Transcript Social Psychology

Social Psychology
Attitude
Attraction
Aggression
Group Behavior
Studying the way people relate to others.
Attitudes
Attitude and Behavior
• Do attitudes tell us about
someone’s behavior?
You have a belief
that cheating on
tests is bad.
But you cheat on
a test!!!
The teacher was
really bad so in
that class it is OK.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
• People want to have
consistent attitudes and
behaviors….when they are
not they experience
dissonance (unpleasant
tension).
• Usually they will change
their attitude to
accomodate the behavior
Example
• Simon thinks he is an animal lover, and then kicks a cat in the street for
getting in his way, there will be a huge level of tension in his mind. To
reduce this, the mind will change his beliefs and attitude, or blame, deny
or justify:
– “The cat deserved it for running in front of a larger animal (me).”
– “The cat must be stupid anyway for running into me.”
– “Cats are my least favourite animal anyway.”
• Although Simon might have originally disagreed with these statements, his
mind justifies his actions to reduce dissonance. Take a look at this clever
comic strip which shows an example of Cognitive Dissonance (in a
more humorous light!):
Compliance Strategies
• Foot-in-the-door phenomenon
- when someone has complied with a small
request it is easier to get them to take
the next step
• Door-in-the-face phenomenon
- the persuader makes an unreasonable
request that the subject will absolutely
refuse like “slamming” the door in the
face of the persuader. It is now more
likely that the subject will agree to a
smaller second request.
Attribution Theory (Heider
1958)
• Tries to explain how people determine the
cause of the behavior they observe.
It is either a….
• Situational Attribution (due to events or
environment)
• Dispositional Attribution (due to the person’s
character
• Example – Why is that driver driving so
crazily???
Fundamental Attribution Error
How do you view your
teacher’s behavior?
You probably
attribute it to their
personality rather
than their experience
or circumstances.
But do you really
know?
• We tend to
overestimate the role
of dispositional
factors in people’s
behavior.
Self-Serving Bias
• If you win it is because
you are awesome… if
you lose, it must have
been the coach or
weather or….
• if you lose, it must have
been the coach or
weather or….
Just world Phenomenon
We need to believe there is justice in the
world.
• Good always conquers evil!
• “What goes around comes around!”
• Karma
Except that in reality sometimes the bad guys
win, sometimes cheaters prosper and sometimes
nasty people never get their commuppance!
Results in
1. Victim blaming
“They shouldn’t have
raped her and put it on
the Internet but she was
wasted at the party and
always acting like a Sl--.
What did she expect?”
“If the cops shot him they
must have been afraid for
their lives – they must
have had a reason.”
2. Failure to speak out
against human rights
violations
“If you don’t have
anything to hide then who
cares if the NSA knows
about your cell phone
conversations.”
Psychology of Aggression
Physical or verbal
behavior intended to
hurt or destroy.
Theories of Aggression:
Bandura’s Modeling
Biological risk factors
genes
head injury
hormones
Frustration- Aggression principle
• Frustration is a trigger to aggression
• When aversive events occur over which we have no
control we experience frustration (example heat wave
– below)
• Higher levels of frustration correlate to greater
instances of aggression
Altruism
• Unselfish regard for the well being of other
– Helping behavior
– Can be facilitated by pro-social learning models
• Social –exchange theory – idea that altruistic
acts always come after an individual has
weighed the benefits and costs of helping and
found some kind of benefit (denies true
altruism)
Prosocial Behavior
• Kitty Genovese case
in Kew Gardens NY.
Bystander Effect:
• Conditions in which people
are more or less likely to
help one another. In
general…the more people
around…the less chance of
help….because of…
• Diffusion of Responsibility
Pluralistic Ignorance
• People decide what to do by
looking to others.
Attraction
Proximity
• Geographic nearness
Mere exposure
effect:
• Repeated exposure
to something breeds
liking.
How groups affect our behavior?
Social Facilitation Theory
• If you are really good at something….or it is an
easy task…you will perform BETTER in front of
a group.
• If it is a difficult task or you are not very good
at it…you will perform WORSE in front of a
group (social impairment).
• Deindividuation – we lose our sense of individual
accountability in groups. Our inhibitions are
lowered in groups. This sometimes can lead to
uncharacteristically violent or reckless
behavior
• “Men go crazy in congregations, they only get better
one by one.” – Sting, All This Time
Conformity Studies
• Adjusting
one’s
behavior or
thinking to
coincide
with a group
standard.
Asch’s Study of Conformity
Asch’s Results
• Over 1/3 of the
participants conformed
throughout
• 70% conformed at least
once.
To strengthen conformity:
•
•
•
•
The group is unanimous
The group is at least three
people.
One admires the group’s status
One had made no prior
commitment
Milgram’s Study
Of
Obedience
Results of the Milgram Study
What did we learn from Milgram?
• Ordinary people can do
shocking things.
Social Loafing
• The tendency for
people in a group to
exert less effort
when pooling efforts
toward a common
goal than if they
were individually
accountable.
Group Polarization
• Groups tend to make
more extreme
decisions than the
individual.
• Rather than the
group “averaging
out” the extremes
the groups tends to
go further to an
extreme – shift to
either extremely
cautious or
extremely risky
Groupthink
• Group members
suppress their
reservations about
the ideas supported
by the group.
• They are more
concerned with
group harmony.
• Worse in highly
cohesive groups.
• Can explain why really
bad decisions can be
made by groups.
• Hazing in college
fraternities, invasions of
countries etc.
Deindividuation
• People get swept up
in a group and lose
sense of self.
• Feel anonymous and
aroused.
• Explains rioting
behaviors.
Zimbardo’s Prison Study
• Showed how we
deindividuate AND
become the roles we
are given.
• Philip Zimbardo has
students at Stanford U
play the roles of
prisoner and prison
guards in the basement
of psychology building.
• They were given
uniforms and numbers
for each prisoner.
• What do you think
happened?