Social psychology and group dynamics — structured clinical viva

Opening definitions (90 seconds)

Social psychology: influence of actual, imagined, or implied others on thought, feeling, and behaviour. Name the toolkit: attribution and FAE; dissonance/forced compliance; conformity (normative vs informational); obedience; bystander diffusion; social identity; groupthink and polarisation; stigma types.[4][5][3]

Family EE vignette

High EE = criticism, hostility, emotional over-involvement. Blaming controllability attributions fuel criticism; EE predicts relapse (meta-analysis). Intervene with psychoeducation and skills — support carers, do not shame them.[9][11]

Junior and unsafe plan

Distinguish conformity (peer consensus silence), obedience (authority order), and compliance (request without private acceptance). Encourage speak-up / dual challenge; hierarchy is not a moral blank cheque. Milgram and Burger show situational power of authority — ethics demand independent professional judgment.[1][2][5]

Stigma and delayed care

Public vs self vs structural stigma; self-stigma stages; stigma blocks help-seeking. Prefer contact-based anti-stigma over education-only; caution biogenetic-only messages that may increase social distance.[13]

Bystander teaching point

More bystanders can mean less individual helping via diffusion of responsibility. Clinical fix: name roles and a single owner of the next action.[3]

Dissonance one-liner

Insufficient external justification for counter-attitudinal behaviour drives private attitude change (Festinger and Carlsmith $1 vs $20).[4]

Safety and examiner traps

Traps: EE = any emotion; more people always means more help; Milgram excuses unethical orders; education posters alone “fix” stigma; inventing legal sections. Laws are jurisdiction-specific; social psychology informs culture and formulation but does not replace capacity frameworks.[1][3][9][13]