Download Social Psychology Notes Social Psychology Is concerned with the

Social Psychology Notes
Social Psychology
Is concerned with the way individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by others
First, how do we form impressions of others?
Forming Impressions:
We assign people to “ready made” categories called schemata/schema
What functions to schemata/schema play?
Helps us to process and store information about people
We have schemata for events (picnics, dates, meetings, etc) and people (doctor, teacher, whimp, etc..)
We add more information to our mental files about people over time
Primacy effect-our earlier impressions of people influence us more then our later experiences with
them-first impressions are powerful (we may refuse to believe new evidence that a person is good)
primacy effect can be weakened if people are warned to be weary of first impressions
First impressions can lead to a
Self-fulfilling prophecy-when a person’s expectations about another person causes behavior from the
second person that confirms the expectation-why does this happen?
Behavioral confirmation The process by which people behave in ways that elicit from others specific
expected reactions and then use those reactions to confirm their beliefs(I believe you are a disrespectful
because of the way you dress; so, every time you walk in my class, I find a reason to yell at you. You
begin to respond back in a disrespectful way)
Rosenthal and Jacobson Study (1968): All children in a California elementary school given a test at the
start of the school year- teachers given a list of “bloomers,” children who would have significant
intellectual growth in the school year
The catch was that this group of “bloomers” were randomly chosen and had nothing to do with test
scores
Result: children in the “bloomers” group made greater gains in test scores and were rated as better
students then the control group WHY???
Teachers expectations of students affect students’ classroom performance-referred to as the
Pygmalion Effect
“Bloomers” –were given more positive feedback and challenging work, teachers warmer/friendlier
towards them
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Some schemas we have of others may be about their cultural background
Stereotypes- set of characteristics believed to be shared by all members of a particular group (gender,
age, occupation, ethnic groups, etc…)
Stereotypes, like schemas, can become the basis for self-fulfilling prophecies:
I may treat someone according to my stereotypical belief- German people are mean; all
_________students are “trouble makers”
Stereotypes rationalize inequalities
Interpreting Behaviors
You are walking to lunch and two students are standing still talking, blocking the hallway
Why are they doing this?
Internal attribute (dispositional)=a personal factor, such as being mean, inconsiderate or lazy
External attribute (situational)=a situational factor, such as there was an emergency, they were thinking
of ways to help a friend, there was a traffic jam
We usually attribute someone’s behavior to one or the other, but not to both at the same time
Biases/errors in Attributions:
Fundamental attribution error-the tendency to attribute the behavior of others, , especially strangers
we observe in one situation, to causes within themselves (Lee Ross 1977)
Actor-observer bias-the tendency to explain the behavior of others as the result of
internal/dispositional factors while attributing our behavior to external/situational factors
East Asians tend to attribute their behaviors and other’s behaviors to external factors
Defensive attribution-we are motivated to present ourselves well to impress others and to feel good
about ourselves
Examples 1. self-serving bias-tendency to attribute personal failures to external factors and personal
successes to internal factors (you earn an A in my class because I am a good teacher; you earn a D in my
class because you are a bad student)
Defensive attribution 2. Just world hypothesis-bad things happen to bad people, and good things
happen to good people-this gives us the comforting illusion that the bad events couldn’t happen to us
For instance: She was raped because of the way she dressed-that will not happen to me because I cover
myself up
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Personal Attraction
Social psychologists say that being attracted to and liking someone is linked to several factors
1. Proximity is the most important factor-see more often, feel more comfortable and safe with
familiar people-relates to mere exposure effect (read about on page 678)
2. Physical attractiveness-we associate this with good personality, intelligence, happiness,
kindness, healthier, more successful (attractiveness influences both sexes for first impressions
when speed dating)
Side notes: attractive people get the jobs more often and have more job success; attractiveness not
related to personal self-esteem and happiness, possible due to the mere exposure effect-few people
view themselves as unattractive; less attractive more likely to view praise as sincerer than more
attractive; men across cultures view youthful women as more attractive; women attracted to healthy
looking men, esp. men who are mature, dominant and affluent
3. Similarity-more similar the stronger the attraction (birds of a feather do stay together)
4. Compassionate love (deep, affectionate attachment)marked by Exchange-the reward theory of
attraction is based on this-we both give and get an equal amount-give and take is balanced, called
equity
5. Compassionate love marked by Intimacy-through two-way self-disclosure/communication
1 and 3 are the most important factors in attraction
But, don’t opposites attract?
No, people who complement each other do.

Shy woman/outgoing man

Dominant woman/passive man
Usually these people have similar values/beliefs. They are not opposites
Attitudes
Attitudes are your beliefs, feelings and behaviors towards something or someone
Attitude is not the same as rudeness
 Do you like rap music?
 Do you agree with same sex marriages?
 What do you think about the student sitting next to you?
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Your answer will show me your attitude
Attitudes predict behavior for some people more than others . It depends on the strength of your
attitude-how strong you feel about something
How Attitudes are Formed
-Classical or Operant Conditioning (ex. Exposed to pairing negative words with political party) and
modeling
-Mere Exposure Effect=shaped by repeated exposure (ex. Advertising, liking people)
-Persuasive messages through central (what about this potato chip is so much better than the others)occurs when people are analytical or involved in the issue-or peripheral route (other characteristics of
the message-such as the deliverer-this is why athletes are used)
Central route is more lasting
What types of messages are effective?
-one sided message for uninformed audience
-acknowledge then refute opposing arguments for more sophisticated audience
Attitudes
Self-monitoring (high or low self monitor)- the tendency for a person to observe the situation for cues
about how to react:
I won’t tell you how much I dislike one of your friends who came out with us-I will override my attitude
so we can have a good time (high self monitor) or
I will say it in front of everyone and ruin the night (low self- monitor-shows little regard for social cues)
What happens when your attitudes/beliefs/convictions conflict with your behavior, when you act in a
way that is contrary to what you believe?
 You strongly believe that a person should stay true to one girlfriend. You are a one girl kind of
guy.
 You cheat on your girlfriend a few times with the same girl
 Because of this, you feel conflict or tension inside
 What do you do to resolve this?
Here is where a concept by Leon Festinger (1957)comes in: Cognitive Dissonance
What is the meaning of dissonance? disagreement, conflict, discord, controversy, disharmony,
inconsistency
Cognitive refers to thought processes
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Cognitive Dissonance by Leon Festinger (1957):
Discomfort that results when beliefs and behaviors don’t match (as was the case with the cheating
boyfriend). We have two choices: change our behaviors or change our beliefs
We can’t live with the conflict-it causes tension- so we are more likely to rationalize/make excuses to get
rid of the conflict, than to change the behavior
How you rationalize:
 I didn’t really cheat three times since we didn’t kiss until the last time
 But, that wasn’t really a kiss
 I went out with this other girl more as a friend
 She really needed me to drive her somewhere
 I was just being the nice guy that I am
Prejudice (is the Negative Attitude)
Prejudice-a positive or negative belief about a group of people; refers to prejudging a person because
he belongs to a specific group
Prejudice beliefs are almost always stereotypes
Prejudice is associated with strong emotions such as dislike, hatred or fear
The frustration-aggression theory =discrimination and prejudice result from displaced anger-blaming
societies problems, or our problems, on the group-they are the scapegoat (high crime rate because of
them, I can’t get a job because of them)
Prejudice is linked to an authoritarian personality-(follow rules, abide by tradition, hostile towards those
who go against norms, respect authority, preoccupied with power and toughness)
Discrimination (the negative behavior) act taken toward one group that is unfair when compared with
behavior toward other groups
Racism
Belief that members of certain racial groups are born inferior
Social categorization: we categorize or put others and ourselves into groups-is someone like me or not?
It is easy to show negative attitudes towards people who do not belong to our group
In-group Out-group (we perceive out-group to be homogenous-ex. All whites, non Hispanics, are the
same)
In-group bias=members see themselves as superior to the out-group
Cubans verses Dominicans
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Other Race Effect-recognition for own race faces (emerges during infancy)
Reducing Prejudice
Muzafer Sherif’s-Robbers Cave Study:
 22 Oklahoma City boys, ages 11-12
 Placed in separate parts of the camp
 Eagles and Rattlers
 Introduced to each other through a set up competitive activities
 Boys became proud of their group and hostile (flags burned, cabins ransacked) toward the
other group
 Had to work together to restore water
-Increased personal, one on one, contact changes people’s opinions-not just in the same place at the
same time
-Superordinate Goals (Cooperation -working on shared goals) works best to reduce racial prejudice
-Competition is not effective
Conformity and Compliance
Social influence-the process by which others affect our perceptions, attitudes and actions
chameleon effect-unconsciously mimicking others expressions, tones, posture etc. helps us to feel what
they feel-why we feel happy around happy people, and sad around sad (called mood linkage)-a part of
empathy
Our culture (our shared way of life) has a large influence on how we behave
-dress, what we eat, how we eat, our personal space, and more
We may be influenced by our culture through
Instruction (parents tell us how to and not to behave) but more often through
Modeling and imitation-a result of this is unquestioning acceptance of cultural truisms
cultural truism=beliefs that most members of a society accept as self-evidend/true
We are rewarded for doing what other citizens do in the same situations (a little girl/boy)
To conform is to yield to social norms, or to a group standard
Conformity is needed if society is to function effectively
A social norm is a shared idea about how to or not to behave based on society’s expectations
What wouldn’t you do in a classroom?
Social Scripts-mental tapes, for how to act, provided by our culture (media included, for dating, sex,
etc..)
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Conformity is a response to pressure of norms, usually unstated pressure
Solomon Asch did experiments on the effects of group pressure on conformity:
Read details in Unit 14, page 652
7 confederates-Confederates of the experiment gave the same wrong answers
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Participants conformed and gave the wrong answer 1/3 of the time
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Asch also found that the likelihood of conformity increased with the group size until four
confederates were present-adding more did not matter
Unanimity mattered- having even one ally helped the subject disagree
Conformity, in general, is higher when a task or situation is ambiguous because we don’t have our own
opinion so we go with the majority view (think about when I ask the class to raise their hand if they think
a term means one thing or another-you look around at the crowd)
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People from collectivist, agricultural cultures (members rely on each other more for survival) are
most likely to conform to group norms
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In general, people conform more when their culture encourages respect for social standards
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Why do we laugh at a joke that others laugh at but we don’t understand?
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Normative social influence-conforming to the group norms because the price we pay for being
different may be severe
•
Informational social influence-accepting other’s opinions about reality or truths; this is positivechanging our minds when we need to
Compliance
Compliance is a change in behavior due to a specific request, many times unstated
What strategies influences compliance?
Foot in the door effect-getting a person to agree to a small request to increase the chances that
they will agree to a big request
Can I have $75 for the prom ticket?(later turns into $300 event)
Can I have a few friends over?(later turns into 10 plus other requests)
With foot in the door, the person may feel obligated to comply to the larger request
Low ball procedure-getting someone to agree to an attractive proposition before its hidden costs
are revealed –think about Car dealers or Driving a friend home (say yes than find out it is 50
miles away)
Door in the face technique-asking for a large request first, knowing it will be turned down, and
following it with the smaller, true request: Mom, can I have $60? NO; Well, can I than have $20. YES
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Scarcity effect-people dislike feeling that they can’t have something; people like to have things that
others can’t
I am more apt to buy an item or enjoy an item that I think is scarce
“This is the last one I have”
You feel you’re missing a critical opportunity
Obedience
Obedience is compliance to a direct order, usually from someone in authority-it is compliance with a
command
Obedience is social influence in its most direct and powerful form
•
Hitler
Stanley Milgram’s experiment (read about it on page 655):
Why did people go on and obey an authority figure?
-Believed the experiment would be safe and the experimenter was trustworthy-so they
perceived the situation incorrectly
-They saw themselves as agents of other people’s wishes-so they are not responsible
-When responsibility was shared so that the person was only one of many doing it, obedience
was greater
-The victim was depersonalized or at a distance
People are most likely to obey orders when a great amount of power is vested in the leader
Milgram concluded:
“ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become
agents in terrible destructive processes”
Obedience and the Power of The Situation
Zimbardo’s Prison Study (1972 Stanford U)- (READ pp. 647-648)
 Agreed to two week stay
 Either a guard or a prisoner
 Given no instructions on role
 Abusive guards were not reported
 Humiliation by guards helped to end study
 Lasted six days
Conclusion: situations and roles are powerful and will influence behavior
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Social Influence
Combines:
The power of the situation (aka-social control)
And
The Power of the Individual (personal control)
We are not always sheep and can assert freedom when feeling pressured
Minority Influence-power of one or two to sway majority (Rosa Parks, Gandhi) by holing consistently to
a position
Organizational Behavior –Industrial/Organizational
Psychology
Hawthorne Experiment (Elton Mayo-1920s)-testing to see if better lighting would increase worker
output in the Western Electric Hawthorne Plant in Illinois
The findings: productivity increased with better, too much and too little lighting
Hawthorne Effect: people will alter their behavior because of researchers’ attention and not necessarily
because of any treatment condition
Deindividuation-Group Behavior
Mob Behavior-why? Violent rallies
Loss of personal responsibility in a group, esp. in groups subject to intense pressures and anxiety-people
respond not as individuals, but as anonymous part of a larger group
Deindividuation-loss of the sense of being an individual, but act as part of the crowd, only partly
explains mob behavior.
Snowball effect-in a mob, one dominant, persuasive person can convince people to act by convincing a
few people, who then convinces others, resulting in an unthinking mob (think of a planned lunchroom,
food fight
Helping Behavior
prosocial behaviors-behaviors that are carried out with the goal of helping others
altruism-helping behavior that is not linked to personal gain (Mother Theresa)
reciprocal altruism-concept suggests that people perform altruistic behaviors because they feel that
others will do the same for them:
I will save you from drowning now, you will save me from drowning in the future
“What goes around, comes around.”
Norms of Helping Behavior
Social exchange theory=aim in helping behavior is to maximize benefits (reduce guilt, increase approval,
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feel good) and minimize cost (time, discomfort, and anxiety)
Reciprocity norm=we should help those who help us (not hurt them); in relationships with others we
tend to give as much as we receive (in favors, gifts, invitations, etc..)
Social responsibility norm=we learn we should help those who need our help even if we can’t get back,
or costs outweigh the benefits
What morally motivated rescuers of Jews during WWII?
-Intense anti-Nazi attitudes
-Saw their behaviors as normal, not heroic
-Religious beliefs were important
Bystander Effect
Defined: A person’s helpfulness in an emergency situation decreases as the number of bystanders
increases
Darley and Latane study-college students were more likely to help a peer they overheard having a
seizure when they thought they were the only ones
One reason may be diffusion of responsibility=Believing that others are intervening/responsible
because other are around-they also feel they will not be held accountable for the same reason
Helping Behavior Across Cultures:
-There is no single personality trait that determines who is helpful and who is not
-People from collectivist cultures are more likely to help others when minor assistance is needed and
are equally likely to help others in extremely urgent situations
-Most consistent finding in all psychology: happy people are helpful people
Group Influences on Decisions:
Groupthink
Do groups make better decision? Sometimes groups arrive at riskier decisions.
Groupthink: In a close-knit group, the tendency for all members to think alike and to suppress
disagreement for the sake of harmony
The problem-critical thinking is not used, risks are not assessed, alternatives are not fully explored
Examples of Group Think:
Friends want to go to a wild party; you want to go to a movie
Throughout history, groupthink has led to disastrous decisions:
Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs
1986 NASA launches the Challenger-isolated themselves from dissenting engineer-blows up
Why Groupthink Occurs:
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^An illusion of invulnerability
^Dissenters keep quite rather than make trouble, offend friends, risk being ridiculed-you think that
maybe you are wrong and don’t go by your “gut”
^Pressure on dissenters to conform (may tease or humiliate them)
^illusion of everyone agreeing-may deny dissenters the chance to speak
Group Polarization
Group Polarization-tendency for individuals to become more extreme (either more cautious or more
risky) in their attitudes as a result of group discussion
The group talks itself into extreme positions; they get so energized and focused that they move faster
than intended
EXAMPLE: You attend a PETA meeting (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)
Influences on Group Behavior
Social loafing-the tendency for people to exert less effort on a task when working in a group than when
working alone (more common with men from individualist cultures)
This is worse in larger groups-the person does not feel personally responsible
Examples: -school group work -team sports -carwash
Leadership
Every group has a leader-How do they come forward?
Great person theory—leaders are extraordinary people who attain leadership positions because of their
great qualities; they were born leaders and would have lead any nation at any time
Psychologists see this theory as naïve
One alternative theory is that it is the right person, in the right place, at the right time (Martin Luther
King, Jr.)
Leadership Style:
Leadership style is the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating
people. Kurt Lewin (1939) led a group of researchers to identify different styles of leadership:
Authoritarian or autocratic- “I want you to…. “
Participative or democratic- Let’s work together to solve this.”
Delegative or Free Reign- “You two take care of the problem while I go. . .” This is also known as laissez
faire (or lais·ser faire), which is the noninterference in the affairs of others.
Although good leaders use all three styles, with one of them normally dominant, bad leaders tend to
stick with one style.
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Other “Stuff”
Sandra Bem/Gender Schema
-People develop gender schemas of masculine and feminine very early on through social learning and
reinforcement.
-This is true even for children whose parents are not stressing gender roles. For young children, “Gender
looms large.” This is due to our:
-Self-socialization of gender roles
people cognitively process and categorize new information in their environment based on its maleness
or femaleness. “Girls have long hair; boys have short hair. ” This is true because we continue to figure
this out on our own. We self-socialize.
Social Facilitation- see Unit 14 discussion (especially when skilled, and with a friendly audience)
Social Impairment-poorer performance when others are watching
Mirror- image perceptions=mutual views held by each side when people/groups have conflict
Social trap=conflicting parties, when pursuing their own self interest, are caught in mutually destructive
behavior (think of divorcing couples)
Self-fulfilling prophecy=belief that leads to its own fulfillment (I think you are rude, I ignore you, you act
rude; I think you are mad at me, I ignore you, you become mad at me)
Last three are especially true in conflict situations
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