CS3.

1 Social Area

Classic Study: Milgram

Contemporary Study: Bocchiaro et al
Key Theme: Responses to people in authority
 Social Area
Factor Social area
Brains genes chemical Encourages a focus on social stimuli

Age and stage Encourages a focus on social stimuli

Unlearned responses Encourages a focus on social stimuli

Experience Focus on social experiences

Environment Focus on the social environment

Stimuli Focus on social stimuli

Social situation The main cause of behaviour

Personality Studied, not the main cause of behaviour, importance is

exaggerated
Thought processes Focus on processing social information

Unconscious thought Not studied by social psychology

processes
 Updated Social
• New Social Features
– Humans as a Social Species
– Social Situation
– Social Influence and Social Norms
• Social Practical Applications
– Prosocial authority figures
– Reduce discrimination
– Healthy interpersonal relationships
• Social Research Methods
– Confederates
– Observation and Self Report
– Field Experiments and Mundane Realism
– Cross cultural studies
• Social Strengths and
Weaknesses
– Strengths
• Experimental realism
• Practical applications
– Weaknesses
• Ethical issues
• Determinism
 Updated Social Features
Humans as a Social Species
• People are born with skills that allow them to successfully interact with others in
their social world.
– Newborns are able to recognize faces and to respond to human voices
– Newborns have basic social communication through crying, smiling etc
– Young children learn language and develop friendships
– Social stimuli from people attracts more attention and is processed easier
– Adults form social networks, feel attractions to others, raise families and care about
their status to other people

• This is due to evolution; humans are a social species: we have genes that
encourage us to developed social behaviours, communicate and focus on social
stimuli.
• Engaging in social behaviours allowed human ancestors to survive. Genes that
caused a focus on social stimuli and behaviour allowed human ancestors to
adapt and were passed along on their genes to the next generation.
• How does humans tendency to focus on social stimuli and behaviours allow
them to survive:
 Updated Social Features
Social Situation
• All factors external to the individual that are relevant to people and society.
• Not just all external stimuli, just stimuli that is processed and interpreted as being
relevant to people and society in the mind of individuals.
• Social stimuli has more impact on human behaviour than other stimuli.

• Situations can be described by social cues, social characteristics and social classes
– Cues: raw physical stimuli relevant to people
– Characteristics: interpretations of cues: situation relevant to mating, duty, intellect, positivity,
negativity, deceptive etc
– Classes: situations that have similar patterns of characteristics: work, party, ceremonies etc.

• Situations are real, external and objective, not just in the mind of participants, as they
have a consistent predictable impact on behaviour.
• People consistently agree about the characteristics and classes of different social
situations (work is dutiful and requires intellect, parties have opportunities for social
relationships and are positive) is like, but individual differences in situation perception
do exist (not everyone will view a party positively).
Dimension S8-1: What applies to your S8-2: The situation contains…
situation?
Duty Work has to be done Work, tasks, duties
Intellect Deep thinking is required Intellectual, aesthetics
Adversity Somebody is being Threat, criticism, accusations
threatened, accused or
criticised
Mating Potential romantic partners Romance, sexuality, love
are present
pOsitivity The situation is pleasant Positive, pleasant, nice things

Negativity Negative feelings eg stress Negative unpleasant things, bad

anxiety guilt feelings
Deception Somebody is being deceived Deceit, ie, dishonesty

Sociality Socially interactions are Communication, interaction,

possible or required social relationships
 Updated Social Features
• What social stimuli and characteristics would you expect to find in
different classes social situations: (psychology lesson, job interview,
following orders in the army etc)
Social Situations
Social Cues Sound of music, sight of
friends, faces of strangers,
smell of food and alcohol,
empty dance floor, sight of
birthday presents

Social Positivity, sociality, mating,

Characteristics lack of adversity, lack of
intellectuality

Social Class A friends birthday party

 Updated Social Features
Social Influence and Social Norms
• The social situation isn’t just processed and interpreted: it impacts
the way individuals think, feel and behave.
• Individuals are influenced by people who are not physically present,
the imagined presence of others.
• Previous social situations can be internalized: even though no one is
currently interacting with an individual, the individual will still be
influenced by previous social situations.
• We often do not recognize how important the social situation is in
determining behaviour. We wrongly think that individuals behaviours
are due to personality and choice, without any external influences.
• 2 types of social influence:
– Passive influence: no obvious intent from one person to change the
behaviour of others, adopting the behaviour of others without realising.
– Active influence: one person actively trying to change the behaviour of
others
 Updated Social Features
Social Influence and Social Norms
• Social influence can create social norms: shared ways of thinking and
behaving, thought of as appropriate by the individuals in society.
• Norms include customs, traditions, standards, and rules, as well as
the general values of the group.
• Norms have a significant influence on behaviour:
– What people actually do
– What people should do
– What people shouldn’t do
• Nearly all behaviours can be understood better by considering how
they relate to social norms.
• What behaviours do you have that are examples of social
norms/previous social influences:
 Social Practical Applications
Social Practical Applications
• Prosocial authority figures
– Large scale social issues can often be explained through the obedience to
authority societies show.
– Can suggests ways to resist immoral authorities and encourage pro social
authorities.
• Reduce discrimination
– Can help us understand how individuals are often a product of their social
situation, and not anti social people.
– Can encourage environments that encourage pro social helpful behaviours
towards each other.
• Healthy interpersonal relationships
– Understanding how we impact the behaviour of others and how others impact
our behaviour can encourage healthy interactions.
– Understanding how behaviour is often not a reflection of personality can
encourage forgiveness and understanding.
 Social Practical Applications
Link features of the social area to the practical applications:

• Humans as a • Prosocial
Social Species authority figures
• Reduce
• Social Situation discrimination
• Healthy
• Social Influence interpersonal
and Social Norms relationships
 Social Practical Applications
• As the social area studies the social situations, the way
physical cues from the environments are processed with
social characteristics, social psychologists can discover which
social cues encourage destructive obedience and suggests
laws to reduce these cues.

• As the social area studies…

• Social psychologists can…

 Social Research Methods
Social Research Methods
• Need to link practical application to the social features.

• Confederates
– An aide of the researcher who acts as a participant or other role.
– Often social desirable behaviour is studied, so other deception has to be used.
– Used to study how the presence of others impacts behaviour.
• Observation and Self Report
– Used to gather data.
– Used to record how participants behave in different social situations.
• Field Experiments and Mundane Realism
– Manipulating external variables in the real world, using procedures are similar to
every day behaviours.
– Used to study anti social behaviour and real social issues.
• Cross cultural studies
– Comparing differences between cultures.
 Social Research Methods
Link features of the social area to the research methods:
• Confederates

• Humans as a
• Observation and
Social Species
Self Report

• Social Situation • Field Experiments

and Mundane
• Social Influence Realism
and Social Norms
• Cross cultural
studies
 Social Research Methods
• As the social area studies the social situations, the way
physical cues from the environments are processed with
social characteristics, social psychologists often use
observation and self report to see how manipulation of social
cues are effecting the thoughts and behaviour of participants.

• As the social area studies…

• Psychologists can…
 Social Strengths and Weaknesses
Social Strengths
• Experimental realism
– Social studies often use confederates and create realistic situations to study the
effect on behaviour.
– Still want to study behaviour scientifically, so often try to control and manipulate
social variables whilst still being realistic.
– Participants often do not know the aim of the study, and so demonstrate realistic
behaviour.

• Practical Application
– Arguably how we interact with individuals is the greatest source of benefits and
problems in society.
– Complex issues like crime, discrimination, climate change, equality, democracy,
economics can be understood as social issues.
– Mental health is increasingly being seen as caused by social relationships and
society, rather than personal thoughts or biology.
 Social Strengths and Weaknesses
Social Weaknesses
• Ethical issues
– Socially desirable behaviour is often studied, so deception is often used to ensure
participants behaviour is accurate.
– Participants are often unable to consent or withdraw, as they have not been fully
informed of the aim, or confederate use etc.

• Determinism weaknesses:
– Individuals and society feel like humans have the ability to choose and control
their behaviour, it seems incorrect to most that we cannot.
– Implying that behaviour is caused by social influence can excuse dysfunctional
behaviours.
– Studies never find a consistent effect of social situations, influence or norms,
there are always differences between individuals that could be explained through
choice.
 Social Strengths and Weaknesses
Link features of the social area to the evaluations:
• Experimental
realism
• Humans as a
Social Species • Practical
applications
• Social Situation

• Social Influence • Ethical issues

and Social Norms
• Determinism
weaknesses
 Social Strengths and Weaknesses
Can you discuss each strength and weakness:
• Experimental realism • Ethical issues

• Practical applications • Determinism weaknesses

Hints: validity, face validity, useful, external validity, socially sensitive issues, funding,
replication, scientific equipment, science
 Social Strengths and Weaknesses
• A strength of the social area is it often has experimental
realism. As the social area studies the social influence,
behaviour is impacted by actively and passively by the real
and imagined presence of other people, the social area often
wants to recreate realistic social stimuli and situations how
they occur in the real world. This means the social area will
often use confederates and materials that make the
procedure seem more realistic, everyday believable to the
participants. However, this can cause issues for the social
area, as the more realistic a procedure becomes the harder it
will be to control and keep the procedure standardised and
scientific.
 Social Strengths and Weaknesses
• A strength/weakness of the social area is…

• As the social area studies…

• This means…

• However/due to this/this makes the social area…

 Social Area Comparisons
• Social Practical Applications • Will any of these be
– Prosocial authority figures
similar/different to the
– Reduce discrimination
– Healthy interpersonal relationships cognitive/developmental area:

• Social Research Methods

– Confederates
– Observation and Self Report
– Field Experiments and Mundane
Realism
– Cross cultural studies

• Social Strengths and Weaknesses

– Strengths
• Can you use the features of
• Experimental realism cognitive/developmental to
• Practical applications explain why?
– Weaknesses
• Ethical issues
• Determinism
 Social Issues and Debates
Link features of the social area to these issues and debates:
• Freewill

• Humans as a
• Determinism
Social Species
• Reductionism
• Social Situation
• Holism
• Social Influence
and Social Norms • Ethics

• Socially Sensitive
 Social Issues and Debates
• The social area could be considered holistic as it
looks at the complex social situation, the external
stimuli and cues that are interpreted as socially
relevant. The social area therefore doesn’t ignore
the impact of external social factors and focuses on
the way this is interpreted as abstract socially
relevant information in the mind. Since the social
area looks beyond the internal individual, and
abstract non physical thoughts, it can be
considered complex and holistic.
• Identify two people who change your
behaviour, and how they change your
behaviour.
 Social Explanations
• Biological: behaviour is explained through
physical and chemical processes such as genes
and the brain.
• Cognitive: behaviour is caused by the way we
process information and think.

• Social: behaviour is caused by the real and

imagined presence of others around us and the
social situation.
 Social Principles and Concepts
• Human behaviour is influenced by the social
situation as well as individual characteristics.
• Human behaviour is influenced by real and
imagined presence of others.
• Research can help us understand social issues.
Social Area Principles and Concepts
Human behaviour is influenced by social
situation as well as individual characteristics.
• Obviously there are differences in our
characteristics, some people are more
helpful/aggressive etc.
• But our behaviour is often influenced by our
situation as well.
• Read article on McDonalds call.
Social Area Principles and Concepts
Human behaviour is influenced by social
situation as well as individual characteristics.
• Why did the people involved behave how they
behaved:
Social Area Principles and Concepts
Human behaviour is influenced by the real and
imagined presence of others.
• Our behaviour is often influenced not by our
individual disposition, but by people around us, we
are a social species.
• People will often only behave in a certain way if
there are certain groups and individuals around
them.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8BkzvP19v4&
t=28s&safe=active
Social Area Principles and Concepts
Research can help us understand social issues.
• Social psychology is concerned with how people
interact with one another.
• If we can understand what causes people to behave
negatively towards each other, we can use research
to help improve behaviour.
• This gives us real world benefits from social
psychology.
• http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the
_psychology_of_evil%3Flanguage%3Den#t-539550
Social Area Principles and Concepts
Research can help us understand social issues.
• Identify 3 social issues that could be solved if
we understood why people behave the way
they do.
 Social Key Theme
1. The ability to tell others how to
• Obedience behave. Can be formal or informal.
Can be legitimate or illegitimate.

• Destructive
2. Behaving how another tells you in a
obedience way that causes harm.

• Disobedience 3. Behaving how another tells you to

behave.

• Authority 4. Refusing to behave how another

tells you to behave.
 Social Key Theme
• The two responses to authority we will be
looking at are:
– Milgram: responding to authority with obedience.

– Bocchiaro: personality differences in responding to

authority with disobedience and whistle blowing.
 Social Area and Debates
• What position do you think the social area will take
on the reductionism/holism debate and why:

• Define reductionism in two sentences:

• Define holism in two sentences:

During the Vietnam War the My Lai massacre occurred in
1970. Lieutenant William Calley ordered his soldiers to
round up all members of a village and ‘waste them’.
Roughly 400 unarmed civilians were rounded up and killed.
The inhabitants were mainly women and young children
and few weapons or people of fighting age were found.
Some soldiers shot at women who were protecting their
children, waited for the children to stand, and then shot
them as well.

• How does the social area explain behaviour (2 marks)

• Explain why this article can be viewed as being relevant
to social psychology. (4)