Social Effects

7 Key excerpts on "Social Effects"

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  eBook - ePub

  The Sciences Of Man In The Making

  AN ORIENTATION BOOK

  • Edwin A. Kirkpatrick(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  HAPTER X

  BEHAVIOUR IN RELATION TO OTHERS, OR SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

  THE NEED FOR A SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

  THE concept of general psychology is of an organism reacting to the physical environment, and improving in doing so by practice. Individual psychology not only recognizes differences in human organisms but emphasizes the truth that, in reacting in his special way, each individual builds a self whose parts are so organized that what is done in response to a situation is not wholly determined by either the situation or the sense and motor apparatus responding, but by the personality of the actor. Social psychology shows that there is also a social determiner of conduct. It no longer assumes a general “ social mind ” of which each individual mind is a part, but emphasizes the truth that the individual is directed and moulded by companions and by the customs and institutions of the group of which he is a part. These influences are shown to have more to do with determining behaviour than bodily structure or physical environment. Realization of the importance of personal and cultural influences in human behaviour has led to the present deep interest in social psychology, which is concerned with these interrelations.

  THE EFFECTS OF THE BEHAVIOUR OF ONE UPON ANOTHER

  A hungry individual animal or man, when food is perceived, responds to the situation in a positive and active way. Another individual, also hungry, observes the response perhaps before he has observed the food, and is then influenced by the two stimuli to more vigorous action than the first one, who had the food stimulus only. As the second approaches and begins taking food, both become more active in getting it than would be the case if each was alone, especially if the amount is limited. If one interferes with the other’s attempt to get a portion the natural reaction is one of anger, which usually calls forth a similar response with further interference of each with the other, and increase in vigour of struggle. For a time, perhaps, the food is neglected while each tries to match the aggressive behaviour of the other by more effective responses of a similar kind.

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  Essentials of Psychology

  Concepts and Applications

  • Jeffrey Nevid(Author)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Several people gather about the fallen person. Do you offer assistance or continue on your way? You participate in a psychology experiment in which you and other members of a group are asked to determine which of two lines is longer. One person after another chooses the line that looks shorter to you. Now comes your turn. Do you go along with the crowd or stand your ground and select the line you think is longer? A man and a woman are standing on a street corner speaking privately in Italian. The man hands the woman an envelope, which she puts in her handbag. What do you make of this interaction? Do you suppose it was a lover’s note that was passed between them? Or do you think it was an exchange related to Mafia business? You volunteer for a psychology experiment on the effects of electric shock on learning. You are instructed to administer to another participant what you are told are painful shocks each time the other participant gives a wrong answer. At first you refuse. But the experimenter insists you continue and tells you the shocks will cause no serious harm to the other participant. You would still refuse such an unreasonable demand, wouldn’t you? These questions fall within the domain of social psychology, the study of people interacting with people. Social psychology is the subfield of psychology that deals with how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by our social interactions with others and the culture in which we live. In this chapter, we touch upon these questions and others as we explore how we perceive others in our social environment, how we relate to them, and how we are influenced by them. We consider what social psychologists have learned about these social processes, beginning with how we perceive others and how our perceptions of others influence our behavior. 12 Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.

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  Essentials of Psychology

  • John P. Houston, Helen Bee, David C. Rimm(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Academic Press

    (Publisher)

  There is no way we can completely divorce social influ-ences from the study of any aspect of behavior—nor would we want to. But most psychologists in other areas prefer to study the behavior of a single individual at a time, while most social psychologists focus on the behavior of people in pairs or groups or the influence of one person on another. As Baron and Byrne define it (1977, p. 4), social psychology is the scientific field that seeks to investigate the manner in which the behavior, feelings, or thoughts of one individual are influenced or determined by the behavior and/or characteristics of others. Davis, Loughlin, and Komorita (1976) put it still more briefly: Social psychology may be defined as the study of human interaction. 458 Chapter 14 Social behavior The common ingredient in these definitions is the relationship of one person to another. Since we relate to others in so many different ways— individually, in groups, in crowds, in casual or intimate contacts—the field of social psychology is enormously diverse. Social psychologists have broadened their field of interest further by studying not just social behavior, but also the ways ideas and attitudes (cog-nitions) are influenced by encounters with others and how our emotions influence others and are influenced by them. Thus there are at least three levels of analysis within social psychology. Individual social psychology theorists tend to emphasize one of these levels at a time, so that there are some heavily cognitive theories, some that emphasize emotions, and some that focus almost entirely on overt behavior. Moreover, some social psychologists have chosen to study the intra-personal aspects of social encounters, such as the attitudes we have, the emotions we feel about others, and the judgments we make about other people. Others deal with interpersonal or dyadic (two person) interactions, such as the processes of attraction between individuals and the develop-ment of enduring relationships.

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  Blind Alleys in Social Psychology

  A Search for Ways Out

  • A. Eskola, A. Kihlström, D. Kivinen, K. Weckroth, O.-H. Ylijoki(Authors)
  • 1988(Publication Date)
  • North Holland

    (Publisher)

  There is however one methodological feature that this research tradition apparently cannot escape. When socizl influence is regarded as the object of social psychology, attention is focused on the individual, whose feelings, behaviour or opinions are influenced by the mere presence of other people or by their action. Social psychology is seen as research into the in- dividual, not as a science of structures, communities and processes with a genuinely social or societal nature. As research into social influence, social psychology is taken to be a sub- field of psychology. If a textbook defines social psychology as the study of social influence, it most probably also claims that this science is a “sub- discipline of psychology” (Jones and Gerard 1967, 11, “a branch of general psychology” (Wrightsman 1973, 5), or “a branch of modem psychology” (Baron, Byrne and GrEitt 1974, 3). It differs from other branches of psychology in that the ‘stimuli’ influencing the behaviour of the individual are social: othei people. This idea is clearly brought out in Zajonc’s attempt to define the most important subfields of psychology. Let us assume that we are studying whether a rat turns left or right in a T-maze. If the rat is rewarded every time it turns left and our purpose is to determine the effect of rewarding, our study would be classified under psychology of learning. If the factor explaining which way the animal chooses to turn is its level of hunger, or some other internal state, research would fall under psychology of motivation. If the left arm of the maze is physically different from the right one, and we are examining the influence of this fact upon turning, our study would be dealing with psychology of perception. But if the objective is to find out how the presence of another animal of the same species in either arm influences the animal in choosing its way, we become social psychologists, Zajonc reasons.

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  Social Media Intelligence

  • Wendy W. Moe, David A. Schweidel(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Specifically, when others are present in our shopping environment, we feel compelled to manage their impressions of us and end up purchasing more expen- sive items. 4 This occurs regardless of whether or not we have a personal relation- ship with those present. Even if we have not met them previously and are unlikely to encounter them again, their mere presence can affect how we act. This effect, though, does have its limits. When too many consumers are present and create a crowded atmosphere, many us perceive the products to be worth less. 5 Mere presence effects are not limited to the offline shopping environment. Even when the presence of others is virtual, our behaviors and opinions are affected. How Influential Is the Social Context? How much do our social interactions with others in our environment affect us? It turns out that the effect can be quite substantial. This question was at the center of the Stanford Prisoner Experiment, conducted in 1971. In the exper- iment, students were placed in an artificial prison environment and assigned the role of either a prison guard or a prisoner. They served in these roles for what was originally intended to be two weeks. Within days, those students who were assigned to be guards became more authoritative and abusive toward the students assigned to be prisoners. It was not just an issue of power corrupting How Does Social Context Affect Opinion Expression? 55 otherwise good people, though. Those students assigned to be prisoners also played their part and complied with the abusive demands of the guards. The guards’ treatment of the prisoners eventually became so abusive (and the pris- oners became so depressed) that the experiment was ended prematurely after six days to protect the mental health of the students. What was significant about the experiment was that the students were ran- domly assigned to these roles. They were not sorted by personality, academic performance, social status, or any other criteria.

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  Social Structure and Aging

  Psychological Processes

  • K. Warner Schaie, Carmi Schooler, K. Warner Schaie, Carmi Schooler(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Psychology Press

    (Publisher)

  Social Structure Effects and Experimental Situations: 4 Mutual Lessons of Cognitive and Social Science Carmi Schooler, National Institute of Mental Health

  The central focus of this chapter is on how two important approaches to understanding the psychological aging process — the study of social structural effects on individual psychological functioning and the experimental investigation of the nature of cognitive functioning — can inform each other. Because my vantage point tends to be that of the social scientist, I can, of course, fairly easily discern the difficulties that social science findings pose for cognitive science. On the other hand, I am aware that, no matter how great these difficulties are, if social scientists are interested in how social structure affects what people think, they must come to grips with the central topic of cognitive research — how people think.

  In particular, if, following Marx (1964), Mannheim (1954), and Merton (1968), social scientists are concerned with how individuals’ vantage points in the social system affect their belief systems, then they must understand the psychological laws through which people generalize what they have learned in one context to another. On the other hand, as we see in this chapter, the findings of both social and cognitive research indicate that the very ways in which people think and quite possibly generalize are affected by their social structurally and culturally determined experiences. Such findings cast strong doubt on the view, apparently held by many cognitive researchers, that cognitive processes are essentially the same among all normal individuals. Because we cannot take such similarity for granted, it would seem wrong for us to generalize about cognitive functioning from the performance of whatever subjects come most readily to hand.

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  Visualizing Psychology

  • Siri Carpenter, Karen Huffman(Authors)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Unfortunately, our attributions are frequently marred by two major errors: or many students and psycholo-gists, your authors included, social psychology is the most exciting of all fields because it is about you and me, and because almost every-thing we do is social . Unlike earlier chapters that focused on individual processes, like the brain and other parts of the nervous system or personality, this field studies how large social forces, such as groups, social roles, and norms bring out the best and worst in all of us. This chapter is organized around three central themes: social cogni-tion (how we think about and interpret ourselves and others), social influence (how situational factors and other people affect us), and social relations (how we develop and are affected by interpersonal relationships, including prejudice, aggression, altruism, and attrac-tion). Before you read on, check on some misconceptions you may have about social relationships in Myth Busters . F RETRIEVAL PRACTICE While reading the upcoming sections, respond to each Learning Objective in your own words. Then compare your responses with those in Appendix B. social psychology The scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions are affected by others. attributions Explanations for behaviors or events. TRUE OR FALSE? ___ 1. Most people judge others more harshly than they judge themselves. ___ 2. Inducing cognitive dissonance is an effective way to change attitudes. ___ 3. Groups generally make riskier or more conservative decisions than a single individual does. ___ 4. People wearing masks are more likely to engage in aggressive acts. ___ 5. Emphasizing gender differ-ences may create and perpetuate prejudice. ___ 6. Substance abuse (particularly alcohol) is a major factor in aggression. ___ 7. When people are alone, they are more likely to help another individual than when they are in a group.

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