Transcript Understanding Psychology 5th Edition Morris and Maisto

Social Psychology
What Is Social Psychology?
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The scientific study of the ways in which the
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of an individual are
influenced by the real or imagined behavior of others.
Main areas
 Social cognition
 Attitudes
 Social influence
 Social action
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SOCIAL COGNITION
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Knowledge and understanding
concerning the social world and the
people in it (including oneself)
Building blocks
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Impression formation
Attribution
Interpersonal attraction
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SOCIAL COGNITION continued……..
Impression Formation
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Schema
 A set of beliefs or expectations about something that is based on
past experience
Primacy effect
 The fact that early information about someone weighs more
heavily than later information in influencing one’s impression of
that person.
Self-fulfilling prophecies
 The process in which a person’s expectation about another elicits
behavior from the second person that confirms the expectation.
 Pygmalion effect
Stereotypes
 A special type of schema about members of a social category
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SOCIAL COGNITION continued……..
Attribution Theory
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The theory that addresses the question of how people make
judgments about the causes of behavior.
Behavior is typically explained as being the result of either internal
or external factors.
Biases in Attributions
 Fundamental attribution error/actor-observer bias
 The tendency of people to overemphasize internal causes for
other people’s failures and overemphasize external causes for
other people’s successes.
 Defensive attribution / self-serving bias
 The tendency to attribute our successes to internal factors
and our failures to external factors.
Attribution across cultures
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SOCIAL COGNITION continued……..
Interpersonal Attraction
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Major determinants
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Proximity
Physical attractiveness
Similarity
Exchange
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Equity
Intimacy
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Self-disclosure
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ATTITUDES
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A relatively stable organization of beliefs, feelings, and behavior
tendencies directed toward something or someone—the attitude
object.
Components of an Attitude
 Evaluative beliefs
 Feelings
 Behavioral tendencies
Attitude & behavior
 Self-Monitoring
 The tendency for one to observe a situation for cues about
how to react.
Acquiring Attitudes
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Attitude continued……………..
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Prejudice - an attitude
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Discrimination - behavior
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An unfair act or series of acts taken toward an entire group
of people or individual members of that group.
Interplay of prejudice and discrimination
Sources of Prejudice
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An unfair, intolerant, or unfavorable view of a group of
people.
Frustration aggression/displaced aggression
Authoritarian personality
Racism
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Prejudice and discrimination directed at a particular racial
group
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Attitude continued……………..
Changing attitude
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The Process of Persuasion
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Must attend to the message,
Comprehend the message
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The source
The message
The medium of communication
Characteristics of the audience
Accept it as convincing
Cognitive Dissonance
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Perceived inconsistency between two cognitions
Ways to Reduce Cognitive Dissonance
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Increase the number of thoughts that support one of the beliefs.
Reduce the importance of one of the cognitions.
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SOCIAL INFLUENCE
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The process by which others individually
or collectively affect one’s perceptions,
attitudes, and actions.
Social Influence and Culture
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Cultural norms learned through formal &
informal way
Perception about other’s culture
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Social Influence continued…...
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Conformity
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Voluntarily yielding to social norms, even at the
expense of one’s own preferences
factors influencing conformity
 Characteristics of the situation
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Characteristics of the individual
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Size of the group, Degree of unanimity, Nature of task
Attraction of group, Expected future interaction, member’s
low status in the group, lack of member’s complete
acceptance
Conformity across cultures
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Social Influence continued…...
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Compliance
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A change of behavior in response to an explicit request from another person or
group.
Obedience
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A change of behavior in response to an explicit command from another person,
typically an authority figure.
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Milgram’s Obedience Studies
 Classic work by Stanley Milgram showed that many people were willing to
obey orders to administer harmful shocks to other people.
 situational factors
 Power of authority
 Surveillance
 Responsibility of act is shared
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SOCIAL ACTION
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Change of behavior which depends on presence of
others
Deindividuation:
 Loss of personal sense of responsibility in a group
 Mob behavior
 A snowball effect, Protection
Helping behavior
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Instructor: Saba Nasir
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SOCIAL ACTION CONTINUE….
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Linked with self interest
 Not linked with self-interest/Altruistic behavior
 Factors Influencing Helping
 Situational variables
 Presence of other people/ Bystander effect,
 Ambiguity of situation
 Personal characteristics
 Amount of personal responsibility felt
 Amount of empathy felt
 One’s present mood
 No fear of embarrassment
 High need for approval
 Helping behavior across cultures
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Instructor: Saba Nasir
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Social Action continued…….
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Group Dynamics
 Group polarization in decision making:
 The tendency for people to become more extreme in their
attitudes, especially in risk taking (risky shift), as a result of
group discussion.
 Factors Affecting Group Effectiveness
 Nature of the task & Skills of group members
 Interaction among members
 Group size & Social loafing
 Cohesiveness & Group think
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Social Action continued…….
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Group Leadership
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Great person theory:
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Leadership is a result of personal qualities and traits that qualify one to
lead others. Concept of born leaders
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Right person at right time at right place
Transactional View of Leadership
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A number of factors interact to determine who becomes a leader:
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ignores social and economic factors.
Traits of the potential leader
Aspects of the situation in which the group finds itself
Response of the group and the leader to each other
Fiedler’s Contingency Model
Task-oriented; Mainly focuses on doing the task well
 Relationship-oriented; Focuses on maintaining group harmony and
cohesiveness
Leadership across cultures
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Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology
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I/O psychology is concerned with the
application of psychological principles to
the problems of human organizations.
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Decision making, job motivation, productivity,
job satisfaction, team work, job stress,
leadership etc
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