Blog #9- Social Loafing and the Dreaded Group Project

I am always the first to groan when professors announce the "fun" group project assignments on the first day of class. From the beginning, I dread the day that group work will begin, and I will once again get stuck with all of the responsibility. I often find myself pulling more weight than others in my group mainly because I like to do things well and on-time. That’s not to say that I always pull off completing tasks with ease and exemplary presentation, but I do at least get things done! The social psychological term for individual effort being reduced in a compiled effort task is Social Loafing (Latane, 1979). I have been acutely aware of this effect because I have had many experiences with being the victim of other’s social loafing. Although social loafing on group projects has not been as prevalent in college, I can still think of quite a few times that I experienced this lack of individual effort in a group task.

In a history class last semester, I was once again assigned the dreaded group project and was not prepared to be the over-loaded victim of my group’s social loafing. Before the groups had even been assigned, I had already decided that I would withhold my own efforts so that I would not be given the main burden of the work. I was not aware at the time, but I was experiencing the sucker effect (Houldsworth & Mathews, 2000; Kerr, 1983; Shepperd, 1993a). I was anticipating my group’s social loafing, and I did not want to become the “sucker,” so I chose not to put forth as much effort as the others. However, when the groups were assigned, I realized that I was prematurely and unfairly judging the other members. I remembered what it was like to feel that others were undeservingly benefiting from my hard work, and chose to put forth my best effort in order to do well on the project. I was fortunate enough to have other group members who also put in their fair share of work, and we ended up getting a great grade on our video presentation. The experience made me understand that it is tempting to give in to the sucker effect. But the maturity and hard work of those around me made me take personal responsibility for my own part in the project, and I was able to avoid any effects of social loafing.

References

Houldsworth, C., & Mathews, B. P. (2000). Group composition, performance and educational attainment. Education and Training, 42, 40-53.

Kerr, N. L. (1983). Motivation losses in small groups: asocial dilemma analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 819-828.

Latane, B., Williams, K., & Harkins, S. (1979). Many hands make light the work: The causes and consequences of social loafing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27, 822-832.

Shepperd, J.A. (1993a). Productivity loss in performance groups: A motivation analysis: Psychological Bulletin, 113, 67-81.

Blog #8- Compliance and Italian Scams

I would love to think that I am not gullible in any way, but I often get teased about being gullible by my friends. Perhaps I am too trusting of others, but I would still like to think that I am cautious when it is necessary. Situations of unfamiliarity usually raise my caution levels and catch my attention. Specifically, when I am traveling to unfamiliar places, I tend to be very careful and somewhat paranoid. I would like to think that I am on my guard and deter scams set-up to fool tourists. However, I can recall a number of occasions that I proved myself gullible, and can now attribute some of these situations to social psychological theory. In some of these situations, I acquiesced to requests from others, mainly because I like to appease others within reasonable means. This behavior can be described as compliance, which describes behavior that is brought about due to an appeal (Allen, 1965; Kelman, 1961). Although I try to avoid being a “sucker,” recollection of certain instances has certainly proved that my compliance was a result of being very gullible.

One summer I went to Europe with my mom and a group of friends. We were traveling around Switzerland and Italy for two weeks. After spending about a week in Switzerland, I had become very comfortable with the easy-going, warm Swiss people. I was lulled into a false sense of security by the small towns and quiet countryside. As we were preparing to Milan, Italy, we were told to be very careful as it was a much more fast-paced city. I laughed off the idea of getting scammed by the gypsies and thieves in Italy, I felt I was too smart to be a victim of those petty crimes. However, as soon as I emerged from the subway into a main square in Milan, I was approached by two foreign individuals. They were speaking in Jamaican accents about being welcome in Italy, and enjoying the city. They spoke so fast, I was having a hard time keeping up, and started to walk away. The pair stopped me and offered me a string bracelet that had been woven out of yarn. They wanted to give it to me for free, “a gift for the beautiful lady.” I was shaking my head and saying “no, thank you,” but they had already tied the bracelet in a knot around my wrist. My mom was furious, but the men insisted it was free and backed away offering us well-wishes for our visit. We went on our way, and soon forgot about the incident. As we were eating lunch in a small café an hour later, a woman approached us, wearing the same clothes as the two men and with the same accent. She pointed out the bracelet and said she was glad we were welcomed into Milan. She then mentioned that she was accepting donations for their organization (of course I can’t remember the organization or its cause for the life of me). I considered this for a second, and then felt a little guilty, and gave her a few Euros. I now know that I was duped by the norm of reciprocity, meaning the societal idea that one should repay an individual who does a favor or gives a gift (Gouldner, 1960) The foreign organization was using the bracelets as tags for gullible individuals like me, and using other members to go out and collect donations from those who accepted the gifts. I would never have considered giving a random woman money at a café in Italy, until I was given a gift by that organization, and felt I must repay them somehow.
Now that I know all of the different sales pitches, I would like to think that I would never make such a mistake in the future. I can only be thankful that they were seeking voluntary donations and did not take advantage of my gullibility any further!



References

Allen, V. L. (1965). Situational factors in conformity. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 2, 133-175.

Gouldner, A. W. (1960). The norm of reciprocity: A preliminary statement. American Sociological Review, 25, 161-178.

Kelman, H. C. (1961). Processes of opinion change. Public Opinion Quarterly, 25, 57-78.

Demonstrate A Concept Blog

The first week of November has been extremely politically charged, especially with talks of the upcoming Presidential election. Because of all the hype, I have spent a good amount of time discussing my views with friends and family, even if we do not all agree. As we are learning more about conformity in social psychology, I began to see how the propensity to alter opinions and behaviors in order to go along with norms of certain groups (Sherif, 1936) is quite influential in political discussions. When I started forming ideas for my demonstrate-a-concept blog, I realized that political dialogue would be the perfect forum to effectively illustrate conformity.

As I mentioned, it is not uncommon for me to have political discussions with my friends. Two of my best friends work for a state representative candidate, and are always pushing me to vote for their boss. On Mondays, five of us often have dinner together before our sorority chapter meetings, and political discussions almost always slip in somewhere. Therefore, I thought this Monday would be the perfect opportunity to test out the theory of conformity on my friends.

While we were sitting at Dos Salsas, I brought up women’s rights, and how I felt that McCain’s platform was very anti-women’s rights. Knowing that Erin and Shana were very liberal and that Taryn and Teryl were pretty conservative, I wondered if the opinions voiced first would influence the others. Although I am conservative in many aspects, I have certainly made a shift leftward in college. I went ahead and voiced my opinion first, knowing that Erin and Shana would probably follow close behind with their opinions, as they are invested in working for a liberal candidate. I detailed my views on Obama’s forward-thinking platform, and my worries about McCain’s desire to take away certain rights from women, such as the right to choose. I ended my little speech by saying, “overall, I’d say I am pretty liberal.” Erin and Shana immediately jumped in with examples and supported what I had to say. One of them even went so far as to say that she already voted straight-ticket liberal. Taryn and Teryl were pretty quiet during the discussion, so I looked over to Teryl next and asked her point-blank, “would you say you’re more liberal or conservative?” Although there were no confederates in my experiment, I was counting on Teryl as my “participant” to hopefully support some aspect of conformity, especially knowing that she was a staunch conservative. As I expected, Teryl only slightly hesitated and then stated that she was probably somewhat liberal, especially in consideration of her stance on women’s rights. I deduced that Teryl was persuaded to conform by informational influence, meaning that one perceives others to be correct in their opinions, so they go along with them (Crutchfield, 1955). However, my attribution was proven wrong by Teryl when she later explained why she answered the way she did. This can be seen in the posted video.

In conclusion to my small experiment, we asked Taryn what her political views were. She discussed the women’s rights issue pretty thoroughly, and then said that although she would consider herself conservative in many ways, she guessed she had some liberal views too. In the end, my two conservative friends had answered that they were somewhat liberal, after what seemed like a liberal group consensus from three of the others in the group. I was interested to see whether or not this could be attributed to conformity, and therefore videotaped myself asking Teryl why she said what she did at the table. Knowing that Teryl was conservative, I hoped that she would give me an honest answer now that the group norm of being liberal had been dissipated. The video was the first time I had asked her about her answer since our dinner conversation the night before. I had also already asked my other friends separately not to discuss our conversation with her because I was exploring something for Psychology. In her answer, she essentially explains that she felt she needed to go along with the group. She demonstrates that she was persuaded by a normative influence, meaning she was attempting to avoid negative social perception or penalties due to her answer (Deutsch & Gerard, 1955). Even though we are all close and comfortable with each other, Teryl felt that a group norm had been established and dared not challenge it with her difference of opinion.

Now that Teryl has been de-briefed about the experiment, she says she feels that she would voice her opinions in most situations, and may have felt extra pressure because of the controversial political topic. However, I explained to her that most people rationalize their behavior in this way, but not to worry because most people also often fall prey to conformity!

References

Crutchfield, R. S. (1955). Conformity and character. American Psychologist, 10, 195-198.

Deutsch, M., & Gerard, H. B. (1955). A study of normative and informational social influences upon individual judgment. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 51, 629-636.

Sherif, M. (1936). The psychology of social norms. New York: Harper.

Blog 7- Cognitive Dissonance and Dating

Relationships are difficult no matter which way you look at them. They are usually complicated and messy, and require hard work and sacrifice. Because of these obstacles, I tend to be careful about dating. I am very analytical about my relationships, which I perceive to be fairly typical of females. We like to make lists of pros and cons, and spend time discussing what attributes would be ideal in a partner. I made just such a list in high school, and updated it on a few occasions with my friends. My list was somewhat general and included qualities most people would look for in a partner (genuine, caring, attractive etc.). Overall, my attitude was that a partner should be very put-together and should meet my previously outlined standards. I soon found out that my behavior would not always coincide with my attitude about the ideal partner. In an attempt to justify my behavior, I experienced an attitude change and decided that lists and standards were not important, and I could accept almost anyone if I tried. This experience in attitude change due to behavior is called cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957). More specifically, it is when one rationalizes their behavior because it is different from their original attitude, which results in an attitude change.

Recently, I experienced cognitive dissonance in my relationship approach. As I explained, I often looked for guys who met my listed criteria, and most of my boyfriends fit a certain image of clean, preppy, respectable guys. But the little rebel in me was apparently searching for something a little different, because I recently began dating a boy who was the exact opposite of everything on my list. From his tattooed arms and neck, to his eyebrow ring, I found myself dating a boy who could definitely not be brought home to mom. Most of my peers would never have given this guy a chance, and he was essentially the opposite of every boy in my little sheltered world. Because I was doing something so against my original dating attitude, I began to search for justification for dating this boy. I slowly found myself explaining to my friends that he was different and gave me a new perspective in life. My attitude about dating was changing, and I ended up believing that my partner should be the opposite of preppy and “fratty.” By experiencing cognitive dissonance, I was able to feel comfortable in dating my new boyfriend, and found a way to justify it in my own mind. Although that relationship eventually did not work out, I still struggle with my attitudes about dating criteria. Part of still feels that I should look for an educated, preppy boy, but after my cognitive dissonance experience, the “dangerous” looking boys with tattoos still seem to catch my eye.

Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford, C.A: Stanford University Press.

Blog# 6- Victoria's Secret and the Peripheral Route to Persuasion

I believe that I am not entirely susceptible to advertisements, and often try to ignore TV and print ads encouraging me to waste my money on unnecessary products. However, I admittedly have fallen prey to advertising in the past, and often times have not been conscious of it until much later. Advertising relies on the social psychological concept of Persuasion, meaning the way that attitudes are altered (Hovland, Lumsdaine & Sheffield, 1949; Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1953), and attempts to draw the consumer in with the two routes to persuasion. The Central Route to Persuasion is when a person is influenced by the strength of an argument and amount of information (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986), and The Peripheral Route to Persuasion is when a person is influenced not by information but by cues outside the message, such as celebrity (Petty and Caciopp, 1986). I often fall into the peripheral route to persuasion, because I am a cognitive miser, and tend to ignore large amounts of gratuitous information. Because I usually take the peripheral route to persuasion, simple magazine and television advertisements generally have the most influence on me. In particular, I recall being drawn to the Victoria’s Secret advertisements in magazines such as Glamour, Vogue and Cosmopolitan. They are not based on a complicated message or paragraphs of convincing text about their superior bra technology. The company relies merely on the sex appeal of their models, and the shock-value of their now-famous fashion show to draw women and men alike to buy their products. I have shamefully bought into their advertisements and gladly scooped up their coupons in magazines and gone on expensive shopping sprees to their stores. Although all I got with the coupon was a free cotton piece of fabric a few inches wide, I was somehow convinced that using that coupon justified the discount I would get on another incredibly overpriced bra. I spent unreasonable amounts of money on trivial items, somewhat because supermodel Giselle Bundchen slapped on the undergarments and said they were the best. Additionally, the “Pink” store in Victoria’s Secret was created to lure teens into the stores and have them spend $40 on cotton pajama pants with the “Pink” name emblazoned on the sides and bottom. Unfortunately, I was one of the many who justified the price inflation partially because I liked the images in the print advertisements. Due to my needless expenditures at Victoria’s Secret, I can reluctantly admit that the lure of celebrity in advertisements leads me to follow the peripheral route, rather than to pay attention to strong arguments and follow the central route. Although I do sometimes follow the central route in more important matters, such as political decisions, I am one of the millions whom advertisers easily draws in with little meaningful information. With the realization that the advertisers are deliberately using these celebrities to take money from my pockets, I plan on being much more cautious when being persuaded in any capacity.

References

Hovland, C. I., Janis, I. L., & Kelley, H. H. (1953) Communication and persuasion: Psychological studies of opinion change. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Hovland, C.I., Lumsdaine, A. A., & Sheffield, F. D. (1949). Experiments on mass communication. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Petty, R. E., & Cacippo, J. T. (1986). Communication and persuasion: Central and peripheral routes to attitude change. New York: Springer-Verlag.

Blog #5- Body Piercings and Attitudes

Before I came to Southwestern, I had many strong attitudes about a huge variety of things, from politics to religion to socially acceptable appearance. Attitudes are the positive or negative direction of opinion or attitude towards another individual or idea (Ajzen, 2001; Albarracin et al., 2005; Crano & Prislin, 2006; Perloff, 2003; Petty & Chaiken, 2004). My relatively sheltered upbringing and strong parental influence greatly shaped my attitudes about different topics and caused me to be noticeably stubborn about certain things. At my high school, my peer group influenced me to value certain appearances and styles, and also shaped my conservative views on social and economic issues. However, after becoming a Southwestern student, I noticed that my conservative attitude began to change. According to Newcomb’s (1943) study at Bennington College, women often become increasingly more liberal during their college experience. I have certainly found that my experience at Southwestern has led me to change my strong reactions to issues to a more liberal attitude. Specifically, I used to perceive women with body piercings as purely trashy. I was strong in my conservative attitude towards body piercings, and did not respect women with any kind of piercing besides one hole in each ear. As I met more individuals at Southwestern who had various piercings and tattoos, I realized that these jewelry and markings did not solely define a person, and that they were certainly not “trashy.” I began to admire certain piercings, as well as respecting individuals who were brave enough to get them done. According to Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior, attitudes toward behavior, social norms, and personal control all influence whether attitudes lead to behavior. As my attitude toward body piercings changed, I felt that the social norms changed as well because of the increasing number of individuals with body piercings at Southwestern. Finally, I my attitude towards piercings and my perception that they were socially acceptable led to my feeling that I could actually go through with getting one for myself. Over fall break I went ahead and let my attitudes toward body piercings influence my behavior, and got my lip pierced. At first I was worried that my parents would be disappointed, and that my peers would not respect me, but I finally decided that my attitude towards piercings was strong enough to support my decision. Unfortunately, the stud hit a blood vessel and there were many complications with the piercing, which led to me taking it out. However, I was very proud of myself for following my newly changed attitude towards body piercings and go through with a decision that was important to me.

References

Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179-211.

Ajzen, I. (2001). Nature and operation of attitudes. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 27-58.

Albarracin, D., Johnson, B. T., Zanna, M. P. (Eds.). (2005). The handbook of attitudes. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Crano, W. D., & Prislin, R. (2006). Attitudes and persuasion. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 345-374.
Newcomb, T. M. (1943). Personality and social change: Attitude formation in a student community. Ft. Worth, TX: Dryden Press.

Perloff, R. M. (2003). The dynamics of persuasion: Communication and attitudes in the 21st century. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Petty, R. E., & Chaiken, S. (Eds.). (2004). Key readings in attitudes and persuasion. London: Taylor & Francis.

Participant-Observer Blog- Becoming Someone Else

I am a relatively self-aware person, and because of this tend to make an effort to make good impressions on other individuals. Being a happy and outgoing person is very much a part of my self-concept. A Self-Concept is a collection of perceptions that a person has about themselves (Markus, 1977). Although my own collection of perceptions is not exactly simple, being extroverted is certainly a primary and important trait to me. My extroversion is exhibited daily, through smiles, constant conversations, e-mails and general inability to stop interacting with friends.
On Tuesday, I chose to challenge my central traits, which are those that are prominent and shape impressions (Asch, 1946), by becoming somewhat of a different person for a day. In order to do so, I chose to go from an outgoing and upbeat person to a withdrawn and somewhat negative individual. In trait terms, I went from being an extroverted individual to an introverted individual. In order to enact these changes, I had to change my behavior in quite a few ways. When others smiled and waved, I gave insincere half-smiles and looked away. I did not stop to talk to close friends, and I chose not to answer most phone calls or text messages, in an effort to close off my usually extensive communication. Overall, I attempted to remain introverted in these ways at work, school, and at home. I was excited to attempt this, but ended up finding it increasingly daunting throughout the day, and was finally left with a small sense of disappointment. It was incredibly difficult to not put on a big smile and hug or greet friends, and it was an even bigger challenge not to have animated discussions with my roommate and other peers. Changing my self-concept in such a dramatic way for a day had a big impact on my interactions throughout the day, and made me feel like a different person, mainly one whom I was not very happy with.
The reactions to my trait changes varied depending on how well the other individuals knew me. Some individuals who first met me on Tuesday, such as work clients, may have committed the Fundamental Attribution Error by assuming that my behavior was due to my introverted personality rather than situational factors (Ross, 1977). However, most of my close friends did not commit the fundamental attribution error, and continuously asked me what had happened to alter my mood. They guessed that I was stressed about school or worried about relationship troubles. Additionally, my boss asked if I was feeling alright, and commented that I was quieter than usual. Based on these reactions, it seemed that my extroversion truly is a central trait of my self-concept, and many individuals that I interact with also perceive extroversion as a central trait of my personality.
I was not surprised about the reactions of others, because it was difficult and awkward for me to act in such a different way. However, I did not anticipate that I would find extroversion to be such an important aspect of my self-concept. I felt like a completely different person when I changed myself for a day, and began to feel melancholy, corresponding with my introverted approach to social interactions. I learned that I rely on my outgoing personality and the effectiveness of my self-presentation, which is the way that people attempt to influence individuals’ perceptions of them (Schlenker, 2003), to create my overall self-concept. I would never consider changing my extroverted nature, primarily because I find that making an effort to interact with peers in a positive way improves my general happiness. Although I do have off-days, and am not outrageously happy, I find that extroversion is a very positive trait to have. Overall, I found that I have a positive self-concept, and am apparently effective with my self-presentation methods, and most importantly am quite comfortable and consistent with my self-concept. My small personality change for a day made my self-concept seem significantly stable, and I found that I am a true extrovert.

References

Asch, S. E. (1946). Forming impressions of personality. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 41, 258-290.

Markus, H. (1977). Self-schemata and processing information about the self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 63-78.

Ross, L. (1977). The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings: Distortions in the attribution process. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol 10, pp. 174-221). New York: Academic Press.

Schlenker, B. R. (2003). Self-presentation. In M. R. Leary & J. P. Tangney (Eds.) Handbook of self and identity (pp. 492-518). New York: Guilford.