Unit 2: Self and Others

1. Unit 2: Self and Others Area of Study 1: Interpersonal and Group Behaviour

2. What is an attitude?? Write your own definition. Compare your definition to the definition below: An attitude is an evaluation that a person makes about an object, a person, group, event or issue. Or about anything!!

3. What is your attitude towards: • Homework • Three day weekends • VCE • The world cup • Your best friend • The person sitting on your right • Your teachers (be nice!)

4. Strong, Weak, Accessible • Attitudes can be strong or weak. A strong attitude is more likely to be long-lasting, character defining and influence your behaviour. • A weak attitude may not be long lasting and is less likely to effect your behaviour. • An attitude is said to be accessible if you use if often. An accessible attitude may further be strong or weak.

5. How did you form these attitudes? • Most likely explanation is from life experience. • Forming attitudes is a continual process occurring throughout our lives • Attitudes can be modified when new experiences interact with already existing attitudes • There are many ways an attitude can be influenced- by parents, teachers, peers, the media etc • Try to identify where some of the attitudes you have already identified have come from. Have any of these attitudes changes over time? Who may have influenced the change?

6. Did you know that it is likely that the attitudes you form now will stay with you into adulthood?

7. A stable unchanging world Before we go on I think I need to mention that we as humans want a stable and unchanging world. We want to be able to make sense of our world and predict the behaviour of others. Try to keep this idea in mind as it is central to much of the concepts we will study soon.

8. The Tri-component Model of Attitudes • There are three parts to every attitude: 1) Affective component- the feelings and emotions associated with the attitude 2) Behavioural component- the actions and behaviours that you do to express the attitude 3) Cognitive component- the beliefs and thoughts that you have associated with the attitude The tri-component model argues that an attitude has all three of the above. If one is missing, it is not an attitude. Try to identify the affective, behavioural and cognitive components of the attitudes already explored.

9. Attitudes and Advertising • Out attitude towards a particular product will determine whether or not we purchase the product. If you have a favourable attitude towards a product you are more likely to purchase it. • Advertising companies will attempt to change peoples attitudes in favour of you purchasing a product • They may act to influence or change the affective, cognitive or behavioural component of your attitude towards their product.

10. Attitudes and Advertising • Changing behaviour- coupons, price reductions, free samples • Changing cognitions- change beliefs about a brand, make the item more important, add beliefs • Changing Affective response- tie positive emotions to the brand or item; may use humour, fear, childhood memories; may use colour and music to evoke emotion

11. The Tri-component Model of Attitudes • In general, all three of the components of an attitude will be consistent. • For example, if you do not like vegetables you will get upset when you are given them (affective), you will avoid eating them (behavioural) and you will believe that they are not necessary and you can get your vitamins from other foods (cognitive). • Another example my best friend really likes chocolate. She feels happy when she sees it (affective), she eats it regularly (behavioural) and she believes that a small amount is not bad for her health (cognitive).

12. Cognitive Dissonance • But are your feelings and beliefs always consistent with your actions? • When any one of the three components of an attitude is not consistent with the other two components, we experience discomfort. We know that there are inconsistencies in our attitude. This discomfort is known as cognitive dissonance.

13. Lets experience some cognitive dissonance... • Rate each of the 5 statements below on a 5 point Likert scale with 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree • Global warming is a serious problem and is having disastrous effects on our planet. • We as a society are too reliant on fossil fuels. • Every human has the right to shelter and food • No child should die of preventable diseases. • We have a large impact on the natural environment and should protect our native plants and animals.

14. 1) Do you choose to walk or take public transport whenever possible to reduce carbon gas emission? Do you take shorter showers, turn your heater down and turn off you appliances at the power-point when you have finished using them? • 2) Do you have solar panels at home to reduce the amount of electricity you need that is produced from coal? Will you buy a hybrid for your first car? • 3) Do you donate food and clothes to local charity organisations? • 4) Have you ever considered sponsoring a child in a third world country? Do you donate money to organisations that vaccinate children against preventable diseases? • 5) Do you plant native plants in your garden at home to provide food and shelter to native animals? Do you donate time or money to organisations that rehabilitate land? • Too what extent do you display the above behaviours? Do your beliefs (cognitions) and emotions match your behaviour? How do you feel if they don’t? This is cognitive dissonance.

15. How do we deal with cognitive dissonance? • Ignore the cognitive dissonance (but this can be difficult) • Change your attitude by changing your cognitions or behaviour • Studies have found that people will often change their cognitions to fit with the behavioural and affective components of an attitude. • Explain some ways that you might deal with any cognitive dissonance encountered on the previous slide.

16. The Influence of Attitudes on Interactions • When you meet someone for the first time you make judgements about them- even after a brief meeting • This judgment may be based on what the person looks like, how they approach you and what they say. • Why do we do this? It is helpful to categorise people. This helps us to adjust our behaviour accordingly and know what to expect from the other person.

17. Sterotyping • A stereotype is a set of commonly held beliefs and ideas about a person or group • These beliefs and ideas may or may not be true • Stereotypes can be positive or negative e.g. Boys are good at maths (good stereotype) and girls are not (bad stereotype) • Stereotypes ignore individual characteristics • Stereotypes help us to better understand our world and save us work mentally. They help us to make faster decisions. They help us to better interact with other people. • While stereotypes may be helpful, they also lead to prejudice and discrimination

18. Prejudice • Prejudice is a negative judgement made about a person just because they belong to a particular group • Often a the person holding the prejudiced attitude will not personally know any member of the group • Often directed at minority groups • A person or group can be prejudiced against for any reason- sex, race, age, hair colour, religion, sexual preference, looks, profession, etc. • Can you think of some groups that may experience prejudice in our culture?

19. Discrimination • Prejudice involves negative ideas the thoughts. When these negative thoughts are acted on discrimination occurs. • Discrimination can take many forms including violence, name calling, ignoring, put-downs, segregation and exclusion.

20. Measuring Attitudes • Observation of Behaviour • Can provide information regarding a person’s attitudes based on their behaviour, body language, facial expressions • As we know however our behaviour is not always an accurate indicator of our attitudes • Self-Report • Participants supply responses to questions via interview or survey by questionnaire

21. Questionnaires • Can be fixed-response or free-response • Fixed response questionnaires provide numerical data that is easier to analyse. • Advantages: easy and fast to administer, can administer to many of people, confidentiality may increase honesty, as an experimenter is not needed social desirability is reduced • Disadvantages: still prone to some social desirability; participant may not have a clear awareness of their true attitudes

22. Fixed Response Questionnaires • Participants choose their response to an item from given responses • Advantages: easier to analyse, quicker for respondent to complete, access first thoughts, • Disadvantages: might not get the person’s true feelings, • In social psychology, Likert-scale questionnaires are often used to investigate attitudes. They can convey how strongly a participant feels about a particular statement revealing information about their attitudes.

23. Likert-type Rating Scales • Typically have 20 items • All items focus on a particular attitude • Half the statements are expressed positively, half negatively • Participants can select their agreement with a particular statement from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” with generally 3 – 5 items in-between. • The questionnaire is scored with each participant receiving a “score” after completion. The positive statements are scored high while the negative statements score low. The higher the score, the more positive the attitude.

27. Design-Your-Own Questionnaire • Your task is to design your own questionnaire investigating attitudes towards a topic of your choice. • Your questionnaire must use a 5 point Likert-scale and have at least 15 items. • You will need to address the three components of an attitude in your statements. • You will need to use both positive and negative statements and score them accordingly. • You will need to give the questionnaire to 5 classmates and score their responses. • This task comprises your second portfolio task.

28. Reducing Prejudice and Discrimination • Prejudice and discrimination can be reduced using the following: • Inter-group Contact • Sustained Contact- when people spend time with each other over an extended period • Mutual Interdependence- two groups are dependent on each other in some way • Equality- both groups must have equal status and be treated equally • Super-ordinate goals- two groups of people are required to complete a task with each group equally important to the task • Cognitive Interventions- changing the way that people think about others and other cultures

29. No one strategy alone is adequate- they must exist in combination • Each group has been given a scenario. Suggest activities that you may use to reduce the prejudice/discrimination in the scenario. Relate these activities to the strategies outlined on the previous slide.

30. Robber’s Cave Experiment • Complete a flow chart outlining the “Robbers Cave Experiment” conducted by Sherif in 1956.

31. Social Influence • Social Influence- the ways in which people change their behaviour or attitudes because of the direct or indirect influence of others • People are influenced by others in many ways. The first type of influence that we will look at is group influence.

32. Status and Power within Groups • What is a group? • A group is two or more people that may influence each other or others and who are working towards a common goal, interest or purpose. The individuals need to feel that they are a part of the group and must interact with each other. • What is Status? • Status is the level of importance of a particular person within a group as perceived by the other members of the group. It is relative and can easily change. • What is Power? • Power is the ability of one person to influence the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of another person or persons.

33. Power • People in groups have power for different reasons.

34. The Stanford Prison Experiment • Our status, the role we play in society and the situation we find ourselves in all influence our thoughts, feelings and behaviour. This influence is not to be underestimated as Philip Zimbardo found out in his famous Stanford Prison Experiment. See video and textbook for more information. • What do you think was concluded from this experiment?

35. Obedience • What is obedience? • Obedience is a type of compliance that occurs when a person complies with a demand. If you are told to “clean your room” by a parent and you do then you are obeying their order. If a parent asks you “Can you please clean your room?” and you do you are complying with their request as opposed to obeying a command. • What influences people to obey a command? What factors influence people to obey others? These questions were ask by a famous social psychologists named Stanley Milgram.

36. Milgram • See Milgram slideshow.

37. Factors Influencing Obedience • It appears that people will obey others even when it means inflicting pain on others. But they do not enjoy it and express remorse. So why do they obey? • There are several factors that have been identified that increase the chance of obedience • Social Proximity • Legitimacy of the Authority Figure • Group Pressure

38. Social Proximity • Milgram modified his experiment so that more distance separated the experimenter and the teacher. When the teacher was not in the room and gave instructions via a phone or tape recording, compliance to the full 450V fell from 65% to 20%. Compliance also decreased when the teacher was closer to the learner. • Milgram concluded that the closer the participant to the authority figure the more likely they are to obey. The closer the participant is to the learner the less likely they are to obey.

39. Legitimacy of the Authority Figure • Milgram believed that the legitimacy of the authority figure would influence obedience. In his first experiment, the experimenter was a university professor and the study took place at Yale University. Milgram modified his experimental design to test his hypothesis. He conducted the tests in a run down building external to the university and in some instances dressed as a janitor. Compliance to the 450V dropped to between 48% to 20%. • With higher levels of authority, people are more likely to obey.

40. Group Pressure • Milgram also altered the number of people present during the experiment. Milgram recruited two more teachers (confederates). • In one situation, the confederates were trained to complain and leave the study early. When this happened, only 10% of participants delivered the full 450V shock. • Conversely, when the confederates supported the experimenter, conformity rose to 73%. • It thus appears that group pressure is the most influential factor in determining obedience.

41. Conformity • Conformity refers to any behaviour that is motivated by pressure from other members of a group. When we conform, we act in a way that is expected and excepted by the others members of a group. In some situations we conform despite a difference between our own feelings, thoughts and behaviours and the feelings, thoughts and behaviours of the group. • Can you think of a time in which you have conformed? You may have agrees or disagreed with the conformity. • Can you think of a time that you have been a non-conformist and not conformed to the expectations of a group?

42. Solomon Asch • Social psychologist Solomon Asch was interested in researching the factors that influence conformity. • He conducted a simple experiment that asked participants to judge line lengths. • He asked participants: “Which of the following lines- A, B, or C- matches line X?” • The answer appears simple- Line B. However, by changing his experimental design 70% of participants answered incorrectly. How do you think he got these results?

43. Asch • Asch told participants that they were participating in a study on perception. He had to lie about the real aim of the study- conformity- as knowing the study was investigating conformity would influence people’s responses. • The study took place with a group of 6 participants sitting around a table. Only one was a true participant however and the others were confederates. The participants were shown the line X and asked to pick the line that matched from various images one at a time taking turns. The true participant was always seated last and so heard the response of all of the other participants first.

44. Asch • In the first few rounds the right choice was very obvious and all participants agreed. However, after this the confederates started answering incorrectly. Not just one of the confederates but all of them. • In all Asch ran 12 trials. He found that 75% of the participants conformed (provided an incorrect answer to agree with the group) on at least one occasion. Approximately 30% agreed with the incorrect responses one 6 or more of the trials. • That being said 25% of the participants did not conform on any of the trials.

45. Asch • When Asch asked the participants why they conformed many said that they conformed because they felt that their judgement must have been wrong as all of the other participants made the same judgement. • This makes sense- it is more likely that one person would be wrong than two, three, four or even five! • Some participants said that they provided the incorrect response because they feared being the odd one out.

46. Factors Affecting Conformity • Through various experiments, Asch and other social psychologists have identified a range of factors that influence conformity. These are: • Normative Influence • Culture • Informational Influence • Unanimity • Group Size • De-individuation • Social Learning Theory

47. Normative Influence • We want to be liked and accepted by others. The normative influence theory states that we comply with others in order to be accepted and liked by a group. We feel that people will like us more if we agree with their thoughts, feelings and actions. • We are more likely to conform when we like the person/people in the group. • Studies have found that people who care very little about what others think about them are less likely to conform.

48. Culture • Asch’s experiments described previously has been replicated many times across many cultures. • High levels of compliance were seen in countries such as China, Japan, Fiji and some African nations. • Lower levels of compliance were seen in countries such as the USA, Canada, and Western European countries such as France and Portugal. • Researchers have found a large difference in the conformity between collectivist cultures and individualistic cultures. Collectivist cultures work towards group goals and encourage uniformity. Individualistic cultures focus on individuality, personal achievement and independence.

49. Informational Influence • We conform because we believe that the information that we have been presented with is true. • People are more likely to conform when they feel they are incapable of making the correct decision/judgement on their own. They may be out of their area of expertise and need to rely on someone else’s judgement.

50. Unanimity • When the all or a majority of a group holds the same belief, we are more likely to conform. • When just one other person disagrees, conformity drops dramatically. Asch found that having just one of the confederates in his study provide the correct answer against the majority of the group, conformity fell to just 10%.