DEFINITION:

‘Social psychology is the scientific study of how the thoughts, feelings,

and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined,
and implied presence of others, 'imagined' and 'implied presences'
referring to the internalized social norms that humans are influenced by
even when they are alone”
In layman terms, social psychology is the study of how group or
individual behaviour is influenced by presence and behaviour of others,
both actual and implied in a social context

TOPICS UNDER SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Self Concept: At its most basic, self-concept is a collection of

beliefs one holds about oneself and the responses of others. It embodies
the answer to the question "Who am I?" add from class 11

Social Cognition: refers to a complex set of mental abilities

underlying social stimulus perception, processing, interpretation, and
response.
attribution theory: “Attribution theory deals with how the social perceiver
uses information to arrive at causal explanations for events.  It examines
what information is gathered and how it is combined to form a causal
judgment”.
In layman terms, Attribution theory is concerned with how ordinary
people explain the causes of behavior and events. For example, is
someone angry because they are bad-tempered or because something
bad happened?
dispositional attribution Dispositional attribution assigns the cause of
behavior to some internal characteristic of a person, rather than to
outside forces.
When we explain the behavior of others we look for enduring internal
attributions, such as personality traits. This is known as the fundamental
attribution error. For example, we attribute the behavior of a person to
their personality, motives or beliefs.

situational attribution The process of assigning the cause of behavior to

some situation or event outside a person's control rather than to some
internal characteristic.
When we try to explain our own behavior we tend to make external
attributions, such as situational or environment features.

Social Influences: is a phenomenon that occurs when the majority

of people in a group influence the thoughts and behaviours of other
people within that group. Groups use their shared beliefs and
experiences to strengthen the group, which can be positive or negative.
Kelman distinguished social influences as following:

compliance
is when an individual gave in to an expressed request from another
person or other people, whereas obedience refers to doing as told by
someone and as for conformity is giving in to group pressure or going
along with the majority. It can take place without a norm.

“Compliance refers to a form of social influence in which an individual

gave in to expressed requests from another person or other people
(Vaughan & Hogg, 2011).
”There are five factors that influence compliance (Jones & Pittman,
1982).
  One of the factors, intimidation, is to generate fear in order to let
the other to think that you are dangerous. 
 The second factor is known as exemplification, in which an
individual attempt to make others to look upon him as a morally
respectable person. 
 The third factor is known as supplication in which an individual
make others believe that he is pitiful, helpless and needy. 
 The fourth factor is self-promotion, in which an individual
attempted to generate respect and confidence by convincing
others that he is competent. Ingratiation is the last factor whereby
an individual will attempt to get others to like him before
subsequently making request for others to comply with him. 

TECHNIQUES OF COMPLIANCE
The "Door-in-the-Face" Technique
In this approach, individuals start by asking for a large commitment.
When the other person refuses, they then make a smaller and more
reasonable request.
For example, imagine that a business owner asks you to make a large
investment in a new business opportunity. After you decline the request,
the business owner asks if you could at least make a small product
purchase to help them out. After refusing the first offer, you might feel
compelled to comply with their second appeal.
Used mostly by marketers and politicians.

The "Foot-in-the-Door" Technique

In this approach, individuals start by asking for and obtaining a small
commitment. Once you have already complied with the first request, you
are more likely to also comply with a second, larger request.
For example, your coworker asks if you fill in for them for a day. After
you say yes, they then ask if you could just continue to fill in for the rest
of the week.

The "That's-Not-All" Technique

Once a product has been pitched, the seller then adds an additional
offer before the potential purchaser has made a decision. "That's not all,"
the salesperson might suggest, "If you buy a set of widgets now, we'll
throw in an extra widget for free!" The goal is to make the offer as
appealing as possible.
The "Lowball" Technique
This strategy involves getting a person to make a commitment and then
raising the terms or stakes of that commitment.5 For example, a
salesperson might get you to agree to buy a particular cell phone plan at
a low price before adding on a number of hidden fees that then make the
plan much more costly.

Ingratiation
This approach involves gaining approval from the target in order to gain
compliance.6 Strategies such as flattering the target or presenting
oneself in a way that appeals to the individual are often used in this
approach.
Reciprocity
People are more likely to comply if they feel that the other person has
already done something for them. We have been socialized to believe
that if people extend kindness to us, then we should return the favor.

Difference: Unlike conformity, compliance is a short term change that is

people may change their views and beliefs in public while simultaneously
holding on to their private beliefs when complying.

conformity
Conformity is peer pressure, the individual was not asked to do, they just
do it to go along with everyone else because the individual wants to be
accepted. Conformity is a trait that makes people change their behaviour
to fit social norms and behave according to the wishes of others
(Crutchfield, 1955).
In a group, people change their beliefs and attitudes to match them to
the majority of the people within the group. 

 normative social influence Normative social influence is where a

person conforms to fit in with the group because they don’t want to
appear foolish or be left out. Normative social influence is usually
associated with compliance, where a person changes their public
behaviour but not their private beliefs.
For example, a person may feel pressurised to smoke because the
rest of their friends are. 
 informational social influence Informational social influence is
where a person conforms because they have a desire to be right,
 and look to others who they believe may have more information.
This type of conformity occurs when a person is unsure of a
situation or lacks knowledge and is associated
with internalisation.
An example of this is if someone was to go to a posh restaurant for the
first time, they may be confronted with several forks and not know which
one to use, so they might look to a near by person to see what fork to
use first.

WHY DO PEOPLE CONFORM?

 Firstly, norms represent a set of unwritten and informal rules of
behaviour that provide information to members of a group about
what is expected of them in specific situations.
 Second, in general people feel uncomfortable if they are
considered different from others
 Third, the norm is seen as reflecting the views and beliefs of the
majority. Most ppl believe that the majority is more likely to be right
rather than wrong.

FACTORS OR DETERMINANTS OF CONFORMITY

A number of factors are known to increase the likelihood of conformity
within a group. Some of these are as follows:

 Group size—larger groups are more likely to conform to

similar behaviors and thoughts than smaller ones.
 Unanimity—individuals are more likely to conform to group
decisions when the rest of the group’s response is
unanimous.
 Cohesion—groups that possess bonds linking them to one
another and to the group as a whole tend to display more
conformity than groups that do not have those bonds.
 Status—individuals are more likely to conform with high-status
groups.
 Culture—cultures that are collectivist exhibit a higher degree
of conformity than individualistic cultures.
 Gender—women are more likely to conform than men in
situations involving surveillance, but less likely when there is
no surveillance. Societal norms establish gender differences
 that affect the ways in which men and women conform to
social influence.
 Age—younger individuals are more likely to conform than
older individuals, perhaps due to lack of experience and
status.
 Importance of stimuli—individuals may conform less
frequently when the task is considered important. This was
suggested by a study where participants were told that their
responses would be used in the design of aircraft safety
signals, and conformity decreased.
 Minority influence—minority factions within larger groups tend
to have influence on overall group decisions. This influence is
primarily informational and depends on consistent adherence
to a position, the degree of defection from the majority, and
the status and self-confidence of the minority members.

EXPERIMENTS TO EXPLAIN CONFORMITY

Asch’s Group pressure and conformity Experiment (normative): Asch

wanted to investigate whether people would conform to the majority in
situations where an answer was obvious.
Procedure: In Asch’s study there were 5-7 participants per group. Each
group was presented with a standard line and three comparison lines.
Participants had to say aloud which comparison line matched the
standard line in length. In each group there was only one real participant
the remaining 6 were confederates. The confederates were told to give
the incorrect answer on 12 out of 18 trails.
Results: Real participants conformed on 32% of the critical trials where
confederates gave the wrong answers. Additionally, 75% of the sample
conformed to the majority on at least one trial.

Sherif’s Autokinetic Experiment: Sherif (1935) conducted an experiment

with the aim of demonstrating that people conform to group norms when
they are put in an ambiguous (i.e. unclear) situation.
Method: Sherif used a lab experiment to study conformity.  He used the
autokinetic effect – this is where a small spot of light (projected onto a
screen) in a dark room will appear to move, even though it is still (i.e. it is
a visual illusion).
It was discovered that when participants were individually tested their
estimates on how far the light moved varied considerably (e.g. from
20cm to 80cm).
The participants were then tested in groups of three.  Sherif manipulated
the composition of the group by putting together two people whose
estimate of the light movement when alone was very similar, and one
person whose estimate was very different.  Each person in the group
had to say aloud how far they thought the light had moved.
Results: Sherif found that over numerous estimates (trials) of the
movement of light, the group converged to a common estimate.  The
person whose estimate of movement was greatly different to the other
two in the group conformed to the view of the other two.
Sherif said that this showed that people would always tend to conform. 
Rather than make individual judgments they tend to come to a group
agreement.
Conclusion: The results show that when in an ambiguous situation
(such as the autokinetic effect), a person will look to others (who know
more / better) for guidance (i.e. adopt the group norm).  They want to do
the right thing, but may lack the appropriate information.  Observing
others can provide this information.  This is known as informational
conformity.

obedience comes from authoritative people such as teachers and

policemen. The individual obeys the instruction that came from these
authoritative figures.

Group Processes: social loafing group polarisation social

facilitation

Prejudice:

Discrimination:

Interpersonal Processes:

Aggression:
Attitude and Stereotypes:
EARLY INFLUENCES

ARISTOTLE

Allport
cognitive consonance