Download Mod 64 SocPsych

Social Psychology
Unit 12
Attributions
Attribution Theory
• Attribution = explanation
• Attribution Theory
• Explain others behaviors by crediting the situation or the
person’s disposition
• Dispositional – factors within the person (personality)
• Situational – factors outside the person (luck)
Fundamental Attribution
Error (FAE)
• Tendency to use a dispositional explanation without
considering the situational factors
• “That guy cut me off because he is a jerk” – not that his
wife could be in labor
• video
Attribution Bias
• Actor-Observer Bias
• Tendency to explain the behavior of others with
dispositional attributes BUT use situational attitributes
to explain our own behavior
• Two people in comparison
• Samantha watches her classmate stumble while giving
a speech – “She’s a bad speech giver” BUT when
Samantha stumbles in her own speech it was because
she was distracted by a noise in the hallway.
Self-Serving Bias
• Tendency to attribute our successes to dispositional
factors and our failures to situational factors.
• Only your own behavior and makes you look good.
• Jordan believes he aced the math test because he is
smart but failed the history test because the teacher
did not explain the material very well.
Self-Effacing Bias
• Tendency to attribute
failures to dispositional
factors and our successes to
situational factors
• Modesty
False Consensus Effect
• Tendency for an individual
to overestimate how many
others act and think the way
they do.
• You speed because because
everyone else is speeding.
Individualist vs. Collectivist
• Individualist societies
• U.S. and Western Europe
• Self-serving bias and fundamental attribution error
• Collectivist societies
• Eastern Asia, Western Africa
• Self-effacing bias
Attitudes
• Change
• Central Route to Persuasion
• People focus on factual information, logical arguments,
and a thoughtful analysis of details
• Peripheral Route to Persuasion
• People focus on emotional appeals and incidental cues
• Foot-in-the-door Phenomenon
• Complying with small request then leads to going along
with a larger request
• video
Social
Influence
• Study how other
individuals’
thoughts and
actions shape our
own beliefs,
feelings, and
behaviors
Cognitive Dissonance
• Only occurs within an individual
• Tension is created when one holds two conflicting
beliefs or if one’s beliefs and actions do not match
• Smoking
• Attitude or behavior change results because one is
motivated to reduce the tension
• Leon Festinger -Festinger’s $1 or $20 Study
• Video Song
• Philip Zimbardo
Stanford Prison
Experiment
• Stanford ‘72
• Power of social roles and
impact of situation
• Mock prison
• 2 wk experiment called off
in 6 days
• Highly unethical
• video
Conformity
• Adoption of attitudes and
behaviors shared by a
particular group of people
• Asch Line Study
• Group size
• Unanimity
• Asch Experiment
Obedience
• Altering one’s behavior in
response to a demand from
an authority figure
• Stanley Milgram
• Shock Study
• With demand from
authority figure, 65% of
participants obey
• Video