Area of Study 1: Interpersonal and Group Behaviour

Write your own definition.
Compare your definition to the definition below:
An attitude is an evaluation that a person makes about an object, a person, group, event or issue. Or about anything!!

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Homework
Three day weekends
VCE
The world cup
Your best friend
The person sitting on your right
Your teachers (be nice!)

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Attitudes can be strong or weak. A strong attitude is more likely to be long-lasting, character defining and influence your behaviour.
A weak attitude may not be long lasting and is less likely to effect your behaviour.
An attitude is said to be accessible if you use if often. An accessible attitude may further be strong or weak.

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Most likely explanation is from life experience.
Forming attitudes is a continual process occurring throughout our lives
Attitudes can be modified when new experiences interact with already existing attitudes
There are many ways an attitude can be influenced- by parents, teachers, peers, the media etc
Try to identify where some of the attitudes you have already identified have come from. Have any of these attitudes changes over time? Who may have influenced the change?

Before we go on I think I need to mention that we as humans want a stable and unchanging world. We want to be able to make sense of our world and predict the behaviour of others.
Try to keep this idea in mind as it is central to much of the concepts we will study soon.

 There are three parts to every attitude:
1) Affective component- the feelings and emotions associated with the attitude
2) Behavioural component- the actions and behaviours that you do to express the attitude
3) Cognitive component- the beliefs and thoughts that you have associated with the attitude
The tri-component model argues that an attitude has all three of the above. If one is missing, it is not an attitude.
Try to identify the affective, behavioural and cognitive components of the attitudes already explored.

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Out attitude towards a particular product will determine whether or not we purchase the product. If you have a favourable attitude towards a product you are more likely to purchase it.
Advertising companies will attempt to change peoples attitudes in favour of you purchasing a product
They may act to influence or change the affective, cognitive or behavioural component of your attitude towards their product.

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Changing behaviour- coupons, price reductions, free samples
Changing cognitions- change beliefs about a brand, make the item more important, add beliefs
Changing Affective response- tie positive emotions to the brand or item; may use humour, fear, childhood memories; may use colour and music to evoke emotion

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In general, all three of the components of an attitude will be consistent.
For example, if you do not like vegetables you will get upset when you are given them (affective), you will avoid eating them (behavioural) and you will believe that they are not necessary and you can get your vitamins from other foods
(cognitive).
Another example my best friend really likes chocolate. She feels happy when she sees it (affective), she eats it regularly
(behavioural) and she believes that a small amount is not bad for her health (cognitive).

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But are your feelings and beliefs always consistent with your actions?
When any one of the three components of an attitude is not consistent with the other two components, we experience discomfort. We know that there are inconsistencies in our attitude. This discomfort is known as cognitive
dissonance.

 Rate each of the 5 statements below on a 5 point Likert scale with 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree
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Global warming is a serious problem and is having disastrous effects on our planet.
We as a society are too reliant on fossil fuels.
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Every human has the right to shelter and food
No child should die of preventable diseases.
We have a large impact on the natural environment and should protect our native plants and animals.

1) Do you choose to walk or take public transport whenever possible to reduce carbon gas emission? Do you take shorter showers, turn your heater down and turn off you appliances at the power-point when you have finished using them?
2) Do you have solar panels at home to reduce the amount of electricity you need that is produced from coal? Will you buy a hybrid for your first car?
3) Do you donate food and clothes to local charity organisations?
4) Have you ever considered sponsoring a child in a third world country? Do you donate money to organisations that vaccinate children against preventable diseases?
5) Do you plant native plants in your garden at home to provide food and shelter to native animals? Do you donate time or money to organisations that rehabilitate land?
Too what extent do you display the above behaviours? Do your beliefs
(cognitions) and emotions match your behaviour? How do you feel if they don’t? This is cognitive dissonance.

 Ignore the cognitive dissonance (but this can be difficult)
 Change your attitude by changing your cognitions or behaviour
 Studies have found that people will often change their cognitions to fit with the behavioural and affective components of an attitude.
 Explain some ways that you might deal with any cognitive dissonance encountered on the previous slide.

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When you meet someone for the first time you make judgements about them- even after a brief meeting
This judgment may be based on what the person looks like, how they approach you and what they say.
Why do we do this? It is helpful to categorise people. This helps us to adjust our behaviour accordingly and know what to expect from the other person.

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A stereotype is a set of commonly held beliefs and ideas about a person or group
These beliefs and ideas may or may not be true
Stereotypes can be positive or negative e.g. Boys are good at maths (good stereotype) and girls are not (bad stereotype)
Stereotypes ignore individual characteristics
Stereotypes help us to better understand our world and save us work mentally. They help us to make faster decisions. They help us to better interact with other people.
While stereotypes may be helpful, they also lead to prejudice and discrimination

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Prejudice is a negative judgement made about a person just because they belong to a particular group
Often a the person holding the prejudiced attitude will not personally know any member of the group
Often directed at minority groups
A person or group can be prejudiced against for any reasonsex, race, age, hair colour, religion, sexual preference, looks, profession, etc.
Can you think of some groups that may experience prejudice in our culture?

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Prejudice involves negative ideas the thoughts. When these negative thoughts are acted on discrimination occurs.
Discrimination can take many forms including violence, name calling, ignoring, put-downs, segregation and exclusion.

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Observation of Behaviour
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Can provide information regarding a person’s attitudes based on their behaviour, body language, facial expressions
As we know however our behaviour is not always an accurate indicator of our attitudes
Self-Report
 Participants supply responses to questions via interview or survey by questionnaire

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Can be fixed-response or free-response
Fixed response questionnaires provide numerical data that is easier to analyse.
Advantages: easy and fast to administer, can administer to many of people, confidentiality may increase honesty, as an experimenter is not needed social desirability is reduced
Disadvantages: still prone to some social desirability; participant may not have a clear awareness of their true attitudes

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Participants choose their response to an item from given responses
Advantages: easier to analyse, quicker for respondent to complete, access first thoughts,
Disadvantages: might not get the person’s true feelings,
In social psychology, Likert-scale questionnaires are often used to investigate attitudes. They can convey how strongly a participant feels about a particular statement revealing information about their attitudes.

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Typically have 20 items
All items focus on a particular attitude
Half the statements are expressed positively, half negatively
Participants can select their agreement with a particular statement from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” with generally 3 – 5 items in-between.
The questionnaire is scored with each participant receiving a
“score” after completion. The positive statements are scored high while the negative statements score low. The higher the score, the more positive the attitude.

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Your task is to design your own questionnaire investigating attitudes towards a topic of your choice.
Your questionnaire must use a 5 point Likert-scale and have at least 15 items.
You will need to address the three components of an attitude in your statements.
You will need to use both positive and negative statements and score them accordingly.
You will need to give the questionnaire to 5 classmates and score their responses.
This task comprises your second portfolio task.

 Prejudice and discrimination can be reduced using the following:
 Inter-group Contact
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Sustained Contact- when people spend time with each other over an extended period
Mutual Interdependence- two groups are dependent on each other in some way
Equality- both groups must have equal status and be treated equally
Super-ordinate goals- two groups of people are required to complete a task with each group equally important to the task
 Cognitive Interventions- changing the way that people think about others and other cultures

 No one strategy alone is adequate- they must exist in combination
 Each group has been given a scenario. Suggest activities that you may use to reduce the prejudice/discrimination in the scenario. Relate these activities to the strategies outlined on the previous slide.

 Complete a flow chart outlining the “Robbers Cave
Experiment” conducted by Sherif in 1956.

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Social Influence- the ways in which people change their behaviour or attitudes because of the direct or indirect influence of others
People are influenced by others in many ways. The first type of influence that we will look at is group influence.

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What is a group?
 A group is two or more people that may influence each other or others and who are working towards a common goal, interest or purpose. The individuals need to feel that they are a part of the group and must interact with each other.
What is Status?
 Status is the level of importance of a particular person within a group as perceived by the other members of the group. It is relative and can easily change.
What is Power?
 Power is the ability of one person to influence the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of another person or persons.

 People in groups have power for different reasons.

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Our status, the role we play in society and the situation we find ourselves in all influence our thoughts, feelings and behaviour. This influence is not to be underestimated as
Philip Zimbardo found out in his famous Stanford Prison
Experiment. See video and textbook for more information.
What do you think was concluded from this experiment?

 What is obedience?
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Obedience is a type of compliance that occurs when a person complies with a demand. If you are told to “clean your room” by a parent and you do then you are obeying their order. If a parent asks you “Can you please clean your room?” and you do you are complying with their request as opposed to obeying a command.
What influences people to obey a command? What factors influence people to obey others? These questions were ask by a famous social psychologists named Stanley Milgram.

 See Milgram slideshow.

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It appears that people will obey others even when it means inflicting pain on others. But they do not enjoy it and express remorse. So why do they obey?
There are several factors that have been identified that increase the chance of obedience
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Social Proximity
Legitimacy of the Authority Figure
Group Pressure

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Milgram modified his experiment so that more distance separated the experimenter and the teacher. When the teacher was not in the room and gave instructions via a phone or tape recording, compliance to the full 450V fell from 65% to 20%. Compliance also decreased when the teacher was closer to the learner.
Milgram concluded that the closer the participant to the authority figure the more likely they are to obey. The closer the participant is to the learner the less likely they are to obey.

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Milgram believed that the legitimacy of the authority figure would influence obedience. In his first experiment, the experimenter was a university professor and the study took place at Yale University. Milgram modified his experimental design to test his hypothesis. He conducted the tests in a run down building external to the university and in some instances dressed as a janitor. Compliance to the 450V dropped to between 48% to 20%.
With higher levels of authority, people are more likely to obey.

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Milgram also altered the number of people present during the experiment. Milgram recruited two more teachers
(confederates).
In one situation, the confederates were trained to complain and leave the study early. When this happened, only 10% of participants delivered the full 450V shock.
Conversely, when the confederates supported the experimenter, conformity rose to 73%.
It thus appears that group pressure is the most influential factor in determining obedience.

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Conformity refers to any behaviour that is motivated by pressure from other members of a group. When we conform, we act in a way that is expected and excepted by the others members of a group. In some situations we conform despite a difference between our own feelings, thoughts and behaviours and the feelings, thoughts and behaviours of the group.
Can you think of a time in which you have conformed? You may have agrees or disagreed with the conformity.
Can you think of a time that you have been a non-conformist and not conformed to the expectations of a group?

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Social psychologist Solomon Asch was interested in researching the factors that influence conformity.
He conducted a simple experiment that asked participants to judge line lengths.
He asked participants: “Which of the following lines- A, B, or Cmatches line X?”
 The answer appears simple- Line B. However, by changing his experimental design 70% of participants answered incorrectly.
How do you think he got these results?

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Asch told participants that they were participating in a study on perception. He had to lie about the real aim of the studyconformity- as knowing the study was investigating conformity would influence people’s responses.
The study took place with a group of 6 participants sitting around a table. Only one was a true participant however and the others were confederates. The participants were shown the line X and asked to pick the line that matched from various images one at a time taking turns. The true participant was always seated last and so heard the response of all of the other participants first.

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In the first few rounds the right choice was very obvious and all participants agreed. However, after this the confederates started answering incorrectly. Not just one of the confederates but all of them.
In all Asch ran 12 trials. He found that 75% of the participants conformed (provided an incorrect answer to agree with the group) on at least one occasion.
Approximately 30% agreed with the incorrect responses one
6 or more of the trials.
That being said 25% of the participants did not conform on any of the trials.

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When Asch asked the participants why they conformed many said that they conformed because they felt that their judgement must have been wrong as all of the other participants made the same judgement.
This makes sense- it is more likely that one person would be wrong than two, three, four or even five!
Some participants said that they provided the incorrect response because they feared being the odd one out.

 Through various experiments, Asch and other social psychologists have identified a range of factors that influence conformity. These are:
 Normative Influence
 Culture
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Informational Influence
Unanimity
Group Size
De-individuation
 Social Learning Theory

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We want to be liked and accepted by others. The normative influence theory states that we comply with others in order to be accepted and liked by a group. We feel that people will like us more if we agree with their thoughts, feelings and actions.
We are more likely to conform when we like the person/people in the group.
Studies have found that people who care very little about what others think about them are less likely to conform.

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Asch’s experiments described previously has been replicated many times across many cultures.
High levels of compliance were seen in countries such as China,
Japan, Fiji and some African nations.
Lower levels of compliance were seen in countries such as the
USA, Canada, and Western European countries such as France and
Portugal.
Researchers have found a large difference in the conformity between collectivist cultures and individualistic cultures.
Collectivist cultures work towards group goals and encourage uniformity. Individualistic cultures focus on individuality, personal achievement and independence.

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We conform because we believe that the information that we have been presented with is true.
People are more likely to conform when they feel they are incapable of making the correct decision/judgement on their own. They may be out of their area of expertise and need to rely on someone else’s judgement.

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When the all or a majority of a group holds the same belief, we are more likely to conform.
When just one other person disagrees, conformity drops dramatically. Asch found that having just one of the confederates in his study provide the correct answer against the majority of the group, conformity fell to just 10%.

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Asch varied the number of participants in his study- from a little as
1 to as many as 15. He found that as the number of participants increased, so did conformity.
It has however been suggested by more recent research that it is not so much the size of the group that is important but the number of individuals whose judgements seen independent.
In the larger groups, participants seemed to think that after the first 3 or 4 response the other participants were just following what the first three participants said. Therefore it appears that its the number of independent judgements that have the most impact.
This is supported by the finding that the highest rates of conformity actually occur with a group size of 3 -4 .

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De-individuation is when you lose you identity when you are in a group. You feel anonymous within the group.
When an individual feels as though the have no identity within the group they also feel that they are no longer personal responsible for providing a correct answer. This is the responsibility of the group.

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Social Learning Theory- all our behaviours are learned and occur as a result of whether these behaviours were rewarded or punished in the past.
This theory proposes that we conform because we have learnt to and that in the past conformity has been rewarded.
Conformity has allowed us to avoid embarrassment in the past. When we have not conformed we may have experienced negative feelings by expressing and incorrect idea, displaying an inappropriate behaviour, etc

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The information presented so far focuses on the idea that we behave differently when we are in a group compared to our behaviour when we are alone.
Peer pressure is the name given to the influence of your peer group- those the same age, gender, etc. Peer pressure mostly occurs during social activities and can be associated with misconduct and family tension. It can be real or imagined.
Peer pressure is considered a type of conformity. It can be negative (pressure to drink, take drugs, etc) or it can be positive (pressure to attend a party that you actually have a lot of fun at, make new friends etc).

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Pro-social behaviour- Behaviour that is performed with the intention of helping someone. The soul intent of the behaviour must be to help another. We have all performed pro-social acts.
Anti-social Behaviour- Behaviour with the intention of causing deliberate pain, discomfort or disruption (directed towards a person, group or property)
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First we will look at pro-social behaviour
What do you think influences people to act pro-socially?

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Can make you feel better about yourself
You care about the person- you know them
Feel sorry for someone
Empathy/sympathy
Obliged to help-
Guilt if you do not help
Upbringing
Courtesy- family, society, social expectations
Culture

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Under what circumstances are we more likely to help others?
Psychologists have identified 3 major influences:
 Situational Factors
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Social Factors
Personal Factors

 Bystander Intervention and Effect
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Bystander Intervention is the tendency for a bystander to intervene and help another.
The bystander effect describes how bystanders are less likely to help if other potential helpers are present. The more people present the less likely an individual is to help.

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Bystander effect was researched by Darley and Latane (1968).
They placed college students in individual booths hooked up using an intercom. The students spoke to each other but only one of the students was a real subject. One of the confederates suffered a seizure and Darley and Latane recorded how many of the students went to assist him.
When the subject believed that they were alone with the other student,
85% left their booth to assist. However, when the participant believed that they were one of four students present, only 13% left to assist the student suffering the seizure.
They found that the more students the subject believed were present, the less likely they were to get out of their booth and help.
When other people are present, the onus on ourselves to personally assist has been dispersed to others. This is known as diffusion of responsibility.

 The tendency for us to not help someone in need when their are other people present because of our belief that someone else will offer assistance.

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Social norms are expectations placed on us by society. They are guided by cultural rules that define appropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours.
Social norms influence pro-social behaviour

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The tendency to help others if they have or will in future help you
This principle can be quite powerful as Krishnan and
Carment (1979) discovered. They had a university student (a conferderate) offer help to another student. Later the confederate in return asked for help from the student. They found that 66% of the students offered the confederate help when the confederate had earlier offered them help. 0% of students who had not been offered help previously from the confederate helped when asked.

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The social responsibility norm states that we should help others less fortunate than ourselves.
We are even more likely to help when we believe that the person needs help because of their situation and not through their own wrong doing.

 Helping behaviours can be influenced by personal factors such as empathy, mood and competence.

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Empathy- the ability to understand and experience situations and emotions from another person’s perspective.
Empathy increases the likelihood we will help someone in distress. The more empathy we have for someone the more likely we are to help them (empathy-altruism hypothesis)

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Mood- an emotional state at a given time and place; can be short lived and change with the situation we are in
People in a happy mood are more likely to help others. It is suggests that this occurs because it is a way to share the happy mood.
There has been mixed results in the research on people in bad moods. Some studies have found that people in bad moods can be just as likely to help as someone in a good mood. It appears that if the person in the bad mood focuses on the person in need they are more likely to help. If they focus on themselves however they are not likely to help.

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The most influential personal factor
The ability to help when someone is in need (can be real or perceived).
For example, if someone falls and cut their leg, a person who has received first aid training is more likely to help than someone who has not.

Situational Factors: Personal Factors:
Social Factors:

Word Bank: o Social norms, culture, up-bringing, social responsibility, reciprocity principle, bystander intervention, mood, competence, empathy
Make flash cards. Use a different colour for each type of factor.

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Any behaviour performed with the intention of causing pain, discomfort or disruption to an individual, group or property.
For a behaviour to be considered Anti-social it must be deliberate, voluntary and must intend to cause harm
Anti-social behaviour is of interest to psychologists as studying it and understanding its causes can help prevent anti-social acts and the pain and suffering they cause
One of the largest influences of anti-social behaviour appears to be group size

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Diffusion of Responsibility
Audience Inhibition
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Social Learning Theory

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The tendency for us not to help someone in need when there are other people around as we assume that someone else will help
Example: Kitty Genovese case- no one came to help her because they assumed someone else would
Diffusion of responsibility is reduced if you know the person needing help, live in a small town, or are male (but not too masculine!)

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The reluctance to help when in front of other people
(audience) to avoid embarrassment if the person does not need/want help
Is increased in ambiguous situations- when the actions of the person make it unclear as to whether or not they need help.
Is reduced when less people are present
Was investigated by Darley and Latane (1968) in there
“Smoke Filled Room Experiment”

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Darley and Latane (1968)
Told participants they were participating in a study on memory.
Deception was necessary as if participants knew the study was on helping behaviours they would have been extra helpful
Participants were asked to wait in the waiting room and fill out a form outlining their personal details. The independent variable was whether the participant filled the form out in an empty room or in a room with two confederates who were also filling in personal information forms
While the participants filled out forms, smoke would enter the room through a vent.
How do you think the participants acted in the two experimental conditions?

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Darley and Latane found that when the participants were alone, they all investigated the smoke and went for help.
However, when other people were present 90% stayed in the room while it filled with smoke! They coughed, waved the smoke away, rubbed their eyes and opened the window but did not go for help.
When the researchers asked why they didn’t go for help the participants replied that there was no fire and therefore no danger.
We would undoubtable assume that the fact that there were other passive participants present had a large influence on their behaviour!

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The evaluation we make about helping that weighs up the pros and cons of a situation. The pros and cons can be personal and social.
If the pros out-weigh the cons then we will help (pro-social). If the cons out-weigh the pros, we will not help (anti-social).
Example: A friend asks you to come watch him play footy on
Saturday. Its the last game for the season and you have been promising you will come watch a game. Your mum has been asking you all week to clean up your room. She wants it done by Sunday morning as you have family coming for lunch. You also have to go to the shops to get a new portfolio for Psychology class. Weigh up the pros and cons and decide what you will do.

 In groups devise a short role play that demonstrates costbenefit analysis.

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Proposes that we learn how to behave by observing others and either replicating or not replicating their behaviour based on whether we observed positive or negative consequences.
Observing the actions of others and their consequences is called modelling.
Bandura investigated Social Learning Theory in 1965 using a
Bobo doll. The results of the experiment quickly became well known!

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Aim: To investigate the effect of observational learning and reinforcement
(positive or negative) on behaviour
Participants: Pre-school aged children
Method: Participants watched a series of videos. The film featured an adult and a blow up clown Bobo. In the film, the adult punched Bobo and knocked him down while shouting phrases such as “sockaroo”. The film however ended with one of thee scenarios:
1. the adult was rewarded with praise and lollies for hitting the doll
2. the adult was scolded and smacked for hitting the doll.
3. the adult was neither rewarded or punished
After the videos the children were allowed to play with the Bobo doll while being observed through double windows.
What behaviours do you think the children displayed?

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Children who saw the violent behaviour were more likely to mimic the behaviour of the adult and act violently towards the Bobo doll
Bandura later found that if the child waspersonally rewarded for aggressive behaviour towards the doll they would act violently even of they had seen the adult punished.
It is however not exposure to behaviour that is the only cause. We see violence on TV everyday and yet most of us do not engage in such acts of violence. There are clearly many more influences on behaviour than observation of reward and punishment.

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Deliberate behaviour intended to harm another (or object).
This harm can be physical or emotional.
The causes and explanation of aggression have been long debated. Today several theories exist.

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Proposed by Conrad Lorenz (1930s)
Ethology is a mix between psychology and zoology. Ethologists study behaviour patterns of species in their natural environment.
Often, observations of one species are used to make predictions about the behaviour of another species. For example, behaviour patterns found in animals may be used to explain human behaviour.
The ethological approach believes that all living creatures have a tendency towards aggression.- aggression is an instinct. This idea has been supported by studies that have observed that many animal species, even when raised in isolation, will act aggressively.
Further support has come from genetic studies. These studies have found that aggression can be inherited.

 Whether this aggressive instinct is realised or not depends on the introduction of a releaser- an environmental stimulus that triggers the aggression.
 Limitations of the Ethological Approach:
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Most research has been conducted on lower order animalsanimals with lower intelligence relying on instinct to survive.
The approach does not take into account the many forms that aggression can take