...Summary Deindividuation account is the earliest major social psychological theories of aggression. Le Bon (1895), a French social psychologist and sociologist was the first to recognise how an individual’s behaviour changes when s/he is part of a crowd. The most important factor is anonymity. The more anonymous the crowd, the greater the threat of extreme action. A ‘collective mindset’ takes over and the crowd acts as one unit. The individual becomes part of the crowd and loses self control. ‘Deindividuation’ was defined by Festinger et al. (1952) as a state of affairs in a group where members don’t pay attention to other individuals as individuals and, correspondingly, the members don’t feel they’re being singled out by others. According to Festinger et al., individuals merge to the group, forego individuality and become anonymous when belonging to a group. Anonymity is the start of the process that leads to uncharacteristic behaviour in the individual. Being in a group causes the individual to be less bothered about the consequences of their actions. Zimbardo (1969) argued that there is more to deindividuation than just anonymity in a group or crowd. Diener et al. (1976) conducted an experiment involving over 700 Halloween trick-or-treaters visiting local houses in their Halloween costumes. Friends of the researchers put out bowls of sweets or coins that were labelled “TAKE ONE”. There were two conditions, the non-anonymous condition and the anonymous condition. While...
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...Deindividuation is a social psychological explanation of aggression it is the process whereby people lose their sense of socialised individual identity making them more likely to engage in behaviour that is deemed antisocial. Zimbardo suggested that deindividuation is due to anonymity, reduced responsibility, increased arousal, sensory overload and altered consciousness due to drugs and alcohol. Individuals become deindividuated when anonymous because there is less awareness of their individuality, which makes them seem almost faceless when they are merged with a large group of people or when wearing a mask. They can also be deindividuated in times of increased arousal and sensory overload this can happen when in crowds where it is loud and packed especially if people are getting intoxicated by drugs and alcohol. Likewise in large groups an individual may act violent due to the responsibility not being completely on them. By being masked, in uniforms, groups, in the dark etc. can influence deindividuation Prentice – Dunn and Rodger suggest that an individual loses different types of self-awareness in a group. Not concerning about the impression you have to the people around you leads to less public self-awareness and losing concerns you have for own standards and morals leads to less private self-awareness. The loss of private self-awareness that leads to increased anti-social behaviour. Furthermore, Festinger et al suggested that when an individual is submerged in a group...
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...Deindividuation and Attribution Theory Southern Illinois University Carbondale Deindividuation and Attribution Theory Theory One of social psychology theories that describe human behaviors is attribution theory. Attribution theory is the theory of how individuals explain others’ behaviors (Myers, 2008). Deindividuation is the situation where anti-normative behavior is released in groups in which individuals are not recognized as individuals (Festinger, 1952). Many people are a part of this deindividuation process and don’t even realize it. Many people fall into deindividuation because they don’t want to ridiculed or be consider an outcast. Something that is an example of deindividuation is a cult. In a cult people are no longer an individual and there is no uniqueness to them. They become just like everyone else in the group. Another example of this is a fraternity or sorority. They go from being an individual person to becoming a part of a group where they are considered one big group versus being their own person. Being in the military is also an example of deindividuation. They are to fight and defend themselves against anyone who is considered a threat. They also have a uniformed look. Everyone has to go through training and every guy has to shave his hair. Social Issue Deindividuation can be both desirable and undesirable depending on the circumstances (Spivey & Prentice-Dunn, 1990;...
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...Deindividuation is the process whereby people lose their sense of individual identity and engage in unsociable, often antisocial behavior. Anonymity is a key concept, where people are likely to behave aggressively because of the loss of sense of individuality. Deiner stated it occurs when; self-awareness is blocked by environmental factors, there is a reduced need for social approval, there is a reduction in rational thinking and a decrease in inhibition. This suggests that collective behavior of violent crowds, mindless hooligans and social atrocities such as genocide can be explained by the deindividuation theory. To a large extent, deindividuation theory is based on the classic crowd theory of Le Bon (1895), were he recognized how behavior changed in a crowded situation. Le Bon suggested that a collective mind-set takes over and people start to act as one, as individual submerge and lose self-control. This suggests that the individual reduces its own morals and takes aboard morals of the group. Zimbardo further developed this idea, by emphasizing the importance of anonymity, as the release from internal restrains, produces emotional, impulsive and irrational behavior. Zimbardo supported his argument by carrying out an experiment on groups of four female undergraduates, where they were required to deliver electric shocks to another student to ‘aid learning’. Half of the ps wore hoods over there face and were never referred to by name, whereas the other half wore normal clothes...
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... As a result of the action taken by the president, pro democrats who urged the ties to the EU protested in Independence Square of Kiev, while authorities attempted to suppress them. As the conflict intensified with no solution being brought to the table, aggressive pro democrat protests resulted in a clash with authorities in independence square on February 19th . Surrounding buildings were set on fire, rocks were thrown at riot police, and activists were being shot dead. The fighting between the mostly masked activists and government forces resulted in 21 total deaths. The formation of pro democratic activist groups and actions taken by them and authorities can be categorized with the situational attribution theory, conflict, and deindividuation. On a psychological understanding, “Conflict” is the major theme in this current event. Conflict is the result of disagreement and opposition of ideals, beliefs, or...
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...Christy McBride Evaluate explanations of group display of aggression (16 marks) Due to the restrictions of modern society, we can no longer engage in tribal warfare, but the biological need for aggression still stands. Arguably, this has been replaced by various modern group events such as sporting events. Tajfel proposed that the groups e.g sporting teams which people belonged to were an important source of pride and self-esteem. Groups give us a sense of social identity. Social identity theory states that the in-group will discriminate against the out-group to enhance their self-image. Xenophobia is an example of this in sporting events, where crowds take to chanting offensive slurs to the other team’s supporters. An explanation for this is because humans are altruistic towards members of their own group but intolerant towards outsiders. This could have been the biological mechanism that helped our ancestors to survive, due to them being suspicious towards outsiders and thus prevented attack. Furthermore the evolutionary explanation of group displays of aggression states that in modern society, the winning teams hold high status, therefore will have access to more resources and makes the members more attractive mates. Acts of aggressions such as tackling in football are related to good psychical health, which is attractive to females. Therefore, people support the best teams. Victory in matches also holds status for the fans, as they identify as the in-group as an attempt...
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...INTRODUCTION Bay of Pigs and Cuban missile crisis decisions and results are detailed as introduction to group decision making. Definitions: What Is a Group? • A group is two or more people who are interacting with each other and are interdependent in the sense that to fulfill their needs and goals, they must rely on each other. A. Why Do People Join Groups? • Baumeister and Leary (1995) argue that people join groups because in our evolutionary past, there was a substantial survival advantage to establishing bonds with other people. Consequently the need to belong may be innate and is present in all societies. • Groups have many benefits, including providing information, helping us define our identity, and establishing social norms for behavior. B. The Composition and Functions of Groups • Most social groups range in size from two to six members. • Members of a group tend to be alike in terms of age, sex, beliefs, and opinions. This is both because people are attracted to similar others and because groups operate in ways that encourage similarity among members. 1. Social Norms • Groups have social norms about which behaviors are acceptable, and the consequences of violating these are pressure to conform and ultimately rejection. 2. Social Roles • Groups also often have well-defined roles, or shared expectations in a group about how particular people are supposed to behave. Roles facilitate social interaction. • Roles also may have a cost....
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...children, boys tend to exert more influence than girls (C1). One of the major elements that contribute to social influence in todays world is the internet. Social media such as blogging and instant messaging are the core reasons for an individual to want to change their behavior and fit in. what makes online social influence stand out from the others is that you do not have to be physically present with the person you are interacting with for the change to take place. It could happen when the individual is totally isolated and can control to whom and when they want to interact (I2). There are different categories of social influence, such as conformity, obedience, social facilitation, social loafing, group polarization, groupthink and deindividuation (Myers), some of which this piece of work will discuss...
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...Describe and evaluate social explanations for aggression (16 + 8 marks) There are a number of different theories which offer explanations for aggression. These include social psychological explanations and biological explanations. Some of the social explanations are social learning theory and deindividuation. Social learning theory was developed by Albert Bandura and is based on the behaviourist approach that our aggressive behaviour is learnt. He proposed that it is similar to operant conditioning where learning takes place due to observation and imitation. H explains that modelling has an influential role on the manner of the aggression, as if role models are seen t be aggressive this encourages those who observe them to exert similar behaviour. He also explains that vicarious learning takes place which is indirect rewarding of behaviour. AN example of this would include a child observing another child hitting someone in order to get the toy they desired. A number of factors influence the aggression levels learnt and shown in individuals, one of which is self-efficacy. This refers to the ability to perform the aggressive act, thus we are only likely to be aggressive if it is likely that we will succeed! Other characteristics of models influence whether someone will imitate behaviour, as if they have high power and status or are similar to he individual then this is likely to increase imitation. Therefore violence in the media is an increasing problem in the world today. ...
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...There are many psychological terms that can explain different influences for behavior. For instance, deindividuation in a group setting can influence behavior. Joining a cult or a gang can change one’s behavior entirely, taking away their entire sense of individual identity and get lost within the group. Social loafing within a group can be problematic and negatively influence a person’s behavior. If a group of students are working together on a project, the students will put less effort in individually to reach the collective goal because they know that that they can shrug off some of the responsibilities because others will pick up the slack. The door-in-the-face phenomenon is a common tactic for someone to use to get something that they would want. This phenomenon enables even the most honest person to deceive someone into giving in to their wishes or demands. If I wanted money from my mom to go to the mall and I was using the door-in-the-face phenomenon I would first ask her for $100, knowing she would say no. Then I would make a second request, only for $25, knowing that she would find the second request more reasonable, and more likely give in to my request, and I would get the money for the mall. Social facilitation can either have a positive or negative effect on behavior. If Genna is the top swimmer on the swim team, she is more likely to swim even better when she has an audience. But on the other hand, Genna is not a strong volleyball player, and she only plays...
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...PSYC 201 Final Exam Click Link Below To Buy: http://hwaid.com/shop/psyc-201-final-exam/ Final Exam Part 1 of 1 - 300.29996 Points Question 1 of 35 8.58 Points According to our text, social psychology is a science that studies the impact of our A.family background B.situations C.aptitudes D.unconscious motives Question 2 of 35 8.58 Points Our perceiving ourselves as athletic, overweight, smart, or shy constitutes our .... A.egocentric beliefs B.interdependent self C.interdependent self D.self-schemas Question 3 of 35 8.58 Points Hypotheses are best characterized by ... A.principles B.axioms C.predictions D.conclusions Question 4 of 35 8.58 Points Random assignment is necessary to... A.insure mundane realism B.insure informed consent C.avoid the naturalistic fallacy D.rule out preexisting differences between subjects in different experimental confitions Question 5 of 35 8.58 Points Social scientists gather information like other scientists, through scientific methods that insure accuracy. A. True B. False Question 6 of 35 8.58 Points In an experiment, the variable being measured is called the _____________ variable. dependent Question 7 of 35 8.58 Points The tendency to process efficiently and remember well information related to onself is called the A.self-aggrandizing B.self-schematizing C.self-processing D.self-reference Question 8 of 35 8.58 Points People who believe themselves internally controlled are more...
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...One evolutionary explanation of group displays of aggression believes that humans display aggression in groups in order to gain access to resources; likely resources gained through group displays of aggression include land, women and money. The acquisition of these resources is important for the survival of a group and to ensure the continued existence of future generations in terms of reproduction. This explanation also argues that group displays of aggression towards potential threats are one of the best ways in which to secure the resources which are much desired by groups. Aggression as a group of humans on an individual in another territory is a low-risk strategy in order to gain more resources, more food, more females and more offspring, thereby passing more genes onto the next generation (in line with Darwinian evolution). Group displays of aggression may occur due to xenophobia - also known as the threat of the unknown. It is evolutionarily advantageous to be wary of something unknown and to display aggression when faced with something which could potentially be a threat to our survival and/or reproduction. Aggression displayed as a direct result of xenophobia would ensure that the group is protected and would send a signal to other potentially threatening out-groups that the in-group is prepared to defend itself. Again, this would have the direct benefit of increasing the chance of survival and future reproduction of all members of the group. Displays of...
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...By exploring the function of these overarching ideas, the reader can gain a better sense of the motives of the masses and what drove them to their ultimate decisions. This analysis of the deindividuation of the peasant class and the “grinding” down of their rationalism and humanity helps the reader understand the force behind the peasant class’ actions. Without showing that Hunger was the driving force behind the people’s actions, a reader would automatically assume that their actions later in the book were not based upon anything. Dickens’ portrayal of the people as “ground down” and deindividualized affectively allows the audience to truly see how responsible Hunger was for the degradation of the masses. The overall attention that is drawn to these atrocities definitely allows the reader to get a fuller understanding of the peasant class as overarching “character”. Therefore, the use of insightful personification and ironic alignments...
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...What is Social Facilitation and why does it matter? Evidence reveals that, as a rule of thumb, social facilitation (Allport, 1924) occurs when the non-interactive presence of others, either as co-actors or passive spectators, facilitates simple responses and inhibits complex responses (Triplett, 1898; Zajonc, 1965). By way of example, an experienced knitter is more likely to find that both speed and accuracy are facilitated by the encouraging presence of co-actors. Conversely, novices may find a knitting group counter-productive due to inhibitory factors such as distraction and evaluation potential, and that initially they are better off alone. Heuristically, social facilitation effects (SFE) are thus determined by two moderating variables: task complexity and the form of social presence; either co-actors or passive spectators. In contrast to interactive group-behaviour, SFE will only occur if the other(s) present neither reinforce behaviour, give instruction, compete or set any form of performance standard. At first glance, this ‘phenomenon’ may appear axiomatic, particularly when contrasted with more complex interactive social influence. However, SFE represent the minimal conditions required for social influence, and thus constitute a ‘building block’ of social interaction. Notwithstanding, this comparatively simple formulation, SFE have proved hard to extrapolate for theoretical analysis and practical application, as ‘mere presence effects’ (Zajonc, 1965) tend to be...
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...How Much is Too Much? In an NFL playoff game in 2007, I witnessed something that is etched in my mind as one of the most violent tackles in recent football memory. New Orleans running back Reggie Bush was stopped dead in his tracks by Eagles safety Brian Dawkins. Bush was hit so hard that he literally had to crawl off the field and was diagnosed with a concussion from the violent thud of his head to the earth. In any athletic event that one may watch, the threat of serious injury or even death is a very real possibility. Obviously, the object of the game is not to murder the opponent, but to those such as Welsh boxer Johnny Owen, this tragedy has happened. To the spectator, witnessing a sprained ankle or broken hand is part of the game; life changing injuries or death are not. The crowd wants to be entertained and hard hits and knockdowns provide that thrill. Severe injuries should never be applauded, but they can be at times when the crowd becomes too rambunctious. Spectators fail to realize that these athletes are not robots or super-humans, but human beings. As a society, we must acknowledge where to draw the line in regards to advocating violence in sports, and possess the self-control and discipline to discern excitement and inappropriateness. In recent years, physical injury caused by contact sports has been shed in a light portraying such sports as potentially life-shortening or brain damaging. The NFL Players Association has filed lawsuits against the...
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