Part 1: Social Influence. What are other ways that social influence can impact b
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Question
Part 1: Social Influence.
What are other ways that social influence can impact behavior? Discuss at least two examples from the book (e.g., Milgram's experiment, Stanford Prison study, etc.) and examples that you may have noticed in your own life.
Part 2: Attraction.
Watch the video above. Do you agree with what Cameron discussed?
What is your definition of attractiveness? In your experience, how does what is considered as attractive differ by culture?
In what ways are people influenced by physical attraction?
Think of examples where you were influenced solely by physical attraction. How and why did it change your behavior?
How does what Cameron discussed relate to prejudice and discrimination?
Part 3: Psychological Disorders.
Choose a disorder that the textbook covers that most interests you.
Discuss the definition of the disorder, symptoms, treatments, and why you chose this disorder.
Find a recent empirical article on your disorder (last 5 years). Briefly summarize the purpose, methods, and findings of your article.
How is this disorder typically portrayed in the media? Is it accurate based on your research?
Explanation / Answer
Social Influence is when a person's behavior, opinions and emotions are affected by another people. Conformity and Obedience are forms of social influence that majorly impact an individual's behaviour. Conformity is when an individual changes his attitude and behavior to match the attitude and behavior of other people. Obedience is when a person changes his attitude or behavior to fit in with other people. But the difference between obedience and conformity is that, obedience has to do more with the level of authority of the person who is trying to influence an individual. If a person in charge or an authoritarian type is trying to persuade an individual, he is more likely to comply by the requests made by any one he sees above him.
Stanley Milgram conducted his research on the concept of obedience to someone in authority during the time of the Nazi War. Milgram in his experiment, asked the participants, who played the role of a teacher, to administer high voltage shocks to the learners for every wrong answer that they provided for a question. Majority of the participants did not want to continue with the experiment, but they continued as they were asked to do so by the experimenter. When the results of Miligram's experimental research confirmed that more than 65% of individuals succumbed to obeying another person in authority, he concluded that 'people are likely to do what they were told to do by a person in a position of authority'. This is an example of obedience.
Conformity is when an individual does not agree, but gives consensus on a particular matter because majority of people in a group hold the same opinion. Nobody wants to be an outcast, thus, an individual is ought to conform to other's opinions, just to be accepted by people. For instance, you are new to a workplace. You barely have gotten to know people in your office. However, the team that you are associated, with has a group member, who is not contributing to the company and especially being in a team, he makes no efforts for a collaborative project. You have barely interacted with this team member. But the other members on the team have collectively made a decision to complain to the boss about this particular member. You may not feel the same, but you will conform with the group because you are new to the company and by not conforming, you may be ostracized by your team members.
Social influence plays a very important role in eliciting an individual's behavior.