Name: Kaya Spence

Date:
School:
Facilitator:

4.08 Sociocultural Psychology

1. Using information from the lesson, describe how attitudes, conditions of obedience and conditions of
conformity affect actions and shape our behavior in each of the following terms.

Terms Description

A. Actor-observer bias
While we tend to focus on internal factors when explaining
the behavior of others, we to explain our own behaviors by
tending to focus on external factors. That’s what the actor-
observer bias is. Usually an observer will attribute a behavior
to internal behaviors while the “actor” will attribute the
behavior to an external factor
B. Self-server bias
When there is glory to be claimed, we often demonstrate
another form of error. This is what the self serving bias is. In
victory, we claim responsibility for that but when we lose,
we blame circumstances that are beyond our control.
C. Social facilitation
It refers to the tendency to perform better in front of a
group like crowds
D. Social loafing
It is the phenomenon of a person making less effort to
achieve a goal when they work in a group than when they
work alone.
E. Bystander effect
This occurs when a person refrains from taking action
because of the presence of others.
F. Group think
Many groups can have problems when the group emphasizes
sticking together, or presenting a united front and they fail
to adequately appraise alternative courses of action. The
group is guilty of the term groupthink. When people engage
in groupthink, groups do not make the best decisions
because they do not get all the information necessary to
make the good decision. Another reason is because they fail
to consider other options. The leader of the group should
encourage group discussion instead of advocating their own
views
G. Group polarization
When people discuss an opinion with a group and a majority
of the members argue for one side of the issue, the
discussion typically pushes the majority to a more extreme
view than they had before the discussion. That is what group
polarization is
2. Explain and give an example of the fundamental attribution error.
It is the tendency to attribute others behaviors to dispositional causes. We can make errors
on when we decide whether a behavior is caused by internal or external factors. For example
a waitress could be being rude and you might think she is a bad waitress and has an attitude.
You did it without considering that there could be reasons without considering that there are
reasons for her behavior. She could be going through something bad at the moment.

3. In 2-3 sentences critique Stanley Milgram’s work
with obedience:
I agree with Stanley Milgram when he
said that we are all obedient to people in
authority. I also agree that the people did
what they did during the Holocaust because
they were being obedient to the people that
had very high authority.
4. In 2-3 sentences critique S.E. Asch’s work on
conformity:
S.E. Asch’s work on conformity proved
correctly that a lot of people engage in any
behavior because of group pressure. He was
right because I myself have conformed even
though a group’s answer was wrong because
I was uncomfortable with going against the
group.