Transcript Social Psychology

Social Psychology
 The branch of psychology that studies how we think
about, influence, and relate to one another.
Social Context
 The combination of people, the activities and
interactions among people, the setting in which
behavior occurs, and the expectations and social
norms governing behavior in that setting.
Attributing Behavior to Persons or
Situations
 Attribution Theory – The theory that we explain
someone’s behavior by crediting either the situation or
the person’s disposition.
 Fundamental Attribution Error – The tendency for
observers, when analyzing another’s behavior, to
underestimate the impact of the situation and to
overestimate the impact of personal disposition.
Attitudes and Actions
 Does what we think affect what we do, or does what we
do affect what we think?
 Attitudes affect Actions:
 Our attitudes often predict our behavior
 Central route to persuasion – Attitude change path in
which interested people focus on the arguments and
respond with favorable thoughts.
 Peripheral Route to Persuasion – Attitude change path
in which people are influenced by incidental cues, such
as a speaker’s attractiveness.
Attitudes and Actions
 Actions affect Attitudes:
 Many streams of evidence confirm that attitudes follow
behavior.
 Foot in the Door Phenomenon – The tendency for
people who have first agreed to a small request to
comply later with a larger request.
Attitudes and Actions
 Actions Affect Attitudes:
 Role-Playing Affects Attitudes:
 Social Roles – One of several socially defined patterns of
behavior that are expected of persons in a given setting
or group
 Script – A cluster of knowledge about the sequences of
events and actions expected to occur in a particular
setting
 Social Norms – A group’s expectations regarding what is
appropriate and acceptable for its members’ attitudes
and behaviors.
The Stanford Prison Experiment
 Explaining the power of social situations in controlling
behavior!
 Especially how social roles impact attitudes and actions!
Social Influence
 Conformity and Social Influence:
 Conformity – The tendency for people to adopt the
behaviors, attitudes, and opinions of other members of a
group.
 Asch Effect – A form of Conformity in which a group
majority influences individual judgments.
 Based on the findings of Solomon Asch
Group Characteristics that Produce
Conformity
 The size of the majority
 The presence of a partner who dissented from the
majority
 The size of the discrepancy
 Normative social influence – Influence resulting from
a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval.
 Informational social influence – Influence resulting
from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about
reality.
Conformity
 Groupthink – Members of the group attempt to
conform their opinions to what each believes to be the
consensus of the group.
 Ash’s Study
 Conditions that influence groupthink:
 Isolation of the group
 High group cohesiveness
 Directive leadership
 Lack of norms requiring methodical procedures
 Homogeneity of members’ social background and ideology
 High stress from external threats with low hope of a better
solution than that of the group leader
Obedience to Authority
 Milgram’s Obedience Experiment
 2/3 delivered the maximum shock of 450 volts!!!
 Even though the participants verbally dissented, they
continued giving the shocks… WHY???
Obedience to Authority
 Conditions under which people tend to be obedient:
 When a peer modeled obedience by complying to the
authority figure’s commands
 When the victim was remote from the “teacher” and could
not be seen or heard
 When the “teacher” was under direct surveillance of the
authority figure so that he was aware of the authority figure’s
presence
 When a participant acted as an intermediary bystander,
merely “assisting the one who was delivering the shock, rather
than actually throwing the switches
 When the authority figure had higher relative status (being
billed as a “professor” or “doctor”
Group Influence
 How do groups affect our behavior???
 Social Facilitation – An increase in an individual’s
performance because of being in a group.
 Social Loafing – A decrease in performance because of
being in a group.
 Deindividuation – Occurs when group members lose
their sense of personal identity and responsibility and
the group “assumes” responsibility for their behavior.
Group Influence
 Effects of Group Influence:
 Group Polarization – The enhancement of a group’s
prevailing inclinations through discussion within the
group.
 Groupthink – the mode of thinking that occurs when
the desire for harmony in a decision-making group
overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.
Cultural Influence
 Norms, scripts, roles all vary across cultures, thereby
meaning that different cultural norms, scripts, etc
impact behavior differently.
 Cultural influence also vary greatly across time:
 Example – Women in the U.S.
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Victorian
Flappers
Modern
Prejudice and Discrimination
 Prejudice – A negative attitude toward an individual
based solely on his or her membership in a particular
group.
 Stereotypes often feed prejudice
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A generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized)
belief about a group of people.
Prejudice and Discrimination
 Discrimination – A negative action taken against an
individual as a result of his or her group membership.
Prejudice and Discrimination
 Dissimilarity and Social Distance
 In-group – The group with which an individual
identifies.
 Social Distance – The perceived difference or similarity
between oneself and another person.
 Out-group – Those outside the group with which an
individual identifies.
Prejudice and Discrimination
 Scapegoating – Blaming an innocent person or a group
for one’s own troubles.
 Example – Adolf Hitler used the Jews as a scapegoat for
Germany’s problems following WWI.
Roots of Prejudice
 Culture
 Family
 Religion
 History
 Just-World Phenomenon – The tendency for people to
believe the world is just and that people therefore get what
they deserve and deserve what they get.
 Example – One German civilian is said to have remarked
when visiting the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp shortly
after WWII, “What terrible criminals these prisoners must
have been to receive such treatment.”
Aggression
 Aggression – Any physical or verbal behavior intended to
hurt or destroy.
 Genetic Influences
 Some animals are bread to be aggressive (Pit Bulls)
 Identical Twins – One aggressive, both tend to be aggressive.
 Neural Influences
 The brain does not produce aggression, rather it facilitates it
when certain areas are stimulated:
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Amygdala – Facilitates
Frontal Lobes – Inhibit
 Damage to frontal lobes can increase aggression
 Biochemical Influences
 Hormones and alcohol… Testosterone
Aggression
 Psychological and Social Influences
 Aversive Events
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Frustration – Aggression Principle – The principle that
frustration – the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal
creates anger, which can generate aggression.
 Social and Cultural Influences
 Family
 Media
 Gender
 Norms
 Scripts
 Roles
The Roots of Violence and
Aggression
 Violence and Aggression – Terms that refer to behavior
that is intended to cause harm.
Interpersonal Attraction
 We usually prefer rewarding relationships
 Reward Theory of Attraction – A social-learning view
that says we like best those who give us maximum
rewards at minimum cost.
Interpersonal Attraction
 Proximity – Nearness.
 Principle of Proximity – The notion that people at
work will make more friends among those who are
nearby – with whom they have the most contact.
 Mere Exposure Effect – The phenomenon that
repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of
them.
Interpersonal Attraction
 Similarity
 Similarity Principle – The notion that people are
attracted to those who are most similar to themselves.
Interpersonal Attraction
 Self-Disclosure – The more intimate details we share
about our lives with someone, the more attracted we
become to them.
 Most people find self disclosure highly rewarding.
 Builds trust, which leads to attraction.
Interpersonal Attraction
 Physical Attraction
 Although we may say it doesn’t matter, research shows that it
actually does.
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Americans spend more money on beauty products every year than
on education and social services combined…
Matters in how people perceive us
Getting a job
Children
Physically attractive people are often seen as more poised,
interesting, sociable, independent, exciting, sexual,
intelligent, well-adjusted, and successful.
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Also sometimes perceived as more vain and materialistic.
 Same for opposite and same sex couples
Interpersonal Attraction
 Expectations and the Influence of Self-Esteem
 Matching Hypothesis – The prediction that most people
will find friends and mates that are perceived to be of
about their same level of attractiveness.
 Expectancy-value Theory – A theory of social
psychology that people decide whether to pursue a
relationship by weighing the potential value of the
relationship against their expectation of success in
establishing the relationship.
Loving Relationships
 Loving relationships
 Romantic Love – A temporary and highly emotional
condition based on infatuation and sexual desire. Usually
present at the beginning of a love relationship.
 Companionate Love – The deep affectionate attachment we
feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined.
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Equity and Self Disclosure are key here.
 Triangular Theory of Love – A theory that describes various
kinds of love in terms of three components:
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Passion (erotic attraction)
Intimacy (sharing feelings and confidences)
Commitment (dedication to putting this relationship first in one’s
life)
Altruism
 When are we most-and least – likely to help others?
 Altruism – Unselfish regard for the welfare of others.
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Medal of Honor Recipients
“Hotel Rwanda”
 Bystander Effect
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Kitty Genovese Incident
The Bystander Problem
 Kitty Genovese incident:
 Raped and stabbed to death in Queens, NY while 38
people watched from their windows.
 Only one person called the police, after the incident was
over.
The Bystander Problem
 Diffusion of responsibility – Dilution or weakening of
each group member’s obligation to act when
responsibility is perceived to be shared with all group
members.
Altruism
 The Norms of Helping Others
 Social Exchange Theory – The theory that our social
behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to
maximize benefits and minimize costs.
 Reciprocity Norm – An expectation that people will
help, not hurt, those who have helped them.
 Social-Responsibility Norm – An expectation that
people will help those dependent upon them.
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Parents and Children
Conflict and Peacemaking
 Conflict – A perceived incompatibility of actions,
goals, or ideas.
 Social Traps
 A situation in which the conflicting parties, by each
rationally pursuing their self-interest, become caught in
mutually destructive behavior.
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Whalers, bison hunters, etc…. Creates extinction of the very
species they are hunting.
Conflict and Peacemaking
 Enemy Perceptions
 Mirror-image perceptions – Mutual views often held by
conflicting people, as when each side sees itself as
ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and
aggressive.
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Often the case in times of war.
 Self-Fulfilling Prophecy – A belief that leads to its own
fulfillment.
Conflict and Peacemaking
 Peacemaking
 Essential Components
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Contact
Cooperation
Communication