Transcript Introduction to Psychology

Social Psychology
Time-interval
Exercise (p.9 IM)
example of
Social
Influence
Social Psychology
How individuals
Think about… one another
Influence… one another
Relate to… one another
Social Thinking
How do you make sense of people’s behavior?
We make attributions… (explaining others’ behavior)
We use our “social intelligence”, but we often make
an error….
Fundamental Attribution Error
tendency when analyzing another’s behavior, to
underestimate the impact of the situation and to
overestimate the impact of personal traits
Examples? (e.g., “it was a just a few bad apples
responsible for the Abu Ghraib abuses”)
Attitudes and Behavior
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance)
we feel when our thoughts are inconsistent
(or when our thoughts and behavior are
inconsistent).
Smoking example (“Smoking is unhealthy, but I
smoke”)
 rationalization (e.g., “sour grapes”)
Social Thinking and
Social Influence
Stanford Prison Study by Zimbardo – role-playing,
attitudes and behavior (McGraw-Hill DVD)
Situational and systemic factors must be
taken into account
Norms and roles
• Learned, socially based rules
• Culturally-based
Social Influence
Studies of conformity and
obedience
Videos
Candid Camera (begin w/ Segment 5)
Why do people behave in these
ways?
Research Studies (McGraw-Hill DVD: next slide)
Social Influence
Studies:
Asch – conformity experiments
Milgram – obedience to authority
“Most people do what they are told to do as long as
they perceive that the command comes from a
legitimate authority.”
Results: The majority of subjects continued to obey to the end –
“Danger-Severe-XXX”
Social Influence
Question: In what specific ways does the
presence of others influence your behavior?
Example: Do people in a group exert less effort
compared to when they are individually accountable
(e.g., work crews)?
 Called Social Loafing
Social Facilitation
improved performance of tasks in the presence of
others – when? examples?
Social Influence
Deindividuation
loss of selfawareness and selfrestraint occurring in
group situations that
foster arousal and
anonymity
Social Relations
Stereotypes and Prejudice
How do these develop?
Can they be altered?
(A class divided: blue-eye, brown-eye film)
Social RelationsAttractiveness
Social RelationsAttractiveness
Why do you judge someone as attractive?
Blind Date
(DVD Segment 30) –
Social Cognition and Person
Perception
Factors influencing attraction?
Proximity
mere exposure effect – repeated exposure increases liking of
them
Similarity
friends share common attitudes, beliefs, interests
Physical Attractiveness
What makes someone physically “attractive?”
What is attractive?
What is attractive?
Social Relations -aggression
Social views of aggression
Modeling: bobo dolls, violent media
(desensitization?)
Frustration-Aggression Principle
Media and Aggression
Television violence
Pornography
Video games
Bystander Studies
 What would you do? (ABC Primetime video)
Kitty Genovese
The decision-making process for bystander
intervention:
Notices
incident?
Yes
Interprets
incident as
emergency?
No
No
help
Yes
Assumes
responsibility?
No
No
help
No
No
help
Yes
Attempts
to help
Bystander Effect
100
90
Percentage 90
attempting
80
to help 80
tendency for
any given
bystander to be
less likely to
give aid if other
bystanders are
present
70
70
60
60
50
50
40
40
30
30
20
20
10
10
00
1
1
2
2
3
3
Number of others
presumed available to help
4
4