October 16, 2017
Reading considered today:
Moghaddam Chapters 15, 16
Chapter 15 – Conformity to Group Norms
The psychological study of social phenomena
An individualistic approach to interpersonal interaction
Sullivan, Vygotsky as alternatives to individualistic approaches
Collaborative construction, ideal forms(M 156-157)
Examples of Social Psychology issues
Attribution theory
Tendency to attribute behaviour of others to personal factors
Social learning theory (Skinner, Bandura, for example)
Similarity attraction hypothesis (M 187-188)
Evolutionary explanations
Rewards and costs models
Attitude formation and change
Attitude surveys (M 198-200)
Cognitive dissonance as motive to change(Festinger)
Prejudice
Attitudes toward others based solely on group membership
Moghaddam’s chapter on multicultural psychology
Conformity and obedience
The study of conformity and non-conformity
Group pressure & authority
Arbitrary norms, conventions
Autokinetic effect, Asch's study (2:40), and groupthink
BBC4 program on conformity studies (28:55)
Costs of non-conformity
Milgram’s New York subway research
Collective representations (Durkheim)
Moscovici'ssocial representations
Systems of socially negotiated values, ideas, and practices
The source of a group's power (majority and minority groups)
Shared understandings of the world
Threats
Authority
Goffman and total institutions
Zimbardo prison simulation study
Hubris
Reason (conversionvs. compliance)
Chapter 16 – Obedience to authority
Obedience
Conformity in response to authority
The value of obedience
The Milgram studies
Relation to Asch’s conformity task
Relation to Milgram’s personal background
How far will a person go in inflicting severe pain on a stranger when instructed to do so by an authority figure?
A contemporary replication of Milgram's study
ABC PrimeTime clip (5:49)
The shock generator
Contemporary critiques of Milgram’s work
Voices of the participants (54 mins.)
Soldiers involved in military torture
Ian Nicholson’s “Torture at Yale”
The impact of Milgram’s work *
Personality traits vs strong situations
Power of context
Limited degrees of freedom
Attitudes vs strong situations
Focus on ethics in experimentation
Shift from laboratory to field studies
Are the Milgram and Zimbardo studies experiments?
The Zimbardo prison study (role conformity)
Group pressure and/or authority
Guards - tough but fair, good and bad
Traits and situations (power of context)
Responsibility
Watchdogs, civilian oversight
Culture, belief, meaning systems, ritual
Resistance to group pressure and authority
Christina Maslach
Sources of resistance – experience, explicit philosophy
Individuation, willingness to be different, disregard social influence
* Benjamin, L., & Simpson, J. (2009). The Power of the situation: The impact of Milgram's obedience studies on personality and social psychology. American Psychologist,64, 12-19.
** Kwan, V. S. Y., Bond, H. C., Maslach, C., & Gan, Y. (2002). The construct of individuation: More complex in collectivist than in individualist cultures. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(3), 300-310.
Americans generally regard individuation as a positive characteristic. All of the following actions are regarded as examples of positive forms of individuation.
- Give a lecture to a large audience.
- Raise your hand to ask a question in a meeting or lecture.
- Volunteer to head a committee for a group of people you do not know very well.
- Tell a person that you like him or her.
- Publicly challenge a speaker whose position clashes with your own.
- Accept a nomination to be a leader of a group.
- Present a personal opinion, on a controversial issue, to a group of strangers.
- When asked to introduce yourself, say something more personal about yourself than just your name and occupation.
- Give an informal talk in front of a small group of classmates or colleagues.
- Speak up about your ideas even though you are uncertain of whether you are correct.
- Perform on a stage before a large audience.
- Give your opinion on a controversial issue, even though no one has asked for it.
Chinese, however, see two different kinds of individuation in this list. The first might be called “attention seeking” and viewed as negative, while the other might be called “taking the lead” and viewed as positive. The items in bold type in the list above are those that have a positive connotation for Chinese, while those in standard type are the ones with a negative connotation.
Maslach and her colleagues write in their article,
More specifically in the Chinese case, individuating behaviors may have either a positive connotation, as in the case of Gan Zuo Gan Wei, which refers to the responsible and courageous qualities of a leader to act and behave in an extraordinary way, or a negative connotation, as in the case of Chu Feng Tou, which refers to the inappropriateness of showing oneself off, and Hua Zhong Qu Chong, which refers to atypical behaviors that draw attention from the public. Individuation may thus mean either “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” or “the nail that stands out gets pounded down,” depending on the nature of the individuating behavior and the social context in which it is enacted.