Transcript Chapter 18 - PLKrueger

Chapter 18
Social Psychology
Chapter 18 Map
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Tuesday, April 25
Wednesday, April 26
Thursday, April 27
Friday, April 28
Friday, April 28
Monday, May 1
695-702 – receive take home quiz
702-709
709-end
hand in chapter 18 SG/Cards/take home quiz
Review
AP Exam
Social Psychology (695)
Social
Psychology --studies how we
think about,
influence and
relate to one and
other.
Attributing Behavior (696)
• Fritz Heider (1958) proposed the
Attribution Theory
which says that people
attribute other's
behavior to
• their internal
dispositions, or
• their external
situations
Fundamental Attribution Error (696)
• when explaining our own behavior, we attribute it
to the situation
• when explaining other's behavior, we attribute it to
his disposition
• with people we know well and see in various
situations, we are less likely to commit the
fundamental attribution error
• Napolitan and Goethals (1979) - 1/2 told the women would
act aloof and 1/2 were not told anything. Despite this
nearly all attributed her behavior to her disposition (even
though 1/2 had been told she was acting)
Effects of Attribution (697)
• happy spouses attribute snipes as
situational.
• unhappy spouse attribute snipes as
dispositional
• conservatives attribute poverty as
dispositional
• liberals attribute poverty as situational
Do Attitudes Guide Actions? (698)
YES, if
• outside influences on what
we say and do are minimal
• the attitude is specifically
relevant to the behavior (ie your attitude to fast
food guides your
restaurant choices)
• we are keenly aware of
our attitudes
Do Actions Guide Attitudes? (699)
People come to
believe in what
they have stood
up for.
Foot in the Door Phenomenon (699)
• the tendency for people who agree to a small
action to comply later on with a larger one. (good
or bad)
• Phenomenon came out of the Korean war. 21 US
prisoners chose to stay with their captors after the
war ended. Others returned home convinced that
communism was a good thing. The prisoners
were first asked to do trivial tasks and then this
escalated up. Eventually they adjusted their
beliefs to be consistent with their public acts.
Role Playing Affects Attitudes (700)
• We "play" wife, but eventually it feels
natural.
• Executives turn into aggressive and
confident people.
Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison
Experiment of 1972
• Philip Zimbardo simulated a prison at the
university of Stanford and asked for volunteers
who were randomly assigned to play guards or
prisoners. After a few days the simulation
became too real - the guards too brutal - the
prisoners began to break down. After 6 days
Zimbardo had to stop the experiment because of
ethical problems.
• Interview clip with Zimbardo (9 minutes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAjJoorEaic
Zimbardo in Regina (2009)
Why Do Our Actions Affect Our
Attitudes? (701)
• we feel motivated to justify our
actions
• cognitive dissonance - when we are
aware that our actions and attitudes
don't coincide
Cognitive Dissonance Theory (701)
• Leon Festinger’s theory that to relieve
cognitive dissonance we often change our
attitudes to match our actions (we
rationalize).
• The less coerced and more responsible we
feel for a troubling act, the more cognitive
dissonance we feel - and - the more
dissonance we feel, the more we are
motivated to change our attitudes to match
our actions.
Conformity & Obedience (702)
• Chartrund an Bargh (1999) - the chameleon effect
- we are natural mimics - the face rubbing/foot
shaking experiment - the subjects copied the
actions of the confederates.
• Totterdell (1998) - mood linkage - we share up
and down moods
• Neumann and Strack (2000) - mood contagion - a
neutral text read in a happy or sad tone will
convey happy or sad
Copycat Crime/Suicide
• do people act the same because they are
copying or because they are simultaneously
exposed to the same events and conditions
of the first shooter?
• 8 days following the Columbine shooting,
every State except Vermont experienced
threats of copycat violence.
Group Pressure and Conformity (704)
Conformity adjusting your
behavior or
thinking toward a
group standard
What Does This Have to Do
With Conformity?????
Asch Experiment (1955)
• the line experiment
• the confederates give the right answer the first 2
times and then give the wrong answer
• more than 1/3 of the time people go with the group
even though they admit later that they thought the
group was wrong
• 4 minute clip of experiment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sno1TpCLj6A
Asch (continued)
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Asch found people more likely to conform when:
one is made to feel incompetent or insecure
the group is at least 3 people
the group is unanimous (a single dissident or ally
will greatly increase social courage)
one admires the group
one has made no prior commitment to any
response
others in the group observe one's behavior
one's culture strongly encourages respect for social
standards
Reasons for Conforming (705)
• Normative Social Influence - influence resulting
from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid
disapproval - because we respect norms
• Informational Social Influence - is when we
accept other's opinions about reality
• Western society values individualism over
conformity and the conformity rates are therefore
lower.
Baron (1996)
• show subjects a slide of a single person and then a
slide of 4 people - ask them to pick out the single
person - some subjects told that this is just an
experiment - others are told it relates to a police
line up.
• when subjects believed that the task was important
people rarely conform when the task was easy but
conformed 1/2 the time when the task is difficult.
• When subjects believed the task was unimportant
people conformed about 1/3 of the time.
• When we are unsure of what is right, and being
right matters, we tend to conform
Obedience (706)
• Milgram clip
http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=GHuI2JIP
ylk
Stanley Milgram Experiment
(1963) at Yale University
• subjects thought experiment was about
punishment's effect on learning.
• subject becomes the "teacher" and learner is
strapped to an electric chair in other room
• teacher is told to go up in voltage with each wrong
answer
• experimenter prods teacher to keep shocking
• 63% of Milgram's teachers complied to the last
voltage switch - men and women complied
similarly
Debate Over
Milgram’s Research Ethics (707)
• none of his subjects appeared to suffer emotional
after effects (they were interviewed by
psychiatrists after the experiment). BUT …….
Remember our Research Ethics:
1. Cause no harm
2. Subjects can withdraw
3. Subjects must consent
4. Subjects must be debriefed
5. Confidentiality
Obedience Highest When
• Milgram varied his experiment Obedience was
HIGHEST when:
• the person giving the orders was close at hand and
was perceived to be a legitimate authority figure
• the authority figure was supported by a prestigious
institution (Yale v. Crappola College)
• the victim was depersonalized or at a distance
• there were no role models for defiance - no other
subjects were seen to disobey the experimenter
Real Life Obedience
In history we have
both examples of
obedience
• Nazi soldiers
• French Resisters
Individual Behavior in the
Presence of Others (709)
• Social Facilitation - fishing reel experiment
(Norman Triplett (1898) - the phenomenon of
stronger performance in other's presence
• However, on difficult tasks people perform worse
when others are working on the same task
• Why? - other people arouse us - arousal
strengthens the most likely response which is the
correct response on easy tasks but the incorrect
response on difficult tasks
• Therefore - expert pool players do better when
watched but amateurs will do worse.
Individual Behavior in the
Presence of Others (709)
• Crowding - social facilitation makes people
laugh louder at comediens when they are in
a crowd
• Social Loafing- the tendency for people in a
group to exert less effort when pooling their
efforts toward a common goal than when
they are individually accountable
Social Loafing (710)
• Inham (1974) - tug-of-war
experiment - people blind
folded - when people
thought others were on the
rope with them they pulled
using 82% of the strength
that they used when they
thought they were alone
on the rope
• Social Loafing is most
marked among men in
individualistic cultures
Deindividuation (710)
• abandoning normal
restraints to the power of
the group
• the group arouses you and
diminishes your sense of
responsibility
• less self-conscious and
less restrained in a group
Zimbardo (1970)
• His experiment found
that people dressed
alike in Klan wear
delivered twice the
shock to victims
• the group makes
people feel aroused
and anonymous
Effects of Group Interaction
(711) Group Polarization
• the strengthening of a
group's attitudes through
discussion within the
group
• can be negative or positive
attitudes - racism gets
worse - tolerance gets
more tolerant
• over time, the initial
difference between groups
tends to grow
Group Think (712)
• is harmonious but
unrealistic group
thinking
• The tendency of
people to go along
with a group decision
even if they don’t
agree with it --harmony is more
important
Group Think
• coined by Irving Janis after the Cuban
Missile Crisis - when President Kennedy
and his advisers blundered into a plan to
invade Cuba with 1400 CIA-trained Cuban
exiles. When the invaders were easily
caught and linked to the US government,
Kennedy wondered in hindsight how they
could have been so stupid.
Group Think
Janis discovered that Group Think is fed by:
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Unduly high confidence
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High group morale
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dissidents are either self-censored or
suppressed by the group
4
conformity and assumed support for the
idea
5
group polarization
Group Think
Group Think is avoided when leaders • welcome opinions
• invite expert criticism
• assign people to identify possible problems
Power of the Individual (712)
• Social Control - power of
the situation
• Personal Control - power
of the individual
• Committed individuals
influence groups.
• Minority Influence - the
power of 1 or 2 to sway
majorities
• An unswerving minority is
more powerful than a
waffling minority.
Prejudice (714)
• means to pre-judge
• an unjustifiable and
usually negative attitude
toward a group
• a mixture of beliefs
(stereotypes), emotions
and predispositions to
action (to discriminate).
• are schemas that influence
how we notice and
perceive and interpret
events
How Prejudiced Are We? (714)
• in the last 50 years we are becoming less
prejudiced
• blatant prejudice is waning but subtle prejudice
lingers - ie in social intimacy settings many still
admit they would feel uncomfortable with
someone of another race
• Prejudice can be unconscious - ex. people in
simulations more quickly "shoot" black people
• Racial Profiling
• male v. female
• sex-selective abortions and fertility clinics
Social Roots of Prejudice (716)
• Social Inequalities - the "haves" develop attitudes
to justify things as they are - ie the slaves had
"traits" that justified them being enslaved.
• prejudices rationalize inequalities
• discrimination increases prejudice through the
reactions it provokes in its victims (an example of
the self-fulfilling prophecy)
• Blame-the-victim phenomemon
• Brown eye/blue eye experiment clip (9 Minutes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAv8JA_9uKI
&feature=related
Us v. Them
Ingroup v. Outgroup (716)
• we have an ancestral need
to belong and so we are a
group-bound species
• social identities - we
associate with certain
groups and contrast
ourselves with other
groups
• When we define "us" we
also (by default) define
"them"
Ingroup Bias (716)
• favouring your own group
• We have an urge for the
ingroup to dominate and
this predisposes us to a
prejudice against strangers
• Even chimpanzees have
been seen to wipe clean
the spot where they were
touched by a chimp from
another group (Goodall,
1986)
Scapegoating (717)
• finding someone to blame
when things go wrong
• gives us an emotional
outlet
• a despised outgroup
boosts the morale of the
ingroup
• the lower your selfesteem, the more likely
you will scapegoat
Cognitive Roots of Prejudice (718)
stereotypes are
a by-product of
how we
cognitively
simplify the
world
Cognitive Roots of Prejudice
Categorization (718)
• we simplify our world by
categorizing it ---- but ---in grouping people we
often stereotype them
• stereotypes bias our
perceptions - we perceive
a black basketball player
as a better player
• stereotypes bias our
perceptions of diversity
• “we" are diverse but
"they" are all the same
Cognitive Roots of Prejudice
Vivid Cases (718)
Availability Heuristic
- we judge the
frequency of events by
instances that readily
come to mind --- we
overgeneralize from
vivid, memorable
cases
Cognitive Roots of Prejudice
Just-World Phenomenon (718)
• by-standers blame victims
by assuming the world is
just and therefore people
get what they deserve
• ·we learn that "good" is
reworded and "evil" is
punished - so - if you are
being "punished" (by a
tsunami?) that must mean
that you are "evil"
• we use hindsight bias and
say that the victim should
have known better
Aggression (718)
• physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt
or destroy whether done reactively out of
hostility or proactively as a means to an end
• behavior emerges from the interaction of
biology and experience
• Therefore there is Biology of Aggression
and Psychology of Aggression
Biology of Aggression (719)
• Freud says that aggression is a biological instinct
• But, others say that aggression varies too much
from culture to culture and individual to individual
for it to just be biological.
• Yet, biology does influence aggression:
– genetic
– neural
– biochemical
Genetic Influences on Aggression (720)
• identical twins have
the same tempers
• violent criminals
are more likely to
have the Y
chromosome
Neural Influences on Aggression (720)
• neural systems in our brain when stimulated will
inhibit or produce aggressive behavior
• Amygdala - centre for aggression
• all 15 death row inmates had had brain injuries
(Lewis (1986))
• diminished frontal lobe (impulse control area)
activity in violent criminals (Amen (1996))
• No one centre in the brain controls aggression.
The brain has a neural system that facilitates
aggression and it has a frontal lobe system that
inhibits aggression.
Biochemical Influences on
Aggression (720)
• hormones and alcohol influence the neural
systems that control aggression
• castration lowers testosterone and makes a bull
gentle
• violent criminals tend to be muscular young males
with lower than average IQ scores, low levels of
serotonin and high levels of testosterone.
• drugs that lower testosterone also lower their
violence
Testosterone
high testosterone leads to:
• irritability
• low frustration tolerance
• assertiveness
• impulsiveness
• as age increases
testosterone decreases and
aggressiveness decreases
Behavior & Testosterone
• each influences the other
• in a test of fans after a
game - the winners have
higher testosterone and the
losers have lower
• alcohol increases
aggressiveness - and aggressive people are
more likely to drink
alcohol and to become
violent when drunk
Psychology of Aggression
Aversive Events (721)
• when we suffer, we are more likely to make
others suffer
• Frustration-Aggression Principle - being
blocked short of a goal increases people's
readiness to aggress - frustration brings out
our fight rather than our flight instinct
• Other aversive stimuli - pain, insult, odor,
heat - can also evoke hostility.
Psychology of Aggression
Learning to Express/Inhibit (722)
• learning can alter our natural aggressive reactions
• aggression can be observationally learned (BoBo
Doll) or learned through rewards
• different cultures model, reinforce and evoke
different standards of violence
• absent fathers and violence are correlated
• parents of delinquent children typically discipline
with beatings (modeling) AND typically cave into
their children's tears and temper tantrums (reward)
Psychology of Aggression
Sexual Aggression and the Media (723)
• TV violence desensitizes people to violence and
primes them to respond aggressively when
provoked
• sexual aggression is on the rise - it correlates with
a rise in violent film rentals -- videos depict rape
as the woman first resisting but then enjoying the
sex
• sex offenders report a higher viewing rate of porn
Psychology of Aggression
Sexual Aggression and the Media (723)
• Harris (1994) repeated porn experiment - makes
your partner seem less appealing, makes a
woman's friendliness seem sexual and makes
sexual aggression seem less serious
• Zillman (1984) the group that watched the sex
film recommends 1/2 the sentence for an actual
rape case as the control group does
Psychology of Aggression (724)
TV Violence and Pornography
Media provides a
social script - when
we are in a new
situation and don't
know how to act we
rely on our social
scripts.
Do Video Games Teach or
Release Violence (725)
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•
•
•
social script?
desensitizing us to violence?
catharsis?
Ballard and Wiest (1998) - observed a rising level
of arousal and feelings of hostility in college men
as they played Mortal Kombat
• Anderson and Dill (2000) - those who spent the
most hours playing violent games tended to be the
most physically aggressive
• viewing/aggression.
Video Games (continued)
• These 2 studies tend to disconfirm the catharsis
hypothesis which stated that if we watch violence
we "vent" it and therefore don't have to do it.
These studies suggest that if we watch violence we
want to do it more.
• They theorize that we learn to like violence in
video games and then we seek out what we like violence - in real life.
• See the Close Up on page 726 for a parallel between smoking/cancer
and violence
Conflict (726)
• a seemingly incompatibility of actions,
goals or ideas
• in conflict people become enmeshed in a
potentially destructive social process that
can produce results no one wants.
• Examples of the destructive processes are
social traps and distorted perceptions.
Social Traps (727)
• people get caught up
in mutually harmful
behavior as they
pursue their own ends
- ex - whaling
• the social trap
challenge is to find
ways to pursue our
own interests and the
well-being of all
Distorted Perceptions
Enemy Perceptions (728)
• Those in conflict tend to
demonize one and other
with distorted images
• Mirror-image Perceptions
- these distorted images
are similar to our
opponent's images of us.
Each demonizes the other
• As enemies change, so do
perceptions. In WWII the
Japanese, as enemy, were
"evil". Now, as ally the
Japanese are industrious."
Roots of Biased Perceptions
1. Self-serving bias and scapegoating - we accept credit for good
and blame others for bad
2. Fundamental Attribution Error - we see "their" weapon
hoarding as arising from their aggressive disposition but
"our" weapon hoarding as necessary self-defense because of
the situation.
3. Stereotypes - "their" actions are filtered through our
stereotypes
4. Polarized ideas about "them" form in our like-minded groups
5. Groupthink - our group clings to an idea or decision about
them
6. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy - our perceptions of "them" are
confirmed when they react in ways that justify our initial
perceptions
Psychology of Attraction (729)
Proximity and Attraction
• geographic
nearness is the most
powerful predictor
of friendship
• it provides
opportunity for
liking or disliking
Mere Exposure Effect
• Proximity more often leads to LIKING - WHY???
• repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases our
liking of them -- this is the mere exposure effect
• Moreland and Beach (1992) - had silent women
attend various numbers of the subjects' classes.
The subjects were later shown slides of the women
- they ranked as the most attractive the women
who had attended the greater number of classes
with them.
• So, if you want a date - have good attendance!!!!
Mere Exposure Effect
Evolutionary Explanation
• For our ancestors,
familiar meant safe and
approachable - and
alive!
• DeBruine (2002) subjects were more
trusting/ cooperative
when their "opponents'"
picture in a social trap
game included parts of
their own face morphed
into it.
Physical Attractiveness and
Attraction (730)
• In forming 1st impressions --- most important is
proximity ---- and next is attractiveness
• We perceive attractive people to be healthier,
happier, more sensitive, more successful and more
socially skilled. We do not think that they are
more honest or compassionate.
• Attractive people win job interviews.
• YET, people's attractiveness is quite unrelated to
their self-esteem and happiness. WHY?
Physical Attractiveness
• people's attractiveness is
quite unrelated to selfesteem and happiness.
WHY?
• few people rate
themselves as unattractive
• less attractive people
attribute praise by others
as relating to their efforts
not just their looks so they
take the praise as sincere.
Attractive people are
suspicious of people's
praise
Beauty is Relative and Cultural
(730)
Some Beauty Constants:
• men find youthful women
attractive
• women like healthylooking, mature,
dominant, affluent men
• people rate "average"
faces as more attractive
• we find people that we
like attractive
Similarity and Attraction (732)
• Attraction is formed
through:
– proximity
– physical attraction
– similarity
• In real life, opposites
RETRACT.
• Couples tend to share
attitudes, beliefs, interests
• Also, we tend to like
people who like us.
(reward)
Romantic Love (733)
• Passionate Love --- arousal is a key part
• Companionate Love - giddy arousal fades
and is replaced with compatibility and deep
affection
• Good relationships require equity and selfdisclosure
Altruism (734)
Unselfish regard for the welfare
of others
Bystander Intervention (735)
• Famous case of Kitty Genovese
• John Darley and Bob Latane (1968)
attributed Kitty’s neighbors’ inaction to the
situational factor of the presence of others!
• Their study concluded that we will help if:
– 1.
– 2.
– 3.
We notice an incident
We interpret it as an emergency
We assume responsibility for helping
Social Exchange Theory (736)
• Our social behavior is
an exchange process,
the aim of which is to
maximize benefits and
minimize costs
• If you see the rewards
outweighing the costs
-- then you help others
Superordinate Goals (738)
Shared goals that
override differences
among people and
require their
cooperation
Conciliation
GRIT (739)
• Graduated and
Reciprocated Initiative
in Tension Reduction
• A strategy designed to
decrease international
tensions