ADVANCED SOCIAL

PSYCHOLOGY
• Social psychology as the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual
behaviour, feelings, and thought in social situations.

• Social psychology investigates the ways in which our thoughts, feelings, and actions are influenced by the
social environments in which we live—by other people or our thoughts about them

SOCIAL SITUATION AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

• A social situation consists of the various visual, auditory and other stimuli lived through by the individuals. It
also involves besides the present perceptions, the attitudes, as well as the revival of past experiences. Thus a
mere analysis of the separate stimuli will not help us to understand the social situation.

SOCIAL AND NON-SOCIAL SITUATIONS

• It is obvious that social situation involves the presence of other persons. But as we have already seen social
behaviour involves not only face-to-face situations, but it also involves symbols which lead to psychological
events connected with people.
CORE CONCERNS OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

There are four core concerns, or major themes, within social psychology:

(1) The impact that one individual has on another

(2) The impact that a group has on its individual members

(3) The impact that individual members have on the groups to which they belong, and

(4) The impact that one group has on another group.

• Fundamental attribution error – the tendency people overemphasize personal characteristics and ignore the
situational factors in judging others behaviours.

• Schema – a pattern of thought or behaviour that organizes categories of information and relationship among
them.

• Principle of reciprocity – In many social situations, we pay back what we receive from others.
 RESEARCH METHODS IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
• Observational method

• Development method

• Interview method (structured/semi-structured/unstructured)

• Clinical method (psycho-analytical findings)

• Questionnaire method

• Scaling methods (Bogardus scale – very positive-very negative)

• Experimental method
SOCIAL MOTIVES, ATTITUDES AND LEARNING IN SOCIAL
CONTEXTS
• The terms ‘needs’, ‘urges’, ‘motives’ are now used to describe such internal physiological factors ,
which are at the basis of behaviour. It is further realized that these motives which are to start with
biogenic, are affected by the social factors.

• It is now realised that behaviour is based on internal as well as external factors that behaviour is
“biosocial” involving biological factors as well as social influences.

• “To eat is biogenic but how we eat is sociogenic. Similarly, what we eat and where we eat all these are
conditioned by the group in which we have been brought up.
• An attitude—is a predisposition to respond to a particular object in a generally favorable or unfavorable
way. A person’s attitudes influence the way in which he or she perceives and responds to the world.

• Attitudes influence attention—the person who likes Traditional Classical music is more likely to notice news
stories about the Traditional Classical musicians and programme activities.

• Attitudes also influence behavior—the person who opposes the drinking age law is more likely to violate it.
NATURE OF ATTITUDES

An attitude exists in a person’s mind; it is a mental state. Every attitude is about something, the “object” of the
attitude. We shall here consider the components of an attitude, the sources of attitudes, and their functions.

COMPONENTS OF AN ATTITUDE

This attitude has three components:

(1) Beliefs or cognitions,

(2) An evaluation, and

(3) A behavioral predisposition.

Cognitive, emotional and behavioural

• The degree of consistency between components is related to other characteristics of the attitude.

• Greater consistency between the cognitive and affective components is associated with greater attitude
stability and resistance to persuasion. Greater consistency is also associated with a stronger relationship
between attitude and behavior.

ATTITUDE REINFORCEMENT AND LEARNING

• Where do attitudes come from? How are they formed? The answer lies in the processes of social learning or
socialization.

• Attitudes may be formed through reinforcement (instrumental conditioning), through associations of stimuli and
responses (classical conditioning), or by observing others (observational learning).

• We can acquire an attitude toward our classes and jobs through instrumental conditioning—that is, learning based
on direct experience with the object. If we experience rewards related to some object, our attitude will be
favorable.

• Thus, if our work provides us with good pay, a sense of accomplishment, and compliments from our co -workers,
our attitude toward it will be quite positive. Conversely, if we associate negative emotions or unpleasant outcomes
with some object, we will dislike it.
• Friends, media are important source of attitudes.

ATTITUDE FORMATION

• Classical conditioning

• Instrumental conditioning

• Genetic factors

• Observational learning

• Social learning through imitation

CHANGING ATTITUDES BY CHANGING BEHAVIOUR

• It might not have surprised you to hear that we can often predict people’s behaviours if we know their
thoughts and their feelings about the attitude object, you might be surprised to find that our actions also
have an influence on our thoughts and feelings.

• It turns out that if we engage in a behaviour, and particularly one that we had not expected that we would
have, our thoughts and feelings toward that behaviour are likely to change.

• This might not seem intuitive, but it represents another example of how the principles of social psychology—
in this case, the principle of attitude consistency—lead us to make predictions that wouldn’t otherwise be
that obvious.
SELF-PERCEPTION INVOLVES INFERRING OUR BELIEFS FROM OUR BEHAVIOURS

• People have an avid interest in understanding the causes of behaviour, both theirs and others, and doing so
helps us meet the important goals of other-concern and self-concern.

• If we can better understand how and why the other people around us act the way they do, then we will
have a better chance of avoiding harm from others and a better chance of getting those other people to
cooperate with and like us.

• And if we have a better idea of understanding the causes of our own behaviour, we can better work to
keep that behaviour in line with our preferred plans and goals.

• In some cases, people may be unsure about their attitudes toward different attitude objects.
CREATING INSUFFICIENT JUSTIFICATION AND OVER-JUSTIFICATION

• Insufficient justification occurs when the threat or reward is actually sufficient to get the person to
engage in or to avoid a behaviour, but the threat or reward is insufficient to allow the person to
conclude that the situation caused the behaviour.

• Over justification occurs when we view our behaviour as caused by the situation, leading us to
discount the extent to which our behaviour was actually caused by our own interest in it.
THE EXPERIENCE OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE CAN CREATE ATTITUDE CHANGE

• According to the self-awareness theory, this discomfort that occurs when we behave in ways that we see
as inconsistent, such as when we fail to live up to our own expectations, is called cognitive dissonance.

• The discomfort of cognitive dissonance is experienced as pain, showing up in a part of the brain that is
particularly sensitive to pain—the anterior cingulate cortex.

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE IN EVERYDAY LIFE

• Cognitive dissonance is an important social psychological principle that can explain how attitudes follow
behavior in many domains of our everyday life.

• For instance, people who try but fail to quit smoking cigarettes naturally suffer lowered self-esteem.

• But rather than accepting this negative feeling, they frequently attempt to engage in behaviors that reduce
dissonance. They may try to convince themselves that smoking is not that bad.
 MEASUREMENT OF ATTITUDE
 The Judgement Method

 The Method of Summated Ratings

 The Rating Method

 The Unfolding Technique

Other method of measuring attitudes are the Projective Techniques developed by psychologists whose approach
is largely analytical.
 THE JUDGEMENT METHOD

• Step1. Definition of some issue towards which attitudes might be measured such as, for example, attitudes
towards people with HIV or towards war.

• Step2 Collection of a number of statements which might be relevant towards the issue. These statements are
then presented to a number of independent judges who are asked to sort the statements into piles ranging from
very unfavourable to very favourable.

• They determine whether that item is to be retained or discarded.

• The final questionnaire consists of a number of statements on which the judges have reached a measure of
agreement as showing degrees of favourableness or unfavourableness towards the issue which is to be
investigated.
 THE METHOD OF SUMMATED RATING

• In Likert’s technique the statements were presented direct to the subjects in a pilot group who were asked to
indicate their reactions within the five categories; strongly approve, approve, undecided, disapprove, strongly
disapprove, (5, 4, 3, 2, 1 scores respectively).

• After the pilot survey had been scored items with a high correlation to the total score were retained as relevant
to the issue under consideration, whilst items not showing a high degree of correlation were rejected as being
poor statements.

• The resulting scale of attitudes was summated into a Rating for or against a particular attitude.
 THE METHOD OF RATING

• The method of Rating is a more general method in which a judge or judges rate the individual’s attitude on the
basis of data drawn from some or all of the following sources of information:

(i) non-verbal behaviour towards the object,

(ii) verbal statements relating to the object,

(iii) secondary expressive clues,

(iv) responses in clinical type interviews,

(v) personal documents,

(vi) immediate experience,

(vii) responses on’ projective tests’.

 THE UNFOLDING TECHNIQUE

• Here, the respondent is asked to rank the items in order of preference on a scale ranging from strong
disagreement to strong agreement.

• Each item is viewed as having a fixed position on the scale; the respondent’s replies are located as an average
position on the scale and the tester can thus show the relationship between the attitudes of several subjects.
 EXPLICITMEASUREMENTTECHNIQUE/ DIRECT SELF-REPORT METHODS

• We begin with a focus on direct self-reports that involve asking participants explicitly to describe their own
attitudes.

CLASSIC SELF-REPORT MEASUREMENT METHODS

• The origins of elaborate attitude measurement via direct self-reports lie in the work of Louis Thurstone
(1928), Rensis Likert (1932), and Charles Osgood (Osgood’ Suci, & Tannenbaun (1957), each of these
scholars developed a unique technique for measuring attitudes with multiple self-report items that have
strong face validity.
 THURSTONE’S EQUAL APPEARING INTERVALS METHOD
• The first stage entailed gathering or generating between 100 and 150 statements of favourable or
unfavourable evaluations of an object.

 Next, this set is edited down to a set of 80 to 100 statements that seem to have the most potential to perform
effectively in lager stages.

 Then, between 200 and 300 judges place each statement into one of 11 piles, with the piles defined as
representing equally spaced points, along the evaluative continuum running from extremely negative to
extremely positive.

 Next, each statement is assigned a numeric value from 1 to 11, representing the place at which each
participant placed it, and then the mean and variance of the numbers assigned to each statement are
calculated.

 Then two or three statements with means very close to each point along the continuum are selected. At this
point, the measure is ready for administration.

 Participants are asked to read all the statements and to indicate those with which they agree.
 LIKERT’S METHOD OF SUMMATED RATINGS

• First, the researcher prepares about 100 statements that express positions either strongly favourable or
unfavourable toward an object.

• A set of pretest participants are then given a set of five response options (strongly disagree, disagree
undecided, agree, or strongly agree) and are asked to choose one response to express their view of each
statement.

• For statements expressing favourable views of the object, responses are coded 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
respectively. For statements expressing unfavorable views of the object responses are coded 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1,
respectively
• Each pretest participant is then assigned a total score by summing his or her scores on all of the items.
Finally, for each item, each person’s score is correlated with his or her total score, and items with low item-to-
total correlations are dropped.
 OSGOOD, SUCI, AND TANNENBAUM’S SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL

• The semantic differential is the simplest and easiest to administer of the landmark attitude measurement
techniques.

• Through extensive developmental research, a set of adjective pairs that represent the evaluative
dimension, including good-bad, valuable- worthless, wise-foolish, pleasant-unpleasant, and others.

• Each pair anchors the ends of a 7-point rating scale, and participants select the point on each scale to
indicate their evaluation of the object.

• Typically the scale points are scored 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, running from the most negative response to the
most positive response and the participant’s attitude scores the average of the scores he or she receives on
each item in the battery.
 ALTERNATIVES TO DIRECT SELF REPORTS

THE NOTION OF SOCIAL DESIRABILITY RESPONSE BIAS

• Unfortunately, however, there is another potential source of systematic distortion in responses to even self-
administered anonymous questionnaires:

• self-deception. Not only do people want to maintain favourable images of themselves in the eyes of others, but
they also want to have such images in their own eyes as well.

• According to many psychological analyses, the pursuit of self-esteem is a basic human motive and it is driven
party by such inevitable realities as the prospect of death.

• So people may be motivated to convince themselves that they are respectable, good people, and doing so may
at times entail misconstrual of facts.
 IMPLICIT MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES
UNOBTRUSIVE BEHAVIOURAL OBSERVATION: presumably reduces the biases that result from the intrusion of
the researcher or measurement instrument.

RESPONSE LATENCY: It is the speed or ease with which a response to a survey question is given after a
respondent is presented with the question.

• In telephone surveys, response latency are measured in milliseconds as the elapsed time from when an
interviewer finishes reading a question until a respondent begins to answer.

PHYSIOLOGICAL MEASURES: are those that involve recording any of a wide variety of physiological
processes, including heart rate and blood pressure, galvanic skin response, hormone levels, and electrical
activity and blood flow in the brain.

• Physiological measures indicate intensity and not direction.

• Physiological measures are sensitive to variables other than attitudes, e.g., vigilance tasks lower heart rate,
skin response changes in the presence of novel or incongruous stimuli.
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND PERSONALITY AS SOCIAL PHENOMENON
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND ATTITUDE CHANGE
According to Festinger’s theory, there are basically two factors that affect the strength of the dissonance, viz.,
(i) the number of dissonant beliefs, and
(ii) the importance attached to each belief.

Hence one can eliminate dissonance by the following methods:

1) Reduce the importance of the dissonant beliefs

2) Add more consonant beliefs that outweigh the dissonant beliefs.

3) Change the dissonant beliefs so that they are no longer inconsistent.

The two most important principles of cognitive dissonance can be stated as that:

(i) Dissonance occurs when a person has to choose between contradictory attitudes and behaviour.

(ii) Another principle is that the dissonance can be removed by changing the importance of conflicting beliefs
and acquiring new beliefs that change the balance or remove the conflicting attitude or remove the
conflicting behaviour.
 SELF PERCEPTION

• Self-perception theory (SPT) is an account of attitude change developed by psychologist Daryl Bem.

• It asserts that people develop their attitudes by observing their behaviour and concluding what attitudes must
have caused them.

• Applying this principle to the Festinger and Carlsmith study, Bem argued that the participants must be
inferring their attitudes from their behaviour, without necessarily experiencing any dissonance. Thus, when
asked ‘Did you find the task interesting?’ they decided that they must have found it interesting because that is what
they told someone. To test this hypothesis, Bem (1967) presented participants a description of the original study
(You would recall that a subject performed a boring task and then was paid either $1 or $20 to tell another that it
was fun and interesting). He then asked the participants to guess the person’s attitude towards the task.

• The participants did guess that subjects in $1 condition would hold more of task being boring than those in the
$20 condition. Their reasons: the subject who was paid $20 to say the task was interesting really was lying
because he clearly did it for the money. However, the subject who was paid $1 must have been honest, because
such a small amount doesn’t justify lying!
COMPARISON BETWEEN COGNITIVE DISSONANCE & SELF-PERCEPTION
THEORIES
S.No. Cognitive Dissonance Theory Self Perception Theory
1 Attitudes directly known Attitudes are inferred from behaviour
Unpleasant affect necessary for attitude No unpleasant affect involved in
formation attitudeformation
2

Applicable when attitudes are clearly

formed
3 Applicable when attitudes are weak orvague

Dissonance most likely when the

attitude in question is important to
4 the self or the attitude behavior
discrepancy is substantial
Self perception of attitudes is most likelywhen the
attitude in question is lessimportant to the self or the
attitudebehaviour discrepancy is small
 SELF AFFIRMATION
• Focuses on one’s self-image. According to Steele (1988), people are motivated to maintain the integrity of
the self. The ultimate goal of the self is to protect an image of its self-integrity, morality and adequacy. These
two premises lead to two implications:

(i) We experience a self-image threat, after acting in a manner inconsistent with our sense of honesty or
integrity.

(ii) When our self concept is threatened, we often compensate by affirming another aspect of the self. In other
words, we can reduce ‘dissonance’ by affirming our integrity in some other unrelated area of our lives.

• As a result, these ‘self-affirmations’ enable people to deal with threatening events and information in a more
open and even-handed manner, without resorting to defensive biases. For example, if you show me that I
cannot sing, I’ll go and dance even more, which I know I’m better at.
There are numerous applications of this theory. The technique of self affirmation can also be used in multiple
domains such as:

 Personal relationship: When faced with an emotional upheaval in a personal relationship, the affirmation
process can be done by writing down positive statements about our partners, such as how they care about us
and what we appreciate in them.

 Health: Self-affirmation is an effective tool in health interventions. In a group based cigarette cessation program
for smokers, those who received a self-affirmation intervention had a lower defensiveness towards graphic
cigarette warning labels than a control group. Moreover, these self-affirmed smokers also had a stronger
intention to quit smoking.

• Research has found that providing people with affirmation opportunities on alternative sources of self-integrity
lead to a less biased evaluation to threatening information. Self- affirmation thus increases the openness of
people to ideas that are difficult to accept.
THEORIES OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND ITS MANAGEMENT
• The basic thought of the Cognitive Dissonance Theory relating to attitude change, is that people are motivated to
reduce dissonance which can be achieved through changing their attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors (action).

• Research has suggested multiple routes that cognitive dissonance can be reduced.

• Self- affirmation has been shown to reduce dissonance, though it is not always the mode of choice when trying to
reduce dissonance.

• A simple instance of cognitive dissonance resulting in attitude change would be when a heavy smoker learns that his
sister died young from lung cancer due to heavy smoking as well, this individual experiences conflicting cognitions: the
desire to smoke, and the knowledge that smoking could lead to death and a desire not to die.

• In order to reduce dissonance, this smoker could change his behaviour (i.e. stop smoking), change his attitude in
relation to the smoking (i.e. smoking is harmful), or retain his original attitude in relation to the smoking and modify his
new cognition to be constant with the first one—”I also work out so smoking won’t be harmful to me”.

• Therefore, attitude change is achieved when individuals experience feelings of uneasiness or guilt due to
cognitive dissonance, and actively reduce the dissonance through changing their attitude, beliefs, or behavior
relating in order to achieve consistency with the inconsistent cognitions.
 FESTINGER’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

• Cognitive dissonance is the term used in modern psychology to describe the state of holding two or more
conflicting cognitions (e.g.,ideas, beliefs, values, emotional reactions) simultaneously.

• In a state of dissonance, people may sometimes feel surprise, dread, guilt, anger, or embarrassment.

• The theory of cognitive dissonance in social psychology purposes that people have a motivational drive to
reduce dissonance by altering existing cognitions, adding new ones to create a consistent belief system, or
alternatively by reducing the importance of any one of the dissonant elements.

• An example of this would be the conflict between wanting to smoke and knowing that smoking is unhealthy; a
person may try to change their feelings about the odds that they will actually suffer the consequences, or they
might add the consonant element that the short term benefits of smoking outweigh the long term harm.

• The need to avoid cognitive dissonance may bias one towards a certain decision even though other factors
favour an alternative.
 HEIDER’S P-O-X THEORY

• Fritz Heider proposed balance theory. Balance theory is sometimes called P-O-X theory because it focuses
on situations containing three elements (triads): the person (P), the other person (O), and the attitude object (X).
Two types of relationships exist among elements: sentiment and unit. Sentiment relationships involve attitudes
or evaluations (e.g., P likes O; P favors issue X). Unit relationships involve possession (e.g., P dates O; P owns
X)

• Heider proposed that a person’s understanding of the relationships among P, O, and X was either “balanced”
or “unbalanced.” Balanced is the term for consistency. (For example, the principle that “my enemy’s enemy is my
friend” is balanced, because there is something consistent about liking the person who has attacked your
enemy.)

• A sign, + or –, is assigned to each relationship. To determine whether balance exists, simply multiply the
signs together. If the outcome is positive, the cognitive structure is balanced (consistent). If the outcome is
negative, it is unbalanced .
 STRATEGIES FOR RESOLVING DISSONANCE

• Is changing our attitudes the only method by which we can resolve dissonance? No, we can also alter our behavior
so it is more consistent with our attitudes—for example, we could resolve to only buy organic products in the future
and not change our “green environmental attitudes” after we’ve made some non-environmentally friendly purchase.

• We can also reduce cognitive dissonance by acquiring new information (justifications) that supports our behavior.

• Another option for managing dissonance when inconsistency is salient involves deciding that the inconsistency
actually doesn’t matter! In other words, we can engage in trivialization— concluding that either the attitudes or
behaviors in question are not important so any inconsistency between them is of no importance.

• Although the basic discrepancy between the attitude and behavior are left intact, the unpleasant or negative
feelings generated by dissonance can still be reduced by, for example, consuming alcohol.
• People will engage in self-affirmation—restoring positive self- evaluations that are threatened by the dissonance.
This can be accomplished by focusing on positive self- attributes—good things about oneself.
 DISSONANCE AS A TOOL FOR BENEFICIAL CHANGES IN BEHAVIOUR

❖ People who don’t wear seat belts are much more likely to die in accidents than those who do . . .

❖ People who smoke are much more likely to suffer from lung cancer and heart disease than others..

• Most of us know these statements are true, and our attitudes are generally favorable toward using seat
belts, quitting smoking, and engaging in safe sex. Despite having positive attitudes, they are often not
translated into overt actions: Some people continue to drive without seatbelts, to smoke, and to have
unprotected sex. To address these major social problems, perhaps what’s needed is not so much a change in
attitudes as shifts in overt behavior.

• Can dissonance be used to promote beneficial behavioral changes? A growing body of evidence suggests
that it can, especially when it is used to generate feelings of hypocrisy—publicly advocating some attitude, and
then making salient to the person that they have acted in a way that is inconsistent with their own attitudes.
Such feelings might be sufficiently intense that only actions that reduce dissonance directly, by inducing
behavioral change, may be effective. These predictions concerning the possibility of dissonance-induced
behavior change have been tested in several studies.
 AGGRESSION AND ITS MANAGEMENT
INSTRUMENTAL VERSUS HOSTILE AGGRESSION

• Feshbach originally urbanized this typology, and it has been elaborated upon more recently through Atkins et
al. (1993). This influential model separates aggression into instrumental and hostile functions.

• Instrumental aggression produces some positive reward or advantage (impact) on the aggressor unrelated
to the victim‘s discomfort. Eg: hurting another person in robbery.

• The purpose of hostile aggression is to induce injury or pain (negative impact) upon the victim. In this case,
there is little or no advantage to the aggressor. Eg: women expressing their aggression covertly.

• This model has been widely studied in community samples of children and adults with varying results.
One problem with this classification is that the constructs require careful delineation because several
aggressive episodes will have components of both instrumental and hostile aggression.
PROACTIVE VERSUS REACTIVE AGGRESSION

• A number of recent studies of aggression draw a distinction flanked by reactive and proactive
aggression.

• The first of these conditions refers to aggressive behaviour that is enacted in response to
provocation, such as an attack or an insult, and it is manifested in both self- suspicious and angry
actions.

• The latter term refers to aggression that is initiated without apparent provocation, such as we see in
bullying behaviour. Such behaviour is not evoked through anger, hostility or the need to defend
oneself, but through other motives that relate to obtaining goods, asserting power, assuring the
approval of reference groups and other such goals.
 POSITIVE VERSUS NEGATIVE AGGRESSION

• Usually speaking, aggression is measured to have a negative function that not only elicits disapproval from
others, but also is evaluated as destructive and damaging in its consequences.

• Ellis (1976) measured positive aggression to be healthy, productive behaviour if it promoted the basic
values of survival, protection, happiness, social acceptance, preservation, and intimate relations.

• In the context of positive aggression, a certain amount of aggression is thought to be necessary and
adaptive throughout childhood and adolescence because it helps build autonomy and identity.
 CAUSES OF AGGRESSTION

• Neurophysiologic Perspectives: it argue that aggression is a biological response that is under the control
of the brain. It states that aggression is innate not learned.

• Biological Causes: Research is beginning to indicate that biological processes (internal stimuli) may serve a
role in predisposing to aggression. Five specific processes are selected for brief description: (1) brain
dysfunction, (2) testosterone, (3) serotonin, (4) birth complications, and (5) nutrition deficiency.

 Brain Dysfunction: Aggressive criminals have been found to have poor brain functioning.

 Testosterone: Sex hormones appear to play a role in shaping aggressive behaviour. Aggressive, violent
offenders have been found to have significantly higher levels of testosterone than controls.

 Serotonin: Both animal and human research has shown that aggressors have lower levels of the
neurotransmitter serotonin. Nevertheless, the links flanked by brain chemistry and aggression in humans are
intricate, because the environment plays a key role in regulating neurochemistry.
 Nutrition Deficiency: Research on nutrition deficiency and aggressive behaviour is beginning to get
attention. Factors contain food additives, hypoglycemia, cholesterol, and deficiencies in protein, iron, and
zinc. Similarly, zinc deficiency has been found to be connected with aggressive behaviour in both animals
and humans.

• Environment and Genes: Twin and adoption studies suggest a large shared (family) environmental effect,
a moderate non-shared (unique) environmental effect, and a modest genetic effect. Typical twin concordance
rates for adolescent delinquency are 87% for monozygotic twins and 72% for dizygotic twins. Adoption studies
suggest that genetically vulnerable children—that is, children whose birth parents were antisocial—may be
especially susceptible to unfavorable family circumstances. The genetic element seems to be stronger for adult
criminality than childhood conduct disorder and delinquency.

• Parental Rearing Style: Five characteristics of how parents bring up their children have been shown
repeatedly to be strongly associated with long term antisocial behavior problems, namely (a) poor supervision,
(b) erratic, harsh discipline, (c) parental disharmony, (d) rejection of the child, and (e) low involvement in the
child‘s activities.
 Parent-child Interaction Pattern: Direct observation in the home shows that much aggressive behaviour in
children is influenced through the method parents behave towards them.

• Parental Influence on Children’s Emotions and Attitudes: Difficulties can often be traced back to infancy. A
high proportion of toddlers who go on to develop conduct problems show disorganized attachment patterns,
experiencing fear, anger, and distress on reunion with their parent after a brief separation. This behaviour is
likely to be a response to frightening, unavailable, and inconsistent parenting.

• Difficulties with Friends and at School: In the school playground these children lack the skills to
participate and take turns without upsetting others and becoming aggressive. Peer rejection typically ensues
quickly, and the children then associate with the other antisocial children, who share their set of values.

• Predisposing Child Characteristics: genetically determined. Children who show this restless, impulsive
pattern of behaviour do not necessarily start off aggressive, but over time a proportion become so.
 ENVIRONMENTAL STRESSORS

• Temperature: When the temperature rises people tend to feel more disposed to aggressive behaviour.

• Crowding: A higher density of people leads to higher levels of aggression.

• Noise: Noise is an unwanted sound that causes a negative effect. It can cause aggression when it is too loud
or unpredictable.

REDUCING AGGRESSION

• Treatment needs to be targeted at major modifiable risk factors and its outcome measured objectively. It
should preferably be at an early age as conduct disorder can be reliably detected early, has high stability, is
amenable to treatment at a young age, and is very hard to eradicate in older children.

• Catharsis

• Social learning approach

 HELPING AND ALTRUISM
UNDERSTANDING ALTRUISM:SELFAND OTHER CONCERNS

• Altruism refers to any behavior that is designed to increase another person’s welfare, and particularly those
actions that do not seem to provide a direct reward to the person who performs them.

• Helping is strongly influenced by affective variables. Indeed, the parts of the brain that are most involved in empathy,
altruism, and helping are the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex, areas that are responsible for emotion and emotion
regulation.

KINSHIP
• Is the tendency to help others, at least in part, a basic feature of human nature? Evolutionary psychologists
believe so. They argue that although helping others can be costly to us as individuals, altruism does have a clear
benefit for the group as a whole. Remember that in an evolutionary sense the survival of the individual is less
important than the survival of the individual’s genes (McAndrew, 2002). Therefore, if a given behavior such as
altruism enhances our reproductive success by helping the species as a whole survive and prosper, then that
behavior is likely to increase fitness, be passed on to subsequent generations, and become part of human nature.
 RECIPROCITY AND SOCIAL EXCHANGE

• Reciprocal altruism is one example of the general principle of social exchange. We frequently use
each other to gain rewards and to help protect ourselves from harm, and helping is one type of
benefit that we can provide to others.

• In some cases this exchange reflects overt cooperation, such as when two students take notes for
each other in classes that they miss or when neighbors care for each other’s pets while one of them
is away.

• In other cases the exchange may be more subtle and indirect, for instance, when we help someone
we don’t really know, with the expectation that someone else may help us in return someday.
 SOCIAL REINFORCEMENT AND ALTRUISM:THE ROLE OF REWARDS AND COSTS

• The principles of social learning suggest that people will be more likely to help when they receive rewards
for doing so.

• Parents certainly realize this—children who share their toys with others are praised, whereas those who act
more selfishly are reprimanded.

• And research has found that we are more likely to help attractive rather than unattractive people of the
other sex—again probably because it is rewarding to do so.
SOCIAL NORMS FOR HELPING

• The outcome of reinforcement for and modeling of helping is the development of social norms of morality—
standards of behavior that we see as appropriate and desirable regarding helping.

• Positive moods increase helping

• Relieving negative emotions: guilt increases helping

• Personal distress and empathy as determinant of helping

 SOCIAL CONTEXT ON HELPING
INFLUENCES OF SOCIAL CONTEXT IN HELPING

• Although emotional responses such as guilt, personal distress, and empathy are important determinants of
altruism, it is the social situation itself—the people around us when we are deciding whether or not to help—
that has perhaps the most important influence on whether and when we help.

LATANE AND DARLEY’S MODEL OF HELPING

• Two social psychologists, Bibb Latané and John Darley, found themselves particularly interested and
realized that emergencies are unusual and that people frequently do not really know what to do when they
encounter one. Furthermore, emergencies are potentially dangerous to the helper, and it is therefore probably
pretty amazing that anyone helps at all.

• To better understand the processes of helping in an emergency, Latané and Darley developed a model of
helping that took into consideration the important role of the social situation. Their model, which is shown in,
has been extensively tested in many studies, and there is substantial support for it.
 OTHER DETERMINANTS OF HELPING
THE ALTRUISTIC PERSONALITY

• The altruistic personality involves both the cognitive and the emotional responses that we experience around
others.

• People with altruistic personalities tend to show empathy and sympathy for others and feel that it is appropriate
and right to follow the norm of social responsibility.

• These people help more people in a wider variety of areas, including providing help to coworkers, donating
organs, and volunteering, and also have been found to help more quickly than do people who score lower on these
measures.

• Gender difference in helping. Men help physicall y and women help in terms of nurturing and
caring.

ATTRIBUTIONS AND HELPING

• We do not help everyone equally—some people just seem to be more worthy of help than others. Our cognitions
about people in need matter as do our emotions toward them.
 CULTURAL ISSUES IN HELPING

• One important difference between Eastern and Western cultures is that the importance of self-concern
(versus other-concern) is higher in the latter. In fact, the strong individualistic norms in cultures such as the
United States make it sometimes inappropriate to try to help in cases where we do not have a personal
interest.
 SOCIAL FACILITATION
MEANING OF GROUP

• Group dynamics expert Marvin Shaw (1981) argued that all groups have one thing in common: Their
members interact. Therefore, he defines a group as two or more people who interact and influence one
another. Moreover, notes Australian National University social psychologist John Turner (1987), groups
perceive themselves as “us” in contrast to “them.” A pair of jogging companions, then, would indeed
constitute a group. Different groups help us meet different human needs—to affiliate (to belong to and
connect with others), to achieve, and to gain a social identity (Johnson & others, 2006).
 TYPES OF GROUPS
• Primary groups: a small social group whose members share personal and lasting relationships.
People joined in primary relationships spend a great deal of time together, engage in a wide range of
activities, and feel that they know one another well. In short, they show real concern for one another.
In every society, the family is the most significant primary group. Groups based on lasting
friendships are also primary groups.

• Secondary groups: Secondary groups, in contrast to primary groups, are large groups involving
formal and institutional relationships. Secondary relationships involve weak emotional ties and little
personal knowledge of one another. Most secondary groups are short term, beginning and ending
without scrupulous significance. They may last for years or may disband after a short time. The
formation of primary groups happens within secondary groups. Primary groups can be present in
secondary settings.
Some examples of types of groups contain the following:

• Peer group: A peer group is a group with members of almost the same age, social status, and
interests. Usually, people are relatively equal in conditions of power when they interact with peers.

• Clique: A group of people that have several of the same interests & commonly found in a High
School/College setting; most of the time they have a name & rules for themselves.

• Club: A club is a group, which usually requires one to apply to become a member. Such clubs
may be dedicated to scrupulous activities: sporting clubs, for instance.
•
• Cabal: A cabal is a group of people united in some close design together, usually to promote
their private views or interests in a church, state, or other community, often through intrigue.
• Household: All individuals who live in the same home. Anglophone culture may contain several models of
household, including the family, blended families, share housing, and group homes.
• Community: A community is a group of people with a commonality or sometimes a intricate net of overlapping
commonalities, often–but not always–in proximity with one another with some degree of stability over time.
• Franchise: An organization which runs many instances of a business in several locations.

• Gang: A gang is usually an urban group that gathers in a scrupulous area. It is a group of people that often hang
approximately each other.

• Mob: A mob is usually a group of people that has taken the law into their own hands. Mobs are usually groups
which gather temporarily for a scrupulous cause.

• Posse: A posse was originally found in English common law. It is usually obsolete, and survives only in America,
where it is the law enforcement equivalent of summoning the militia for military purposes. Though, it can also refer to
a street group.

• Squad: This is usually a small group, of approximately 3 to 15 people, who work as a team to accomplish their
goals.
• Dyad: This is a social group with two members. Social interaction in a dyad is typically more intense than
in superior groups because neither member shares the other’s attention with anyone else.

• Triad: This is a social group with three members, which contains three relationships, each uniting two of
the three people. A triad is more stable than a dyad because one member can act as a mediator should the
relationship flanked by the other two become strained.

• Team: similar to a squad, though a team may contain several more members. A team works in a similar
method to a squad.

• In-group: It is a social group toward which a member feels respect and loyalty. It is a group that an
individual identifies in positive direction. If a person is part of the in-group then they are collectively part of an
inner circle of friends. An inner circle may contain sub-groups within the inner circle including the apex (best
friends), core (very close friends), outer rim, etc.

• This group gives a support structure and being exclusive offers protection from anyone in an Out-group.

• Out-group: It is a social group toward which a person feels a sense of competition or opposition. It is a
group that an individual identifies in negative direction.
 SOCIAL FACILITATION

• The Mere Presence of Others:

• Ensuing experiments found that others’ presence improves the speed with which people do simple
multiplication problems and cross out designated letters. It also improves the accuracy with which people perform
simple motor tasks, such as keeping a metal stick in contact with a dime-sized disk on a moving turntable.

• This social facilitation effect also occurs with animals. In the presence of others of their species, ants
excavate more sand, chickens eat more grain, and sexually active rat pairs mate more often.

• But wait: Other studies revealed that on some tasks the presence of others hinders performance. In the
presence of others, cockroaches, parakeets, and green finches learn mazes more slowly.
• Crowding: The Presence of Many Others So people do respond to others’ presence. But does the
presence of observers always arouse people? In times of stress, a comrade can be comforting. Nevertheless,
with others present, people perspire more, breathe faster, tense their muscles more, and have higher blood
pressure and a faster heart rate (Geen & Gange, 1983; Moore & Baron, 1983). Even a supportive audience
may elicit poorer performance on challenging tasks (Butler & Baumeister, 1998). Having your entire extended
family attend your first piano recital probably won’t boost your performance.

• The effect of others’ presence increases with their number (Jackson & Latané, 1981; Knowles, 1983).
Sometimes the arousal and self- conscious attention created by a large audience interferes even with well-
learned, automatic behaviors, such as speaking. Given extreme pressure, we’re vulnerable to “choking.”
Stutterers tend to stutter more in front of larger audiences than when speaking to just one or two people
(Mullen, 1986).
 TASK PERFORMANCE AND BEHAVIOUR

• Performance in the Presence of Others: Imagine you are a dancer and you are preparing for a national level
stage performance for days and months, several hours each day. Finally on the big day you are on the stage
with hundreds of people around. How will you do? Better or worse than you practiced alone? This was the first
researched topic studied in social psychology by Allport (1920). Allport and other researchers referred to the
effects on performance of the presence of other persons as social facilitation, because it appeared that when
others were present, performance was enhanced. But some researchers soon called the accuracy of this
research into question. It was soon clear that on certain occasions the presence of others reduced
performance.
• Zajonc gave the drive theory of social facilitation which propounds, the presence of others will improve
when they are highly skilled. Individuals were likely to perform dominant responses in the presence of others
than when alone, and their performance on various tasks was either enhanced or impaired, depending on
whether the responses were correct or incorrect in each situation. The following figure illustrates the drive
theory of Social Facilitation.
DRIVE THEORY OF SOCIAL FACILITATION
 SOCIAL INFLUENCE
GROUP PROCESSES

• Groups are important because they provide social support, a cultural framework to guide
performance, and rewards and resources of all kinds. Without them, most individuals would be lost. Without
groups, most individuals would be isolated, unloved, disoriented, relatively unproductive, and very possibly
hungry.
GROUP STRUCTURE AND GOALS

• In addition to cohesion, groups can also be characterized by their goals and by the structure they adopt in
pursuit of their goals. A group goal is an outcome viewed by group members as desirable and important to
attain. These goals can differ in terms of specificity, ranging from general statements about what the group
does and why it exists to more specific targets and tasks that the group members attempt to achieve along the
way to its larger goals.
 GROUP GOALS AND INDIVIDUAL GOALS

• The term goal isomorphism refers to a state where group goals and individual goals are similar in the
sense that actions leading to group goals also lead to the attainment of individual goals.

GROUP ACTION

• Many people do many things in groups. The effect of working in a group (as compared to working alone)
is variable: Sometimes the group produces improvement, other times disaster.

• Social psychologists have spent years mapping out these effects. One theme we have already suggested
is that the effects of groups are often negative when people are submerged in the group.

• In contrast, when people retain their individual identities and feel personally accountable for their
actions, many of the bad effects of groups are prevented or reduced, and the positive effects of groups
are more common.
 ROLES IN GROUPS

• As groups pursue their goals, the members of the group take on different roles. Usually, it is not
efficient for all members of a group to try to perform the same tasks. Instead, the group engages in a division of
labor in which members are assigned different tasks. In addition to the assignment of tasks, members of the
group also differ in the informal roles they take on in the group. Some group members will exercise more
influence over the group (even if they have no official authority in the group), some will talk more than others,
some will become close friends with each other, and so on.

• From one perspective, a role is a set of functions that a member performs for the group. From another
perspective, a role is a cluster of rules or expectations indicating the set of duties to be performed by a member
occupying a given position within a group.

ROLES IN GROUP COMMUNICATION

• Sometimes, roles in groups are well-defined and have been operating for long periods of time even as group
membership changes. On the other hand, groups often form only for temporary purposes and face the problem
of developing norms, roles, and goals as part of their group tasks.
 INTERPERSONAL ATTRACTION
• Interpersonal attraction leads to further communication among two or more people. Interpersonal
attraction can be determined by some internal as well as external factors.

• As a social being we have a need for affiliation. Coupled with the need to be affiliated emotional response
plays a significant role in interpersonal attraction.

• A positive emotional state leads to a smother interpersonal attraction and a negative emotional state can
lead in repulsion of some one.

• There are external determinants in interpersonal attraction like similarity among individuals, physical
proximity and the mutual responding. Further, interpersonal attraction leads to formation of relationships.
 INTERNAL DETERMINANTS OF ATTRACTION:
THE NEED TO AFFILIATE AND THE BASIC ROLE OF AFFECT

• The importance of affiliation for human existence: Human beings have the basic need to be part of a
group, be affiliated and accepted by someone. There are certain internal factors that drive this behaviour. This
behaviour has a survival value of being protected, reproduction and health interdependence. Need for affiliation
is the basic motive to seek and maintain interpersonal relationships.

• It is very unpleasant experience to be excluded and ignored. It gives a left-out and neglected feeling as
reaction to be excluded. This kind of behaviour in society generates adverse effect on the individual or group that is
excluded. This kind of deprivation results in sensitivity to interpersonal information and cognitive functioning.

• There are certain situation and contexts where need for affiliation is clearly evident. During natural disasters it can
be seen that people help each other. This behaviour is seen because it provides an opportunity for social
comparison. An opportunity to communicate what they feel and think further, generating an experience comfort.
• Affect as a basic response system: Affect refers emotional state of a person, his positive and negative
feelings and moods. It is understood that emotional state of a person influences his cognition and emotion as
well as the interpersonal attraction.

• Affect has two basic characteristics one is the intensity of the affect, indicating its strength and second is the
direction of the emotion, regarding the positive or negative emotion.

• Affect and attraction: The role of affect in interpersonal attraction suggests that the positive affect will
lead to positive evaluation of other people and negative affect will lead to negative evaluation of other person.
In this manner a direct effect of emotion on attraction is observed.
• Additional implication of the affect-attraction relationship: Some applications or implicit relationship
between affect and attraction can be observed in daily life situations.

• Laughter leads to a positive evaluation among individuals in a first interaction. Because something
humorous happening make the affect positive and further distracts from the discomfort of the situation and
gives new perspective to the situation.
 EXTERNAL DETERMINANTS OF ATTRACTION: PROXIMITY AND OTHER OBSERVABLE
CHARACTERISTICS

• The power of proximity: unplanned contacts: One of the important external determinants of
interpersonal attraction is physical closeness.
• Observable characteristics: instant evaluations: Instant likes and dislikes are seen to be arousing a
strong affect suggesting a phenomenon that goes against the repeated proximity effect.
• The other observable characteristics like physical attractiveness and appearance play an important role.
• Physical attractiveness is a phenomenon that ranges from being evaluated as beautiful or handsome to one
extreme and unattractive at the other extreme.
 FACTORS BASED ON INTERACTING WITH OTHERS: SIMILARITY AND MUTUAL LIKING

• Similarity: It is a well accepted fact that people like to be with persons who are more similar to them.
Similarity can be of attitudes, beliefs, values and many more things. The tendency to respond positively to
indications that another person is similar to them and negatively to indications that another person is dissimilar
from them is referred as similarity-dissimilarity effect. The similarity effect also makes one to judge the
similar person having positive traits.

• Mutual liking: It will not give us a complete understanding if we ignore a very important process which
mediates initial attraction and the established interpersonal relationship. The intention is to refer the
reciprocating cues of liking. The exchange of communicating the likings that leads to generation of positive
emotional state. The next in the process is the clear communication of mutual liking which further strengthens
mutual liking.
 CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS: FAMILY AND FRIENDS

• Family: where relationships and attachment styles begin: This is the first experience of interaction.
However, there may be relatively quantitative and qualitative difference between the individual and his or her
family members.

• First interaction begins with the care giver especially mother. These interaction shapes individual’s world.
It has a lasting impact on individual’s future interpersonal behavior.

Four types of interpersonal styles as given below:

 Secure attachment style

 Fearful- avoidant attachment style

 Preoccupied attachment style

• Dismissing attachment style

• Secure attachment style: characteristic of an individual who is high on both, self-esteem and
interpersonal trust. Person with this type of attachment style is found to be good at relationships, self-
confidence, high on need for achievement and has less fear of failure are other characteristics of secure
attachment style.

• Fearful- avoidant attachment style: This type of attachment style is a result of low self- esteem and
interpersonal trust. A person with fearful-avoidant attachment style is poor at interpersonal relationships and
also avoids close relationships.
• Preoccupied attachment style: A negative attitude towards oneself and a high interpersonal trust results
in preoccupied attachment style. These types of people are ready to get in to interpersonal relationships but are
often found to be pessimistic about their relationships.

• Dismissing attachment style: This type of attachment style is an outcome of high self- esteem and low
interpersonal trust. Individuals with this attachment style avoid genuine close relationship. They feel insecure
due to the belief that they deserve a close relationship but are frustrated because of the mistrust towards
others.
GROUP TASK PERFORMANCE AND PROBLEM-SOLVING
GROUP PERFORMANCE

• Task performance or the outcome of some behavioural or intellectual goal is a key function of many groups.

• According to Ivan Steiner, the effectiveness of groups may depend on the nature of the task they are
required to perform.

• Group task performance may often be less than optimal because of two types of process losses that occur
in groups: coordination and motivation.

• When group members work together, they have to coordinate with one another, and this requirement may
make it difficult for each member to contribute his or her best effort.

• Group members may also be less motivated in groups than they would be if they were working by
themselves.
 PRODUCTIVITY IN TASK-PERFORMING GROUPS

• When someone works in a large group and each individual’s performance is combined with that of others, a
person may be less motivated to work hard on behalf of the group. This type of motivation loss is known as social
loafing or free riding.

• Social loafing has been found to increase with the size of the group, the extent to which a person’s performance
is anonymous, and the degree to which the task is seen as challenging.
• When group members are accountable to one another or in competition with one another and have challenging
goals, they may in fact have increased motivation in groups.

• When group members work together, they have to mesh their various talents and perspectives in addition to
coordinating their group activities. Groups have to decide who does what, when, and how.

• A lack of effort or mistake in coordination by one or more group members can mean failure for the group.
Research has documented several of these types of coordination problems.
 DECISION-MAKING FOR PROBLEM-SOLVING IN GROUPS

• One of the most significant functions of groups is to make decisions.

RULES FOR MAKING DECISIONS

• The particular rule that a group adopts can be influenced by the nature of the decision- making task. For
example, if the task is to solve a mathematical problem where there is a right answer the group is likely to
adopt truth wins. If the task is to decide which colour to re-paint your clubroom at the university, which is a
matter of preference, the group might adopt majority wins.
• Decision rules differ in terms of how much agreement is required (in this respect unanimity is much stricter
than majority wins). In general, stricter rules are more egalitarian in that decision- making power is better
distributed across the group (unanimity is very strict but very low in power concentration, while two-thirds
majority is less strict but has greater power concentration.

• The strictness and power distribution of the rule affect both group functioning and member satisfaction (Miller,
1989). For example, stricter rules can make final agreement in the group slower, more exhaustive and difficult
to attain, but it can enhance liking for fellow members and satisfaction with the quality of the decision.
 DECISION MAKING PROCESS BY GROUPS
• Group’s decision making is the process of decision making in groups consisting of multiple members/entities.
The challenge of group decision is deciding what action a group should take.

• There are many ways that a group can make a final decision, decide on a solution, or come to agreement.
Some of the most popular ways of making the decision include:

 Consensus: The group members all agree on the final decision through discussion and debate.

 Compromise: Through discussion and readjustment of the final plan, group members come to agreement
by giving up some of their demands.

 Majority Vote: The decision is based on the opinion of the majority of its members.
 Decision by Leader: The group gives the final decision to its leader.

• Arbitration: An external body or person makes a decision for the group

 STEPS IN A DECISION-MAKING FOR EFFECTIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING

Identify The Problem: Tell specifically what the problem is and how you experience it. Cite specific examples.

Clarify the Problem: This step is most important when working with a group of people.

Analyze the Cause: Any deviation from what must be is produced by a cause or interaction of causes. In order to
change “what is” to “what is wanted” it is usually necessary to remove or neutralize the cause in some way.

Solicit Alternative Solutions to the Problem: This step calls for identifying as many solutions to the problem as
possible before discussing the specific advantages and disadvantages of each. The basic tool used in generating
many possible solutions to a problem is brainstorming.
SELECTING ONE OR MORE ALTERNATIVES: For action before actually selecting alternatives for action, it is
advisable to identify criteria that the desired solution needs to meet.

PLAN FOR IMPLEMENTATION: This requires looking at the details that must be performed by someone for a
solution to be effectively activated. Once the required steps are identified, it means assigning these to someone
for action; it also means setting a time for completion.

CLARIFY THE CONTRACT: This is to insure that everyone clearly understands what the agreement is that
people will do to implement a solution. It is a summation and restatement of what people have agreed to do and
when it is expected they will have it done. It rules out possible misinterpretation of expectations.

THE ACTION PLAN: The best of plans are only intellectual exercises unless they are transformed into action.

PROVIDE FOR EVALUATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY: After the plan has been implemented and sufficient
time has elapsed for it to have an effect, the group should reconvene and discuss evaluation and accountability.
 COOPERATION AND COMPETITION
• In some situations, cooperation is dominant, whereas in others, competition is.

• Factors such as personalities of the individuals, volume of communication, size of the group, and
reciprocity of actions determine whether individuals compete or cooperate in a social situation.
• Some research suggests that Americans are especially competitive, and that this characteristic is learned
throughout childhood. There are personality differences, with some people always competing, some always
cooperating, and some following the other person’s lead (they begin through cooperating, but will compete if the
other person does).

• Communication is also a significant factor. Researchers found that as the size of group increased,
cooperation decreased.

• Reciprocity also plays a role, and several people will go beside with whatever strategy another person
begins.

• Cooperation and competition are significant forces in today’s world and social psychologists are attempting
to understand how groups, and even nations, can learn to augment cooperation.
 COORDINATION IN GROUPS: COOPERATION OR CONFLICT?

• Pattern which helping is mutual and both sides benefit. This pattern is known as cooperation and involves
situation in which groups work together to attain shared goals.

• Frequently persons belonging to a group try to coordinate their efforts but somehow fail in the attempt.
• Some times for worse person may perceive their personal interests as incompatible, with the result that
instead of working together and coordinating their effort, they often work against each other. In this way they
produce negative results for both sides, which are known as conflict.
 STRATEGIES FOR PRODUCING COOPERATION
• It is important to attempt to determine appropriate ways to encourage more responsible use of social
resources because individualistic consumption of these supplies will make them disappear faster and may have
overall negative effects on human beings. It should be kept in mind that although social dilemmas are arranged
such that competition is a likely outcome, they do not always end in collective disaster.
• These factors include the type of task,
• such as its rules and regulations;
• our perceptions about the task;
• the norms that are operating in the current situation; and
• the type and amount of communication among the parties.
Furthermore, we can use approaches such as negotiation, arbitration, and mediation to help parties that are in
competition come to agreement.
 TASK CHARACTERISTICS AND PERCEPTIONS

• One factor that determines whether individuals cooperate or compete is the nature of the situation itself.

• The characteristics of some social dilemmas lead them to produce a lot of competitive responses,
whereas others are arranged to elicit more cooperation. Thus one way to reduce conflict, when the approach is
possible, is to change the rules of the task to reinforce more cooperation.

• If societies really desire to maintain the public goods for their citizens, they will work to maintain them
through incentives—for instance, by creating taxes such that each person is required to contribute his or her
fair share to support them. A city or a state may add a carpool lane to the roadways, making it more desirable
to commute with others and thereby help keep the freeways unclogged.
 PRIVATIZATION
• Another approach to increase the optimal use of resources is to privatize them—that is, to divide up the public
good into smaller pieces so that each individual is responsible for a small share rather than trusting the good to
the group as a whole.

• In general, smaller groups are more cooperative than larger ones and also make better use of the resources
that they have available to them. One explanation for the difficulties of larger groups is that as the number of
group members increases, each person’s behavior becomes less identifiable, which is likely to increase free
riding.

• Larger groups also lead people to feel more de-individuated, which may prevent them from conforming to
group norms of cooperation. And in large groups, there is likely to be more difficulty coordinating the efforts of the
individuals, and this may reduce cooperation.
 ROLE OF COMMUNICATION
• When communication between the parties involved in a conflict is nonexistent, or when it is hostile or
negative in tone, disagreements frequently result in escalation of negative feelings and lead to conflict.
• In other cases, when communication is more open and positive, the parties in potential conflict are more likely
to be able to deal with each other effectively, with a result that produces compromise and cooperation.
• Communication has a number of benefits, each of which improves the likelihood of cooperation.
• Communication has a positive effect because it increases the expectation that the others will act
cooperatively and also reduces the potential of being a “sucker” to the free riding of others.
 THE TIT-FOR-TAT STRATEGY

• In social dilemma games that are run over a number of trials, various strategies can be used by the parties
involved. But which is the best strategy to use in order to promote cooperation? One simple strategy that has
been found to be effective in such situations is known as tit-for-tat.

• The tit-for tat strategy involves initially making a cooperative choice and then waiting to see what the other
individuals do. If it turns out that they also make the cooperative choice (or if most of them do), then the individual
again makes a cooperative choice.

• On the other hand, if the other group members compete, then the individual again matches this behavior by
competing.
 FORMAL SOLUTIONS TO CONFLICT:NEGOTIATION AND MEDIATION
• Negotiation is the process by which two or more parties formally work together to attempt to resolve a
perceived divergence of interest in order to avoid or resolve social conflict.
• Mediation involves helping to create compromise by using third-party negotiation. A mediator is a third party
who is knowledgeable about the dispute and skilled at resolving conflict.
 MAKING COMMUNICATION EFFECTIVE
• Social psychology traditionally has been defined as the study of the ways in which people affect, and are affected
by, others. Communication is one of the primary means by which people affect one another, and, in light of this,
one might expect the study of communication to be a core topic of social psychology, but historically that has not
been the case.

EMPATHY AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR

• Empathy is an especially important emotion when it comes to understanding why people help and cooperate.

• Empathy may be a central characteristic of emotionally intelligent behaviour, the ability to comprehend
another’s feelings and to re-experience them oneself.

LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

• Language pervades social life. It is implicated in most of the phenomena that lie at the core of social
psychology: attitude change, social perception, personal identity, social interaction, intergroup bias and
stereotyping, attribution, and so on.
 PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
• Psycholinguistics is the study of the mental processes and skills underlying the production and
comprehension of language, and of the acquisition of these skills. 1. Production, comprehension, and
acquisition. Psycholinguists consider the skilled human language user as a complex information-processing
system. Their aim is to account for the user’s acquisition, production and comprehension of language in terms
of the various components of this system and their interactions.

• In other words, the child must be able to comprehend both the meaning and the form of the syllables in
order to process them internally. Spoken language can be broken down into phonology, syntax, semantics,
morphology, and pragmatics. Naturally, children acquire their first words by placing meaning upon familiar
objects. For example, the word “cat” has no meaning to a child until the child associates “cat” and the object that
is a cat. When recognition (cognition) occurs, the child will gradually obtain more vocabulary words, as well as
the mental acuity to use them.
 LEADERS AND LEADERSHIP
• Leadership has been described as “a process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and
support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”. For instance, some understand a leader simply as
somebody whom people follow, or as somebody who guides or directs others, while others describe leadership
as “organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal”.
FUNCTIONS OF LEADERS

 To act as a representative of the work-group

 To develop team spirit

 To act as a counsellor of the people at work

 Proper use of Power

 Time Management

 Secure effectiveness of group-effort

 TYPES OF LEADERS

 The Transformational Leader: Leaders who show strength in all five leadership behaviors are those who are
able to transform the commitment levels of those approximately them. They have deep conviction in relation
to goals; a determination to execute plans and is prepared to go against conventional wisdom.

 The Enforcer: These are leaders who act in methods characterized through careful optimism and a drive to
create sure specific objectives are achieved. They display strong belief in what they are doing and
commitment to stay the course, but tend to limit options and avoid taking action where risk is associated.

 The Deal Maker: These leaders attract followers largely because of their energy and excitement for
anything new. They thrive on change and regularly break the mold.

 The Administrator: These leaders are strategic executors who are clear in what needs to be achieved
and ruthlessly follow through. They are autocratic in approach, letting nothing stand in the method of
achieving the overall objective, and are likely to prefer detailed and rigorous project plans, constant
monitoring and updating, and tight control over resources and people.
 The Visionary: These leaders inspire people to dream of greatness but fail to follow through. They
have all the qualities of the transformational leader, including their skill to elevate ambition, but are weak
at generating critical mass.

 The Serial Entrepreneur: These leaders are imaginative, but calculating, gamblers. They display vast
energy and commitment and sweep people beside with them because they create seemingly impossible
challenges achievable. They care deeply in relation to the legacy but thrash about to articulate the wider
context of their decisions in a method that’s meaningful to their followers.

 The Spin Doctor: These leaders seem to be everything a leader should be, but their behavior is
inconsistent and self-serving - they have underdeveloped conviction. What distinguishes these
leaders most is their skill to convincingly argue the case, any case, and justify the change to followers.
PERSONAL QUALITIES OF LEADERS

• Honesty

• Skill to delegate

• Communication

• Sense of humour

• Confidence

• Commitment

• Positive attitude

• Creativity

• Intuition

• Skills to aspire
 Categories of leadership
• Authoritarian: The authoritarian leadership style or autocratic leader keeps strict, close control over
followers through keeping close regulation of policies and procedures given to followers.

• Paternalistic Leadership: acting as a father figure through taking care of their subordinates as a parent
would.

• In this style of leadership the leader supplies complete concern for his followers or workers. In return he
receives the complete trust and loyalty of his people.

• Workers under this style of leader are expected to become totally committed to what the leader believes
and will not strive off and work independently.
• Democratic: The democratic leadership style consists of the leader sharing the decision- making abilities
with group members through promoting the interests of the group members and through practicing social
equality.

• This style of leadership encompasses discussion, debate and sharing of ideas and encouragement of
people to feel good in relation to the involvement.
Laissez-faire: The laissez-faire leadership style is where all the rights and power to create decisions is fully
given to the worker.

• The laissez-faire style is sometimes described as a “hands off” leadership style because the leader
delegates the tasks to their followers while providing little or no direction to the followers.

This is an effective style to use when:

 Followers are highly skilled, experienced, and educated. Also, when they have pride in their work and the
drive to do it successfully on their own.
 Followers are trustworthy and experienced.

This style should NOT be used when:

 Followers feel insecure at the unavailability of a leader.

• The leader cannot or will not give regular feedback to their followers.
Transactional: Mainly used through management, transactional leaders focus their leadership on motivating
followers through a system of rewards and punishments.

There are two factors which form the basis for this system, Contingent Reward and management-through-
exception.

 Contingent Reward Gives rewards, materialistic or psychological, for effort and recognizes good performance.

 Management-through-Exception allows the leader to maintain the status quo. The leader intervenes when
subordinates do not meet acceptable performance levels and initiates corrective action to improve
performance. Management through exception helps reduce the workload of managers being that they are
only described-in when workers deviate from course.
Transformational: A transformational leader is a type of person in which the leader is not limited through his or
her followers’ perception. The main objective is to work to change or transform his or her followers’ needs and
redirect their thinking.

• Leaders that follow the transformation style of leading, challenge and inspire their followers with a sense of
purpose and excitement.

• They also make a vision of what they aspire to be, and communicate this thought to others (their followers).
Traits of a Good Leader compiled through the Santa Clara University and the Tom Peters Group:

 Honest — Display sincerity, integrity, and candor in all your actions. Deceptive behavior will not inspire trust.

 Competent — Base your actions on moral principles and not based on childlike emotional desires or feelings.

 Forward-looking — Set goals and have a vision of the future.

 Inspiring — Display confidence in all that you do.

 Intelligent — Read, study, and seek challenging assignments.

 Fair-minded — Show fair treatment to all people. Prejudice is the enemy of justice. Display empathy.

 Broad-minded — Seek out diversity.

 Courageous — Have the perseverance to accomplish a goal. Display a confident calmness under stress.

 Straightforward — Use sound judgment to create a good decisions at the right time.

 Imaginative — Create timely and appropriate changes in your thinking, plans, and methods.