Question

Define and explain the principle of social psychology (not the book), more specifically, social influence.

Answer 1

Social Psychology studies how situations affect our behaviour and the way in which we perceive ourselves or others. Our interaction patterns in specific situations orient us to each other, our culture and ideas about human nature.
According to Chuck Huff following are the basic principles of social psychology.
According to him two fundamental axioms of social psychology are

1. The social construction of reality :- Each person’s view of reality is a construction shaped by cognitive, emotional and social processes. Almost any complex perception is a social construction. Many simple perceptions are also influenced by the above processes.
2. The pervasiveness of social influence :- Other people influence virtually all our thoughts, feelings and behaviour. This occurs whether those others are physically present or not, and whether we recognize the influence or not. We are biased to not recognize this influence unless it works in our favour.

Three motivational principles
These motivational principles guide the social construction of reality and the process of social influence.

1. People strive for mastery :- People enjoy feeling competent and effective and will work to obtain these feelings. People will avoid situations in which these feelings are threatened. People may distort their actual mastery to achieve a feeling of mastery.
2. People seek connectedness :- People seek support, liking, and acceptance from the people and groups they care about and value. People will behave in ways that will increase liking from these groups.
3. People value “Me and Mine” :- People desire to see themselves, and other people and groups connected to themselves in a positive light.

Three processing principles

These three processing principles operate together in a mutually supporting way to guide our cognitive efforts at understanding ourselves and others.

• Conservatism :- Individuals’ and groups’ views of the world are slow to change and prone to perpetuate themselves.
• Accessibility :- Accessible information has large effects. Information that is most readily available has the most impact on thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
• Superficiality versus depth :- People ordinarily put little effort into dealing with information. When the specifically motivated, however, they can be convinced to process information at greater depth.