What Ways Does An Individuals Behaviour Change?

What Ways Does An Individuals Behaviour spay?This essay ordain explore whether an respective(prenominal)s conduct truly changes when they be sort out of a conference through the consideration of various perspectives, methods and chthonicpinning epistemological assumptions and will take the viewpoint that an mortals conduct does change when s/he is disrupt of a pigeonholing, however it is necessary to consider the scope, much(prenominal) as societal and ethnical factors and the importance of experience, interactions, hearty norms and determine as one distinguish of social psychological science, or one form of testation put upnot to the full name or explain convocation and mortal behaviour. The roughly prominent debates, theories and studies in relation to assembly behaviour will be discussed from a multi-perspective position, principally exploring the social and cognitive aspects of gathering behaviour, as well as the methodological analysis of try outatio n and how group behaviour is measured. This will ensure that a reductionist approach to the subject is avoided. Key factors involved in group behaviour include bow, contour, groupthink, social identicalness possibleness (Tajfel, 1979), prejudice, stereotypes and schemas, which will be discussed and evaluated on base relevant research throughout the essay. This is referable to how these factors modulate how an individuals behaviour changes under group influence, for example how Aschs contr everywheresy test portrayed the effects of mass influence (Asch, 1952).A group has been throttled by around theorists as two or much individuals who perceive themselves as organism members of the group or social category (Turner, 1982 Br give birth, 2000). Group behaviour refers to a posture in which individuals interact in small or large groups, inside these groups in that location may be certain norms, value which are interiorised inside the individual (Vygotsky, 1978), communica tion patterns and status differentials. The majority of research conducted in the body politic of group behaviour is mainly based in the experimental psychology perspective however critical and qualitative psychologists argue there is a lesser cerebrate on the study of behaviour in mise en scene which ideally involves the acknowledgment of the impact of society and culture on group behaviour (Bronfenbrenner, 1979 Fox Prilleltensky, 1997 Gergen, 1973 Himmelweit Gaskell, 1990 Renshon Duckitt, 2000), social roles, environments, experiences, relationships, and a movement away from science laboratory based measurements. Within mainstream psychology there is still a focus on the cognitive and affective aspects of behaviour, whilst individual level processes which are thoroughgoing in social and group processes are not always declared. harmonise to Nafstad Blakar (Nafstad Blakar, 2012) A full-fledged social psychology cannot be based on experimental laboratory research al l. This is because it is necessary to concentrate on methodological approaches for future research as much of the quantitative experimental psychology involved in addressing and measuring group behaviour does not acknowledge core social aspects such as social life, social behaviour and tender development as social beings.One key surface bowl indoors group behaviour is obedience. The study of obedience entails the tendency to stick with with drifts from an em authorment designing and where group behaviour is concerned obedience entails an individual adapting their actions in nine to comply with the groups wishes or rules. Concerned with the atrocities committed during national socialist Germany, Milgram explored the effects of obedience under the influence of consent (Milgram, 1974). Participants, who witnessed the confederate being strapped into a chair with electrodes in an new(prenominal) room, were given the role of teacher whilst a confederate of the experimenter was g iven the role of learner The teacher was expect to administer an electric shock for every wrong answer in what they were lead to believe was an experiment round learning, the shocks increased at 15 volt increments and when the participant refused to administer the shocks, they were given standard instructions (prods) by the experimenter, who wore a lab coat, therefore acting as an place figure inwardly the group. 65% of participants administered the full 450 volts, suggesting that obedience is related to situational blackmails.In baffle to move to explain why individuals would behave in the way they did during the experiment, Milgram proposed the assurance theory. The agency theory according to Milgram consists of two states the autonomous state, in which individuals sack up decisions on their own ideas and beliefs, and the agentic state, in which in which individuals give up right and defer the responsibility to those of a higher status. Although the agency theory does cru sade to explain rare occurrences such as the obedience in events such as the Mai Lai Massacre and Nazi Germany, there may be other comments for the obedience, as suggested by French and Raven (French Raven, 1959) who suggested there are flipper different types of proponent legitimate power, reward power, coercive power, expert power and referent power. It is also important to note that the agency theory is more of a description of how society works, quite a than explaining why individuals obey authority figures against their better judgement in some situations. The theory of groupthink could also be apply in order to explain the phenomological behaviour in Milgrams study, as groupthink entails group decisions which are often irresponsible, dangerous, made under extreme pressure and dominated by a powerful leader, therefore Milgrams theory alone by not be sufficient in exploring individual and group behaviour.There are several ethical issues within Milgrams study such as the l ack of debriefing, the distress caused to the participants and deception about the nature of the study. Also, notwithstanding Milgram carrying out several variations of his victor experiment, the experiment has methodological flaws. Due to the laboratory setting of the experiment there was a distinct lack of bionomical validity as the obedience portrayed in compliance with an authority figure does not necessarily represent and cannot be generalised to genuinely life social interactions.It has been suggested that Milgrams experiment became caught up in the broader processes of psychologisation (De Vos, 2009). This is due to the power of science and the authority of experimentation which is suggested in the study, specifically where the experimenter acts as an authority figure within the peer-group, urging participants to continue with the experiment. Also, it has been argued that the experiment dramatizes peoples capacity for forcefulness (Brannigan, 2004) and only demonstrates a short-term measure of obedience (Stainton Rogers et al, 1995). Taking these points into consideration, the conduct for a multi-perspective view of group behaviour can be reiterated as a concentration on laboratory experiments alone does not fully account as an explanation of group behaviour and obedience, this is further demonstrate by the suggestion that Milgram does not make a concise inference concerning the study.We are led to no conclusions about obedience, really, but rather are exhorted to be impressed with the power of your situation as an influence context (Parker, 2000). Further replications of Milgrams original study were conducted in order to address some of the issues which were presented within the experiment, such as ethical issues (Burger 2009) and methodological flaws (Meeus and Raaijmakers, 1995), therefore winning a further qualitative stance on the original study. A solely experimental approach to the study of obedience within individual and group behaviou r may not necessarily be useful, although the phenomenon of obedience is portrayed in Milgrams experiment, no true conclusion or explanation is drawn due to a lack of acknowledgement of social, political and cultural factors, and a reliance on quantitative and experimental social psychology. other area of study within individual and group behaviour is concurrence. conformity is the influence on an individual which may alter their beliefs or behaviour in response to the pressure of a group in order to internalise or fit in with a group. According to piece (Man, 1969) there are three types of conformity these are normative, which is a hope to be liked by the group, informational, which is a desire to be good and identification which is conformity to a social role.Aschs well known line study explores normative conformity due to the participants attempts to avoid rejection from the group and informational conformity due to the participants desire to be correct. Asch suggests that a n individual will attempt to internalise with a group and display the effects of majority influence (Asch, 1952). The experiment consisted of a participant who was given a selection of lines and was asked to judge which was most similar to a comparison line in the presence of others, who were real confederates of the experimenter who were instructed to purposely give incorrect answers. 5% of participants conformed to all of the trials, 33% conformed to over half of the trials and 25% did not conform at all. Several variations of the original experiment were conducted when one confederate was present none of the participants conformed, however when more than three confederates were present strong conformity occurred. This suggests the effects of majority influence and pressure on the individual to act in a port in accordance to a group, the desire to be liked and scheme of rejection from the group.Aschs line study distinctly lacked ecological validity due to its bionic laboratory setting, which suggests that the experiment had low ecological validity and may be difficult to generalise to a real-life situation. A replication of Aschs original experiment in which the participants were British engineering, mathematics and chemistry students suggested low reliability within the original study, out of the 396 trials, a participant conformed with the incorrect majority on only one trial.. Aschs experiment has been referred to as a child of its time, due to the social, political and historical context in which Aschs experiment was conducted, as conformity was a social norm during Post-World War Two era, whilst the public opinion of individuality was rejected (Perrin and Spencer, 1980). The lack of reliability in the study may be due to a change in what is socially acceptable rather than a methodological flaw, and therefore it is of importance to acknowledge social norms and values whilst studying group behaviour as well as the effect that group behaviour cannot be based within experimental psychology alone (Nafstad and Blakar, 2012).One prominent theory which may be applied to real life examples of group behaviour is kind Identity hypothesis (Tajfel, 1979). societal Identity Theory details how membership to a group gives an individual a sense of social identity, these groups are important in enhancing an individuals self-esteem and pride, therefore individuals may attempt to increase the status of their own group, or simply discriminate against an out-group through social categorisation. Discrimination against an out-group occurs through prejudice and stereotypes which occurs through three cognitive processes social categorisation, which is the decision about which group you belong to, social identification, which is more overt identification with the in-group, and social comparison which is comparison to the out-group which is believed to be inferior, this in turn increases the self-esteem of the in-group (Tajfel Turner, 1979). Altho ugh it can be argued that Social Identity Theory can win a concise and full explanation for the formation if in-groups and out-groups, it does not clearly define how the process occurs and also is not a predictor of behaviour (Hogg, 2000). Therefore, although Social Identity Theory can explain some aspects of group behaviour, it may not be applicable to real world phenomenon as it cannot provide full explanation for real-life group behaviour such as acts of terrorist act.In real-world research, such as a psychological approach to terrorism, it has been suggested that it is necessary not to allow cognitive biases to cloud the analysis of political situations (Abrahms, 2006 Scheier, 2007). Therefore, experimental psychology alone may not be useful in analysing and explaining real-life situations. However, Zimbardo (Zimbardo, 2002) argues that terrorism is all about psychology as it is key to understanding the motives, values and ideology of terrorists therefore it is clear there is debate as to how real-life examples of group behaviour should be studied.Although many of the most prominent studies in the area of group and individual behaviour are based within experimental psychology, there is a tendency for discursive, critical and qualitative psychologists to argue that there is a need for the exploration of social norms, values and experiences, rather than the notion held by experimental psychology which simply acknowledges that these factors have an affect. When considering the experiments and debates which are discussed within the study of group behaviour, in order for future research to attempt to provide a more concise explanations of group behaviour it may be appropriate to concentrate on people on an individual level within context as well as their actions in a group situation, for example acknowledging their experiences, relationships, values and social roles in order to draw conclusions as to why individuals act in accordance to a group instead of sim ply displaying extreme phenomena such as in the cases of Milgram and Zimbardo. It has been suggested that current mainstream social psychology is primarily characterised by the study of the interactions among the individual and groups through experimental study and as a entrust of this, context such as social and cultural levels have not been represented to their true extent (Doise, 1982/1986).ReferencesAbrahms, M. Why Terrorism Does Not Work, planetary Security, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp.42-78.Asch, S. E. Social psychology. New York PrenticeHall, 1952Brannigan, A. (2004) The Rise and Fall of Social psychological science The Use and Misuse of the Experimental Method. New Jersey Aldine Transaction.Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press.Brown, R. (2000) Group Processes Dynamics within and in the midst of groups (2nd ed.), Oxford, Blackwell.Burger, J. (2009). Replicating Milgram Would people sti ll obey today? American Psychologist, 64, 1-11.De Vos, J. (2009) Now that you know, how do you feel The Milgram experiment and psychologisation. Annual Review of Critical Psychology, 7, 223-246. Accessed at http//www.discourseunit.com/arcp/7.htm on 24th November 2010.Doise, W. (1982/1986). Lexplication en psychologie sociale/Levels of explanation in social psychology. Paris Editions de la Maison des Sciences de lHomme. Cambridge Cambridge University Press.Fox, D., Prilleltensky, I. (Eds.). (1997). Critical Psychology. An Introduction. Thousand Oaks, CA Sage Publications.French, J. R. P., Raven, B. The bases of social power. In D. Cartwright, A. Zander. Group dynamics. New York harper Row, 1959.Gergen, K. J. (1973). Social psychology as history. ledger of personality and social psychology, 26, 309-320.Himmelweit, H. T., Gaskell, G. (Eds.). (1990). Societal Psychology. London Sage Publications.Hogg, Michael A. Williams, Kipling D. (2000). From I to we Social identity and the colle ctive self. Group Dynamics Theory, Research, and Practice 4 (1) 81-97Man, L (1969). Social Psychology. New York WileyMeeus, W.H.J., Raaijmakers, Q.A.W. (1995). Obedience in modern society The Utrecht studies. daybook of Social Issues, 51 (3), 155-175.Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to authority An experimental view. New York Harper RowParker*, I. (2000). Obedience. Granta, 71(4) 99-125.Perrin, S. Spencer, C. (1980) The Asch effect a child of its time? Bulletin of the British mental Society, 32, 405-406.Nafstad, H. E. Blakar, R. M. (2012). Ideology and Social Psychology. Social and Personality Psychology Compass. 6 (4), 282-294.Renshon, S. A., Duckitt, J. (2000). Political psychology. Cultural and crosscultural foundations. London MacMillan PressScheier, B. (2007) The Evolutionary Brain hemipterous insect that Makes Terrorism Fail, WIRED. Accessed at http//www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2007/07/securitymatters_0712 on twenty-fifth October 2007.Stainton Rogers, R., Stenner, P., Gleeson, K. Stainton Rogers, W. (1995). Social Psychology A Critical Agenda. Polity CambridgeTajfel, H., Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In W. G. Austin S. Worchel (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 33-47). Monterey, CA put up/ColTurner, J. C. (1982). Toward a cognitive redefinition of the social group. In H. Tajfel (Ed.), Social identity and intergroup behavior (pp. 15-40). Cambridge, England Cambridge University Press.Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press.Zimbardo, P.G. (2002) Psychology to Play Key Role in bailiwick Centre on Terrorism. Monitor on Psychology, 33 (11), December 2002. Accessed at on 23 January 2006.