3 psychology question
Describe what we learned about the power of social influence from Milgram’s obedience experiments.
In the Milgram studies, the experimenter ordered “teachers” to deliver shocks to a “learner” for wrong answers. Torn between obeying the experimenter and responding to the learner’s pleas, the people usually chose to obey orders, even though it supposedly meant harming the learner. Obedience was highest when the person giving the orders was close at hand and was perceived to be a legitimate authority, when the authority figure was supported by a prestigious institution, when the victim was depersonalized or at a distance, and when there were no role models for defiance.
Milgram’s studies, because of their design, illustrate how great evil sometimes grows out of people’s compliance with lesser evils. Evil does not require monstrous characters but ordinary people corrupted by an evil situation. By understanding the processes that shape our behavior, we may be less susceptible to external social pressures in real-life situations that lead us to violate our own internal standards.
Describe how our behavior is affected by the presence of others.
Experiments on social facilitation reveal that the presence of observers can arouse individuals, strengthening the most likely response and so boosting their performance on easy or well-learned tasks but hindering it on difficult or newly learned ones. When people pool their efforts toward a group goal, social loafing may occur as individuals exert less effort. When a group experience arouses people and makes them anonymous, they become less self-aware and self-restrained, a psychological state known as deindividuation.
Identify the times when people are most—and least—likely to help.
Altruism is unselfish regard for the welfare of others. Risking one’s life to save victims of genocide with no expectation of personal reward is an example of altruism.
The bystander effect is the tendency for any given bystander to an emergency to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present. Research on the bystander effects indicates that to decide to help, one must (1) notice the event, (2) interpret it as an emergency, or (3) assume responsibility for helping.
