Transcript The role of understanding and acceptance of each other in

PROFESSIONAL
COMMUNICATIONS IN
PHARMACY.
Accessible vs. inaccessible attitudes
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Effects of attitudes can occur quickly, but only for
people whose attitude is accessible (easy to
retrieve). When attitudes are accessible, they come
to mind instantly when we see the attitude object.
The attitude then influences how we behave towards
the object. If the attitude is less accessible, it doesn’t
come to mind, and so it doesn’t influence our
behaviour.
Important attitude functions
Seminal theories of attitude function
Motivation and ability
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Two newer models of persuasion, the ‘elaboration
likelihood model’ and the ‘heuristic–systematic
model’predict that the effects of persuasive messages
depend on people’s motivation and ability to think
carefully about them.
Many variables influence motivation and ability.
Motivation is high when the message is relevant to
personal goals and there is a fear of being wrong.
Ability is high when people are not distracted and
when they possess high cognitive skills.
Early theories of attribution
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Attributions are explanations for events and
behaviour. Heider differentiated between two types
of causal attribution – personal and situational.
Personal attributions refer to factors within the
person, such as their personality characteristics,
motivation, ability and effort. Situational attributions
refer to factors within the environment that are
external to the person.
The covariation of events and
behaviour
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consistency – does the person respond in the same
way to the same stimuli over time?
distinctiveness – do they behave in the same way to
other different stimuli, or is the behaviour
distinctively linked to specific stimuli?
consensus – do observers of the same stimuli
respond in a similar way?
Our View of Self
and Others
•
The way we look at ourselves plays an important role in how we
see the world. The way we see the world plays an important role
in how we see ourselves. In this sense, our view of self and others
is an ever-changing circle of influence.
• We know that those who are happy see more positive aspects of
the world than those who are depressed. We also know that
living in an abusive household or an overly restrictive
environment can both lead to depression.
• Social psychology explores the social areas of attribution (how we
interpret those around us) and attraction (what we seek in a
friend or partner).
Attribution Theory
• We tend to explain our own behavior and the behavior of
others by assigning attributes to these behavior. An attribute
is an inference about the cause of a behavior. According to the
Attribution Theory, we tend to explain our own behavior and
the behavior of others by assigning attributes to these
behavior.
• There are basically two sources for our behavior; those
influenced by situational (external) factors and those
influenced by dispositional (internal) factors. Imagine walking
into your boss's office and he immediately tells you, in an
angry tone, not to bother him. An external explanation of this
behavior might be, "He's really a nice guy but the stress is
overwhelming. He needs a vacation." On the other hand, you
might see the same behavior and say, "What a jerk, I don't
know why is so angry all the time." The same behavior is given
two very opposite explanations.
The actor–observer effect:
Perceptual salience
Fundamental Attribution Error
• This refers to the tendency to over estimate the internal and
underestimate the external factors when explaining the
behaviors of others.
• This may be a result of our tendency to pay more attention to
the situation rather than to the individual and is especially
true when we know little about the other person. For
example, the last time you were driving and got cut off did
you say to yourself "What an idiot" (or something similar), or
did you say "She must be having a rough day."
• Chances are that this behavior was assigned mostly internal
attributes and you didn't give a second thought to what
external factors are playing a role in her driving behavior.
Self-Serving Bias
• We tend to equate successes to internal and failures to external
attributes. Imagine getting a promotion. Most of us will feel that this
success is due to hard work, intelligence, dedication, and similar internal
factors.
• This bias is true for most people, but for those who are depressed, have
low self-esteem, or view themselves negatively, the bias is typically
opposite. For these people, a success may mean that a multitude of
negatives have been overlooked or that luck was the primary reason. For
failures, the depressed individual will likely see their own negative
qualities, such as stupidity, as being the primary factor.
The motivation for selfenhancement
The ultimate attribution error
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The self-serving bias also operates at the group level. So we
tend to make attributions that protect the group to which we
belong. This is perhaps most clearly demonstrated in what
Pettigrew called the ultimate attribution error (UAE).
By extending the fundamental attribution error to the group
context, Pettigrew demonstrated how the nature of intergroup
relations shapes the attributions that group members make for
the same behaviour by those who are in-group and out-group
members. So prejudicial attitudes and stereotypes of disliked
out-groups lead to derogating attributions, whereas the need
for positive enhancement and protection of the in-group leads
to group-serving attributions.
Attraction
• Why are we attracted to certain people and
not others? Why do our friends tend to be
very similar to each other? And what causes
us to decide on a mate?
• Many of these questions relate to social
psychology in that society's influence and our
own beliefs and traits play an important
role. Research has found five reasons why we
choose our friends.
Proximity
• The vast majority of our friends live close to where we live, or
at least where we lived during the time period the friendship
developed.
• Obviously friendships develop after getting to know someone,
and this closeness provides the easiest way to accomplish this
goal. Having assigned seats in a class or group setting would
result in more friends who's last name started with the same
letter as yours
Association
• We tend to associate our opinions about other
people with our current state.
• In other words, if you meet someone during a
class you really enjoy, they may get more
'likeability points' then if you met them during
that class you can't stand.
Similarity
• On the other hand, imagine that person above
agrees with you this particular class is the
worse they have taken.
• The agreement or similarity between the two
of you would likely result in more
attractiveness
Reciprocal Linking
• Simply put, we tend to like those better
who also like us back. This may be a
result of the feeling we get about
ourselves knowing that we are likable.
• When we feel good when we are around
somebody, we tend to report a higher
level of attraction toward that person.
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Physical
Attractiveness
Physical attraction plays a role in
who we choose as friends,
although not as much so as in who
we choose as a mate.
These points are divided into
categories such as physical
attractiveness, sense of humor,
education, and wealth.
We rate ourselves on these same
categories and, at least at some
level, know our score. We tend to
then pick friends and partners
who have a similar score that we
do.
Obedience
and Power
• Power is typically thought
of has having a certain
attribute which gives one
person more influence
over another. This
attribute could be
intelligence or experience,
it could be job title, or
perhaps money.
• According to most social
psychologists, there are
five types of power:
coercive, reward,
legitimate, expert, and
referent.
• Coercive power means the power
punish. Parents are said to have coercive
power because they can place their child in
time-out, for example; bosses have coercive
power because they can fire an employee or
assign an employee a less pleasing job.
• Reward power is almost the opposite; it is
the power to reward. In that sense parents
and bosses have this type of power as well, as
do many others in our lives.
• Legitimate power refers to the power granted
by some authority, such as the power a police
officer has due to the local or state
government or the power a professor has due
to the rules of a college or university.
• Expert power results from experience or
education. Those individuals with more
knowledge tend to have more power in
situations where that knowledge is
important. For instance, the physician will
have more power in a medical emergency
than the plumber. But, when the pipes
explode and the house is being flooded,
the physician is not the person to call.
• Finally, referent power refers to
admiration or respect. When we look up
to people because of their
accomplishments, their attitude, or any
other personal attribute, we tend to give
them more power over us. Imagine being
asked to do something by your "hero" or
your favorite movie star; we are very likely
to comply out of admiration or respect.
The Role of Groups
We are concerned with our social image or how other people
see us.
• When alone, we tend to be more relaxed, less concerned
with the outward expression of our behavior, and are basically
'ourselves.'
• We tend to perform better at tasks that are well learned or
simple. When completing a difficult or new task, however,
our performance level decreases and we tend to do more
poorly.
• This phenomenon is called social facilitation, and as we try
harder due to the presence of others, our performance
actually decreases for difficult or unlearned tasks.
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Group Think and
Group Polarization
• If you've ever been involved in a group decision making
process, you've probably seen such things happen: either the
group agrees on all of the major issues, or there is significant
dissent that splits the group. When we all agree, and are
happy with that agreement, we typically do not want to
hear opposing arguments. This phenomenon is referred to as
Group Think. It can lead to impulsive decisions and a failure
to identify and/or consider all sides of an argument.
• Similar to this, Group Polarization refers to a groups
tendency to talk itself into extreme positions. In this case, a
group gets so focused and energized about a decision, which
pushes itself forward faster than originally intended.
Social loafing •
This theory states that as a group gets
larger, the individual contribution
decreases disproportionate to the
group size. This is due to the diffusion
of responsibility created as the size of
the group increases. As more people
are added to the group, you will end
up with a small percentage doing a
large portion of the work and a large
percentage doing a much smaller
proportion.
• Bystander Effect. The internal push to
help a person in need decreases as the
group gets larger, very similar to Social
Loafing. In this instance, however,
people tend to be followers and will
only get involved if they witness
another person getting involved.
Cultural differences
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The fundamental attribution error, which was originally thought
to be a universal cognitive bias, is not found in collectivist
cultures.
Western notions of the person are predominantly
individualistic, emphasizing the central importance and
autonomy of the person, whereas non Western notions tend to
be holistic, stressing the interdependence between the person
and their social relationships, role obligations and situational
norms.
Attributions are not only cognitive, but also social and cultural
phenomena that are based on social representations
Social schemas
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Social cognition research suggests that our behaviour and
interactions in the social world are facilitated by cognitive
representations in our minds called schemas – mental or
cognitive structures that contain general expectations and
knowledge of the world.
A schema contains both abstract knowledge and specific
examples about a particular social object. It ‘provides
hypotheses about incoming stimuli, which includes plans for
interpreting and gathering schema-related information’.
Schemas therefore give us some sense of prediction and control
of the social world. They guide what we attend to, what we
perceive, what we remember and what we infer.
Person schemas
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Person schemas – often referred to as person
prototypes – are configurations of personality traits
that we use to categorize people and to make
inferences about their behaviour.
They help us to anticipate the nature of our social
interactions with individuals, giving us a sense of
control and predictability.
Self schemas
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Just as we represent and store information about
others, we do the same about ourselves, developing
complex and varied schemas that define our selfconcept based on past experiences. Self schemas
are cognitive representations about ourselves that
organize and process all related information.
They develop from self-descriptions and traits that
are salient and important to our self-concept.
Role schemas
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The norms and expected behaviours of specific roles in society are
structured into role schemas. They will include both achieved roles –
including occupational and professional roles, such as doctor or
teacher – and ascribed roles, over which we have little control –
such as age, gender and race.
The roles and expectations associated with these categories are
commonly referred to as stereotypes – mental representations of
social groups and their members that are widely shared. Prolific
empirical research on stereotypes views the process of
categorizing individuals into their respective social groups as highly
functional in that it simplifies the inherent complexity of social
information.