Applying Social Psychology Introduction

Social psychology is a science that aims to build knowledge through experiments and surveys. Many theories and findings of social psychology may seem remote from the real life, however it is true that most, if not all, problems in society have a psychological basis for example crime, racism, pollution. With the help of social psychology, it may be possible to clarify these problems and also to find the relevant solutions. In this paper, we give an example of a societal problem that is HIV/AIDS in South Africa, and the lack of support and apathy that is extended towards the victims of this debilitating disease. We will apply the knowledge of social psychology to develop a theoretical model on which an intervention could be based.

HIV & Aids in Africa

The number of HIV infections has been lessened due to the practice of safe sex, however the numbers of AIDS patients is still on the rise. According to World Health Organization figures, the number of HIV patients globally was 38.6 million in 2005, out of which 26 million were in the Sub Saharan Africa. There have been improvements in the treatment of AIDS patients; however the disease is still incurable. There are many taboos associated with HIV/AIDS and patients have to suffer stigmatization and sometimes abandonment from friends and family. In poor countries, people have to spent a substantial amount on the treatment, and there is also a lack of donation for the people suffering from this disease. (an Vugt, Snyder, Tyler, & Biel, 2000). There is a team of a HIV/AID charity foundation that wishes to set up a campaign for the patients who are suffering from the disease in the Sub Saharan Africa. Some members of this team wish not to highlight too much on the depressing and horrifying stories of AIDS patients as that would affect the peoples willingness to donate to the charity. Some argue that since the media has not highlighted the problem too much, the team should focus on the severe and incurable nature of the disease, and meanwhile emphasize the fact that the

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Applying Social Psychology

sufferers are not to blame as this disease can happen to anyone. The point of debate between the team members is that should the slogan of the campaign be dramatic like fighting the terrors of AIDS or something that is more positive such as standing up against AIDS? There are also discussions on how to conduct the charity process, perhaps through a music CD whose earnings go to charity, via advertisements in media or a doorto-door campaign.

The relevance of social psychology

The volunteer decides to hire the services of a social psychologist to aid them in forming their course of action for the campaign. Even if the psychologist does not have any experience with campaigns meant o raise donations for AIDS patients, he may be able to tell the ways in which it is possible to influence people, and apply this knowledge for the campaign. There is also no dearth of literature on social psychology that the psychologist can consult. The best approach would be the PATH methodology: 1. Problem Definition 2. Analysis 3. Test 4. Help

Problem Definition
After having a series of discussions with the team, the social psychologist comes up with the problem definition which is: There are millions of people in Africa who suffer form HIV/AIDS and there is inadequate funding to provide both medical and psycho-social help and support for them. What are the factors that determine the readiness of potential donors to donate money for the cause? How can we set up an effective campaign meant to raise money to help the HIV and AIDS patients in Africa?

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Applying Social Psychology Analysis

In order to identify the factors that are responsible for affecting the willingness of people in donating money for the HIV/AIDS affected people, the social psychologist decides to formulate a few questions and to answer them according to the relevant social psychology literature. The psychologist consults the literature on helping, altruism, cooperation and prosocial behavior by Batson & Powell, 2003; Van Vugt, Snyder, Tyler, & Biel, 2000, and here he will find what is the motivation behind people helping each other and spending money on a good cause. There are also literatures, such as by Prislin & Wood, 2005 which is on social influence, that is, what are the effective strategies in getting people to do what you want them to do. In our case this is giving charity of the HIV/AIDS patients in Africa. The social psychologist also searches for prosocial literature on the Internet by searching with keywords such as helping, altruism and cooperation, and he thus finds a couple of books such as The Altruism question (1991) Batson. The questions that he searching for are: What are the reasons behind the peoples inclination to help others? What attributes present in the victims are most likely to elicit a helping response? by an American psychologist Dan

After having consulted this literature, the psychologist concludes that there are three kinds of helping: Emergency helping: helping someone who has fallen victim to a robbery or accident Organizational helping: taking a voluntary role as an administrative head or job at the request of a manager. Sharing & donating: donating money to a charity

The kind of helping that is required in our case is the third one, but most literature is focusing on the first and the second type of prosocial helping. By exploring further, he finds a theoretical model by the Israeli psychologist Shalom Schwartz that was published

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in the book Advances in Experimental Social Psychology in 1977; this is the model that the social psychologist decides to use for influencing the peoples willingness to donate money for HIV/AIDS charity.

The social psychologist decides to use Schwartzs model as a basis for understanding the problem that underlies the campaign of HIV/AIDS. According to the Schwartz model, there are many steps that affect the peoples prosocial behavior, the most important of these are: 1. Awareness: having awareness that the victims need help. It is essential to draw attention of people that the people who are suffering from HIV/AIDS are in urgent need of more medical, financial and psychological support. 2. Opportunities to help: people must also be aware of the fact that there are genuine opportunities for helping people who are suffering from the disease. The campaign should focus on the actions that can be undertaken to improve the well being of the victims. 3. Ability to help: the people should also be able to recognize their ability to provide relief, and the fact that every euro count. A small donation can make a lot of difference. 4. Personal Norms & responsibility: this is also a major factor that will affect the helping behavior. If the people feel a moral obligation to help and also accepting some responsibility of their role in solving a societal problem. The literature also suggests that people feel more inclination to help if they consider the recipients to be blameless. Therefore the impression that the AIDS patients are always themselves to blame must be eradicated in order to gain more sympathy for the patients. Also people are more likely to help if they can identify with the patients if they are similar in age, profession and values. (Levy, Freitas, & Salovey, 2002; Strmer et al., 2006). Providing personal reports of the AIDS victims to the potential donors can help in reducing the distance between the donor and recipient.

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According to belief in a just world theory by Canadian social psychologist Melvin Lerner (1980), people have the natural tendency to believe that they live in a world which is just, and people get what they deserve. According to Lerner (1980), the people interpret an unjust event by holding the victims responsible for their sufferings, such as assuming that an AIDS/HIV patient is morally irresponsible, promiscuous etc. The social psychologist finds out that the believers in a just world are less likely to donate towards charity for this campaign. The psychologist concludes that the team should highlight the injustice of the fate of the HIV/AIDS patients in Africa. A further scrutiny of the literature has the findings that the people have more sympathy for people if they believe that a similar event can also happen to them (Montada, 1992; Silver, Wortman & Crofton, 1990). If the people have more experiences related to HIV/AIDS such as personally knowing people having suffered from that, that will also generate more sympathy for the victims.

Test
The main outcome variable of the model is the willingness to donate money for charities meant for HIV/AIDS patients. According to the model, there are a number of processes that will influence this willingness. The main factor is the attitude towards the victims. People who believe in the just world hypothesis(Mantler, 2001). are likely to think that the victims are responsible for their fate for example if they believe that AIDS is preventable if a person practices safe sex. If the bad events occurring are considered to be preventable, then they will generate anger rather than compassion, and a negative attitude towards the patient. As a consequence, the HIV/AIDS patients are stereotyped in a negative way.

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Research The social psychologist suggests to the campaign team that there are some relationships in the proposed model which are not clear in the literature. These require further testing and research. An area of research could be that the association between the feelings of guilt and helping. Some people are willing to donate not because of feelings of compassion and sympathy but due to feelings of guilt. If the campaign would try to highlight the poverty related problems of the AIDS patients then that might be succeed in eliciting guilt and thus leading people to donate. On the other hand, it may also infuriate people and lead them to contribute nothing for the cause. Therefore this relationship needs to be explored further by research.

Help
On the basis of the model proposed by the volunteers, there are a number of factors that are difficult to change for example the belief in a just world. But some of the factors can be possibly influence by the campaign. It is important to change the stereotype associated with AIDS patients such as considering that they have brought this event upon themselves. The people will also be encouraged if they feel that their gift can make a small difference (Kerr, 1989; Oskamp et al., 1998). Also the donation process if made easier can also encourage people to donate more, such as donation over the Internet. Some of the proposals of the campaign are: Presenting personal profiles of the people who are ill with AIDS and are trying to make the best of their situation, which is abject due to lack of medical and psychological support. For example a child who has been infected since birth and is so ill that he would die without treatment, a woman who was raped and after her infection her husband left her. The above examples would also tackle the tendency to blame the people suffering from the disease, such as the raped women and children who got the infection from their mother.

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Making a appeal and inducing the feelings of moral obligation of people by displaying that the people suffering from HIV/AIDS are in desperate need of help/ Using positive messages in order to prevent the negative attitude towards the victims. Making clear that every drop counts, 1 euro can feed a family for two days. Lowering the threshold for donation, and allowing donation to occur on the Internet. .Conclusion

Using the model proposed by the social psychologist, the campaign team can achieve many inroads in influencing people to donate more towards the HIV/AIDS patients in Africa.

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Applying Social Psychology References

Fiske, S. T., Cuddy, A. J., Glick, P., & Xu, J. (2002). A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: Competence and warmth respectively follow from perceived status and competition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 878-902. Van Vugt, M., Snyder, M., Tyler, T., & Biel, A. (2000). Cooperation in modern society: Promoting the welfare of communities, states, and organisations. London: Routledge. (pp. 245). Fiske, S. T., & Taylor, S. E. (in press). Social cognition: From brains to culture (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Glick, P. & Fiske, S. T. (2001). An ambivalent alliance: Hostile and benevolent sexism as complementary justifications of gender inequality. American Psychologist, 56, 109118. Schultz, P. W., & Oskamp, S. (2000). Social psychology: An applied perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Dovidio, J. F., Piliavin, J. A., Schroeder, D. A., & Penner, L. A. (2006). The social psychology of pro-social behavior. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

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