Up Learn – A Level Psychology (AQA) – social psychology

Social Influence

Social psychology is the study of how people’s behaviours and attitudes are influenced by the presence – actual or imagined – of other people.

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More videos on Social Psychology

Introduction (free trial)

What is Social Psychology? (free trial)

Social Groups (free trial)

Social Norms and Social Roles (free trial)

Up Learn – A Level PsychologY (AQA)

Social Psychology

Last time we saw how Nick tricked Ibrahim on the game show Golden Balls to ensure they both won a large sum of money.

Nick knew that there was a chance Ibrahim would pick ‘steal’ to take all the money for himself.

The only way to ensure they both left with a big pot of money was if he could influence Ibrahim into thinking picking ‘split’ was his only option.

So, he pretended that he was picking ‘steal’, and that Ibrahim’s only chance at winning any money was to ‘split’.. And his tactic worked! Ibrahim picked ‘split’!

Ibrahim did something he didn’t think he was going to do.. Because Nick influenced him.

So, like we saw with Ibrahim, our behaviours and attitudes can be influenced by the presence of other people – we say and do things that we might not have done if we were alone.

Like how a football fan watching the footie alone in their living room might not stand up and sing everytime their team kicked the ball…

…But they might do if they were at a match and loads of other fans were singing along with them.

Or how a person who might  not have ever cared much about politics in the past, could get interested in politics after hearing their friends all going mad for Jeremy Corbyn…   

And sometimes, a person’s behaviours and attitudes can be influenced by others even if the person just imagines what other people in the group will say or do.

Like how, a student who missed his alarm and was running super late to class wouldn’t decide to save time by skipping getting dressed and turning up to school naked..

Simply imagining his classmates  laughing  at him would be enough to put him off!

So, people can influence the behaviours and attitudes of others .. even when they’re not actually there!

The study of how people’s behaviours and attitudes are influenced by the presence – actual or imagined – of other people is called social psychology.

We’ll find out more about social psychology next, but first, to sum it up…

Social psychology is the study of how people’s behaviours and attitudes are influenced by the presence – actual or imagined – of other people.