Exam 13: D: Social Psychology

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Explicit prejudice is a prejudicial feeling that a person is consciously aware of and capable of stating outright.
Implicit prejudice refers to feelings that we may not be aware of or not be willing to admit,but that nonetheless affect our behaviour.
The implicit associations test (IAT)is an attempt to view implicit prejudice.In this test,individuals are asked to make speedy responses in different conditions.In one condition they may press the button on the right if they see a Caucasian face or a positive word (like "happy")and press the left key when they see an African-American face or a negative word (such as "danger").In other trials this is reversed.Researchers compare response times for the different types of trials and generally find that response times when a positive word and African-American face use the same key are SLOWER than when a negative word and an African-American face use the same key.This supposedly shows that people have trouble pairing African-American and positive views and demonstrates implicit prejudice.Although the data gathered with this instrument show reliable results,some psychologists have questioned the test's validity: Is the IAT really a measure of prejudice? Or is it possible that the IAT is merely measuring the extent to which people have been exposed to negative stereotypes,but have not necessarily developed prejudices? After all,simply knowing about a stereotype does not mean an individual believes it.

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A good answer should include the following:
Social loafing occurs when an individual puts less effort into working on a task with others.Multiple factors contribute to the likelihood of social loafing including:
(answer should include 3 of the following 4)
Low efficacy beliefs.This occurs if tasks are too difficult or complex,so people don't know where to start.Structure tasks so people know exactly what to do,provide clear deadlines,and give people feedback so they know how well they are doing and how they can improve.
Believing that one's contributions are not important to the group.This occurs if people can't see how their own input matters to the group.Overcome this by helping people understand how group members rely on and affect each other,and assigning tasks to people that they feel are significant or which they've had some say in choosing (if possible).
Not caring about the group's outcome.This occurs when a person is not personally identified with the group,perhaps feeling socially rejected from the group or perceiving the group as unsuccessful or unimportant.Overcome this by making the group's goals and values clear and explicit,encouraging friendships to form,and designing group activities to be fun and socially rewarding.
Feeling like others are not trying very hard.As discussed earlier,people loaf if they feel others are loafing.Overcome this by providing feedback about the progress of group members on their individual tasks;strong groups often have regular meetings where people's progress is discussed and,ideally,celebrated!

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Participants are told the study is about the effects of punishment on memory.They,and the other participant (who is actually a confederate,although the real participants don't know that),a friendly middle-aged man,draw slips of paper in order to determine who will play the role of 'teacher' and who will be the 'learner.' The draw is rigged so that the real subjects are always the teacher (but again,they don't know that).
The teacher's job is to read a series of word pairs to the learner,and then to test him on his memory of the word pairs.The learner will be in a separate room hooked up to an electric shock machine.Each time the learner gets an answer wrong,the teacher is to administer a shock,by flipping a switch on a panel in front of him,and increasing the voltage after each wrong answer.The switches go up by 15 volts until reaching a maximum of 450 volts,which is labeled "xxx." This process is watched by an "experimenter" wearing a lab coat.
As the experiment progresses,the learner starts to make sounds of discomfort in the other room,grunting audibly as he is shocked.By 150 volts he is protesting loudly and saying that he no longer wants to continue in the study.If the subjects continue reading the word pairs and increasing the shock level,the learner gets to the point of screaming in pain,demanding and pleading,over and over again,to be let out,pleading that he can't take it anymore,even that his heart condition is bothering him and his heart is acting up.And then,at 330 volts,the learner falls silent and gives no further responses.If subjects still continue at this point,they are informed by the experimenter that a non-response is to be considered "wrong," and the punishing shock administered.
If,at any point,subjects express concern for the learner,or say that they don't want to continue,the experimenter simply says a few stock responses,such as,"Please continue" or,"The experiment requires that you continue."
Milgram's results were astounding...every single participant continued to administer 'shocks' after this point in the experiment.The command of the authority figure was so compelling they could not say no.Although Milgram was able to reduce the obedience rates by having the experimenter wear street clothes,doing the experiment in a warehouse,and having the orders delivered over the telephone,people still obeyed the experimenter even when they believed they were harming other people.