Transcript File
Chapter 18: Social Psychology
Definition: Sub-field of psychology that
studies of how others influence our
thoughts, feelings and actions
Focuses on…
- How large social forces such as groups,
social roles and norms bring out the best and
worst in all of us
- Explaining why people act differently in the
same situation, and why the same person
may act differently in different situations.
Chapter 16: Social Psychology
TOPICS
Our Thoughts About Others
- Attribution
- Attitude
Our Feelings about Others
- Prejudice & Discrimination
- Interpersonal Attraction
Our Actions Toward Others
- Social Influence
- Group Processes
- Aggression
- Altruism
Applying Social Psych. to Social
Problems
- Reducing Prejudice & Discrimination
Attribution Theory
Definition: Inferences that people draw about the causes
of events, others’ behavior, and their own behavior
Dispositional Attribution: we attribute a
person’s behavior to an internal state
(personality, abilities, etc.)
Situational Attribution: attributing a
person’s behavior to an external state
(stress, abuse, hardship, wealth, etc.)
Function: People like to explain and understand behavior and the
events that impact their lives
Attributions are made when an event is unusual and personal
Covariation Model of Attribution
Attribution
Example
Bias in Attribution
Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE): Observer’s bias in favor of internal
attributions in explaining others’ behavior but external attributions in
explaining their own
(Ex: Someone else drops out of college because “they couldn’t handle the pressure
or work load” – internal. You drop out of college because “tuition was raised and
you had to help support your family” – external)
Defensive Attribution: Tendency to blame the victim for their misfortune, so
that one feels less likely to be victimized in a similar way
Self-Serving Bias: Tendency to attribute one’s successes to personal factors
and one’s failures to situational factors
In-group bias- tendency to favor your own group over the out-group
Attitudes & Attitude Formation
- When we observe & respond to the world around us, it is never without the
influence of our attitudes (even if we don’t realize it).
- Advertisers spend millions because they know that
attitudes can be shaped & changed….to their benefit $$
Definition
Positive, negative, or mixed feelings, based on our beliefs, that predispose
us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.
Ex: A friend tells you that they believe Coach Stove is a mean teacher.
You may feel dislike for Coach Stove, and act unfriendly.
Components of Attitudes
• Cognitive: What you believe
• Affective: How you feel about it
• Behavioral: What you are willing to do about it
Components of Attitudes
Attitudes can Affect Action
Example: You believe working out is good for
you, but you dislike getting sweaty so you
avoid working out
- Your attitude toward exercise will guide
your physical fitness program
Foot-in-the-door phenomenon: peoples’
willingness to agree to a large request after
having agreed to a related small request.
Role-playing: people who behaved in certain
ways in scripted scenarios have adopted
attitudes in keeping with those roles. (Philip
Zimbardo’s prison experiment)
Cognitive Dissonance & Social Facilitation
Cognitive Dissonance Theory:
When we act in a way not
consistent with our beliefs we feel
tension. We then revise our beliefs
to align with our behavior.
Example:
Asked to do hour long boring task
Offered $1 or $20 to say it’s fun
Results: Larger payment led to less
dissonance b/c high payment could
account for ‘lying’. $1 was not enough to
justify lying so those people changed their
attitude to saying they enjoyed the task
Example:
After you go to all
the trouble of buying
a new house you
start to like it more
Social Facilitation
Being watched while doing task
vs. being alone when doing task
better on simple tasks
worse on complex tasks
Person Perception
Definition: The process of forming impressions of others
Impressions are influenced by:
• Physical appearance
• good looking people are seen as intelligent, friendly, and
confident
• Schemas: Organized clusters of ideas about categories of social
events and people
• 1st Impressions: self fulfilling prophecy, primacy
• Stereotypes: gender, race, job
Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Stereotype: Thoughts and beliefs held about people strictly because of
their membership in a group
Prejudice: A negative attitude held toward members of a group
Discrimination: Negative actions towards a group
Explanations
These often arise from learning, personal experience, mental shortcuts,
economic & political competition, & displaced aggression
Scapegoat: Blame other groups without as much power
Social Identity (in-group bias): Favor own group
Outgroup Homogeneity: Judge members of outgroup as more alike
Learning Theory: Classical or operant conditioning
Cognitive: Easier to organize our world if we ‘categorize’
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Attraction
Contributors to Attraction
• Proximity: Physical closeness (mere exposure)
• Physical Attractiveness: Pleasant physical appearance (often
different depending on culture), signs of health such as symmetry
(universal)
• Similarity: Commonalities between two people
• Reciprocity: The tendency to like those who like you
• Matching Hypothesis: “opposites do not attract”
Results of Attraction
Friendship: An attraction driven by a set of rules that must be
followed for the relationship to continue
• Examples of rules:
• help when needed
• trust and confide in each other
Romantic Love: Intense feeling of attraction to another within an
erotic context with future expectations
Compassionate Love: Strong and lasting
attraction characterized by trust, caring,
tolerance, and friendship
Triangular Theory of Love: (see next slide)
Triangular Conception of Love
Social Influence
Chameleon Effect: our tendency to unconsciously mimic
those around us
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Yawning when others yawn
Picking up the mood of a happy or sad person
Dress like your friends
This automatic mimicry is an ingredient in our ability to
empathize with others
Persuasion
Source: credible, trustworthy, likable, attractive, similarity
Message: Fear vs. logic, one or two sided, repetition
Channel: TV, radio, in person
Receiver: Personality, expectations, preexisting attitudes,
intelligence
Persuasion Techniques
Limited time offer
Everyone is buying!!!
DEAL!!!
Reciprocation
Foot in the door
Door in the face
Low-balling
Conformity and Obedience
Conformity - yielding to social pressure
• Asch’s Conclusions
1) subjects often conform to a group, even
when the group states clearly inaccurate
conclusions
2) conformity to a group increases with the
size of the group, up to five or six, but
only when the group is unanimous in its
beliefs
Obedience
• Milgram’s Conclusions
1) situational pressures can make people
obey instructions that go against their
belief systems
Obedience Experiment
Behavior in Groups
Bystander Effect: less likely to help others
when in groups than when alone
Social Loafing: individuals produce less
work (reduced efficiency & effort) when
working in groups than by themselves
Decision Making
• Group Polarization - when group
discussion leads to a more “polarized”
point of view by the group
• Groupthink - when feel pressure to
conform to the group, stops critical
thinking to avoid dissention in the group
• Ex: Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs
Percentage of Bystanders
Helping Victims & Time Taken
Group Polarization
Aggression & Altruism
Aggression: Any form of behavior intended
to harm or injure another living being
Where does aggression come from?
- Instincts
- Genes
- Brain & Nervous System
- Substance Abuse - Mental Disorders - Hormones & NTs
- Aversive Stimuli (e.g. noise, heat, pain, bullying, frustration),
culture & learning, Violent media/video games
Altruism: Actions designed to help others
with no obvious benefit to the helper
Why are we altruistic?
Evolutionary Perspective: favors survival of genes
Egoistic Model: motivated by anticipated gain
Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis: sometimes for selfish gains, Kitty Genovese
other times truly selfless & motivated by concern for others Story…diffusion of
responsibility…