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MPC-004 : ADVANCED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Tutor Marked Assignment (TMA)
Course Code: MPC-
Assignment Code: MPC 004/ASST/TMA/2019-
Marks: 100
NOTE: All Questions Are Compulsory
SECTION-A
Answer the following question in about 1000 words each 15 x 3 = 45 Marks
1 Discuss the methods of data collection and analysis used in social psychological research.
Explain the various ethical issues involved in social psychological research.
2 Explain the meaning of social influence. Elaborate the various areas of social influence.
3 Discuss the factors affecting helping behavior and the theories related to pro social behaviour.
SECTION-B
Answer the following questions in about 400 words each 5 x 5 = 25 Marks
4 Discuss the historical developments of social psychology.
5 Describe the relevance of attribution towards explaining the causes of behavior and explain
the various errors of attribution.
6 Discuss the characteristics, steps and methods of ethnography.
7 Elaborate upon the various applications of social psychology.
8 Explain the methods of conflict resolution.
SECTION-C
Answer the following in about 50 words each 10 x 3 = 30 Marks
9 Scope of social psychology.
10 Mass psychology.
11 Impression formation.
12 Self handicapping.
13 Interpersonal attraction.
14 Expectation States Theory.
15 Importance of group dynamics.
16 Role of cooperation.
17 Active crowd.
18 Features of group.
M.P.C.-
Advanced Social Psychology
NOTE: All questions are compulsory SECTION-A Answer the following question in about 1000 words each. Q. 1. Discuss the methods of data collection and analysis used in social psychological research. Explain the various ethical issues involved in social psychological research. Ans. Methods of Data Collection: Observations, the study of documents, questionnaire, interviews, testing and experiment, etc. Methods of Analysis Statistical Methods: Correlational, Factor analysis Logical and theoretical: Constructs of typology, various means of explanations etc. Our discussion will be limited to following methods: l Observational method lI Correlation method lII Experimental method lV Ethnography I. Observational Method: Observation is the old method of social psychology. Many writers have used different terms and categories for this method like method of systematic observation (Morgan and King), direct observation (Hilgard and Atkinson) and Feldman has included it in field study. Observation is to simply observe the phenomena under study as it occur naturally. This method plays a very important role in the collection of data on overt behaviour and the actions of individuals. The main problem involved in the application of this method include, what to observe? How to fixate the observations? How to structure observation? What should be the units of observation in social psychological research, and the definite interval of time for observation? This method proceeds in following two stages: Describing behaviour: This methods starts with the observation of behaviours in natural setting that is relevant for the research. The observation may be based on the questions like what do people do? Can various behaviours be
the aggressive content of television programs viewed by an individual is compared with the degree of aggressive behaviour that person carries out. Experimental Method: Experimentation has been the dominant research method in social psychology, mainly because it is without equal as a method for testing theories that predict causal relationships between variables. The goal of an experiment is to see what happens to a phenomenon, such as obedience, when the researcher deliberately modifies some features of the environment in which the phenomenon occurs (that is, if variable A is changed, will there be resulting changes in B). There are two basic types of experiments in social psychology laboratory and natural laboratory and natural experiments have their particular rules. The laboratory experiment is of particular interest in social psychological discussions. Social psychologists use some variations. Two of the most common of these variations are the quasi-experiments and true randomized experiments. These two methods differ with respect to realism of the setting in which data are collected, and the degree of control that the researcher has over that setting. Quasi-experimental Method: Quasi-experiment is conducted in a natural, everyday life setting, over which the researcher has less than complete control. The lack of control over the setting arises from the very fact that it is an everyday life setting. Here, the realism of the setting is relatively high, the control relatively low. Ethical Issues: Perhaps the most important ethical principle is that participants should be protected from harm, psychological or otherwise. Psychological harm can be difficult to operationalise because it can depend upon the person and it can be difficult to detect, both the participants and the researchers may not know that participants have been harmed psychologically. However, that being said, researchers can do their upmost to prevent any undue stress for their participants. Giving participants the right to withdraw does not just informing them that they can leave the study at any time, but also informing them that they have the right to withdraw their results from the study at any time. This is important because some participants may feel pressured into continuing with the study. It is also important because it prevents the participants from feeling embarrassed about their results. Take for example a study in which a person has to take an IQ test, that returns the result that they have below average intelligence. This could be embarrassing for the participants and may lead them to want to withdraw. Following on from the previous point. Ensuring that your results are anonymous and also confidential follows the ethical code put forth by the British Psychological Society. No one outside of the experiment — and ideally in the experiment too — should be able to identify the participants from the results. For any research to be ethical, the researcher must have gained informed consent from the participants. The ‘informed’ part of this ethical principle is the most important part. It is no use to gain consent from participants when they are not informed about the true nature of the study. The participants were told that they would be participating in research on memory and learning, and they consented to take part based on that knowledge. Milgram therefore did not gain informed consent because the participants were not fully informed about the true nature of the study, that is, it was a study into obedience. Q. 2. Explain the meaning of social influence. Elaborate the various areas of social influence. Ans. Social influence is the change in behaviour that one person causes in another, intentionally or unintentionally, as a result of the way the changed person perceives themselves in relationship to the influencer, other people and society in general. Three areas of social influence are conformity, compliance and obedience. Conformity is changing how you behave to be more like others. This plays to belonging and esteem needs as we seek the approval and friendship of
others. Conformity can run very deep, as we will even change our beliefs and values to be like those of our peers and admired superiors. Compliance is where a person does something that they are asked to do by another. They may choose to comply or not to comply, although the thoughts of social reward and punishment may lead them to compliance when they really do not want to comply. Obedience is different from compliance in that it is obeying an order from someone that you accept as an authority figure. In compliance, you have some choice. In obedience, you believe that you do not have a choice. Many military officers and commercial managers are interested only in obedience. Three areas of social influence are conformity, compliance and obedience. Conformity is changing how you behave to be more like others. This plays to belonging and esteem needs as we seek the approval and friendship of others. Conformity can run very deep, as we will even change our beliefs and values to be like those of our peers and admired superiors. Compliance is where a person does something that they are asked to do by another. They may choose to comply or not to comply, although the thoughts of social reward and punishment may lead them to compliance when they really do not want to comply. Obedience is different from compliance in that it is obeying an order from someone that you accept as an authority figure. In compliance, you have some choice. In obedience, you believe that you do not have a choice. Many military officers and commercial managers are interested only in obedience. Conformity: Conformity is the process by which an individual’s attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours are conditioned by what is conceived to be what other people might perceive. This influence occurs in both small groups and society as a whole, and it may be the result of subtle unconscious influences, or direct and overt social pressure. Conformity also occurs by the “Implied Presence” of others, or when other people are not actually present. For example, people tend to follow the norms of society when eating or watching television, even when they are at home by themselves. People often conform from a desire to achieve a sense of security within a group–typically a group that is of a similar age, culture, religion, or educational status. Any unwillingness to conform carries with it the very real risk of social rejection. In this respect, conformity can be seen as a safe means of avoiding bullying or deflecting criticism from peers. Conformity is often associated with adolescence and youth culture, but it affects humans of all ages. Although peer pressure may be viewed as a negative trait, conformity can have either good or bad effects depending on the situation. Driving safely on the correct side of the road is a beneficial example of conformity. Conformity influences the formation and maintenance of social norms and allows society to function smoothly and predictably. Because conformity is a group phenomenon, such factors as group size, unanimity, cohesion, status, prior commitment, and public opinion all help to determine the level of conformity an individual will display (Aronson, et.al. (2007).
Factors Found to Increase Conformity Asch’s experiment inspired a lot of follow-up research by other experimenters. Factors found to increase conformity included the following: (1) Attractiveness of other members in the group: People tended to go along with a group of attractive people. (2) Complexity or difficulty of the task: People were more likely to conform if the judgment was difficult. (3) Group cohesiveness: People conformed more if friendships or mutual dependencies were set up beforehand. To appreciate further the nature of this dilemma, let us imagine an introductory lecture in psychology. The instructor is describing the Asch study and has just shown a picture of the experimental stimuli. Suddenly he is
and buying things from each other. When you feel that you trust a person you feel more obliged to buy the thing that they’re selling. In an experiment conducted by Dennis (2006), 115 female and 94 male undergraduate students were requested to complete a questionnaire asking them the degree of intimacy with their partners. Besides, participants were also asked to consider 32 behavioural change messages e.g. smoking cessation, safe sex practice, etc. as if these were delivered to them by their partners and to estimate their effectiveness on a 5-point scale. The result showed that higher levels of intimacy within romantic relationships are significantly and positively correlated with the estimated success of appeals targeted at health-related behavioural motivations. Scarcity: The scarcity effect refers to the influence of perceived scarcity on the subjective desirability of an object. Individuals do not want to be left alone without an item. A consumer often infers value in a product that has limited availability or is promoted as being scarce. The idea of “Limited Edition” which can be seen all over the world is based on the principle of scarcity. When we see that an object is limited we feel the urge to buy them in order to not be left out. This also relates to the key explanation to one of the fundamental concepts in economics “Supply and Demand”. A classical experiment was done by Worchel et al. (1975). Jars of chocolate chip cookies were shown to the subjects who were then asked to rate ‘how much do you like the cookies’, ‘how attractive the cookies are’ and ‘how much would you pay for the cookies’. Obedience: Obedience is a form of social influence where an individual acts in response to a direct order from another individual, who is usually an authority figure. It is assumed that without such an order the person would not have acted in this way. Obedience occurs when you are told to do something (authority), whereas conformity happens through social pressure (the norms of the majority). Obedience involves a hierarchy of power/status. Therefore, the person giving the order has a higher status than the person receiving the order. Obedience is the act of obeying orders from others. As humans we are indoctrinated to obey authority figures. This training begins from the moment of birth as we are reliant on our parents to take care of our every need, in turn being subservient to our authority figures or parents. As we begin to mature and are thrust into society we obtain more influential authority figures from outside the household. Schools have a system of order and authority. Teachers give us guidance and direction academically and even socially because we begin to learn how to act in a group or societal setting. The school environment is all a preparation for careers. When we begin working most of us work for a company or organisation with all levels of management who we must be obedient to. As we mature we are given more and more responsibility over our actions and judgments, thus making it more beneficial to our societal advancement to be obedient. Stanley Milgram, a famous social psychologist, performs a number of experiments on human obedience in the 1960’s. Obedience, in human behaviour, is the quality of being obedient, which describes the act of carrying out commands, or being actuated. Obedience differs from compliance, which is behaviour influenced by peers, and from conformity, which is behaviour intended to match that of the majority. Humans have been shown to be surprisingly obedient in the presence of perceived legitimate authority figures, as demonstrated by the Milgram experiment in the 1960s, which was carried out by Stanley Milgram to discover how the Nazis managed to get ordinary people to take part in the mass murders of the Holocaust. The experiment showed that obedience to authority was the norm, not the exception. Forms of Obedience: Obedience is the tendency to follow orders given by an authority figure. This can be explained by Milgram’s Agency Theory, which states that we are in either one of two states. Forms of human obedience include:
Obedience to laws; Obedience to social norms; Obedience to a monarch, government, organisation, religion, or church; Obedience to God; Obedience to self-imposed constraints, such as a vow of chastity; Obedience of a spouse or child to a husband/wife or parent respectively; Obedience to management in the workplace. Cultural Attitudes to Obedience: Obedience is regarded as a virtue in many traditional cultures; historically, children have been expected to be obedient to their elders, slaves to their owners, serfs to their lords in feudal society, lords to their king, and everyone to God. Even long after slavery ended in the United States, the Black codes required black people to obey and submit to whites, on pain of lynching. In some Christian weddings, obedience was formally included along with honor and love as part of a conventional bride’s (but not the bridegroom’s) wedding vow. This came under attack with women’s suffrage and the feminist movement. Today its inclusion in marriage vows is optional in some denominations. As the middle classes have gained political power, the power of authority has been progressively eroded, with the introduction of democracy as a major turning point in attitudes to obedience and authority. Since the democides and genocides of the First World War and Second World War periods, obedience has come to be regarded as a far less desirable quality in Western cultures. The civil rights and protest movements in the second half of the twentieth century marked a remarkable reduction in respect for authority in Western cultures, and greater respect for individual ethical judgment as a basis for moral decisions. Forms of Obedience: Obedience is the tendency to follow orders given by an authority figure. This can be explained by Milgram’s Agency Theory, which states that we are in either one of two states. Forms of human obedience include: Obedience to laws; Obedience to social norms; Obedience to a monarch, government, organisation, religion, or church; Obedience to God; Obedience to self-imposed constraints, such as a vow of chastity; Obedience of a spouse or child to a husband/wife or parent respectively; Obedience to management in the workplace. Cultural Attitudes to Obedience: Obedience is regarded as a virtue in many traditional cultures; historically, children have been expected to be obedient to their elders, slaves to their owners, serfs to their lords in feudal society, lords to their king, and everyone to God. Even long after slavery ended in the United States, the Black codes required black people to obey and submit to whites, on pain of lynching. In some Christian weddings, obedience was formally included along with honour and love as part of a conventional bride’s (but not the bridegroom’s) wedding vow. This came under attack with women’s suffrage and the feminist movement. Today its inclusion in marriage vows is optional in some denominations. As the middle classes have gained political power, the power of authority has been progressively eroded, with the introduction of democracy as a major turning point in attitudes to obedience and authority. Since the democides and genocides of the First World War and Second World War periods, obedience has come to be regarded as a far less desirable quality in Western cultures. The civil rights and protest movements in the second half of the twentieth
few assess the impact of knowing a victim as a form of personal experience (Manheimer, Mellinger & Crossley 1966 and Schiff 1977). Barnett et al. (1986) found that participants who had been raped reported greater empathy when watching a video about a rape victim than did those who had never been raped. Batson et al. (1996) found that for females but not males, the expectation of oneself receiving a shock affected self-reported empathy when one observed a same-sex peer receiving a shock. Christy and Voigt (1994) found that those who reported being abused as a child indicated that they would be more likely than those who had never been abused to intervene if they saw a child being abused. VI. Identifiable Victim Effect: Previous research has shown that people give more to identifiable victims than to unidentifiable or statistical victims (Kogut and Ritov 2005a, b; Small, Loewenstein, and Slovic 2006). This effect has even been demonstrated when no meaningful information is provided about the identified victim (Small and Loewenstein 2003). Other identifying factors, such as showing a victim’s face or being in the presence of a victim, also increase pro-social behaviour (Bohnet and Frey 1999). Charities do often describe or show images of specific victims to potential donors in their advertising campaigns, but such attempts seem designed to benefit from the identifiable victim effect (Kogut and Ritov, 2005a, b; Small et al. 2006), rather than to create “friendship” between donors and victims. VII. Attributions Concerning Victim’s Responsibility: People also give more to victims who are perceived as “deserving,” in other words, whose needs arise from external rather than internal causes (Weiner 1980). Thus, disabled children are deemed deserving; healthy unemployed men are not (Schmidt and Weiner 1988). Finally, the effect of deservingness on prosocial behaviour is mediated by sympathy, suggesting that giving decisions are not based on cold mental calculations (Weiner, 1980). A study carried out on the New York subway showed that people were more likely to help ‘blind’ rather than ‘drunk’ confederates who had collapsed (Piliavin, 1969). VII. Positive Friend Influence: Barry and Wentzel (2006) supported the notion that friends in particular can be important socialisers of prosocial behaviour. Children are similar to their friends in the degree to which they display pro-social behaviour and are motivated to behave this way (Wentzel, Barry, & Caldwell, 2004; Wentzel & Caldwell, 1997). Adolescents who have friends are more likely to be pro-social than those without friends (McGuire & Weisz, 1982). VIII. Gender: Females engage in prosocial behaviours more frequently than males (Fabes, Carlo, Kupanoff, & Laible, 1999), which is consistent across ratings from parents, teachers, and peers (Holmgren, Eisenberg, & Fabes, 1998). Additionally, observational studies have indicated that females are more likely than males to share and cooperate when interacting (Burford, Foley, Rollins, & Rosario, 1996). Beutel and Johnson (2004) reported that in a study of 12 through 17 year-olds, females placed more importance on prosocial values than males at younger ages, and the gender gap in prosocial values was larger at older ages. Eagly and Crowley (1986) did a meta-analysis and found that men are more likely to help in chivalrous, heroic ways, and women are more likely to help in nurturant ways involving long-term commitment. IX Age: Older adolescent males placed less importance on prosocial values than younger adolescent males (Beutel & Johnson, 2004). Further, in a study of adolescent soccer players’ behaviours, recruited from age groups of under 13, under 15, and under 17, significant differences among the age groups indicated that the oldest group displayed more frequent antisocial behaviours and less frequent prosocial behaviours compared to the younger groups (Kavussanu, Seal, & Phillips, 2006). However, there appears to be an increase in the use of some prosocial behaviours after a certain point in adolescence, as Eisenberg et al. (2005) found that prosocial moral reasoning and
perspective-taking abilities showed increases with age from late adolescence to early adulthood, whereas helping and displaying sympathy did not increase with age. Theories of Prosocial Behaviour: Prosocial behaviours are those intended to help other people. Prosocial behaviour is characterized by a concern for the rights, feelings, and welfare of other people. Behaviours that can be described as pro-social include feeling empathy and concern for others and behaving in ways to help or benefit other people. There are a large number of theories which explain pro-social behaviour and these are described and discussed below: I. Social Learning Theory: Social learning theory suggests that pro-social behaviour is learned (Bandura, 1977; Bandura & McDonald, 1963; Batson, 1998). Observing role models who are loved or respected, such as parents or authorities, engaged in pro-social behaviour, demonstrates how people can and should behave prosocially. Rewards reinforce helping behaviour; punishments reduce unhelpful or hurtful behaviour. Within a group context, social recognition, not just private reward, increases prosocial behaviour (Fisher & Ackerman, 1998).Observational modeling processes with reinforcement will result in learning over time (Compeau & Higgins, 1995; Lim et al., 1997). II. Motivation Perspective: Theorists differentiate altruistic prosocial behaviour from egoistic prosocial behaviour depending upon the motivation of the helper (Batson, 1991; Nelson, 1999; Piliavin & Charng, 1990). Altruistic prosocial behaviour is motivated purely by the desire to increase another person’s welfare; egoistic prosocial behaviour is motivated by the desire to increase one’s own welfare or that of one’s group or cause through helping others (Batson, 1998; MacIntyre, 1967). Some researchers believe that pro-social behaviour does not need to be based on unobservable underlying motivations of children (Eisenberg & Mussen, 1989), but other researchers believe that another person’s well-being must be of primary concern in prosocial behaviour (Cialdini, Kenrick, & Bauman, 1976). It is generally understood that an intention of prosocial behaviours is to achieve positive consequences for others (Jackson & Tisak, 2001; Tisak & Ford, 1986), but it is possible that there are other reasons children behave prosocially as well. Children’s expectancies may influence their likelihood of engaging in prosocial behaviours. Adolescents who expect positive adult reactions to their prosocial behaviours report engaging in more prosocial and less aggressive behaviours (Wyatt & Carlo, 2002). III. Social Identity Theory: Social identity theory and self-categorisation theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986; Turner et al., 1987) are helpful in understanding why some people exhibit substantial prosocial behaviour over time. Social identity theory is based on the premise that people identify with particular groups in order to enhance their self-esteem. Identification leads to selective social comparisons that emphasise intergroup differences along dimensions. This leads to favouring the ingroup and confer positive distinctiveness on the ingroup when compared to the salient outgroup (Hogg & Abrams, 1988). Categorising the self and others in terms of groups accentuates the similarities between group members with respect to their fit with the relevant group prototype or ‘cognitive representation of features that describe and prescribe attributes of the group’ (Hogg & Terry, 2000). The prototype guides the participants’ understanding of the group and its expected behaviours and attitudes. People identified with a group will thus be more likely to exhibit behaviours that are consistent with shared group norms and will cooperate with the group and its members. Group identification is an important antecedent to cooperative behaviours related to group maintenance and survival (Ashforth & Mael, 1989; Kramer, 1993; Mael & Ashforth, 1995; Tyler, 1999).
Court case that helped end racial segregation in American public schools, and social psychologists still frequently serve as expert witnesses on these and other topics (Fiske, Bersoff, Borgida, Deaux, & Heilman, 1991). In recent years insights from social psychology have even been used to design anti-violence programs in societies that have experienced genocide (Staub, Pearlman, & Bilali, 2010). The latter part of the 20th century saw an expansion of social psychology into the field of attitudes, with a particular emphasis on cognitive processes. During this time, social psychologists developed the first formal models of persuasion, with the goal of understanding how advertisers and other people could present their messages to make them most effective (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1963). These approaches to attitudes focused on the cognitive processes that people use when evaluating messages and on the relationship between attitudes and behavior. Leon Festinger’s important cognitive dissonance theory was developed during this time and became a model for later research. In the 1970s and 1980s, social psychology became even more cognitive in orientation as social psychologists used advances in cognitive psychology, which were themselves based largely on advances in computer technology, to inform the field (Fiske & Taylor, 2008). The focus of these researchers, including Alice Eagly, Susan Fiske, E. Tory Higgins, Richard Nisbett, Lee Ross, Shelley Taylor, and many others, was on social cognition—an understanding of how our knowledge about our social worlds develops through experience and the influence of these knowledge structures on memory, information processing, attitudes, and judgment. Furthermore, the extent to which humans’ decision making could be flawed due to both cognitive and motivational processes was documented (Kahneman, Slovic, & Tversky, 1982). In the 21st century, the field of social psychology has been expanding into still other areas. Examples that we consider in this book include an interest in how social situations influence our health and happiness, the important roles of evolutionary experiences and cultures on our behavior, and the field of social neuroscience—the study of how our social behavior both influences and is influenced by the activities of our brain (Lieberman, 2010). Social psychologists continue to seek new ways to measure and understand social behavior, and the field continues to evolve. We cannot predict where social psychology will be directed in the future, but we have no doubt that it will still be alive and vibrant. Q. 5 Describe the relevance of attribution towards explaining the causes of behaviour and explain the various errors of attribution. Ans. In social psychology, attribution is the process of inferring the causes of events or behaviors. In real life, attribution is something we all do every day, usually without any awareness of the underlying processes and biases that lead to our inferences. For example, over the course of a typical day, you probably make numerous attributions about your own behaviour as well as that of the people around you. When you get a poor grade on a quiz, you might blame the teacher for not adequately explaining the material, completely dismissing the fact that you didn’t study. When a classmate gets a great grade on the same quiz, you might attribute his good performance to luck, neglecting the fact that he has excellent study habits. Errors of attribution: While people strive to find reasons for behaviors, they fall into many traps of biases and errors. As Fritz Heider says, Our perceptions of causality are often distorted by our needs and certain cognitive biases”. The following are examples of attributional biases: Fundamental Attribution Error: The fundamental attribution error describes the tendency to overvalue dispositional or personality-based explanations for behaviour while tinder-valuing situational explanations. The
fundamental attribution error is most visible when people explain and assume the behaviour of others. For example, if a person is overweight, a person’s first assumption might be that they have a problem with overeating or are lazy and not that they might have a medical reason for being heavier set. The core process assumptions of attitude construction models are mainstays of social cognition research and are not controversial as long as we talk about “judgement”. Once the particular judgement made can be thought of as a person’s “attitude”, however, construal assumptions elicit discomfort, presumably because they dispense with the intuitively appealing attitude concept. Culture Bias: People in individualist cultures, generally Anglo-America and Anglo-Saxon European societies, value individuals, personal goals, and independence. People in collectivist cultures see individuals as members of groups such as families, tribes, work units and nations, and tend to value conformity and interdependence. This cultural trait is common in Asia, traditional native American societies and Africa. Research shows that culture, either individualist or collectivist, affects how people make attributions. People from individualist cultures are more inclined to make fundamental attribution error than people from collectivist cultures. Individualist cultures tend to attribute a person’s behaviour to his internal factors whereas collectivist cultures tend to attribute a person’s behaviour to his external factors. Research suggests that individualist cultures engage in self-serving bias more than do collectivist cultures, i.e. individualist cultures tend to attribute success to internal factors and to attribute failure to external factors. In contrast, collectivist cultures engage in the opposite of self-serving bias,,i.e. self-effacing bias, which is: attributing success to external factors and blaming failure on internal factors (the individual). Actor/Observer Difference: People tend to attribute other people’s behaviors to their dispositional factors while attributing own actions to situational factors. Basically, even in the same situation, people’s attribution can differ depending on their role (actor or observer). For example, when a person gets a low grade on a test, he/she finds situational factors to justify the negative event such as saying that the teacher asked a question that he/she never went over in class. However, if other people get low grades on the test, he/she attributes the results to their internal factors such as laziness and inattentiveness in classes. The actor/ observer bias is used less frequently with people one knows well such as friends and family since one knows how his/her close friends and family will behave in “certain situation, leading him/her to think more about the external factors rather than internal factors. Dispositional Attributions: Dispositional attribution is a tendency to attribute people’s behaviors to their dispositions that is, to their personality, character and ability. For example, when a normally pleasant waiter is being rude to his/her customer, the customer will assume he/she has a bad temper. The customer, just by looking at the attitude that the waiter is giving him/her, instantly decides that the waiter is a bad person. The customer oversimplifies the situation by not taking into account all the unfortunate events that might have happened to the waiter which made him/her become rude at that moment. Therefore, the customer made dispositional attribution by attributing the waiter’s behaviour directly to his/her personality rather than considering situational factors that might have caused the whole “Rudeness”. Q. 6. Discuss the characteristics, steps and methods of ethnography. Ans. Characteristics of Ethnography: Ethnography is characterised by: It Gathering data from the range of sources, e.g. interviews, observations, conversations and documents. Studying behaviour in everyday contexts rather than experimental conditions. Using an unstructured approach to data gathering in the early stages, so that key issues can emerge gradually through analysis.
adopted multicultural perspective to understand behaviour with respect to the cultural and social context. Dissonance and attribution theory have created the most voluminous body of experimental work. During the late 1960, it was pointed out that the mainstream social psychology had emphasised predominantly individual cognitive processes and had neglected the social context and that it had relied too exclusively on experiments in laboratory settings. Modern Social psychology has notable features such as that it has broadened its repertoire of methods. It has become much more relevant to the understanding of everyday life with research works focused on its application in various areas. The social phenomena are explained with respect to different social and cultural settings. The cognitive approach to the explanations which was more or less sidelined by experimental and behavioural approach is again gaining significance. New trends such as socio-biology and evolutionary social psychology have broadened the realm of theoretical tools of social psychology. Practical demands have always far surpassed the theoretical knowledge is social psychology. The 1970 and 1980 were marked by growing concerns with the application of social knowledge. “Applied social psychology is the utilisation of social psychological principles and research methods in real word settings in an effort to solve a variety of individual and societal problems” (Weyant 1986). Various applications of social psychology I. Population Psychology: Population psychology concentrates on the effects of the rapid expansion of the number of humans on this planet and on efforts to control this expansion. How is it that the number of human beings has grown in this fashion? Sagan (1989) explains the mathematical phenomenon in terms of the ‘Secret of the Persian.’ In addition to this indirect effect the body’s immune system functions less well when stress is high. This finding of a direct link between psychological responses and the body’s defense against disease has led to the development of the field of psychoneuro-immunology. This interdisciplinary approach studies stress, emotional and behavioural reactions, and the immune system simultaneously. Zimmerman (1990) suggests that the term ‘learned hopefulness (as contrasted with learned helplessness) be applied to individuals who know how to solve problems and who feel a sense of control. Several other personality variables have been studied which predict the possibility to develop or not develop sickness, for example neurotic individuals react more negatively to stress than those who are not neurotic and are also more likely to become ill as a result. Health is also affected by the kind of goals for which we strive. People also differ in their characteristic feelings of pessimism and optimism. Those with a pessimistic outlook view events uncontrollable. Type A behaviour pattern (competitiveness, anger, an urgency about time and a workaholic lifestyle) as a personality variable is associated with aggression. Research indicates that people identified as Type A, compared to Type B, have higher blood pressure, produce smallest amounts of HDL good cholesterol and are twice as likely to suffer from heart disease. It appears that the anger component is a critical factor that leads tocoronary problems. Thus, working hard to achieve does not cause heart disease, but failure to achieve elicit a hostile self-schema for the Type A person. This hostility in turn is detrimental to good health. A familiar concept in health psychology is the importance of social support-physical and psychological comfort from friends and family. The general finding is that people who interact closely with family and friends are better able to avoid illness than those who remain isolated from others, if illness does occur, those who receive social support recover more quickly. It is because there is someone with whom one can talk about unpleasant life events rather than engaging in self-concealment. When an illness does strike, the person has to make a series of critical choices and decisions- noticing and interpreting symptoms, deciding to take action and coping with medical procedures. Thus, research in health psychology focuses on individual lifestyles and their perceptions and attitudes so that it can contribute to the better personal health just by enthusing right kind of thinking.
Environmental Psychology: Environmental psychology is the field that deals with interaction between physical world and human behaviour. Among the environmental factors affect behaviours are environmental stress, noise, temperature, air pollution, atmospheric electricity etc. The negative effects of human actions on the environment in include global warming and the ever-mounting problem of waste. Studies designed to consol littering suggest that pro-environmental behaviour can be increased by the use of prompts, rewards and legislations. IV. Industrial Organisational Psychology: It is an application of social psychology which focuses on understanding behaviours in work settings, especially within the field of industries and organisations. Work related attitudes include employees’ evaluation of jobs (job satisfaction) and of their organisations. Research has emphasised the determinants and the consequences of these attitudes. Work motivation is influenced by cognitive factors, the outcomes of performance, and the perception of inequity. A common problem in organisations is conflict, and psychologists have identified both organisational causes competition over scarce resources, and interpersonal causes such as stereotypes, prejudices, grudges and ineffective communication styles. Organisational conflicts can be reduced or resolved by such techniques as bargaining, superordinate goals and the induction of represses incompatible with anger and conflict. Q. 8. Explain the methods of conflict resolution. Ans. Conflict resolution refers to the process geared toward reaching an agreement in a dispute, debate, or any other form of conflict between two or more parties. It can take different forms: Participants may negotiate and attempt to solve their problems to mutual satisfaction, they may withdraw from the situation and avoid interacting with each other, they may fight and try to dominate their counterpart, or they may yield and give in to their adversary’s position. Mutually Beneficial Goal: A common approach to ameliorate social conflict is to establish mutually beneficial goals. Such goals prompt the warring parties to work in close cooperation and help reduce feelings of group struggle. In a classical experiment Sherif and Sherif put two groups in a social situation which involved competition between the two parties. It was observed that very soon they developed feelings of animosity and competition. Things reached to a level where both parties raided each other’s camps to hurt and damage their prospects of attaining goal. In the next phase of the experiment both the warring parties were put in a situation which called for joint efforts to reach the goal. Since neither of them had sufficient resources to attain goal on their own, they were left with no alternative but to help each other to surmount problems faced by them. Not longer than before it was observed that members of both parties began trying to understand each other’s concerns. They started seeing members of the opposite group very often and appreciated each other’s approach to handle problems. Thus, by the end of the experiment both the groups had developed a better understanding of each other and there was a marked reduction in feeling of conflict. Compromise: Reaching a compromise between the two parties also leads to reduction of struggle. Compromise is a situation where no party stands to gain or lose anything. Thus it gradually leads to reduction in struggle. For example, when Gurjars in Rajasthan pressured the government for inclusion into scheduled tribes, the Meenas vehemently opposed their demand since they have been the biggest gainer in Rajasthan. This conflict led to open war between them and resulted in many casualties and bloodshed. Now that the location of both communities is such that they are found living side by side almost all over Rajasthan, they soon realised the futility of opposing each other. A compromise was struck between the two and an understanding was arrived at under which gujjars dropped their demand for inclusion into scheduled tribe but asked for a separate quota for themselves and Meenas
The psychological study of crowd phenomena was documented decades prior to 1900 as European culture was imbued with thoughts of the fin de siècle. This “Modern” urban culture perceived that they were living in a new and different age. They witnessed marvelous new inventions and experienced life in new ways. The population, now living in densely packed, industrialized cities, such as Milan and Paris, witnessed the development of the light bulb, radio, photography, moving-picture shows, the telegraph, the bicycle, the telephone, and the railroad system. They experienced a faster pace of life and viewed human life as segmented, so they designated each of these phases of life with a new name. They created new concepts like “The Adolescent,” “Kindergarten,” “The Vacation,” “Camping in Nature,” “The 5-minute segment,” and “Travel for the sake of pleasure” as a leisure class to describe these new ways of life. Q. 11 Impression formation. Ans. Impression formation is essentially a form of person perception. The reader no doubt, while doing a basic course in psychology must have become familiar with the process of perception and some of the principles governing the same. He must have come to know that very often because of its dynamic nature, an impression is formed on the basis of a few pieces of information. People, while forming impression do not always depend entirely on sensory data or facts. People form impression about other individuals or groups of people either on the basis of limited experience or even without experience. Thus, people form impressions about occupations and many other things. Some occupations are considered to be noble and others not. The process of impression formation is often highly subtle, even unconscious and is influenced by a number of factors. Q. 12. Self-handicapping. Ans. Self-handicapping was first defined in 1978 by Steven Berglas and Edward Jones as “Any action or choice of performance setting that enhances the opportunity to externalize (or excuse) failure and to internalize (reasonably accept credit for) success.” Self-handicapping involves putting a barrier or handicap in the way of one’s own success. If one fails, then the failure can be blamed on the handicap rather than on (the lack of) one’s innate ability. If one succeeds despite the handicap, then one can claim extra credit for success because one succeeded despite the impediment to success. Thus, self-handicapping both protects the person from the implications of failure and enhances the success if one should succeed despite the handicap. One example of self-handicapping is staying out and partying the night before a big exam. If the person does poorly on the exam, he or she can blame it on partying all night. If the person does well on the exam, he or she can take credit for doing well on the exam despite partying the night before. Researchers have cited many other examples of self-handicapping, which include procrastination, underachievement (or low effort), alcohol or drug use or abuse, test anxiety, getting too little sleep, under preparing or inadequate practice before evaluation, exaggerating the effects of an injury or illness, complaints of physical symptoms or hypochondriacal complaints, traumatic life events, shyness, and choosing extremely difficult or unattainable goals. Q. 13 Interpersonal attraction. Ans. Interpersonal attraction is the attraction between people which leads to the development of platonic or romantic relationships. It is distinct from perceptions such as physical attractiveness, and involves views of what is and what is not considered beautiful or attractive. The study of interpersonal attraction is a major area of research in social psychology. Interpersonal attraction is related to how much one likes, dislikes, or hates someone. It can be viewed as a force acting between two people that tends to draw them together and to resist their separation. When measuring interpersonal attraction, one must refer to the qualities of the attracted and those of the attractor to
achieve predictive accuracy. It is suggested that to determine attraction, both the personalities and the situation must be taken into account. There are many factors that lead to interpersonal attraction. Studies suggest that all factors involve social reinforcement. The most frequently studied include physical attractiveness, propinquity (frequency of interaction), familiarity, similarity, complementarity, reciprocal liking, and reinforcement. The impact of familiarity, for example, is shown in the way physical proximity and interaction enhances cohesiveness, a social concept that facilitates communication and positive attitude towards a particular individual on account of similarities or the ability to satisfy important goals. Similarity is believed to more likely lead to liking and attraction than differences. Numerous studies have focused on the role of physical attractiveness to personal attraction. One finding was that people tend to attribute positive qualities such as intelligence, competence,and warmth to individuals who have a pleasing physical appearance. Q. 14. Expectation States Theory. Ans. Expectation states theory is a social psychological theory first proposed by Joseph Berger and his colleagues that explains how expected competence forms the basis for status hierarchies in small groups. The theory’s best known branch, status characteristics theory, deals with the role that certain pieces of social information (e.g., race, gender, and specific abilities) play in organizing these hierarchies. More recently, sociologist Cecilia Ridgeway has utilized the theory to explain how beliefs about status become attached to different social groups and the implications this has for social inequality. The theory attempts to explain: “When a task-oriented group is differentiated with respect to some external status characteristic, this status difference determines the observable power and prestige within the group whether or not the external status characteristic is related to the group task”. In other words, the theory attempts to explain how hierarchies are created in small group interactions (with a shared goal) based on status cues. Specifically, this theory explains unequal distribution of participation, influence, and prestige between members of the group. This theory has implications for macro- and population-level hierarchy and inequality between groups. In general, expectation states theory is meant to explain the way that interpersonal status hierarchies work. “Interpersonal Status Hierarchies” refers to the emergence of differential levels of social esteem and influence that occurs when groups of people interact. Research has found that several factors may influence the ways that status hierarchies emerge; however, the driving force seems to be implicit assumptions that group members hold about each other members’ level of ability for completing the task at hand. Expectation states theory originated in the sociology literature and started with observations about differences in participation, influence, and prestige across members small groups, and these differences varied as a function of status characteristics. The primary goal of expectation state theory as applied to gender is to explain how observed differences between social groups become the basis for inequality in everyday social encounters. While expectation states theory describes the development of status beliefs broadly, and can be applied to the study of any social groups, it is most commonly used to examine and explain inequality as it relates to gender. Q. 15 Importance of group dynamics. Ans. Importance of Group Dynamics:
1. The group can influence the thinking of its members. The members are always influenced by the interactions of other members in the group. 2. A group with a good leader performs better as compared to a group with weak leader. 3. The group can give the effect of synergy, that is, if the group consists of positive thinkers then its output is more than the double every time.
