The social context has a significant impact on the behavior, thoughts, and feelings of an individual. The social situation impacts obedience, conformity, and helping behaviors portrayed by an individual. Conformity is described as a change in an individual's behavior so that it aligns with the behavior portrayed by other individuals in a social setting (Cialdini, & Goldstein, 2004). People may change their behavior even though they do not agree with the rest of the group. The behavior of the majority influences the outcome of behavior shown by an individual in a group. Most people conform to fit into the social setup and feel accepted by other members of the group.
The social context also has a significant impact on the obedience of an individual to authority. The demand from an authority figure may influence an individual to change behavior to comply with the requests made by those in authority (Cialdini, & Goldstein, 2004). The consequences of non-compliance often influence people to comply with the demands despite some being unethical and unacceptable. This means that under the influence of authority, an individual may go against what they believe to be right and do what is wrong to please those in authority.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Social influence may also affect the helping behavior of an individual in emergencies. Some individuals tend to respond to situations in the absence of others quickly. However, when other people are around, a person assumes that others will do something about the emergency. Psychologists refer to this behavior as diffusion of responsibility (Darley, & Latané, 1968). This means that people may fail to take action in a situation that requires them to act in the assumption that those around will take action.
The various behaviors depicted by the social media users in the case where a 19-year old male was raped in a party and contemplating suicide can be explained based on the social psychology theory. The response from the minority individuals who encouraged him to commit suicide can be attributed to their personality, which can be significantly impacted by society. The individuals were indifferent to the pain and trauma that the young man had gone through (Darley, & Latané, 1968). The cold society had depersonalized them, which made them portray the inhuman behavior towards the young man.
The second group of respondents expressed empathy towards the young man. This prompted them to give supportive comments and also provided helpline numbers to the traumatized young man so that he could seek help. The individuals helped the young man without expecting anything in return an aspect that psychologists refer to as altruism. The support offered was an attempt to relieve the young man of his suffering. They showed concern and were determined to do all they could to help him overcome the trauma.
The third group of individuals portrayed diffusion of responsibility in that they assumed other followers would respond to the situation. Some of these followers maybe felt the desire to help but had limited options on how they could assist the young. These made them resolve to watch in silence and assume that other followers would help the young man.
Encouraging social responsibility among the followers would go a long way to improve the situation. Social responsibility requires an individual to portray behavior that benefits other members of society. A person can depict social responsibility by simply avoiding behavior that harms other people's feelings like the use of derogatory comments and active participation in a good course. For instance, if the followers of the young man had mastered social responsibility, disparaging comments, and alienated behavior would not have been shown.
References
Cialdini, R. B., & Goldstein, N. J. (2004). Social influence: Compliance and conformity. Annu. Rev. Psychol., 55, 591-621.
Darley, J. M., & Latané, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of personality and social psychology, 8(4p1), 377.
