Social Psychology: is based on understanding an individual’s behaviour. How it can be influenced not just by one’s self but the interaction with other people. These interactions have a major influence on an individual’s conformity or disobedience. There are theories that have been developed by social psychologists to explain what happens when we belong to a group. Norman Triplett, 1898 study explained how the presence of other people changes one’s behaviour.
OBEDIENCE - is following an order given by a person with recognised authority over you. Obedience plays an important role in society today. i.e. a government expects citizens to abide by the law of the land. However, social psychologists explain how blind obedience that can lead to the harm of other people i.e supporters of rival clubs.
Milgram, 1963 behavioural study of obedience to authority led him to the conclusion that what people say and what they really do turned out to be very different. He aslo concluded that the social setting is indeed a powerful factor of an individual’s behaviour.
An individual’s behaviour can be compliant or disobedient and prejudice or discriminative.
Tajfel, 1970 social identity theory states that the simple fact of being grouped will certainly lead to prejudice against a different group. He goes further to explain that this happen in three stages: Social Categorisation, where the group an individual belongs to is referred to as the in-group and that they don’t belong to as the out-group; Social Identification, where as a member of the so called in-group you conform to their laws; Social Comparison, where by the sense of belonging you try to make the other group (out-group) look bad.
ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR - in general terms, the word anti-social behaviour refers to people that show a lack of feeling or concern for the well-being of other people in the society. (Clarke