity
- Compliance
- Obedience
Social cognition
- Attitudes
- Attributions
Social interaction
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Interpersonal attraction and love
- Aggression and prosocial behaviour
, Social influence
Conformity refers to the process of changing one’s own behaviour to match the actions
of others more closely
Several Psychologists have dedicated their lives to the study of conformity
E.g. Muzafer Sherif - the autokinetic effect
e.g. Solomon Asch’s study on conformity
Why do we conform?
- The need to be liked and accepted by others
- We measure ourselves against others in terms of what is acceptable or ‘normal’ –
normative social influence
- We take cues from others on how to behave in situations where the behavioural
norms are ambiguous – informational social influence
What is the risk of conformity?
- Groupthink: when people in a group feel that it is more important to maintain the
group’s cohesiveness than consider the facts realistically
E.g. covid-19 level 1 restrictions
E.g. mob violence
Irvin Janis (1972, 1982) summarises several symptoms of groupthink
Compliance refers to when people change their behaviour as a result of another person
or group asking or directing them to change
- In compliance, those asking for the change often have no authority or power to
command such change
- A few techniques can be used to get others to comply (commonly used in marketing):
- Foot-in-the-door technique: involves getting a person to agree to a large request by
getting them to agree to a smaller one first
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