Social Psychology 11/19/98
Social Psychology: The Power of the Situation
Conformity
Sherif Paradigm
Private acceptance
The Asch Paradigm
Public compliance
The Nature of Conformity in the two paradigms
Informational pressure, & Social Comparison Theory
Public compliance & Normative Social pressure
Contagion
subjects conformed 37% of the time
size of the group and the magic number 3
ambiguity of the judgment
status of the group members
presence of other dissenters from the group norm
individual and cultural differences.
Social comparison theory says that we want to know if our opinions are correct and how good our abilities are.
Critically, to the extent that physical reality is ambiguous, we become increasingly dependent upon "social reality."
Fire Alarms
Remember Fear and Affiliation
Lines at Secretary of State
So, Social Comparison theory tells us that one power the group has is
informational power. This power can lead to conformity and private
acceptance.
A Second Power is called Normative Power. Normative power is the
power that arises because the individual believes that failure to
conform may lead to punishment.
An observer is motivated to behave in a certain way.
The observer knows how to perform the behavior in question, but is not performing it.
The observer sees a model perform the behavior.
The observer then performs the behavior.