Transcript soc-psych07

Social Psychology
• Basic premise: Who we are is
determined by our social interactions
– --Past: our social development
– --Present: social influence
We’ll start with an area of overlap between
cognition and social influence; attitudes,
and the drive toward attitude consistency
Strong Generalization About
Attitudes
We like to maintain consistancy of
attitudes:
1. selective exposure
2. selective interpretation
3. selective memory
Stronger Theories of Attitude
Consistency
• Balance Theory (Heider)
• Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger)
• Self Perception Theory (Bem)
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
• Leon Festinger: Two cognitions that are
in conflict or dissonant (one implies the
opposite of the other) result in pressure
to change one or both to bring them into
consonance
• In practice, the two are an attitude and a
behavior and the attitude changes
Three types of Dissonance Situations
or Experiments
• Justification of effort (Aronson & Mills)
• Inadequate external justification
--when prophecy fails (Ms. Keech)
--counterattitudinal advocacy (Yale)
• Consequences of a decision (Brehm)
Knox & Inkster betting study
(consequences of making a decision)
Self Perception Theory- Bem
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The theory and its relation to cog. diss.
Experimental evidence (Bem, Valins)
Can we know ourselves given all this?
(Back to Missouri!)
Emotion and Self-Perception
• Emotions involve both bodily activation
(brain-endocrine) and precipitating stimuli
• Naïve view: perception of p-stimuli causes
us to feel a certain way-->activates body
• James-Lange view: p-stim. causes
physiological arousal--> perceived emotion
• Cognitive theory: p-stim. + physiol. arousal
--> perceived emotional state
Social Influence (continued):
some dangerous findings
Bystandar Apathy
Conformity
Obedience
Bystander Apathy &
Intervention
• Surprising work of Darley & Latane on
the effect of the no. of bystanders
Mechanisms That Produce
Bystander Apathy Effects
1. moral diffusion
2. lack of clarity--ambiguity of interp. and of action.
airport/subway crutch--fall 83 vs. 41 % helped,
and they were people more familiar with the
surround.
3. costs of intervention. sometimes they are raised
bythe presence of others (surveillance)
4. rules for behaving: don't stare, unless you know
what to do/day, keep your mouth shut etc.
5) mood: Isen dime in coin slot mailing letter 10-->90
%
Solomon Asch: Conformity
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Conformity: Good or bad?
Major findings: 1/3 & 2/3 conform!
What it takes to resist!
Conclusion
Stanley Milgram: Obedience
• Description of Experiment
• Basic findings 2/3
• Field theory explanation (exper. vs.
victim force fields)
Underlying Explanation
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Foot in the door
Other is responsible (diffusion of resp.)
Aloneness- lack of social support
Ambiguity about situation/what to do!!!
Other directedness (Reisman)
Schein’s POW Work
• Level of compliance and how it was
obtained
• The power of social isolation
• Who resisted?
• Solution: inner codes vs. external or
situational control
• Conclusion: balance?……