Introduction.
Concept and Foundation of Social Psychology. (The possibility of predicting the behavior of another person)
Social psychology is one of the scientific fields dedicated to the objective study of human behavior. Her particular approach is oriented towards understanding social behavior, based on the process of social influence. The distinctive character of social psychology is that it arises from two fundamental factors: a) the interest in the individual as a social participant and b) the importance that he attributes to the understanding of the processes of social influence.
Based on the process of social influence of phenomena such as conformity, leadership, prejudice, collective morality and intergroup conflict.
Social psychology presents four fundamental aspects.
- A set of phenomena of interest A body of theory Accumulated findings A set of research methods
Social psychology in Marketing.
Marketing can use a socio-psychological framework of analysis within its own field or as an interdisciplinary instrument, which allows a broader knowledge of consumer behavior, group dynamics and social interaction, favoring its contribution to the generation of new alternatives and in business progress; to know the orientation of the effects of an advertising campaign; for the execution of market, product and service analysis.
Individual and society.
We are all born into an organized human society, a social milieu. In the process of growth within this environment we learn to adopt the uses and customs of other individuals. The content of this process varies greatly depending on the people and the circumstances with which we establish contact.
The other individuals with whom we have contact are part of a society; their culture, represented in the life guidelines they apply, consists of current practices and institutions, passed down from generation to generation. In our society, language, the monogamous family, and private property represent illustrative cultural patterns.
Culture represents a context of experience. To broaden our understanding of social behavior, we actually admit that other people are social stimuli to which we react, but also that they collectively create other stimuli, socially significant, endowed with symbolic value such as words, food preferences, currency, flag, etc.
Social influence.
Human beings are necessarily oriented towards other human beings within their environment, and social influence is manifested every time an individual responds to the real or implicit presence of another or others.
Most of our characteristics - including our personality - are in one way or another influenced by social interaction.
The relations of influence that exist between a group and an individual are: conformity, leadership, prejudice, collective morality and other phenomena typical of groups.
Compliance and leadership: in this case the source or agent of influence is here an individual capable of directing and modifying the behaviors and attitudes of others. Prejudice is an intergroup phenomenon whose origin is in the effects of group identification. Collective morality is an attitude shared by the group that influences other individual results.
Social influence is also linked to the relationship that exists between two or more groups, which can be defined in its narrowest sense of internal cliques within a fraternity, or in its broadest sense in international relations.
Social interaction
Social behavior depends on the influence of other individuals and social interaction is one of the keys to this process. If the behavior is a response to the social stimulus produced by others, including the symbols they produce, social interaction can be conceived as the sequence of these stimulus-response relationships.
Social interaction produces effects on perception, motivation, and especially on learning and adaptation of the individual.
Cooperation and Competition. ******
Variables studied by social psychology.
A variable is an attribute that can vary in one or more ways and with respect to which it can be shown to influence or be influenced by other attributes; and they can be classified as independent or dependent. The same variable can be dependent and independent and not permanently adopt one of these two forms with respect to the direction of the effect.
The variables studied are:
Attitude, is the most studied variable in social psychology because it constitutes a valuable element for behavior prediction.
The Values, in essence, represent the reasons that lead the individual to choose certain goals before others. In human experience, values have a certain guiding force: men sacrifice life for "duty", "freedom" and "honor".
Group cohesion refers to the degree to which a group is attractive to its members. This attraction can be conceived as a reflection of the motivation to belong to a group, which in turn can be determined by various factors or variables.
The Roles are the different behaviors that the individual shows in relation to their particular social position, so that there are behaviors associated with the role of mother, police, teacher, employer. In the course of everyday life we all have to play a multiplicity of roles; in just one day we may be forced to adjust to a wide range of roles, several of them within the family.
The Norms, where there are general forms of socially prescribed conduct for a given situation, we can speak of a norm or in certain cases of a social or group norm. Although they speak of a standard of conduct, they also refer to the e
Attitudes: composition, acquisition and modification.
Definition n ° 2. Certain regularity in the feelings, thoughts and predispositions of the individual to act in relation to some aspect of his environment (Secor and Backman 1964)
Social attitudes are made up of interrecurring variables, made up of three elements:
1. The cognitive component.
2. The affective component.
3. The behavior component.
Changes in the cognitive component: for there to be an attitude towards a certain object, there must also be some cognitive representation of that object. Beliefs and other cognitive components (knowledge, the way to approach the object, etc.) related to the object of an attitude, constitute the cognitive component of the attitude.
Change of the affective component: it is the feeling in favor or against a certain social object; Let us suppose that by real cognitive disagreement we modify our affective relationship with a person. The change registered in this component will lead us to emit hostile behaviors towards the person, as well as to attribute a series of defects capable of justifying and making the change of our affection consistent. In the same way, if for one reason or another we start to like a person that we did not like previously, everything that was considered as defects comes to be perceived much more benignly, and even as virtues.
Change in the relative component: the combination of cognition and affect as instigator of certain behaviors given a given situation.
The prescription of a certain behavior, such as that parents require their children to enter a school that they do not like, but that in the opinion of the parents is more beneficial for the future, may result in a reorganization of the components cognitive and affective, making them objects of a positive attitude on the part of the boys.
Types of social settings Groups Organisms ***************
GROUP
Group Concept: (by COLOMBO) consider any group of people who interact with each other, who are psychologically aware of each other and who perceive themselves as a group (accept and be accepted.
(by NEWCOMB) set of two or more people who share norms regarding certain things and whose social roles are closely linked.
CLASSIFICATION
According to the degree of personal involvement
Primary Group: is one in which personal relationships are face to face with a certain frequency and even at an intimate and affective level. In these groups develop norms and roles. Family, work groups, friends are examples of such groups. The primary group exercises informal control over its members, non-institutionalized control but no less effective for that reason.
This control is latently exercised. When one member irritates or annoys another, they can show disapproval through ridicule, laughter, criticism, or even ostracism.
Secondary group: the relationships between its members are relatively interdependent and formalized. This includes all those groups that are not primary, such as political groups, aid associations, neighborhood commissions, etc.
In these groups, the individual is not interested in others in terms of people, but rather as officials who play a role. Contrary to the primary groups, the control that is applied is formal, that is, there are regulations that establish norms and sanctions.
According to the inclusion or not of individuals in the groups
Membership group: is the group to which the individual belongs or of which he is a part. The group exerts pressure on its members to behave in accordance with its rules.
Reference group: is the group to which the individual tends to belong. It is the group to which we aspire and constitutes an ideal for us. We take their behavior as our standard of conduct, as a level of aspiration and self-appreciation.
Band or gang: it is a small group of pairs or people that meet for common interests and that presents little structure. Within the band or gang there is a range of possibilities that go from the friends bar to the gang, according to the rules they share and the dynamics they show.
Grouping: group of people gathered according to certain objectives of relative permanence. Eg Cooperative Association, neighborhood commissions, etc.
Crowd or mass: it is a large group with very little structure and little definition of roles, who are not clearly aware of their goals and who gather behind a goal at any given time and then disappear. It is to this mass that the media and advertising are permanently directed, trying to turn their apathy into action or consumption.
It is interesting to consider the behavior of an individual as part of the mass. One of the characteristics of the human beings that make it up is that their capacities tend to level down. For example: a person with a good level of education and thinking abilities, equals another in a very primitive aggressive reaction during a demonstration or when she receives a message through the media that aims to touch her feelings very directly.
Situation of the crowd in the psychological state.
a) Passivity of the people gathered towards everything other than the individual satisfaction of their motivations.
b) Absence or low level of social relations and human interactions.
c) Contagion of emotions and rapid spread to the whole of an agitation arising at one point.
d) Latent stimulus produced by the presence of others that can explode in violence or enthusiasm.
Operative Group: we can define the operative group as a restricted number of people who, linked by constants of space and time and articulated by mutual internal representation, implicitly or explicitly propose a task that constitutes its purpose.
Vectors for evaluating social interaction.
Affiliation: it is the identification with a certain organization or group, it gives the degree of membership.
Membership: is recognition as a member
Relevance: is the degree of commitment or acceptance regarding the task.
Communication: it is the fundamental vector to take into account. For there to be communication there must be common codes. The emitter when emitting a message does it from a determined code that pretends to be understandable, when the receiver receives it and answers, it feeds back the circuit.
There may be noise or a short circuit that may be in the sender, receiver or message.
The gesture message carries a lot of weight, configuring metacommunication and has to do with gestures and attitudes.
Learning: it does not imply learning content, but rather new ways of learning from conflict, creating new ways of responding to certain situations. It gives us the possibilities of changes and of making an active adaptation to reality.
Cooperation: it is the help that is given among the members of the group, the opposite would be to develop rivalry.
The Tele: is the attitude of rejection or acceptance towards certain members of the group ("filing". It has to do with previous experiences and generates a communication barrier, there is a prejudgment. Feeling of sympathy or dislike for others.
Roles in the operational group
Roles are models of behavior relative to a certain position of the individual in a network of interaction linked to expectations of oneself and others.
When a group is put into operation a series of roles will appear in relation to the task.
Role classification:
1. The Spokesperson: is the one who denounces the situation of the group. He is the spokesperson for the group. He is the member who works as a vehicle for the emerging, he is the person who fishes and denounces a situation.
2. The Leader: they are subdivided into formal and informal types. The formal is a person who has been selected by an external body and who has recognized capacity within her sphere of competence. Informal, he is the individual who best interprets the needs or beliefs of the group.
3. Authoritarian leader, gives orders directly or indirectly. Orders sometimes consist of interrupting a desire expressed by a member of the group, replacing it with her own desire. He makes criticisms that are not objective. They produce while the leader is there.
4. Democratic leader, they make suggestions that serve as a guide, inform or increase knowledge, stimulate group self-judgment and self-direction. Mutual trust climate. Able to delegate responsibilities and decisions.
5. Demagogic leader, has the appearance of a democratic leader, but hides an authoritarian leader.
6. Passive leader, (laissez faire) leaves is one who arises in moments of crisis of the group, takes over only, can lead the group to disintegration. They produce little.
7. Paternalistic leader, it is necessary in groups that start, guide, accompany, help. The members do not achieve interdependence. When this is not working.
8. Chivo, is the other side of the leader. He is the one who takes care of everything negative (scapegoat)
9. Saboteur, is the repository of resistance to change.
10. The theoretical thinker is the one who puts ideas when the group does not work. He becomes the thief of the group because he steals ideas from others.
11. The organizer is the one that puts parentheses and determines the forms and times in the group.
12. The agglutinator is the one that centers the affective issues of the group.
To sell and / or arrive with a product? How to do it through the group or the individual?
Groups have a pervasive influence on our consumer activity. The places where we consume, the cars we drive, housing, etc., are influenced by our social role.
Advertising also helps to carry out this influence when it suggests to us that with the purchase of such a product we will have gained the acceptance of our group. This indicates that the products symbolize approval and therefore provides more satisfaction than those derived from a product itself. It is evident then that groups have the ability to influence the behavior of others because they are the frame of reference of individuals.
So, whoever wants to sell or direct an advertising message for a product must communicate with the individual through the group.
What is called Social Power?
We call social power the ability to influence the behavior of others.
Power wielded by reward: This power is defined as the ability to grant rewards to others. Obviously the capacity of this power depends on the magnitude that can be dispensed. The reward can take different forms: material, such as money or special privileges; psychological, such as praise or recognition.
Examples of material reward: in the purchase of a package of yerba the sample of another product is incorporated (another flavor of yerba, tea, coffee, etc.)
Examples of psychological reward: it occurs with some brands of clothing especially in sneakers and jeans where its use gives a feeling of social recognition or prestige.
Coercive power: consists of the ability to punish or refuse to grant rewards.
Examples of coercive power: A neighbor invited to a Tuperware meeting feels compelled to buy products so as not to be rejected by the other neighbors and the hostess. Also in those advertisements in which the consumer is informed that if he does not behave in the recommended way, he may be punished. (payment of taxes).
Legitimate power: it is the result of internalized norms and values
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