Download Social Psychology Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Social Psychology
Definition: Sub-field of psychology that
studies of how others influence our
thoughts, feelings and actions
Focuses on…
- How large social forces such as groups,
social roles and norms bring out the best and
worst in all of us
- Explaining why people act differently in the
same situation, and why the same person
may act differently in different situations.
Chapter 16: Social Psychology
TOPICS
Our Thoughts About Others
- Attribution
- Attitudes
Our Feelings about Others
- Prejudice & Discrimination
- Interpersonal Attraction
Our Actions Toward Others
- Social Influence
- Group Processes
- Aggression
- Altruism
Applying Social Psych. to Social
Problems
- Reducing Prejudice & Discrimination
Asch - Line test

Conformity - yielding to social pressure
• Asch’s Line Conclusions (60%)
1) subjects often conform to a group, even
when the group states clearly inaccurate
conclusions
2) conformity to a group increases with the
size of the group, up to five or six, but only
when the group is unanimous in its beliefs
Milgram- Shock Test

Obedience (60% finished)
• Milgram’s Shock Conclusions
1) situational pressures can make people obey instructions that
go against their belief systems
Obedience Experiment
Attribution Theory
Definition: Inferences that people draw about the causes
of events, others’ behavior, and their own behavior
Dispositional Attribution: we attribute a
person’s behavior to an internal state
(personality, abilities, etc.)
Situational Attribution: attributing a
person’s behavior to an external state
(stress, abuse, hardship, wealth, etc.)

Function: People like to explain and understand behavior and the
events that impact their lives

Attributions are made when an event is unusual and personal
Covariation Model of Attribution
Attribution
Example
Bias in Attribution

Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE): Observer’s bias in favor of internal
attributions in explaining others’ behavior instead of external
(Ex: Someone else drops out of college because “they couldn’t handle the pressure
or work load” – internal. You may ignore that tuition went up and their family
cannot afford it)

Defensive Attribution: Tendency to blame the victim for their misfortune, so
that one feels less likely to be victimized in a similar way “JUST WORLD”
Self-Serving Bias: Tendency to attribute one’s successes to dispositional
factors and one’s failures to situational factors
 In-group bias- tendency to favor your own group over the out-group

Attitudes & Attitude Formation

Components of Attitudes
• Cognitive: What you believe
• Affective: How you feel about it
• Behavioral: What you are willing to do about it
- When we observe & respond to the world around us, it is never without the
influence of our attitudes (even if we don’t realize it).
- Advertisers spend millions because they know that
attitudes can be shaped & changed….to their benefit $$
 Definition
Positive, negative, or mixed feelings, based on our beliefs, that predispose
us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events (selffulfilling prophecy)
Ex: A friend tells you that they believe Coach Stove is a mean teacher.
You may feel dislike for Coach Stove, and act unfriendly.
Attitudes can Affect Action

Deindividuation- Losing your individuality in
a group

Role-playing: people who behaved in certain
ways in scripted scenarios have adopted
attitudes in keeping with those roles-
Behavior in Groups

Bystander Effect: less likely to help others
when in groups than when alone
Social Loafing: individuals produce less
work (reduced efficiency & effort) when
working in groups than by themselves
Diffusion of responsibility helps explain both.

Decision Making
• Group Polarization - when group
discussion leads to a more “polarized”
point of view by the group
• Groupthink - when feel pressure to
conform to the group, stops critical
thinking to avoid dissention in the group
• Ex: Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs
Group Polarization
Percentage of Bystanders
Helping Victims & Time Taken
Cognitive Dissonance & Social Facilitation
Cognitive Dissonance Theory:
When we act in a way not
consistent with our beliefs we feel
tension. We then revise our beliefs
to align with our behavior.
Example:
 Asked to do hour long boring task
 Offered $1 or $20 to say it’s fun
 Results: Larger payment led to less
dissonance b/c high payment could
account for ‘lying’. $1 was not enough to
justify lying so those people changed their
attitude to saying they enjoyed the task
Example:
After you go to all
the trouble of buying
a new house you
start to like it more
Social Facilitation
Being watched while doing task
makes you do better
Tolerant vs Intolerant

Is basic human nature tolerant or intolerant?
Write a couple points in your notes
 It does not mean you are born one way or
another, but what behavior is typically
shown throughout history.
 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Tolerant
Intolerant
y
p
e
C
a
r
t
o
o
n
S
h
o
w
i
n
g
B
i
a
Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination

Stereotype: Thoughts and beliefs held about
people strictly because of their membership in a
group (race, gender, occupation…)
 Prejudice: A negative attitude held toward
members of a group
 Discrimination: Negative actions towards a group
Explanations
These often arise from learning, personal experience, mental shortcuts,
economic & political competition, & displaced aggression
 Outgroup Homogeneity: Judge members of outgroup as more alike
 Scapegoat: Blame other groups without as much power
 Social Identity (in-group bias): Favor own group
 Learning Theory: Classical or operant conditioning
 Cognitive: Easier to organize our world if we ‘categorize’
Person Perception

Definition: The process of forming impressions of others

Impressions are influenced by:
• Physical appearance
• good looking people are seen as intelligent, friendly, and
confident
• Schemas: Organized clusters of ideas about categories of social
events and people
• 1st Impressions: self fulfilling prophecy, primacy
Social Influence

Chameleon Effect: our tendency to unconsciously mimic
those around us
•
•
•
•
Yawning when others yawn
Picking up the mood of a happy or sad person
Dress like your friends
This automatic mimicry is an ingredient in our ability to
empathize with others
Altruism
Altruism: Actions designed to help others
with no obvious benefit to the helper
Why are we altruistic?
Evolutionary Perspective: favors survival of genes
Egoistic Model: motivated by anticipated gain
Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis: sometimes for selfish gains,
other times truly selfless & motivated by concern for others
Kitty Genovese
Story…diffusion of
responsibility…
Persuasion- changing someone’s attitude

Source: credible, trustworthy, likable, attractive, similarity

Message: Fear vs. logic, one or two sided, repetition

Channel: TV, radio, internet, or in person

Receiver: Personality, expectations, preexisting attitudes,
intelligence, needs
Persuasion Techniques

Limited time offer
 Everyone is buying!!!
 DEAL!!!
 Reciprocation
 Foot in the door
 Door in the face
 Low-balling
Results of Attraction

Friendship: An attraction driven by a set of rules that must be
followed for the relationship to continue
• Examples of rules:
• help when needed
• trust and confide in each other

Romantic Love: Intense feeling of attraction to another within an
erotic context with future expectations

Compassionate Love: Strong and lasting
attraction characterized by trust, caring,
tolerance, and friendship

Triangular Theory of Love: (see next slide)
Extra Credit
I
have 175 points to give to your class.
You will write your name on a paper with the number
of points requested (10 pts max, 10 raises about 3% )
You are not allowed to show anyone how many
points you asked for, or look to see how much a
classmate is requesting. Only Mr. Reed will know.
If students ask for more than 175 points, no one will
get any points.
Extra Credit
You
may ask for 5 or 10 points.
I will randomly pair your choice with another
student in the class. No one will know who has
been paired together besides me.
If both people ask for 5 points, both get 5 points
If one asks for 5 and the other 10, the 10 gets
ten and the 5 gets nothing.
If both ask for 10, both get nothing.
Quickymart Robbery
Confess 1 year, maybe probation
Don’t confess- 15 years
Social Traps
Definition- People do what is in their own self
interest, even though it may hurt the group.
Short term benefits instead of long term.
Examples- Overfishing, logging industry,
health care (I have mine), union
membership, interrogation of suspects),
PHX area gas crisis, PED, NFL lawsuit, ball
hog
Friends


Write down a list of your friends in your
notes (try to limit to 10 or less)
Write down two of your strongest
values/traits
Attraction

Contributors to Attraction
• Proximity: Physical closeness (mere exposure effect)
• Similarity: Commonalities between two people
• Reciprocity: The tendency to like those who like you
• Physical Attractiveness: Pleasant physical appearance (often
different depending on culture), signs of health such as symmetry
(universal)
• Matching Hypothesis: equally attractive people date
Triangular Conception of Love
Components of Attitudes