Individual decision making depends on one’s self-concept. Group decision making is based on how each member view themselves in relation to the other members of the group. This essay will discuss decision making within groups: The risky shift phenomenon. This essay will define the risky shift phenomenon and discuss how and why it takes place and also its strengths and weaknesses. The cultural value of the risky shift will be discussed as well as the informational influence of this phenomenon.
Individual stereotypes are based on attitudes on an individual person, which they can be judged on what they look like, what they are wearing, where they live and what gender they are. Group stereotype are attitudes towards people they are part of a group or who they socialise with, this can develop from early childhood taking prejudices and beliefs from parents, siblings and people close to them. Stereotypes can happen before social interaction due to what a person has been told or seen and their impression could be formed. Stereotypes can be thought of as a special kind of IPT that relate to an entire social group. The term was introduced into social science by Lippman (1992) who defined stereotypes as pictures in our heads.
Evaluate research studies on conformity Conformity is a type of social influence in which individuals change their attitudes or behaviour to adhere to existing social norms. Researchers identify to types of conformity – private or informative and public or normative. Private conformity refers to private acceptance of social norms, while public conformity is overt bahaviour consistent with social norms that are nor privately accepted. Why do people conform? On the one hand, people conform because they are members of social groups.
Evaluate Explanations of Conformity There are two explanations for conformity: Informational social influence and normative social influence. Informational Social Influence refers to instances where people conform because they are uncertain about what to do in a particular situation, so they look to others for guidance. Sherif: during an uncertain, we desire to be correct and look to our social group for answers. This then leads to internalisation. Which is when an individual is exposed to the views of a group, which causes them to validate or examine their own beliefs.
The term group dynamics implies that individual behaviours may differ depending on individuals' current or prospective connections to a sociological group. Group dynamics is the field of study within the social sciences that focuses on the nature of groups. Urges to belong or to identify may make for distinctly different attitudes (recognized or unrecognized), and the influence of a group may rapidly become strong, influencing or overwhelming individual proclivities and actions. The group dynamics may also include changes in behaviour of a person when he is represented before a group, the behavioural pattern of a person vis-a-vis group. Group dynamics form a basis for group therapy.
Conformity, obedience and the social influences involved This essay examines the likely outcomes of human behaviour. By analysing Asch’s study into conformity and Hofling’s experiment about obedience, the extent to which individuals can avoid such social influences is investigated. There’s been great research into why people conform; following Asch’s study Deutsch and Gerald found that there are two types of social influence which makes people conform. Normative social influence; where individuals conform to be accepted and belong to the group. Benefits come from belonging in a group, individuals may conform on the surface but disagree with the group internally.
Are there other factors that could have influenced, or accounted for, the results? If so, what are they? How could they have influenced, or accounted for, the results? I believe there were factors that could have influenced the results: • All participants knew they were being recorded, which may have caused them to be very cautious or hesitant to speak freely. • When people meet for the first time, even under friendly circumstances, judgments are made and impressions are formed.
Lucy Ramos 09/10/12 Social Psychology We often try to match our ideal self with our social self in order to feel more accepted in the social world. Social perception is known as the process by which people come to understand one another. In order to learn how others perceive us, we must first look at how we perceive ourselves and how we perceive others. The social comparison theory discussed by Leon Festinger (1954) states that people evaluate their own abilities and opinions by comparing themselves to others. People often compare themselves to others to feel more socially accepted or to set themselves apart from others.
To what extent is deviance socially constructed. Deviance is a social process, defining an act as deviant is to be somewhat describe behaviour at ‘anti-social’. Deviance is not a given act; it is conferred upon an act. It is a process and occurs over time, it involves a number of interactions-the deviant is stopped, interrogated, charged and sentenced. Statistics show that certain types of people are much more likely to be given a deviant label.
The confederates were told by the experimenter to give blatant wrong answers in judging which line on the left matched one of the three lines on the right. The experiment began when the subjects gave their judgements. For the first few trials, the confederates gave the right answer. The real subject felt calm and confident in his answer he gave as he genuinely agreed with the other people because it was the right answer. But something happened on the third/fourth trial.