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Interpersonal Processes - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Case study: Darley & Latane (1968) 'Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility'
        
        Context: after woman was stabbed to death in the middle of the streets of New York and out of 38 observers not one came to her assistance.
        
        Aim: to investigate whether the more bystanders present in an emergency, the less likely (or more slowly) any one bystander will intervene to provide aid.
        
        Method: Participants told it was a study about personal problems faced by college students in urban environment. Participants placed in booth (to protect from potential embarrassment) and given headphones and microphone where they were told they would have two minutes to speak. Led to believe they wold hear other participants but they were just recordings. The victim spoke first then the naïve participant then the victim again who this time feigned a seizure and asked for help. The dependant variable was the time taken to report seizure to experimenter (if not reported after 6 minutes experimented was ended). Independent variable was the number of people present (groups of two, three and six). Different combinations of male and female were also tested.
        
        Results: The presence of bystanders reduced individuals feelings of personal responsibility and lowered speed of reporting (p < 0.1)
        
        Evaluation:
        
        2 more items...
        
        Participants: 59 female and 13 male
        
        Three stage process of situational factors for bystanders (at each stage a person can fail to progress to the next and therefore not engage in prosocial behaviour).
        
        Noticing the situation - this is less likely if the bystander is in a group.
        
        Interpreting the situation as requiring help - this is less likely if the situation is ambiguous.
        
        Taking responsibility for the situation - this is less likely if there are more people arond.
        
        Bystander effect: where the more people who are present, the less likely someone is to take responsibility for the situation. Can be explained by diffusion of responsibility, social influence and audience inhibition. *This is part of why in a first aid situation it is recommended that rather than saying "someone call an ambulance" you point at someone.
    - - Reciprocity principle: a social norm which suggests that if someone helps you or would help you in a similar situation then you should help them. Tends to apply more to situations where perceived capability to help is roughly equal across both parties.
      - Social responsibility: a social norm which suggests that we should help people who need help out f or responsibility as members of society e.g. giving an elderly person your seat (unlikely to receive reciprocity but felt it was your duty). People are also more likely to see themselves as responsible for helping others if they think that the situation is not the victims fault.
    - - Empathy: how much someone empathises with someone will influence whether they help them e.g. if they are similar or were in a similar situation to them. This is as if someone is highly empathetic it may make them feel distressed as well thus helping will help lower this.
      - Mood: mood may change likelihood of engaging in prosocial behaviour. More likely to help if in a good mood vs a bad mood but if they are in a bad mood and feel guilty may be more likely to help to reduce guilt.
      - Competence: more likely to help if they perceive themselves as capable of making a difference. Also changes the form in which someone helps e.g. getting directly involved vs calling for help.
      - Altruism: when someone helps de to selfless concern for others. Some argue that there is no such thing as true altruism.
- - - - Groupthink: occurs when members of a group try to be unanimous and this overrides motivation to consider alternatives. Influencing factors include: group unity being highly valued, group not being meaningfully exposed to outside opinion, lack of diversity and presence of highly stressful threats from outside group. Negative impacts include unquestioned beliefs, stereotyping and illusions of unanimity.
      - Diffusion of responsibility: occurs when each member of a group thinks that someone else should or will take responsibility for helping in a situation. Larger group = lower likelihood of an individual providing help.
      - Audience inhibition: like diffusion of responsibility the presence of others reduces the likelihood of someone taking responsibility and helping, however, this instead comes from fear of being judged by their actions e.g. being foolish for overreacting.
      - Social influence: if people do not appear to have interpreted a situation as one where help is required then someone is less likely to decide it is a situation in which they should help and vice versa. Can compound with audience inhibition in unfortunate ways e.g. everyone afraid of looking foolish so no one helps.
      - Cost-benefit analysis: the pros and cons of an action (or lack thereof) are considered. If perceived costs are lower than benefits probability of engaging in prosocial behaviour will increase and vice versa.
    - - Biopsychosocial approach to describing aggression. In GAM there are two types of processes that are considered: proximate and distal processes. Proximate processes explain individual episodes of aggression (being angry) whereas distal processes operate in the background of each episode (having low serotonin)
        
        In this case aggression is defined as behaviour that's intended to harm a target.
        
        Proximate processes
        
        Inputs: consider the impact of situation on the likelihood of aggression based on how they impact the next stage. Grouped into risk factors (increased likelihood of aggression) and protective factors (decrease the likelihood of aggression).
        
        Routes: focuses on a persons internal state which is split into three variables: affect, arousal and cognition. Input factors can act through one or multiple variables and changes in one variable may influence another. Affect refers to influence of input factors on moods and emotions, cognition - aggressive thoughts and arousal - physiological and psychological arousal.
        
        Aggressive priming: the cognition variable can influence aggressive priming where a situational variable increases the short-term accessibility of aggressive concepts. I repeatedly activated scripts can form where aggressive thoughts are always highly accessible.
        
        There are three key ways in which arousal can influence aggression: excitation transfer - arousal from unrelated sources can be mislabelled as anger, arousal from unrelated sources can increase the tendency to act in aggressive ways and extreme levels of arousal (high or low) can increase aggressive affect and cognition.
        
        Outcomes: how an individual appraises the situation, makes decisions and acts. First the individual appraises the situation. This is unconscious and influenced by internal state and also usually involves trait or situation interferences. They will then either act impulsively or consciously reappraise the situation (if they have sufficient time and mental resources, the first appraisal was unsatisfying and the outcome is important to the individual). Reappraisals can influence their internal state (positively or negatively) and the individual will then enact a thoughtful action (not necessarily positive).
        
        Distal processes
        
        Biological: impaired executive functioning, low serotonin, hormone imbalances (high testosterone) and low arousal.
        
        Environmental: maladaptive families, deprivation, antisocial peer groups, victimisation, diffusion of responsibility, maladaptive parenting and difficult life conditions.
        
        Media and aggression: exposure to violent media increases the likelihood someone will act with aggression where as prosocial media reduces this. In terms of aggressive priming someone who consumes a lot violent media may form scripts where aggressive thoughts are readily accessible and therefore is more likely to respond aggressively to situations. Media is also a form of secondary socialisation and can therefore, contribute to normative acceptance of aggression (and vice versa). This includes games and advertising. Social learning also tells us that people learn from models and adjust behaviour accordingly (e.g. Bandura). But this doesn't just have to occur through real life observation meaning likes and comments on social media can also act as reinforcement. In terms of games consequences come in terms of character actions, achievements and overt game rewards such as in-game currency.
- - - - Aim: to investigate cultural differences in mate selection.
        
        Method: participants were asked to complete two questionnaire-based instruments: one that asked about used in choosing a mate (e.g. what the individual would like in their relationship in the future) and one that asked about preferences for a partner (e.g. physical attraction, financial situations and personality). Used a quasi experimental and a correlational design to establish key mate selection differences between cultures.
        
        Participants: 9474 participants across 33 countries.
        
        Results: indicated that the largest difference across cultures was their views about chastity (most valued trait in participants from Asian and Middle Eastern countries). Home, children and good housekeeping were characteristics that varied in importance across culture with western cultures finding this somewhat irrelevant whilst African cultures indicated these as invaluable. However, beside these there were very little differences proving mate characteristics to be largely universal.
        
        Ambition, industriousness and good financial prospects: generally women tend to invest more in their offspring, thus, are more critical of their mates than males. May select male mate due to direct benefits (their ability to provide resources) or indirect benefits (more advantageous genes).
        
        Youth: Peak fertility is different for males and females - females peak in their early 20s whilst men's fertility increases and decreases much slower than women. Thus, women are more attracted to older men and men to younger women.
        
        Chastity: Due to pregnancy women generally know whether a child is theirs whilst for men it is less certain, thus, chastity may be more important to men.
- - - - Social phase (how will I explain the breakup?): recognising that relationships are embedded in social networks, is when the news of dissolution is shared with members of social network.
        
        The grave-dressing phase (getting over it): individuals retrospectively make sense of the history of the relationship by developing an account that is used to cast the individual in a favourable light.
        
        LATER UPDATE - Resurrection phase (ready for someone new): individual has learnt from experience of breakup and is now ready for a new relationship. Often involves re-working and reframing the past relationship, seeking advice from others and sharing self-enhancing stories in order to move forward.