BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE NOTES

WEEK ONE: INTRODUCTION:

Social psychology is fascinating science. It investigates feelings, thoughts, culture and the ways people
relate to one another.
What is the focus of social psychology?
 It is to study the thoughts and attitudes that exist inside people’s heads and govern their
behaviour.
 To study the beliefs people have about other people, and the ways that they exert power and
influence over each other.
 To study how people interact and relate, forming friendships, families and cultures.
Definition of the science of social psychology:
 Allport 1954: “The scientific investigation of how the thought, feelings and behaviour of
individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others”
 What distinguishes social psychology from the other studies is the focus on cause and the
effects of the “presence of others”
 These other people do not have to be physically present, so you can be under the
influence of social forces when you are in the middle of a party or all alone.
 Social psychologists wan to understand whom you like and whom you love, why you seek to help
some people and harm others, what you think of yourself and what you think of other people and
the connections you make between yourself and others
 Social Psychology is an interdisciplinary science. To fully understand social interaction, social
psychologists turn to other disciplines viz psychology, health psychology, medical sociology,
behaviour science etc:
 Psychologists traditionally focused on individuals and the stimuli that impinge on them.
 Sociologists concerned themselves with the reciprocal relationship between the
individual and the society stressing the part that social interaction plays within human
life.
 Behaviour- the way that somebody behaves, especially towards other people-good, bad,
social, sexual, criminal etc; the way a person ,an animal, a plant etc behaves or functions
in a particular situation
 Science- the knowledge about structure and bahaviour of the natural and physical world,
based on the facts that you can prove, for example by experiment; a system for
organizing the knowledge about a particular subject, especially one concerned with
aspects of human behaviour or society
 Health psychology- addresses factors that influences well-being and illness, as well as a
measures that can taken to promote health and promote illness
 Experiments are the most powerful tools that we have in social psychology, and indeed, in all of
science. They allow us to make strong, lasting conclusions. Money and power can cause you to
be less considerate towards others e.g. drivers
 Experiments get their power from careful design and analysis. In social psychology we measure
things such as happiness, prejudice, sense of belonging etc Since there no tools to measure such
things, social psychologists have to be clever and creative in the ways that they do their science

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 To understand the way to do social psychology today, you have to understand the past. Social
psychology is a child of psychology. The way that psychology has defined people has profound
consequences for the way social psychology studies the interaction between people
 Social psychologists have developed many sophisticated tools to measure, survey and record
people’s attitudes towards a whole range of things. But they quickly discovered that what people
say about their attitudes doesn’t always-in fact rarely does- tell you what they are actually going
to do at all:
 Asking people what they think- can be affected/influenced by a number of factors e.g. the
person who asked the question, words used etc How do you measure what people really
think?
 Predicting peoples behaviour- e.g. “why did you do that?” Being kind to a stranger,
ignoring a friend, punching a sibling etc
 How do people generate beliefs about themselves and the people around them, and how they
understand each other’s social behaviour:
 The opinions people have about others are not always completely fair, objective and
rational.
 There is one person who receives, more of your prejudice and biased thinking than any
other- yourself
 It is necessary to go through the process of self-discovery and identity formation
 Loving yourself-you are better than average at most things, you are more moral, more
correct in your opinions and you make the right choices. These self-serving biases appear
to be a vital part of your psychological “immune system” that more or less, keeps you
happy and sane no matter what you experience.
 Explaining the actions of others: why did your boss snub you in the hallway? Why did
one pick a beautiful girl and dump another beautiful girl? Why did the waitress give you
that funny look? You tend to explain other peoples behaviour in terms of their
personalities-rude, being in love, snob etc
 Judging and labeling others- many people leap to generalizations and unfounded
conclusions .Whenever you meet other people you are hard wired to categorize and label
other people. But it can easily lead to bias and prejudice, as you make conclusions based
on your own assumptions rather than the people you see in front of you.
 Measuring the power of social forces:
 You may think of yourself as independent person who stands up for their own opinions,
even if you are a bit headstrong sometimes (kichwa ngumu). No how independent you
think you are, much of your life and your decisions are under the thumb of social forces
e.g. dressing, music etc
 Controlled by the situation e.g. uniform- does wearing uniform change who you are and
how you act? The situation you are placed can determine your behaviour
 Obeying the authority- The moment someone in authority e.g. policeman, teacher etc
asks us to do something, we are compelled by a force to obey.
 Being one of the crowd- people have a basic human need to belong with others, to act and
feel the same too. Being left out of the group, feels so bad.
 Persuading and convincing-why do we do most of the things that we do? The power of
advertisement e.g. alcohol, cigarettes etc
 Living the social life:
 The attitudes inside your head, relate to the actions you do, leading to the thoughts about
the people around you and how these people can influence and determine your actions.

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  Liking, loving and respecting : The groups of people that define your life-friends,
families and colleagues—are bound together by social forces
 Thinking and deciding – no matter how smart the individual people in a group may be,
together in a committee they are capable of making spectacularly bad decisions. What
goes wrong when people gather together to make decisions? When and how do people
co-operate and help each other?
 Living in different cultures- people have measurable shifts in behaviour, differences in
how people move their eyes across a scene, interpret what they see and remember their
world. It is wrong to assume that people are pretty the same among all cultures.
WEEK TWO: INDIVIDUAL SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR.
Introduction:
 What is perception: The way you notice things, specially with senses; the ability to understand
the true nature of something; a belief, an idea, or an image you have as a result of how you see or
understand something: perception is the mediating link between you and your environment
 Alfred Schultz 1971 said “All our knowledge of the world, in common-sense as well as in
sciencitific thinking involves constructs, i.e. a set of abstractions, generalizations, formalizations
and idealizations. Strictly speaking, there are no such things as facts, pure and simple. All facts
are from the outset facts selected from a universal context by the activities of our mind. They are
therefore interpreted facts.
 Culture and biological programming influence what we perceive. Thus organisms see the world
differently e. what is money?
Impression formation:
 We do not live in isolation but in a social world. Thus we must gather and interpret information
about people.
 Person perception refers to those processes by which we come to know and think about others-
their characteristics, qualities, and inner states.
 We construct images of others in ways that serve to stabilize, make predictable, and render
manageable our view of social life.
 As we attribute stable traits and enduring dispositions to other people, we feel that we are better
able to understand their behaviour and predict their future actions. We use these notions to guide
our interactions with them.
 In everyday life we confront two major questions about the people we encounter:
 What is the individual like? Why does the individual behave as he or she does i.e.
impression formation
 How do we interpret the individual’s behaviour? - These are the attributions we make
regarding the causes of what a person says or does.
 Methods of impression formation:
 Categorizing- a category is an abstract representation of conceptually related information
e.g. roles-child, physician, husband, student etc; personalities- extroverted, cheerful,
talkative etc. Human mind seems capable of forming categories of its own without
outside help. By virtue of categories we can minimize the disorder, chaos and confusion
in our social interaction
 Social psychologists term categories that are mental structures for processing and
organizing information as schemata. Schemata are abstract mental frameworks, for

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 interpreting information from the environment. Schemata shape the scope of our
attention- what we will and will not notice e.g. lunch, drink, dressed etc
 Prototype is a category that we mentally employ to represent a loose set of features that
seem to belong together
 Stereotypes are the sciencitific and hence unreliable generalizations that we make about
individuals by virtue of their membership in a group. Since one is therefore he/she is…..
 Different types of information about a person have different levels of importance in
impression formation. We infer favourable traits from one or more favourable stimulus
traits and unfavourable traits from unfavourable stimulus traits.
 It is not yet clear what principle underlies the formation of an impression of another
person when the formation is complex. The two simplest models of impression formation
are summation(adding) and averaging models:
o Summation- each new piece of favourable trait information will increase the
persons attractiveness to us
o Averaging- the new piece of favourable information will not have a favourable
impact unless the characteristic has a higher value than the already known trait
 When we know that an individual has one trait, we assume he or she also posses certain
other traits. This is termed as the halo effect. We have a tendency to see a person who has
one set of qualities we like (or dislike) as being likeable (or unlikeable) in all other
respects. Akipenda chongo huona kengeza-“ nice people tend to have nice attributes and
less nice people have less nice attributes”
 Early information covers our perception of subsequent information- a concept termed as
primary effect
 In other types of settings, a recency effect operates- we tend to be most influenced by what
we have just witnessed. When subjects are give contradictory descriptions of a person and
the descriptions are separated by unrelated activities, the primacy effect is reduced-
indeed, a recency effect occurs
 Processing inconsistent information- Research on person perception suggests that we tend
to form and maintain impressions of other people that are relatively consistent.

Memory processes in social perception:

 Perception does not occur in a vacuum- we bring to bear prior knowledge that we have structured
and stored in our heads for the processing of new information about individuals e.g. our
perception of a beautiful woman will change with the name tag
 Memory refers to the retention of what has been experienced or learned and it activation when
recollection occurs. Without memory we would react to every event as if it were unique. If we did
not remember facts, we would be incapable of thinking or reasoning
 When we remember information, three things occur:
 Ecoding- the process by which information is put into the memory system
 Storage-the process by which information is retained until it is needed
 Retrieval- the process by which information is re-gathered when it is needed.
 Research shows how information given after an event can influence a person’s later eyewitness
testimony of the event.
 Our memories are fallible. At times we invent perceptions, even when we have no intention of
doing so; indeed we are often unaware that we have done so. We fill in the gaps in our knowledge

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 by plausible constructions of what “must have” or “should have” happened to make sense of the
scene.( This make it very difficult to give eyewitnesses testimony at the face of being interrogated
by police, prosecution, defense attorneys, family, Jury etc—it becomes even more difficulty at the
face of a bribe.
Attribution:
 Attribution is the process by which we explain and interpret the events we encounter. Attribution
allows us to organize the continuous stream of information we gain from the world into
meaningful units
 Causality involves our attribution of a cause-and-effect relationship to two paired events that
recur in succession. It is based on the expectation that when one event occurs, another event, one
that ordinarily follows the first, will again follow it. The ability to appreciate that a cause must
always precede an effect has proved of enormous survival value for human beings in the course
of evolution:
 Internal causality involves attributing responsibility for events to the personal qualities
and traits of the individual
 External causality involves attributing responsibility for events to environmental and
situational circumstances that lie outside the individual.
 Examples: Do children perform poorly in school because they lack innate ability or
motivation(internal) or because they are victims of poor schools, inadequate teachers,
racism, poverty (external),crime, behaviour etc
 The influence of success and failure:
 When we succeed at a task, we tend to attribute causality to ourselves; when we fail, to
factors in the environment, the situation, or the actions of the opponents’ e.g. teachers
and students.
 Causality and motivation: we can attribute a given outcome to our own, or another individual’s
ability or effort. To sheer luck, or to the difficulty of the task.
 Bias in attribution processes:
 Our perceptual processes bias our interpretation of causality, success , failure and
motivation
 We tend to process incoming information in a way that that is consistent with our
current mood.
 Both happiness and sadness direct our attention to either happy or sad kinds of
information and color our evaluations of people. Happy people are more likely to recall
friendly relaxed encounters with others, whereas sad people are more apt to recall
unpleasant, tense happening
 Self-biases-this is the tendency to interpret the outcomes of our behaviour in ways that
put us in the best possible light.
 Societal biases- blaming the victim e.g. if a woman goes jogging at night and she is
accosted or robbed by an assailant... we blame the woman.
 The functions of attributions:
 They provide us with explanations for what takes place in our physical and social world.
(determinism). We can assume that events do not occur in a random or haphazard fashion
but rather that they operate on a cause-and- effect basis.
 Attributions permit us to predict various happenings e.g. traffic jam
 Attributions serve to protect, maintain, or extend various beliefs we have about ourselves
e.g. we tend to attribute failures to others, the situation or various external factors.

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  Attributions assist us in the formulation of our behaviour e.g. dressing for interview.
Attributions influence and assist us as we fashion our bahaviour and make our way about
the physical and social worlds.
Perception of the situation:
 We size up people and their behaviour in order to anticipate what is likely to occur and to guide
our actions in accord with these expectations
 Situation-all the social factors that influence a person’s experience or behaviour at a given time
and in a given place/situation is the meaning we give to our immediate circumstances, the
interpretation we make of social factors that bear on us at a given time and in a given place.
 Shared definitions of situations- definitions of situations are not some absolute, objectively
inherent property of objects or circumstances- rather they are fashioned in social interaction and
sustained through social interaction.

WEEK THREE: BEHAVIOURS OF GROUPS/ SOCIAL BEHVIOUR IN GROUPS:

(a) What is a group?
 The group thinks, feels and acts quite differently from the way in which its members would
were they isolated
 A group is like water (H2o), it helps to understand the individual members, but a clear grasp
of group behaviour requires a examination of the unit
 A group is dynamic whole that is different from the sum of its parts. It is neither greater nor
less than these parts, but is clearly different from the collection of individual members
 A group consists of “two” or more persons who are interacting with one another in such a
manner that each person influences and influenced by each other person(Shaw 1981)
(b) The development of groups and their members:
 Group development- the process by which groups form, flourish and decline along with the
changes that take place in the group and in its members over time.
 Advantages of being in a group:
 Accomplish tasks that would be impossible to do alone
 Allows us to evaluate ourselves on several dimensions
 Protection and a sense of security
 Members are healthier and happier than loners
 Disadvantages of being in a group:
 Giving-up some of your independence
 You may have to change your attitudes and bahaviour to become accepted into the group
 You must consider the desires of others in addition to your own
 Decide whether you are prepared to accept the costs of membership in order to reap the
benefits
 NB- there is both take and give in groups
 Stages of group development: (Tuckman 1965)
 Forming- group members identify a leader and discuss the nature of their task
 Storming- members try to change the group to meet their personal needs. Conflicts erupt
as each member attempts to gain control.
 Norming. The group focuses on reducing conflict and works to develop rules to guide
members behaviour

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  Performing- Members work together to achieve mutual goals.
 Other scholars give different terms for the stages: (Grossman et al 1991)
 Identification-establishing their identity
 Production-achieving tasks/goals and meeting the needs of its members
 Individuation- Members begin to examine what they are receiving fro the group
 Decay- Members whose needs are not being met by the group begin to complain and
demand changes in leadership and structure. Group cohesion decreases and the stage is
set for the forming of new groups.
(c) Characteristics of Human Groups:
 Boundaries: Groups have boundaries- people either belong or do not belong to them. They
begin and come to an end somewhere. Group boundaries act not as physical barriers but as
discontinuities in the flow of interactions. Boundaries controls both coming-in and going-out.
Groups differ in the extent to which their boundaries are penetrable or permeable/ close or
open.
 Products of social definitions: Groups are states of the mind-mental models or images at
varying levels of awareness. Groups are not tangible things that have actual substance in the
real world. We fabricate groups in the course of social interaction by clustering people
together in social units: families, races, teams, cliques, unions etc. Groups are products of
social definitions- they are human-constructed “realities”. We conceptualize groups; we
attribute real substance to them and treat them as if they were real and exact things.
 Consciousness of oneness: A sympathetic identification with others in the same group. There
are two types of groups:
 In-group- a social unit that we either belong to or identify with/we-groups
 Out-group- a social unit that we either do not belong to or do not identify with-they
groups.
 Feelings of loyalty, solidarity and cooperation tend to pervade
in-groups/we-ness/cohesiveness (forces that act to keep individuals within a group
and prevent them from leaving it.
 The presence of an out-group increases our consciousness of in-group ties and
promotes conformity to in-group norm e.g. political parties.
 Because of a consciousness of oneness, we are merely in the group-we are of the
group. Thus we experience social distance from others- in-group easily discriminate
against others (out-groups).
 This consciousness of oneness leads to ethnocentrism- the tendency to view our group
as the centre of everything and to rate all other people with reference to
it(sumner,1906)
 Many of our “social problems” derive from a conceptual scheme in which we create
social entities that include some people and exclude others.

 Rituals:
 Group activities are established, heightened and rejuvenated by means of rituals i.e.
social acts of symbolic significance that are performed on certain occasions by
prescribed tradition
 Rituals serve to renew and re-affirm the social order

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  Rituals take different forms-flag salutes, graduation exercises, marriage, funeral etc
 Rituals serve to re-charge our sense of collective solidarity.
(d) Primary and Secondary groups:
 Primary groups involve two or more people who relate to one another in direct, intimate,
personal ways e.g. family, work groups, friendship groups etc. Formation of primary
groups is encouraged by:
o Physical proximity that involves fact-to-face contact
o A small number if people
o Intense and frequent interaction.
 Secondary groups- two or more people who relate to one another in indirect, noon-
intimate, impersonal ways. They involve us in everyday transitory relationships in which
we have little or no knowledge of others e.g. colleges, urban communities etc. We invest
only a segment of our lives and personalities in secondary groups, not our total selves as
in primary groups(schools, churches etc)
 The importance of primary groups:
o They are agents of social satisfaction: companionship, worth, affection,
acceptance etc
o Satisfies a variety of social needs and gives a sense of social affiliation
o Function as agents of social control- they not only serve as “carriers” of norms
but enforce them.
o They are agent of socialization
o They are agent or vehicles by which we are introduced to the society.
 Primary groups function within secondary groups. Primary groups may function as
intermediaries binding individuals to a larger organization. But they can also operate to
undermine the official goals and commands of the larger group.

(e) Reference Groups and Membership Groups:

o Reference group is the social unit with which people identify. People use the standards
of their reference group to define their behaviour and evaluate themselves. A reference
group may or may not be a membership group.
o Membership group is a social unit to which an individual actually belongs
o Reference groups perform two functions: They provide us with norms and attitudes-a
frame of reference for guiding our behaviour. They also provide a comparison function-
they serve as a standard or comparison against which we judge or evaluate ourselves.
(f) Group Polarization Effects:
o Groups tend to be more conservative than its individual members- they have a dampening
impact on boldness, creativity, innovation and daring.
o People tend to make more daring decisions when they are in groups than when they are
alone i.e. risk shift
o In group discussions, people find that they are not really adventurous as they would like
to believe, and they consequently shift to riskier options
o We also find cautious –shift-effects in group behavior i.e. shifts that are not risky.
o The risky shift occurs in group discussions because the discovery of another person who
endorses high risk taking release the more cautious group members from their social
constraints-it gives them the courage of their convictions
(g) Group think:

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 o Group think refers to a decision-making process occurring within highly cohesive groups
in which the member are so preoccupied with maintaining group consensus that their
critical abilities become ineffective
o Symptoms/characteristic of group think:
An illusion of invulnerability-immune to failure
Shared stereotypes-assuming others can’t reach/defeat them
A sense of morality-highly moral agents of good in battle against evil e.g.
political parties
Rationalization-seeing the good of what one is doing
An illusion of unanimity- no one opposes even when one thinks differently
Conformity-group pressures-reluctant to express a different opinion lest they in
cure disapproval of other group members
Self-censorship-the cohesiveness of the group becomes such an overriding
consideration they individuals censor their own divergent opinions
Mind guards- one or more individuals generally emerge who undertake
psychologically to protect the warm glow of group unanimity by stifling
dissent.

(h) Social loafing:

o When people work in groups they work less hard than when working alone i.e. social
loafing
o It seems that people slack off in groups because they felt they are not realizing their fair
share of credit for the outcome or because they think that in the crowd they can get away
with doing less work
WEEK FOUR: BEHAVIOUR OF SOCIETY/COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOUR:
(a) Elements of collective Behaviour and Social Elements:
 Throughout the world people have thrown themselves into different types of mass behavior’s;
social unrest, riots, maniacs, fads, panics, mass flights, lynching’s, crowd excitement, rebellion,
religious festivals etc.
 Collective behaviour is a relatively spontaneous and unstructured ways of thinking, feeling and
acting that develop within a group or population as a consequence of inter-stimulation among the
participants.
 Social movements typically occur outside the institutional framework that forms everyday life
and break through the familiar web of ordered expectations
 Whereas collective behaviour is characterized by spontaneity and a lack of internal structure,
social movements are characterized by purposeful direction ad a good deal of internal order.
 Six Determinants of collective behaviour(Neil, 1963):
o Structural conduciveness: Broad social conditions that are necessary for an episode of
collective behaviour to occur e.g. bank closer
o Structural strain: exists where various aspects of a system are in some way “out of
joint” with one another e.g. war, economic crisis etc. People experience these
developments as sources of frustration, conflict, desperation, ambiguity and tension.
Overtime, the accumulation of stress makes people susceptible to courses of action not
defined by existing social arrangements. The more severe the strain, he more likely it is t
that people will be disposed to episodes of collective behaviour. Types of strains resulting

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 to collective behaviour: Relative deprivation-a state of mind in which a gap exists
between what people seek and what seems attainable e.g. terrorism ; Resource
mobilization- they see movements forming as a result of long-term changes in group
resources, organization and opportunities for collective action. According to resource
mobilization approaches, collective action is seldom a viable option for deprived groups
because they lack the resources to challenge elites. When deprived groups do mobilize, it
is typically due to the infusion of outside help and the cooptation of institutional
resources.
A synthesis- The relative deprivation and resource mobilization approaches can be seen
as complimentary rather than competing explanations of collective action.
o The growth and spread of a generalized belief: structural strain and a sense of social
malaise do not in themselves produce collective action. The strain must be interpreted in a
meaningful manner by the people who are potential participants.
A generalized belief provides people with “answers” to their stressful circumstances: a
diagnosis of the forces and agent that cause strain and a response or progress for coping
with the strain- easing or even erasing it.
Social movements commonly provide people with “answers” to their stressful
circumstances in the form of an ideology (a set of shared definition that provides
interpretations and solutions to what is felt to be an unsatisfactory social condition.)
Ideology serves a number of ends:
Provides new categories by which people interpret their sense of tension,
frustration and stress.
Provides a utopian vision of a society in which the unsatisfactory social
conditions is remedied.
Provides a dogma- a certainty regarding truth-that knits people together in a
consciousness of oneness.
Provides a conceptual filter that permits only positive reinforcement and
reinterprets negative feedback in a fashion supportive of the group’s position. It
is the feature that outsiders label “ fanaticism”
Sharpens the polarization between outsiders and insiders, highlighting group
boundaries- reflected in Christ’s warning: “ He that is not with me is against
me”
Provides a sense of personal power and control over one’s destiny.
Transforming one’s self-conception.
o Precipitating factors: A precipitating event creates, sharpens and exaggerates the other
factors. It provides the people who believe the ideology with concrete evidence of the evil
forces, or of the success that awaits that action. Revolutions are usually triggered in this
fashion.
o The mobilization of participants for action: once a precipitating event has occurred, it
remains only to bring the participants into action.
Conversion- explaining issues purely on ideological and theological grounds.
Communicate “the truth” within the context of a pre-existing social relationship
Recruitment flows along lines of pre-existing social relationships-relatives, neighbours,
work associates, friends etc
People tend to be more recruited to specific cells (units) in the organizational network
rather than to the movement per se.

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 Two factors seem particularly important in conversion: Having links to one or more
movement members or sympathizers; Lack of ties to other social networks that are
antagonistic to the movement and its ideology.
o The operation of social control: Social control consists of the techniques through which
governing elites prevent, interrupt, deflect or inhibit the accumulation of other determinants.
Social control falls in two broad categories:
Controls that seek to minimize conduciveness and strain i.e. prevent discontent
from arising
Controls that aim at expressing an episode of collective behaviour after it has
begun e.g. police measures, imprisonment, curfews etc
Social control has a critical influence on how fast, how far and in what direction an episode
will develop.

(b) Crowd Behaviour:

 Crowd is a wide-ranging concept that refers to all sorts of human assemblages :
audiences, rallies, mobs, riots, panics etc
 In crowds, people are in significantly close physical proximity that the fact of aggregation
serves to influence their behaviour
 Three theories that explain the dynamics of crowd behaviour:
Contagion theory: Robert 1956 “In the crowd…it is a mass that operates-which
is to say a mind without subtlety, a mind without compassion, a mind finally
uncivilized”.
Contagion theory assumes that the crowd assimilates its members, producing a
psychic unity that alters the individuals’ normal motions, thought, and conduct:
“He (the individual” is no longer himself but has become an automaton who has
ceased to be guided by his will.” The sentiments ad ideas of the participants all
take the same direction, so that peoples’ conscious personalities vanish.
Three principal mechanisms underlie the emergence crowd properties:
Anonymity-people immersed in a crowd lose their unique personalities and their
sense of responsibility. People become engulfed in a wave of collective
excitement in which the will of the collectivity is stronger than their own.
Anonymity provides crowd members with a euphoria and exultant feelings of
invincible power (de-individuation)
Contagion- excitability and the mob-mind effect spread like an infectious
disease.
Suggestibility- within crowd settings, people come to accept uncritically the
directives addressed to them. They lose their conscious personalities and commit
acts that otherwise would be alien to them.

Convergence theory: Convergence theory argues that a crowd consists of a

highly un-represent able group of people who come together because they share
certain predispositions. Hostile mobs are commonly cited as cases of
convergence. For angry, aggression- prone individuals, a crowd functions as an
attracting magnet. Good examples are teenager attending a concert, sports etc

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 Emergent Norm theory: Crowds contain core activists, cautious activists,
passive supporters, opportunistic yielders, passersby, the curious, the
unsympathetic, dissenters etc. Collective behaviour attempts to define an
ambiguous situation. In such circumstances people search for cues to appropriate
and acceptable behaviour. Emergent norms specify the limits of behaviour and
define its boundaries.
(c) Social problems:
 The society is an essentially healthy organism that is invaded by alien, destructive
substances.
 The nature of social problems: a social problem is a condition that a considerable number
of people believe exists in their society and that they do not like.. a social problem is a
matter of social definition. A social problem lacks objective existence. No circumstances
or behaviours, however unusual, constitute a social problem unless people define them as
such. E.g. poverty, women’s movement, wife beating etc.
 Clashing interests and values: A society norms and values are seldom neutral. Definitions
of situations tend to vary with their places in the social order.
 Legitimizing social problems: A problem must acquire a certain degree of
“respectability” if it is to secure consideration in recognized public arenas. A problem is
doomed unless it gains the necessary credentials of respectability. A selective process
takes place in social interaction: many budding social problems are choked off, others are
avoided, others are ignored, others have to fight their way to respectability (racism,
sexism) and others are rushed along the road of legitimacy by strong and influential
backing.
 Official public policy: If a social problem manages to secure social legitimacy, it enters a
new stage in its career
 Second-order consequences: Social intervention, no matter how beneficent its purpose
has wide-ranging outcomes beyond its primary intent. At times, this result in replacing
one social problem with another e.g. better street lighting in one neighborhood may
decrease crime in the area by driving it into the next neighborhood; many people who
stop smoking alcohol compensate by increasing the cigarette consumption. In
lengthening the human life span, medical science has created an aged population with
increased needs for medical and welfare services. Revolutionary leaders often find that it
is easier to attain power than it is to govern
 Ignatius, 1975 said, “Yes we have defeated the United States, but we are plagued by
problems. We do not have enough t to eat; we are poor, undeveloped nation. Waging a
war is simple, but running a country is difficult”. ( Vietnamese premier Pham Van Dong
expressed the general sense that things had not turned as expected, a decade after the
withdrawal of American units)
 In solving on social problem, we often create new ones.

WEEK FIVE: METHODS USED IN BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE/ INTER-PERSONAL SOCIAL

BEHAVIOUR

12
a. Introduction
- We have our lives in a social world, one composed of people. This is obvious.
- What is not so obvious is how the social world is realized
- We must coordinate our actions if we are to achieve an integrated web of relationships and
avoid destructive conflict.
- Whatever we want- food, clothing, shelter, sex, fame, material wealth or football tickets- we
can get it only by working with and through other people.
- We must subordinate our needs and interests to those of the group as a whole.
- Our actions must be guided and constrained by the requirements of the larger human
enterprise.
- In the absence of predictable modes of conduct, chaos would reign.
b. Effecting social order
- Human life presents a picture of organization and regularity.
- Interaction seems patterned in flowing currents of activity
- We feel ourselves caught up and bound within integrated wholes
- We experience much of life as relatively stable and predictable e.g. academic life is a replay
of itself, recurrent and orderly flow of traffic into & out of the city etc.
- Human behaviour seems organized and focused rather than haphazard and random- social
order (The way things seem to be done.).
- Constructing social order:
 The fact that so much of social life is routine and repetitive permits us to treat certain
activities as things or objects: societies, organizations, communities, families,
courses, holidays, thanks giving, reading our lecture notes, studying etc.
 Ethno methodologists study how people create and maintain conceptions of a real
world through their social interactions
 Ethno methodology is an approach that takes as its subject the study of the methods
to jointly used by members of society to organize the settings of their everyday
activities.

Pillars of coordinating social order:

1. Norms
- Norms are standards for behaviour that members of a social group share; they are expected to
follow and they are enforced by positive and negative sanctions.
- Norms are vital to our lives- without occasional violations there would be no occasion for
society to reaffirm the basic tenets of its moral code. (Erikson 1971)
2. Accounts: Excuses and Justifications
- Accounts are explanations we make for unanticipated or un favored behaviour
- Excuses are statements we provide that deny our responsibility for the negative consequences
of our action and admit the behaviour to be reprehensible
- Justifications are statements we provide that admit responsibility for the action but reinterpret
it in a more socially acceptable manner
- Excuses and justifications are so common because they are a social lubricant vital to the
smooth operation of our daily lives

13
 - When we accept other peoples accounts or they accept our accounts, interaction can proceed
in a “normal” way e.g. why have you not completed your assignment- I have family
troubles…
3. Negotiated order
- Social order must be worked at and fashioned as we repeat, reaffirm and reconstruct social
acts.
- Order is negotiated out of a conflict of interests and sentiments in the process of social
interaction. Life is never static- it is always in flux- ever changing. But there can be order
under conditions of change and change can be experienced by us as orderly
- Social order is continually being negotiated in the course of social interaction
c. Conformity in group settings
- “when in Rome, do what Romans do”- Author unknown
- Conformity entails adherence to or social behaviour change in accordance with social
expectations
- Norm formation.
Situational factors influence perception, although we are not necessarily aware of such
influence e.g. he false story of Abdu.
- Conformity to false group judgments
Martin Luther King- 1963 “Success, recognition and conformity are the bywords of the
modern world where everyone seems to crave the anesthetizing security of being identified
within the majority”
- Reasons why people conform to false group judgments:
i. Distortion of perception- internalization
ii. Distortion of judgment
iii. Distortion of action/compliance

Three key factors that influence conformity;

i. Social support as a deterrent to conformity
- If one member breaks the conformity, this results in a substantial drop in a subjects
conformity
- The psychological mechanisms responsible for the effectiveness of social support are not
completely understood
- Some factors would apply in such circumstances;
1) The very fact that the consensus of the group is broken shows the subject htat a variety of
opinions and behaviour is possible
2) Individuals find themselves less vulnerable to group pressure when they have “Company
in deviance”
3) Social support gives people and independent source of information against which they
can access reality.
ii. The impact of a minority
- A minority that firmly and resolutely pursues it ends can exert considerate influence on a
majority, even when the minority has no obvious advantages such as wealth or recognized
positions of power e.g. Galileo, Abraham Lincoln, Sigmund Freud…

14
 - The consistency with which the minority promotes its programme is a critical because the
majority interprets consistency as an expression of certainty and confidence.
- Should the majority perceive a minority as rigid, it finds it easy to discount the minority’s
opinions-the minority is dogmatic and narrow-minded/crank/obstinate
iii. Obedience
- Would you carry out orders that could result in the death of another human being if the orders
were given by someone in authority? Of course not but… Hitler\s Germany, concentration
camps, enslavement of millions of blacks, 914 deaths of the people\s settlement in Guyana
led by Rev. Jinn Jones
- Research by social psychologists reveals that there is a very good likelihood that you, or at
least people like you, would carry out orders impairing other’s lives.
- Physical presence of an authority has an important influence on an individual’s compliance or
non-compliance
- Obedience is not so much a product of a person’s moral qualities as a lack of them, but of the
situation in which the person is placed- the subject is unwilling to appear rude, unwilling to
embarrass either themselves or the authority (agentic state- agents)
d. Compliance in the absence of external pressure
- What happens when people are put under little or no pressure to comply? Three things
happen:
1. The foot-in-the-door technique
- Compliance breeds compliance: if we can induce a person to comply with a small request at
first, we stand a good chance of getting him or her to comply with a larger demand later (if
we are able to get someone to give an inch, we are more likely to be able to get a mile)
2. The effects of guilt on compliance
- Common sense tells us that when we commit a wrong we feel guilty
- Research shows that guilt does not merely make people more compliant with requests: guilty
people seek out ways to lessen that guilt by voluntarily engaging in good deed.
- Just why people who feel guilt should be more disposed to comply with a request or do a
good deed is not entirely clear
- Some psychologists argue that doing harm damages our self-esteem and thus doing good
would help us restore a positive self-esteem.
3. The obligation to reciprocate favors
- “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” / “one good turn deserves another”
- We base many of our activities on the principle embodied in these sayings
- Research confirms that we are more likely to comply with a request by someone who has
done us a favor than by someone who has not- the expectation that people ought to return
good for good (reciprocate)
e. Additional situational factors governing conformity and compliance
i. Group size: conformity increases as group size increases
ii. Cohesiveness: the greater the cohesiveness of the group the more likely that they are to
conform to its dictates
iii. Status: both high-status and low-status people conform less than the intermediate in
status

15
 One deviation is unlikely to jeopardize the position of a high status person and low status
people have little to lose in non-conformity
iv. Publicity and surveillance
- The greater the publicity and surveillance associated with behaviour, the greater the
conformity
- Where behaviour is difficult to monitor, the effectiveness of social sanctions is weakened.
- In public setting, we are likely to experience pressures for compliance although private
acceptance may be absent
v. Difficulty and ambiguity
The more difficult the task or the more ambiguous the stimulus, the greater the
conformity
vi. Fear and anxiety \
The greater the fear or anxiety, the greater the conformity
vii. Allocation of resources
- Compliance with rules is related to the allocation of resources within the group
- Equitable sharing heightens people’s tendency to comply and requires less surveillance to
produce compliance

WEEK SIX: BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION: THE SCOPE OF SOCIAL INFLUENCE/POWER AND

INFLUENCE
Introduction
- There are different types of power: black power, imperialist power, gay power, communist
power, military-industrial power, Jesus power, comrade’s power etc.
- Power is the magic engine that propels us to the promised land
- Power is also the soulless machine that subjects us to misery and suffering
- Shall power be the servant of the people or the slave of selfish interests
- In truth, power usually serves someone’s interest and advances some goal
a. The nature of power
- Power implies that in human affairs one party (either an individual or a group) is able to
realize its will over the will of another party
- Change is brought about in one party- in attitude, behaviour, intention, motivation or
direction- that would not have occurred in the absence of power
- If by social interaction we mean people mutually influencing and affecting one another, then
every instance of social interaction involves power. High power dominates conversation…
which low-power participates less
- Every social act is an exercise of power, every social relationship is a power equation and
every social group or system is an organization of power.
- Although we commonly equate power with big organizations, big government, big business,
big unions etc.- in reality it pervades all human interaction- thus it finds expression in one-to-
one, family and couple relationships
- Power: a two way street
 One cannot be powerful all by oneself
 To say someone has power is meaningless unless we dictate in relation to whom
 Power, then, is often power over others

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  It often implies clashing interests and clashing social values- indeed resistance and
opposition
 Power is not simply an instrument to stop certain acts; it is a vehicle whereby people
are attracted to behave in certain desired ways
- Attributions of interpersonal power
 The human mind seemingly does not rest easy until it identifies the cause of a
perceived effect- the attribution of a cause-and-effect relationship to a success of two
paired events
 We are all interested in figuring out how much of a change is one person’s behaviour
is caused by that of another person
- A clash of wills
 Power determines whose will shall prevail
 Power largely decides who will be advantaged and who disadvantaged- who will be
the haves and who the have-nots
 Power enables some individuals or groups to impose limits on the ability of others to
compete and negotiate; one party can screen others off from access to knowledge,
skills and resources
 Some individuals or groups can fashion the flow of good things to themselves by
continuously imposing their definitions of the situation to the arena of social
interaction
 Power determines which individuals or groups will make its behavioural preferences
the operating narrative rules for others.
 Power decides which party will be able to translate its social values into the accepted
standards for defining situations and which can make these standards stick through
the manipulation of rewards and the imposition of penalties e.g. sexual behaviour in
men and women drinking
b. Power as process
- Life confronts us with the reality of our mutual dependency. Thus to achieve our goals, it is
essential that we be able to control or influence other peoples conduct.
- Many of our needs can be satisfied only by creating appropriate behaviours in others (Kipnis
1974)
- Shaping definitions of the situation
 To get others to act in accordance with our wishes we need to shape their definition
of the situation in such a way that they will fit their acts to our acts in the desired
manner.
 Through impression management , we try to create an image that will lead others to
act as we wish them to act
 Shaping the definition of the situation can also be done through alter casting-
behaviour that seeks to cast another person in a role that will bring forth the desired
response
 Whether we are engaged in impression management or alter casting we need to make
an assessment of two factors:
i. What resistance others are likely to pose to our desires

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 ii. What resources we would need to expend in order to overcome their
resistance
 The application of power, even physical force, does not result in others conforming to
our wishes
- Assessment and reassessment
 As people fashion their actions in relation to the actions of others, all the parties
make ongoing assessments of their resources and their willingness to commit varying
amounts of these resources to the situation
 It is a continual process of assessment and reassessment as people weigh the relative
costs and results of their past, present and anticipated acts
 They are literally engaged in an ongoing guessing game- one which each party
continually makes estimates of probable outcomes and then guides behaviour
accordingly
 There are four critical perceptual processes;
i. The magnitude of damage that an attacker can potentially inflict on a target
ii. The probability of actually exercising control over the target
iii. The target’s ability to block the attacker’s efforts
iv. The target’s ability to retaliate after the attacker has struck an initial blow
 It is not so much actual resources that count in human affairs as people’s beliefs
about these resources- their perceptions and definitions of situations
- Bases of power
 The bases of power include what is used and the means to decide how it is used
 Resources tend to fall into 3 categories
i. Constraints are resources that enable one party to add new disadvantages to
the situation- punishments. They involve doing harm to the body, the psyche
or the possessions of another e.g. sit-ins, imprisonment, use of weapons…
ii. Inducement are resources that enable one party to add new advantages to the
situation- rewards
iii. Persuasion includes all resources that enable one party to change the minds
of others without adding either advantages or disadvantages to the situation
 Podrakoff 1985, categorizes the bases of power as:
i. Reward and coercive power- the ability of one party to mediate rewards or
punishments for another party
ii. Expert power- the knowledge, experience, skills or special competence that
one party possesses or is believed to possess
iii. Informational power- depends lesson the social relationship than on the
specific content of the communication or new cognition that is transmitted-
advertisement
iv. Referent power operates when one party uses another party as a frame of
reference for the self-evaluation. It may be positive or negative- heroes,
mentors etc.
v. Legitimate power derives from some code or standard by which one party is
recognized as having a rights to assert power over another party e.g.
lecturer/student, CEO/employees

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- Power preference
 If people have several bases of power available to them, how do they decide which
one to use?
 There are ten factors that influence power holders in selecting a given source of
power
i. Power holders usually feel they can count on the continued compliance of
workers whom they like and who tend to do the job well, so that reward is
not necessary to gain compliance
ii. Few rewards are given to compliant workers when all workers are compliant
iii. Power holders are most likely to use rewards when the power holders wish to
secure the good will of their subordinates or when the power holders have
some doubts that the subordinates will continue their compliance
iv. Informational and persuasive sources of power are most likely to be directed
at subordinates whose unsatisfactory performance is attributed by supervisors
to a lack of motivation
v. Expert powers and training are used when the subordinate’s poor
performance is attributed to ineptness (lack of skills)
vi. Coercion is employed against subordinates who reveal “poor attitudes” and
deny the legitimacy of the superior and the goals of the organization. A
chance of coercive measures often stems from the perception that the
subordinate’s resistance is willful and voluntary
vii. Coercion is employed most frequently by supervisors who lack self-
confidence, who are oppressed by feelings of powerlessness or who have so
many subordinates that they cannot devote personal attention to them
viii. Once a supervisor has employed coercion, it becomes more difficult for the
supervisor to shift to a more subtle approach (persuasion) in later influence
situations
ix. When power holders use stronger means of influence (especially coercion)
they are more likely to devalue the subordinate and therefore to believe that
they themselves are more powerful
x. When power holders use faith in their own effectiveness, they are more likely
to be attracted to coercive remedies
- From might to right
 Force is an act performed by an individual or group aimed at compelling another
individual or group to follow a given cause of action. Force implies coercion.
 Force is the final court of appeals in human affairs- there is no appeal from force
except the action of superior force
 Force is the foundation of the state, an arrangement consisting of people who
exercise and effective monopoly in the use of physical coercion within a given
territory.
 Elites
 Control, influence and authority

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  Control suggests that people submit to the power of others- resistance is
overcome not because people come to prefer a given course of action but
because resistance has been prohibitively expensive or impossible
 Influence suggests that in the course of interaction people undergo an
authentic change in their preferences in accordance with the preferences of
power holders
 Authority is legitimate power- power used in accordance with the social
values of those who are ruled and under conditions that the ruled view as
proper
 From force to authority
 Those who seize power by force find it to their advantage to legitimize their
role, to transform force into authority e.g. Uganda
 From force to influence
 Elites find it to their advantage not only to transform force into authority, but
to transform force into influence to secure approval and support from the
masses
 Basic to political impression management is the need to gain control over the
flow of information (media)
 Basic to political impression management are front-stage performances,
where elites employ verbal/non verbal symbols to strengthen and maintain
their position e.g. adverts, rallies, notice boards etc.

WEEK SEVEN: SOCIAL RELATIONS AND INTERPERSONAL ATTRACTION.

Introduction: Much of human life consists of social interaction-a process directed towards, stimulated
by, or influenced by another person or persons. Human groups consist of acting people, and group life
consists of their actions. The way we behave is in large measure determined by our relations with one
another. In our daily lives we continually encounter others, cooperate with them, conform to their wishes,
irritate them, violate their standards and compete with them.

(a) Social relationships: Who can enjoy alone? John Milton, Paradise Lost, 1667. Many of our
social interactions are casual-one time encounters. Such interactions generally lack continuity
through time; we invest little of ourselves in them. Other casual interactions come to have a more
enduring quality.
Social relationships lie at the very core of human existence. Public opinion surveys reveal that we
believe our personal happiness is integrally bound to the state of our intimate relationships.
Research corroborates that close relationships are vital to our well-being and are associated with
our mental and physical health and longevity.
Types of relationship Ties:
 Bonding- a process whereby individual or groups are linked together. There are four
common types of bonding: Expressive ties- social interactions that rest upon
expressive ties among people are called primary relationships e.g. kin, friends, lovers,
neighbours, co-workers etc; Instrumental ties- regardless of whether or not we care
for one another, life confronts us with countless circumstances where we simply need
each other to achieve certain goals- secondary relationships e.g. classmates;

20
 Expressive-instrumental ties-relationships that serve both primary and secondary
purposes; Networks- Beyond one-to-one relationships, human life encompasses
multiple relationships organized into networks, These are webs of social relationships
that center on a single individual and that tie him or her directly to other individuals
and indirectly through these other individuals to still more people. Networks play a
critical part in the growth and spread as social movements.
(b) Attraction in the Dyad: As interpersonal relationships progress from initial acquaintance to
close friendships, the amount of interaction (breadth) and the intimacy (depth) increase. (Hays,
1985).
Social attraction refers to the property that draws two people together-dyad. We cannot rely on
common sense knowledge for an understanding of attraction in the two person group.
Research has shown that proximity, physical appearance, love, similarity, complementary needs
and social exchange are important determinants of the dyad:
 Proximity- nearness in physical space-has a considerable influence on our friendship
choices.
 Physical attractiveness- beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of
introduction said Aristotle. Social psychologists find that we prefer the
companionship and friendship of attractive people to that of unattractive people
 Love- love is one of the most intense of human emotions. Nature of love- all of us are
familiar with the notion of love, yet social psychologists have found it exceedingly
difficult to define it... Love may take different forms:
 Romantic- connected/concerned with sex
 Passionate-having or showing strong feelings of sexual love or anger
 Pragmatic-thinking about solving problems in a practical and sensible way
 Altruistic- the fact of caring about the needs and happiness of other people
than your own.
Love as labeling- intense attraction is most likely to occur when people find
themselves in situations in which they experience physiological arousal. Love does
not exists unless we define our inner feelings of arousal as love
Love as brain-chemistry- love has a unique chemical basis associated with
phenlethylamine (a compound related to amphetamines). The place to look for
answers to love is inside people’s heads.
 Similarity- A good deal of research reveals that we tend to like others who are similar
to us. In experiment after experiment, subjects say that they like people whom the
experiments suggest are close to them in beliefs and attitudes. People who are similar
marry more often than would be expected by chance- Homogamy. Various reasons are
attributed to Homogamy:
 Cognitive Consistency- people who agree on important matters will become
attracted to each other because they satisfy one another’s need for
consistency
 Anticipation of being liked- we may also be attracted to others who are
similar to us because we assume they will like us.
 Reinforcements- attraction toward another person is determined by the
proportion of reinforcements and punishments associated with that person.

21
 When we perceive others are similar to us, it encourages us to expect more
positive outcomes from interaction with them.
 Social comparison process- we possess a basic “drive” to evaluate our
opinions, attitudes, personality characteristics and abilities- to know the
truth about ourselves. We attempt to compare our thinking with that of
others like ourselves.
 Complimentary needs: Many of our needs are met in a complimentary manner. Social
exchange- we like those who reward us and dislike those who punish us. Attraction
occurs when rewards outweighs costs.
(c) Responses to dissatisfaction in a relationship. How do people respond when they become
dissatisfied with a relationship? There are four basic approaches:
 Exit- formally separating from the other person-moving out of a joint, divorce….
 Voice- active verbal attempts to resolve difficulties e.g. asking a partner what is
troubling him or her, compromising, seeking help from a therapist etc
 Loyalty- remaining passively loyal to the relationship or waiting for conditions to
improve
 Neglect- Passively allowing the relationship to atrophy( the condition of loosing fresh,
muscle, strength etc in a part of the body because it does not have enough blood) e.g.
ignoring the partner, refusing to discuss problems, treating the partner badly, or just
letting things fall apart. There are two dimensions of handling dissatisfaction in
relationships: constructive-destructive dimension and activity-passivity dimension.
Three conditions influence whether an individual will take one response rather than the
other:
 The degree of satisfaction with the relationship prior to the emergence of
problems
 The magnitude of a person’s investment of resources in the relationship
 The quality of the bet available alternative to the relationship.

WEEK EIGHT: HEALTHY LIFESTYLES:

(a) The quality of Relationships. Relationships are the connectedness that people have with each
other. There are two types of relationships:
 Inspiring relationships-the characteristics are; feelings of being worthy, connected,
content, optimistic, energized, passionate, composed, focused, joyful and a sense of well-
being.
 Dispiriting relationships-they are characterized by; feelings of being worthless, alienated,
frustrated, hopeless, depressed, bored, anxious, distracted, unhappy and lack of well-
being.
 Most of the relationships do not have the extreme effect of being dispiriting or inspiriting.
They exist somewhere in between: the spirit-relationship continuum.
 Skills that promote healthful relationships:
 People identify strength in each other
 Provide emotional support
 Encourage healthful behaviours
 Discourage risk behaviours/risk situations

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 In harmful relationships people:
 Criticize or demean each other
 Withhold emotional support
 Discourage healthful behaviours
 Encourage risk behaviours and risk situations

 Ten skills that promote healthful bahaviour:

 Make family life a priority
 Show good character
 Make responsible decisions
 Resist pressure to do something wrong
 Correct wrong actions
 Communicate in healthful ways
 Resolve conflict without violence
 Cope without using drugs or other addictive substances or behaviours
 Choose entertainments that promotes healthful relationships
 Express affection inappropriate ways.
 Ten responsible values that make –up good character and promote healthful relationships:
 Honesty
 Courage
 Self-discipline
 Fairness
 Healthful behaviour
 Determination
 Citizenship
 Responsibility
 Respect
 Integrity
 Five guidelines for expressing emotions in healthful ways:
 Identify the emotion
 Identify the source of the emotion
 Decide whether or not you need to respond in the right way
 Choose a responsible and healthful response
 Protect your health.
 Guidelines for the use of conflict resolution skills:
 Remain calm
 Set the tone
 Define the conflict
 Take responsibility for personal actions
 Use I-messages to express needs and feelings
 Listen to the needs and feelings of others
 List and evaluate possible solutions
 Agree on a solution
 Keep your word and follow the agreement

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  Ask for assistance of a trusted adult if conflict cannot be resolved.
 Risk factors for being involved in harmful and/or violent relationships :
 Lacking self-respect
 Being raised in a dysfunctional family
 Living in adverse environment
 Lacking social skills
 Being unable to manage anger
 Resolve conflict in harmful ways
 Practicing discriminatory behaviour
 Misusing or abusing alcohol and/or other drugs
 Being a consumer of entertainments that portrays harmful and violent relationships
 Being a victim of violence
 Ten profiles of people who relate in harmful ways:
 The people pleasure- a person who constantly seeks the approval of others
 The clinger-a person who is needy and dependent
 The fixer- a person who tries to fix other people’s problems
 The distancer- a person who is emotionally unavailable to others
 The controller- a person who is possessive, jealous and domineering
 The center- a center is a person who is self-centered
 The abuser-a person who is abusive-expressed in demeaning remarks, threats or
violent behavior
 The liar-a person who does not tell the truth
 The promise breaker- a person who is not reliable
 What to do about harmful relationships?
 Evaluate relationships with regularity
 Recognize the necessity to end a harmful relationship rather than work towards
change
 Identify changes in behaviour that must occur in the harmful relationship to
promote healthful interaction
 Seek advice of a respected adult or a skilled professional about expected changes
in the relationship
 Have a frank discussion with the other person about concerns and expectations of
the relationship
 Set a future date to evaluate the relationship.
 Violent relationships:
 Physical abuse-domestic violence
 Emotional abuse-putting down
 Neglect- failure to provide proper care and guidance
 Sexual abuse- sexual contact that is forced on a person
 Rape-acquaintance or date rape
 Sexual harassment-unwanted sexual behaviour that ranges from making sexual
comments to forcing another person into unwanted sexual acts
 Stalking-harassing someone with the intent to threaten or harm that person
 Sexual behaviours that interfere with relationships:

24
  Prostitution
 Hyper sexuality-a condition in which an individual’s sex drive is insatiable to the
extent that it interferes with all the other concerns e.g. satyriasis-male;
Nymphomania-female-compassion to have sex; sexual addiction-
psychological/physical need for sex that is uncontrolled
 Paraphilias- sexual behaviour or condition that focus on sexual arousal or
gratification through actions and fantasies that involve the use of objects or other
people primarily for self gratification;
Transvestitism- wearing clothes of the opposite sex in order to achieve
sexual gratification
Transexualism-a difficult gender identity or sex role orientation in which
a person of one sex wishes to be or sincerely believes that he/she is a
member of the opposite sex.
Voyeurism- act of obtaining sexual gratification from look at the bodies,
sex organs or sex acts of other people(voyeur=pornography)
Exhibitionism- exposure of the sexual organs to other people for the
purpose of personal sexual arousal and gratification
Sadism- sexual behaviour in which a person receives sexual pleasure by
inflicting physical pain or psychological pain on a sexual partner.
Masochism- a person receives sexual pleasure from being physically or
psychologically abused by a sexual partner.
Sadomasochism-a person receives sexual pleasure by inflicting as well
as by receiving physical and psychological abuse.
Coprolalia- obtaining sexual pleasure from using obscene language
Frotteurism- obtaining sexual pleasure by rubbing or pressing the penis
against another person, usually against the buttocks of a fully clothed
female

WEEK NINE: PERCEPTION, ATTITUDE AND ATTITUDE CHANGE:

Introduction: We do not view the world around us in neutral terms. People, events and situations have
consequences for us. Some of these consequences are positive while others are negative. We evolve
certain regularities in our feelings, thoughts and inclinations to act toward various aspects of our
environment.

(a) The nature of attitudes: An attitude is a learned and relatively enduring tendency or
predisposition to evaluate a person, event or situation in a certain way and to act in accordance
with the evaluation. It is a state of mind.
The components of attitudes:
 Cognitive-the way we perceive an object, event or situation- our thoughts, our beliefs and
ideas about something.
 Affective- consists of the feelings or emotions that the object, event or situation or its
symbolic representation evokes within an individual e.g. fear, sympathy, hate, anger, envy,
love etc

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  Conative-(behavioral)- the tendency or disposition to act in certain ways with reference to
some object, event, or situation( emphasis is the tendency to act not on the action itself)

The functions of attitudes:

 The adjustment function- we are more likely to change our attitudes if doing so allow us
to fulfill our goals or help us to avoid undesirable consequences.
 The Ego-defense function- some attitudes serve to protect us from acknowledging basic
truths about ourselves or the harsh realities of life.
 The value-expressive function- some attitudes help us to give positive expression of our
central values and to the type of person we imagine ourselves to be.
 The knowledge function- in life we seek some degree of order, clarity and stability in our
personal frame of reference; we search for meaning in and understanding of the events
that impinge upon us. Attitudes help to supply us with standards of evaluation

The relationship between attitudes and behaviour: Attitudes occupy a crucial position in our mental make-
up and as a result have consequences for the way we act. (McGuire 1976). Attitudes serve as powerful
energizers and directors of our behaviour- To understand our attitudes is to understand our behaviour.

(b) The organization of attitudes: People tend to organize their attitudes in a harmonious manner so
that their attitudes are not in conflict- attitude consistency. People typically seek to reconcile their
conflicting attitudes so that the direction of attitudes change will be from a state of inconsistency
toward a state of consistency. The three consistency theories are:
 Balance theory: A balanced state exists when there are no negatives or two negatives.
An imbalance state s one characterized by discomfort and unpleasantness. Accordingly
the individual is under pressure to reduce imbalance, which means changing ones attitude
toward either the person or the impersonal entity
 Congruity theory: We hold a great many attitudes, some of which are consistent with
one another, while others are inconsistent. Inconsistent attitudes generally do not pose a
problem unless they are somehow brought together within the same context. The stronger
an attitude the less likely it is to change when paired or linked with something of opposite
strength.
 Cognitive dissonance theory: Cognition is any bit f knowledge, belief or opinion that
people have about themselves, their behaviour or their environment. The feeling of fear
in the absence of an adequate reason for fear is dissonant- non-fitting, or out of balance.
The theory holds under two conditions:
 Commitment- a state of being bound to or locked into a position or a course of
action. It implies that people by choosing the door to alternative behaviours have
to “live with” their decisions. Accordingly, they need to reduce any dissonant
elements deriving from their irreversible commitment.
 Violation- refers to the degree of freedom individuals believe they posses in
making a decision or choice. For individuals to experience dissonance, they must
belief they acted voluntarily, so that they feel responsible for the outcome of their
decision. If in contrast, they are compelled to act contrary to their beliefs, they
can avoid dissonance by reasoning, “ I was forced to do this ; I really did not
have any choice”

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  Reward and dissonance:
The less the reward for engaging in behaviour contrary to an attitude,
the greater will be the resultant attitude change.
The less the coercion employed to force commitment, the greater the
chance for attitude change.
Self concept and dissonance- dissonance does not arise between just
any two recognitions; rather, it arises when ones behaviour threatens to
diminish the positive feeling one has about oneself.
(c) Persuasion and attitude change:
 Cicero, 46 B.C. “Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable”
 Persuasion is a deliberate attempt on the part of one party to influence the attitudes or
behaviour of another party so as to achieve some predetermined end.
 For persuasion to occur, three elements must be fitted together within some variable
arrangement:
The communicator: Aristotle, “Persuasion is achieved by the speakers
personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him
credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others”. We are
inclined to believe people and be influenced by people whom we judge to be
honorable and trustworthy. Qualities of a good communicator:
Trustworthiness- common sense suggests that untrustworthy
communicators are not as effective as trustworthy ones
Expertness-experts are more persuasive than non-experts. Expertness or
perceived competence of the communicator increases persuasive impact
more than trustworthiness does.
Liking- The more we like the source of a persuasive message, the more
likely we are to change our belief in accordance with that advocated by
the source.
Similarity- we tend to be influenced more by people who are similar to
us than by people who are different. If we perceive the communicator as
being like ourselves we assume that he or she also shares with us
common needs and goals. If we like the source, we are inclined to
change our attitudes to coincide with that advocated by the liked source.
Liking enhances our perception that the person is similar to us.
Multiple sources- common sense seemingly dictates that multiple
sources are more persuasive than one source alone. Increasing the
number of sources compels listeners to think more intently about the
message.
The message: Adolf Hitler 1933 said, “The receptive ability of the masses is very
limited, their understanding small; on the other hand, they have great power of
forgetting. This being so, all effective propaganda must be confined to a very few
points which must be confined to a very few points which must be brought out in
the form of slogans until the very last man is enabled to comprehend what is
meant by any slogan”. To be persuasive, the communicator must put some idea

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or feeling into a form in which it can be transmitted to the target. Types of
messages;
Fear appeals: fear appeals seek to influence or persuade people
by telling them of impending danger or harm from following or
failing to follow a given cause of action. Communicators have
successfully used fear in attempts to influence a great many
behaviours e.g. terminating cigarette smoking, securing
vaccinations, wearing auto-seat belts etc
Conclusion drawing: it is usually more effective to let the
audience draw the conclusion for itself.
Multiple messages: multiple messages exposure tends to
produce a pyramiding impact. One sided communication is less
complicated and easier for the hearers to grasp. When one
sided or two-sided-effectiveness of the communication depends
on the audience.
Personal involvement- personal involvement can often be
fostered by increasing the number of arguments in a message,
thus giving people more information to think about. Opening a
message with a rhetorical question may also arouse people’s
interest and contribute to their personal engagement with the
message.
The target: our daily observations suggest that some people are gullible
“pushovers” while others are stubborn (stick to their guns). Individuals also differ
in their tendency to derive information from and elaborate on arguments
provided by a message:
The more a person’s attitude is anchored through linkage and integration
with logically related beliefs, the more resistant the individual is to a
change in the belief.
The greater the individuals involvement with the issue and stake in the
outcome the grater the persons resistance to persuasion
People selectively recall their past behaviours to make them consistent
with their current attitudes
Making public ones position on an issue and then finding ones position
attacked tends to make a person more resistant to counterpropaganda and
more dedicated to the cause.
Forewarning people of an upcoming communication that runs counter to
their current position increases their resistance to persuasion. Warnings
motivate people to consider more fully their own positions and generate
anticipatory counter –arguments for the impending attack. Forewarned is
forearmed.
We seek out information that supports our beliefs and avoid information
that challenges our position
People who hold strong opinions on social issues accept information
confirming their own views at face value.

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WEEK TEN: HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

 Health psychology addresses factors that influence well-being , an illness, as well as measures
that can be taken to promote health and prevent illness.
 Psychologists have viewed stress in different way:
A stimulus
A response
An on-going interaction between an organism and its environment
 Sometimes scientists define stress as events that place strong demands on us-stressors.
Characteristics of stressors:
Intensity/severity
Duration
Predictability
Controllability
Chroncity
 The world Health organization defines health as “ the state of physical, psychological(mental),
social well-being and not just the absence of a disease”
 When we talk about mental well-being, then, we talk about how well we feel about such things as
happiness, peace of mind, ability to meet the demands of life, relationships, with others, joy,
satisfaction with ourselves and others(especially our families and social associates) our desires,
our ideas, ambitions etc
 Mental health should not only be considered in relation to an individual but also to members of a
community and to the nation as a whole.
 Healthy ways of expressing emotions: In real life situations, there will be challenges such as loss
or rejection, disappointment, disagreements, etc which stir up strong emotions such as hurt,
anxiety, anger, guilt and depression. In order to maintain or sustain good mental health, we must
learn and practice healthy ways of coping with such challenges. If not done we may develop
physical and social complications. If these conditions are not properly handled they have the
potential to:
Affect your blood pressure and adversely affect your heart beat- which can lead to
headaches, and other complications of high blood pressure and heart diseases.
They can disturb the way your body processes food, which can result to diabetes.
They may also affect your lungs and air passages which can cause asthma.
Stomach and intestinal ulcers and depression are also common complications of these
conditions
When people are depressed they feel sand, unhappy, discouraged, and low—spirited. If
depression is allowed to persist it may lead to physical complications
Severe depression may cause suicidal thoughts and plans, which may eventually turn to
reality
 Mental disorders- psychopathology:
People have a mental illness, if there is a departure from mental well-being severe
enough to interfere with their mental health.

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 Mental disorders can be caused by physical diseases such as infection of the brain by
parasites (e.g. malaria) Viruses (such as that which cause AIDS) and bacteria.
It can also be caused by physical accidents or through assault, which involves the head.
Cancer of the brain and stroke (i.e. a rapture or clot in the brain) can lead to destruction of
brain cells
There are also certain generalized diseases of the body that can have adverse effects on
the brain, such as uncontrolled diabetes and diseases of the kidney, the liver and other
bodily organs i.e. organic diseases
There is a wide range of mental disorders that do not have discernable physical causes,
only chemical changes that do not necessarily physically injure the brain cells i.e.
functional mental disorders
Other causes of mental disorders include, social and emotional stressors, depending on
the type of mental health disorder.
Mental disorders have an effect not only on the individual but also on others, especially
the family and the society in general

WEEK ELEVEN: ALTRUISM AND HELPING BEHAVIOUR:

Introduction: Helpful behaviour by bystanders is an aspect of Prosocial bahaviour- behaviour involving

acts that benefit other people; ways of responding to other people that are sympathetic, cooperative,
helpful, recurring, comforting and giving. Altruism is the fact of caring about the needs and happiness of
other people more than your own.

(a) Positive forms of social behaviour:

Prosocial bahaviour is crucial both for the functioning of the social group and for the
welfare of the individual members (Staub, 1978)
At its most fundamental level, human society is based on the willingness of people to
work with one another and share the benefits of their mutual labour
It is questionable whether a society could long endure unless people are willing to assume
responsibility for on another’s welfare and to behave in positive, helpful ways.
Prosocial behaviour and altruism motives: Prosocial behavior can take many forms;
sympathy, cooperation. Donating, helping , altruism etc
Sympathy commonly makes reference to a concern with, or a sharing of, the pain
or sadness of another.
Cooperation implies that individuals are able and willing to work with others,
usually but not always for a common benefit
Helping involves rendering assistance to another party so that this other party can
attain some object or end.
Aid has to do with providing another party with what is needed to achieve some
object or end.
Donating refers to the act of making a gift or giving contribution usually to a
charity.
Altruism concerns behaviour carried out to benefit another person without
expectation of an external reward.
 The effects of personality characteristics:

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 Gide 1903, “True kindness presupposes the faculty of imagining as ones owns the
suffering and joy of others.
Individuals differ: a person maybe more of less passive, more or less cooperative etc.
We refer these as traits.
We infer peoples traits from their behaviour in various environmental settings
 Research suggest the following personality characteristics:
There are some people who are more disposed than others to help people in distress,
even at cost to themselves.
Altruistic bahaviour appears rooted in early socialization experiences
Prosocial behaviour tends to be correlated with sympathetic attitudes toward the welfare
of others.
Good Samaritans to be characterized by spirit of adventurousness and in conventionality
Prosocial assistance have a tendency to reduce their own distress by social actions
designed to reduce the stress of another.
 The effects of mood states:
Research shows that “good moods” induce helpful behaviours (Hargis, 1981)
Generosity is fostered by positive mood imagery induced by thinking “happy” thoughts,
reading “elation” statements or listening to radio broadcasts containing “good news”
Sunny days encourage helpful behaviour; cloudy days and bad weather discourage it.
“Bad moods” sometimes increase helping, sometimes decrease it and sometimes have no
significant effect.
People in good moods are more likely than others to retrieve positive than negative
information from memory. Helpful acts are more likely to follow from these
circumstances
 Prosocial behaviour in ambiguous situations (situations whose meanings are doubtful or
uncertain): The probability that an individual will help in an emergency decreases as the number
of strangers who witness the emergency increases. Before bystanders can decide to intervene in
an emergency, they must take a number of preliminary steps:
 Notice the event
 Interpret it as emergency
 Decide that it’s their responsibility to act
 What to do
 How to do it
 When confronted with an ambiguous event, individual bystanders observe the reactions of others
and are powerfully influenced by them
 Since social reality is often ambiguous, we rely to some extent on other people’s reactions to
define the meaning for us.
 Prosocial behavior in unambiguous situations- whether or not a person intervenes in an
emergency depends on his or her assessment of costs relative to rewards:
 Costs associated with helping e.g. effort, embarrassment etc
 Costs associated with not helping e.g. self-blame
 Rewards associated with helping e.g. praise from oneself
 Rewards associated with not helping
(b) Notions of a just world , equity and equality:

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  Martin Luther King Jnr, 1963, “ We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like
waters and righteousness like mighty stream”
 Although other misfortunes at times elicit our sympathy and compassion, this is not
always the case e.g. death, mentally sick, strikes by hospital workers etc.
 The just-world Hypothesis:
Job 8:20 “ Behold , God will not cast away an innocent man, neither will He
uphold evil doers:
The question of why people do so little to alleviate the suffering of their fellow
human beings has provoked considerable interest amongst social psychologists
The just world hypothesis states that we need to believe we live in a just world-
one where people get what they deserve and deserve what they get
 Equity theory:
Aristotle, “ Awards should be ‘according to merit’, for all men agree that what is just
in distribution must according to merit in some sense”
Rewards go to those who merit them through talent, ambition and hard work.
Equity theory holds that group members will be satisfied with a distribution of
rewards that is proportional to each members contribution to the group i.e. Fair and
just.
People participating in inequitable relationships experience distress, no matter
whether they are victims or beneficiaries of the inequity. Those who receive less than
they deserve often feel anger; those who receive more, guilt
Equity may be restored in one of the four ways;
 Alter our own incomes
 Alter our own inputs
 Alter the income of others
 Alter the inputs of others
 Restoring Psychological equity- individuals distort their perception of their oen or those of
others outcomes and inputs. Equity ultimately lies in the eyes of the beholder. Adherence to
equity standards is influenced by people’s concerns about what others will think of them
( Greenberg , 1983)
 The norm of reciprocity: Cicero, “There is no duty more indispensable than that of returning
kindness”. One good deed deserves another( popular proverb)
 Equity implies that people believe they should receive returns equal to what they put forth-
that resources they expend on behalf of others should be equal to the resources others expend
on their behalf
 The norm of reciprocity stipulates that:
 People should help those who have helped them
 People should not injure those who have helped them
 People should return good for good and evil for evil
 The norm of reciprocity underlies some forms of helping behaviour
 People do not like to be in debt of others. While reciprocal exchange breeds
cooperation and good feelings, gifts that cannot be reciprocated breed discomfort,
distress and ultimately dislike.
 Self-interest, Equality and need.

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 Rousseau 1761 “The nature of things continually tends to the destruction of equality”.
strategies for distributing group reward:
Equity-rewards are distributed proportionally among members relative to their
inputs
Self-interests- an allocator maximizes his or her own rewards independent of
inputs
Equality- each member receives the identical quality of rewards as every other
member regardless of inputs
Needs- rewards are allocated in terms of each individuals wants or requirements
Men and women differ in the ways they allocate rewards between themselves
and others.

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