PSYCHOLOGY ( PART-1)

HPAS Prelims Books -Paper I                                      HPAS Prelims Books -Paper II

• Social Facilitation can be defined as an improvement in performance produced by the mere presence of others. There are two types of social facilitation: co-action effects and audience effect. Triplett's experiments demonstrate the Co-action Effect, a phenomenon whereby increased task performance comes about by the mere presence of others doing the same task. Social facilitation occurs not only in the presence of a co-actor but also in the presence of a passive spectator/audience. This is known as the Audience Effect.
• A Primary Group is a typically small social group whose members share close, personal, enduring primary relationships. These groups are marked by member's concern for one another, shared activities and culture, and long periods of time spent together. Examples include family, childhood friends, and highly influential social groups. Primary groups play an important role in the development of personal identity. People in a Secondary Group interact on a less personal level than in a primary group, and their relationships are temporary rather than long lasting. Since secondary groups are established to perform functions, people’s roles are more interchangeable. The theory of primary and secondary groups was put forward by Charles Horton Cooley, a sociologist.
• Obedience is a form of social influence where an individual acts in response to a direct order from another individual, who is usually an authority figure. Social psychologist Stanley Milgram researched the effect of authority on obedience. He concluded people obey either out of fear or out of a desire to appear cooperative even when acting against their own better judgment and desires.
• Cognitive Dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviours. This produces a feeling of discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviours to reduce the discomfort and restore balance. Festinger's (1957) cognitive dissonance theory suggests that we have an inner drive to hold all our attitudes and beliefs in harmony and avoid disharmony (or dissonance). 

PSYCHOLOGY ( PART-2)