Transcript Social Psychology Chapter 13

Social Psychology
Chapter 13
• “People who need people are the luckiest
people in the world.”
Barbra Streisand
• “Hell is other people.”
Jean-Paul Sartre
Social Psychology
• Social psychology is the scientific study of
how the individual is influenced by the
thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of other
people
Attitudes
• Attitudes are feelings
and beliefs about other
people, ideas, or
objects that are based
on a person’s past
experiences, and shape
future behaviour
• The cognitive dimension
of an attitude consists of
thoughts and beliefs
• The emotional
dimension of an attitude
involves evaluate
feelings (such as like or
dislike)
• The behavioural
dimension of an attitude
involves how beliefs
and evaluations are
demonstrated
Does Behaviour Determine Attitudes?
• It is possible that
• Within days, “guards”
behaviour shapes
attitudes
• A dramatic
demonstration of this
was the “Stanford
Prison Experiment” in
which well-adjusted
college students were
asked to act and dress
as prisoners or guards
were harassing
“prisoners” and prisoners
were caving in and
becoming obedient
• The study showed a
person may quickly adopt
attitudes consistent with
one’s roles
Persuasion: Changing Attitudes
• Carl Hovland was one of the first social
psychologists in the 1950s to identify the key
components of attitude change
Persuasion: Changing Attitudes
The Communicator
• To be persuasive, the
communicator must
show integrity,
credibility, and
trustworthiness
• Perceived power,
prestige, prominence,
modesty, celebrity, and
attractiveness are also
extremely important
Coercive Persuasion
• Physical or emotional
distress
• One simple
explanation
• Unconditional love,
acceptance, and
attention
• New identity is
created
• Entrapment
• Information access is
controlled
The Communication
• The means by which a communication is
presented is called its “medium”
• Openness to attitude change is related in
part to age and education
• Change is far more likely if the person
doing the persuading is a friend
Techniques to Change Attitudes
• Foot-in-the-Door
Technique
• Door-in-the-Face
Technique
• Ask-and-You-Shallbe-Given Technique
• Lowballing Technique
• Modelling
• Incentives Technique
Cognitive Dissonance
• Cognitive dissonance is a state of
mental discomfort that arises from a
discrepancy between two or more of a
person’s beliefs, or between beliefs and
behaviour
• Leon Festinger believed that people try
to reduce cognitive dissonance by
changing one’s attitudes or behaviours
Figure 13.3 Cognitive Dissonance
Assessing the World Using
Nonverbal Communication (Social
Cognition)
• Impression formation often begins with
nonverbal communication, the
communication of information by physical
cues or actions, facial expressions, body
language, and eye contact
Facial Expressions
•
•
Across cultures, six basic emotions are
distinguished in facial expressions
When a person smiles, both the
muscular activity around the eyes and
the smile help determine if the person is
happy, or masking another feeling
Body Language
• Information about moods and attitudes is
conveyed through body language
• Gestures and aspects of body language
have different meanings in different
societies
Eye Contact
• The eyes convey a surprising amount of
information about feelings
• People tend to judge others based on
the eye contact they engage in
Nonverbal Communication:
Flirting