Preview

Drawing on Appropriate Evidence from Chapter 5, Describe How Groups Can Influence People in Positive and Negative Ways.

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1128 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Drawing on Appropriate Evidence from Chapter 5, Describe How Groups Can Influence People in Positive and Negative Ways.
Drawing on appropriate evidence from Chapter 5, describe how groups can influence people in positive and negative ways.

Groups influence people in positive and negative ways. Looking at research and studies we will see how the roles we play in groups can influence our behaviour. We will see how groups we gravitate to help raise our self-esteem and give us a sense of belonging but at the same time how conflict is created with other groups. Groups we belong to help to give us a sense of identity but we will see how we can lose this as we conform to group behaviour and the impact this can have. Finally, we will look at Kondo’s research and how changing cultures slowly changed her identity and how this affected her on her journey emphasising her positive and negative influences.

As we grow we will have many social identities which influence the groups we belong to. These groups can range from friends to family and further out to groups like nationality and ethnicity. Within these groups we have different roles to play which influence our behaviour.

A controversial experiment by Zimbardo (1971) (Spoors et al.) shows how a groups of males were separated into two groups of guards and prisoners in a make shift prison. After six days of a two week experiment it was stopped. The guards became abusive while the prisoners showed signs of emotional disturbance.

Lots of factors could have influenced the participant’s behaviour but this experiment shows us the effect that roles have on us in a group and how quick we are to adapt to them. We see how an individual can turn abusive and also how individuals can be walked over an abused.

Regarding Zimbardo’s experiment we can identify two groups. Psychologists call these our ‘in’ and ‘out’ groups. Evidence suggests our ‘in group’ raises our self-esteem, we gain a sense of belonging, identification and a sense of status. Our ‘in group’ also gives us an opportunity to compare with our ‘out group’ this can create conflict



References: Spoors, P., Dyer, E.W., Finlay, L. and Marsh, G (2011) Starting with Psychology, Milton Keynes, The Open University,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    In discussions of the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Philip G. Zimbardo in 1970, one controversial issue has been whether or not the experiment should have ever been attempted. On the one hand, Dr. Zimbardo and his colleagues argued that the experiment gave them a deeper understanding of human suffering and a greater empathy for their fellow man (Ratnesar 2011). On the other hand, one of the former guards contended that the experiment made him more hostile and less sympathetic during his time as a guard and that the circumstances significantly altered his perception of what was appropriate behavior. Others even maintain that the prison experiment degraded the prisoners so greatly, empowered the guards to such a great extent, and even affected Dr. Zimbardo’s behavior and mannerisms so dramatically that it thoroughly altered their sense of…

    • 1846 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1971, psychologist Phillip Zimbardo set out to create an experiment that looked at the impact of becoming a prisoner or a prison guard. The experiment was to test human behavior when one's role had been altered into authoritative one. Still powerful after all these years the experiment was the most powerful and popular experiment of all time (O'Toole, K). Researches set up a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University building. There were the 24 students out of 70 volunteers chosen to play the roles of the prisoners or prison guards.…

    • 615 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A team at Stanford University, led by Phillip Zimbardo, conducted the Stanford Prison Experiment to investigate causes of conflict between military guards and prisoners. Zimbardo and his team were seeking to observe the inherent personality traits of prisoners and guards and see if this was the chief cause of abusive behavior in these settings (Haney, Banks, and Zimbardo, 1973). This study is one that is well know and well-recognized. Zimbardo and his study are often discussed in many psychology courses today, and have even caused reform in prison systems as well as IRB/APA ethical committees.…

    • 1783 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Psy 202 Week 3

    • 1846 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Since the day we are born and until the day we die, we are all part of a group. Groups we are, “purposely joined or sometimes we may just drift into others” (Witt & Mossler, 2010, p. 14). In this paper I will present how each of us are part of a group throughout our lives. The examples I will cite will mostly be personal examples of my life and how I expect to be part of other groups later in life.…

    • 1846 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Stanford Prison Study (SPE), Zimbardo carried out, an experiment. This experiment had 24 final participants. The guards’ task was to humiliate the prisoners and make the prisoners feel powerless. The result of this experiment was that the guards identified themselves as the in-group and the prisoners as the out-group.…

    • 362 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Zimbardo Research Paper

    • 1014 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Stanford Prison Experiment was a study conducted in 1971 by Dr. Phillip Zimbardo. According to Dr. Steve Taylor (2007), “It’s probably the best known psychological study of all time.” (Classic Studies in Psychology, 2007). Zimbardo stated that the point was to see what would happen if he put “really good people in a bad place” (Dr. Zimbardo, 2007). He did this during a time were most college students were protesting for peace and were against anything authoritarian. The experiment contained both positive and negative aspects; which will be discussed further in this paper.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Groups, like individuals are each unique with their own experiences and expectations. However many commentators studying group development and dynamics have…

    • 13259 Words
    • 54 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment Aim: To test whether a person is predisposed to certain behaviour or whether the situation can affect their actions. Method: Zimbardo adapted the basement of Stanford University into a fake, but realistic prison, to replicate the psychological experience of imprisonment and deindividuation. Recruiting 25 emotionally stable, healthy, volunteers who were randomly assigned the role of prisoner or guard, expected to then act out their roles in a prison setting. With no warning those ‘prisoners’ were arrested at home by real police, taken, charged, booked and fingerprinted, then blindfolded and interned in the ‘fake’ prison.…

    • 1095 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Stanford Prison experiment drew the attention of how adapting to a situation can make a person become someone else, leaving behind who they previously were. Social Psychologist, Philip G. Zimbardo, highlighted the presentation of classic psychological research on situational forces on human behaviour. Zimbardo debated that the situation is the core in creating individuals to act in ways they would have not acted before. The extent to how situational forces can explain evil acts by the individuals are seduced into evil through dehumanising and labelling others. As well as, the people’s aggression can be increased when they feel they have anonymity. Such as wearing a uniform or a mask (Dittmann, 2004).…

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Aim: Sherif (1935) conducted an experiment with the aim of demonstrating that people conform to group norms when they are put in an ambiguous (i.e…

    • 5003 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The biggest surprise was the level of conformity that took place over such a small period of time. Zimbardo believed that the experiment showed how the individual personalities of people could be overwhelmed when given positions of authority.…

    • 206 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As social group, along with your family, dictates the morals you come to respect. These greatly impact who you are.…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Stanford Prison Experiment’s purpose, according to Zimbardo, was to see if people’s behaviors are affected by their social situations or by their morals and personalities. Zimbardo’s hypothesis was that prison guards would be brutal due to their mentality of being prison guards. The prisoners likewise would be rebellious due to the fact that prisoners are people who broke the laws in the first place.…

    • 556 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Robbers Cave experiment (RCE) in 1954 is perhaps one of the lesser known psychology experiments of the 20th century. Led by social psychologist Muzafer Sherif, the study of social behaviour in its proper contexts (viz., group cooperation and conflict) stemmed out of growing practical concerns from business and military agencies in the 1930s (Sherif, Harvey, White, Hood, & Sherif, 1954a), such as in selecting effective leaders. The RCE, which laid the groundwork for the subsequent study and understanding of Group Relations (social psychology), gave rise to the Realistic Conflict Theory (RCT).…

    • 1828 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Explain what group influence is and discuss both the pros and cons of group influence?…

    • 325 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays