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Chapter 15
Social Psychology
Attribution Theory
• The study of how people perceive the causes of behavior
• Trying to make sense of another's behavior, a person
typically makes one of two inferences:
– (1) the behavior was caused by the individual's personal thoughts
(internal attributions)
– (2) it was provoked by someone else (external attribution).
• Internal attribution of behavior refers to a person'a traits,
abilities, and dispositions
• External attribution of behavior refers to perceived
environment demands
Kelley's attribution theory
• This covariation model includes three types
of information:
– Consistency
– Distinctiveness
– Consensus
• Depending on how these three factors
covary, Kelley's theory predicts people
attribute a behavior to either internal or
external causes.
The Fundamental
Attribution Error
• Tendency to attribute the causes of another
person's behavior to personal dispositions
rather than the demands of a situation.
The Self-Serving Bias
• The tendency to attribute one's failures to
the situation and one's successes to personal
factors.
ABC Approach to Attitudes
• Social psycholgoists who have studied attitudes see them
as complex mixtures of three different components:
affective, behavioral, and cognitive.
Techniques of Persuasive
Communication
• The five components of a persuasive
message include the source of the message,
the message, the channel over which the
message is delivered, the receiver of the
message, and target behavior.
Cognitive Dissonance
• Cognitive dissonance is an unpleasant
psychological state caused by two
contradictory thoughts about the same
event. People usually reduce the dissonance
by altering their thoughts and behavior.
Muzafer Sherif's (1939) Study of Social
Influences on Apparent Movement
• The results of this study suggest that in ambiguous
situations, individuals conform relatively quickly
to a group standard.
Solomon Asch's Line Judgment
Study on Conformity
• The results of this study suggest that
individuals are susceptible to group
standards even when the task is less
ambiguous.
Stanley Milgram's Obedience Studies
• Milgram found that two
out of every three teachers
continued to shock the
learners even at the
highest voltage levels.
Group Influence
on Personal Performance
• Social facilitation
• Social loafing
• Bystander effect
Gender Roles
• Men and women consistently see each other as behaving in
gender-specific ways.
Passionate versus
Companionate Love
• Passionate love involves intense emotions
and sexual attraction, and companionate
love is what most people would call
friendship. In many relationships, the two
overlap.
companionate
love
passionate
love
Sternberg's Triarchic
Theory of Love
• Successful, long-lasting relationships between couples are
characterized by passion, intimacy, and commitment.
Love Changes Over Time
• Sternberg proposes that passion, intimacy, and commitment
are different aspects of a long-lasting relationship. Passion
typically peaks during the early stages of a relationship, while
intimacy and commitment grow slowly and can endure for a
lifetime.
Prejudice and Stereotyping
• Stereotypical thinking often occurs unconsciously.
Causes of Aggression
• The sociobiological and evolutionary view - genes interact with culture to produce
unique instances of aggressive behavior.
• Sociocultural theories of aggressive
behavior -- frustration-aggression
hypothesis holds that a person is more likely
to become aggressive when frustrated.