Transcript File - PSYC DWEEB

Social Psychology
 scientific study of how we think about,
influence, and relate to one another
Social Thinking
 Our behavior is affected by our inner attitudes
as well as by external social influences
Internal
attitudes
External
influences
Behavior
Internal Influences

Attitude
 belief and feeling that predisposes one to respond in a particular way
to objects, people and events
 Often learned
 Can change as acquire new information and experiences
 Ages 16 – 24 critical period for these
Internal Influences
 Attribution Theory
 tendency to give a causal explanation for someone’s
behavior, often by crediting either the situation
(Situational Attribution) or the person’s
disposition (Dispositional Attribution)
Internal Influences
 Fundamental Attribution Error
 tendency for observers, when analyzing another’s behavior, to
underestimate the impact of the situation and to
overestimate the impact of personal disposition
Internal Influences
 Self-Serving Bias
 the tendency to take credit personally for good
things that happen and blame the situation, others,
etc. for mistakes and failures
Internal Influences
 Cognitive Dissonance Theory
 we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we
feel when two of our thoughts or beliefs are
inconsistent or our behavior does not match our
thoughts (or beliefs)
Internal Influences
 Dissonance is reduced by:





Rejecting one of the beliefs
Changing the behavior
Denying the evidence which points out the discrepancy
Rationalize
Ignoring (Repression)
External Influences
 Norm
 An understood rule for accepted and expected
behavior
 Role
 set of expectations about a social position that
defines how those in the position ought to behave
External Influences
 Groups:
 two or more people interacting with and
influencing one another
External Influences
 Conformity
 adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group
standard
Obedience

following direct commands, usually from an authority figure
External Influences
 Group Polarization
 The tendency within a group to move toward the group’s
prevailing attitudes through discussion within the group
 Groupthink
 mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a
decision-making group overrides realistic appraisal of
alternatives
External Influences
 Diffusion of Responsibility

when in an anonymous group, the belief that someone else
“will do it”
 Deindividuation
 loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in group situations that
foster arousal and anonymity
External and Internal
Influences
 Prejudice
 an unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group
and its members
 Stereotype
 An often inaccurate and overgeneralized belief about a
group of people
 Discrimination
 prejudicial action taken
External and Internal
Influences
 Ingroup Bias
 tendency to favor one’s own group
 Scapegoat Theory
 theory that prejudice provides an outlet for
anger by providing someone to blame