SEPTEMBER 2018
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY:
PEOPLE IN GROUPS
1.1 C
JIM LEFERINK OP REININK
ERASMUS UNIVERSITEIT ROTTERDAM
Psychologie, Ba-1, 2017-2018
, SUMMARY PEOPLE IN GROUPS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PROBLEM 1: HEAD IN THE CLOUDS .............................................................................................................................. 3
TWO-FACTOR THEORY OF EMOTION ................................................................................................................................................. 3
EXCITATION-TRANSFER MODEL ........................................................................................................................................................ 4
EMOTIONAL LABILITY ..................................................................................................................................................................... 5
EMOTION MODELS........................................................................................................................................................................ 6
PROBLEM 2: WHODUNNIT? ......................................................................................................................................... 7
ACTS THAT BENEFIT ANOTHER PERSON .............................................................................................................................................. 7
THE COSTS OF HELPING .................................................................................................................................................................. 8
THE BYSTANDER EFFECT ................................................................................................................................................................. 9
EXTENSIONS OF THE BYSTANDER EFFECT .......................................................................................................................................... 11
PROBLEM 3: I SPY…...... ............................................................................................................................................. 12
SOCIAL INFLUENCE....................................................................................................................................................................... 12
SOCIAL IMPACT THEORY ............................................................................................................................................................... 13
STUDIES ON CONFORMITY ............................................................................................................................................................. 14
CONFORMITY ............................................................................................................................................................................. 15
MINORITY INFLUENCE .................................................................................................................................................................. 17
PROBLEM 4: THE INDIVIDUAL WITHIN THE GROUP ..................................................................................................... 19
SOCIAL FACILITATION ................................................................................................................................................................... 19
SOCIAL LOAFING ......................................................................................................................................................................... 21
GROUP DECISION MAKING............................................................................................................................................................ 22
DEINDIVIDUATION ....................................................................................................................................................................... 23
PROBLEM 5: YOUR WISH IS MY COMMAND ............................................................................................................... 25
THE MILGRAM EXPERIMENTS ........................................................................................................................................................ 25
OBEDIENCE ................................................................................................................................................................................ 29
POWER ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 31
PROBLEM 6: ATTITUDES ............................................................................................................................................ 33
THE STUDY OF ATTITUDES ............................................................................................................................................................. 33
PERSUASION BY COMMUNICATION.................................................................................................................................................. 35
PERSUASION BY DIRECT EXPERIENCE................................................................................................................................................ 40
PERSUASION BY OUR OWN ACTIONS ............................................................................................................................................... 41
PROBLEM 7: FIRST IMPRESSIONS ............................................................................................................................... 43
IMPRESSION FORMATION.............................................................................................................................................................. 43
CAUSAL ATTRIBUTION .................................................................................................................................................................. 45
ATTRIBUTIONAL AND MOTIVATIONAL BIASES .................................................................................................................................... 49
CONFIRMATION BIASES ................................................................................................................................................................ 52
INTERGROUP ATTRIBUTION ........................................................................................................................................................... 53
PROBLEM 8: ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE ........................................................................................................................... 55
ATTRACTION PRINCIPLES............................................................................................................................................................... 55
FROM ATTRACTION TO LIKING ....................................................................................................................................................... 56
FROM ACQUAINTANCE TO FRIEND .................................................................................................................................................. 58
CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS.................................................................................................................................................................. 59
LOVE ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 61
THREATS TO AND THE END OF RELATIONSHIPS................................................................................................................................... 62
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................................................... 64
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,PROBLEM 1: HEAD IN THE CLOUDS
aspects of emotions | attribution theory | emotion models
TWO-FACTOR THEORY OF EMOTION
Schachter’s Two-Factor Theory of Emotion – the experience of emotion is based on two factors
1. Physiological arousal (does not differentiate among emotions)
2. Cognitive interpretation of that arousal (cognitions label the arousal and determine which emotion is
experienced)
Schachter and his research team wondered whether it could be that when people are uncertain about how they
feel, their emotional state is actually determined by the reactions of others around them. In order to answer
this question, the researches proposed that two factors are necessary to feel a specific emotion.
1. First, the person must experience the symptoms of physiological arousal – such as a racing heart and
rapid breathing.
2. Second, the person must make a cognitive interpretation that explains the source of the arousal.
Schachter and Singer (1962) conducted an experiment in which they injected male volunteers with epinephrine,
a drug that heightens physiological arousal. Although one group was forewarned about the drug’s effects, a
second group was not. Members of a third group were injected with a harmless placebo.
• Drug-uninformed participants reported feeling relatively happy or angry depending on the
confederate’s performance (who acted either euphorically or angry, a salient cue).
• Drug-informed and placebo participants, however, were, as expected, less influenced by the social cues
of the confederate, as they did not need to search for an explanation of their physiological symptoms
that were caused by the drug.
Now, a limited conclusion can be drawn: When people are unclear about their own emotional states, they
sometimes interpret how they feel by watching others. But, there are two requirements in order for this
statement to be correct.
• For other people to influence your emotion your level of physiological arousal cannot be too intense or
else it will be experienced as aversive, regardless of the situation.
• Other people must be present as a possible explanation for arousal before its onset. Once people are
aroused, they turn for an explanation to events that preceded the change in their physiological state.
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, EXCITATION-TRANSFER MODEL
Zillmann’s Excitation-Transfer Model – the expression of any emotion [aggression] is a function of …
1. A learned behaviour [aggressive behaviour]
2. Arousal or excitation from another source [an annoying driver earlier on the day]
3. The person’s interpretation of the arousal state [an aggressive response seems appropriate]
Excitation transfer (by Zillmann) – the process whereby arousal caused by one stimulus is added to arousal from
a second stimulus, and the combined arousal is attributed to the second stimulus
Dutton & Aron (1974) conducted an experiment on two different locations: a high, unstable and unsafe bridge
as opposed to a low, rather stable and safe bridge. Here, the men experience arousal caused by the height of
the bridge (first stimulus) and arousal caused by the attractive female interviewer (second stimulus). Both
feelings of arousal are then added, and as a result, this combined arousal is only attributed to the attractive
female interviewer (second stimulus). In other words, the arousal from the first stimulus is misattributed to the
second stimulus (since it was originally caused by the first stimulus).
Residual excitation – arousal caused by a first stimulus that is transferred to a later moment
Example: A student has been working out at the gym, which has caused a high level of excitation (think about
increased heart rate, blood pressure and muscle tremor). When he walks out of the gym and drives to the
supermarket, there is a continuing effect of his (physical) arousal. At the supermarket, another customer’s car
sneaks forward into the targeted parking space of the student. Although this event might ordinarily be mildly
annoying, this time the residual excitation from the gym session triggers verbal abuse from the student.
It has been shown that arousal – even without distress – intensifies emotional reactions, positive or negative.
This result rules out the possibility that relief rather than arousal is what fuels attraction (see Dutton & Aron).
Craig Foster et al. (1998) confirmed that the arousal-attraction effect does indeed exist. They also found,
however, that the effect occurs even when people know the actual source of their arousal – in other words,
even without misattribution.
In short, residual excitation can be seen as a type of misattribution which occurs at a later time. That is, general
misattribution usually happens on a certain moment (the men and both stimuli: the bridge and the interviewer)
when excitation from the one stimulus is transferred to the other, whereas misattribution of residual excitation
takes places at a later moment when excitation from the one stimulus at another moment is transferred to
another stimulus at a later moment. In general, these types of misattribution have an effect on human
behaviour.
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