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Transcript
If this had been the first day of class, with a professor that you had never met before…. What would you think: -about the professor? -about the course? Social Psychology: Chapter/Lecture Outline Interpreting the behaviour of others: social cognition – Person Perception: How do We Form Impressions of Others? – Attribution Theory: Attributing Causes to Behaviour [Lec] – Attitudes and Attitude Change [Lec] Behaving in the presence of others: social influence – Social Facilitation and Interference – Social Influences on Altruism: The Bystander Effect – The Power of the Group: Conformity [video] – The Power of Authority: Obedience [video] Establishing relations with others – What Makes a Face Attractive? – Determinants of Liking and Loving – The Psychology of Romantic Love [Lec] Overview of social psychology • Social psychologists are interested in studying individuals in their social context (= people in groups) – E.g., child in context of the family, spouse in context of marriage, college students in the context of their class • In contrast to sociology: the study of social structure with the unit of analysis being behaviour of social systems – E.g., educational system, family system, political system • Anthropology: Concerned with the total cultural context. – Usually involves cultures other than Western industrial cultures While there is considerable overlap between the three domains, in social psychology the unit of analysis is the individual in society Overview of social psychology (cont.) • There are certain aspects of human behaviour that are naturally a part of social psychology – E.g., attitude formation, persuasion, conformity to social pressures, prejudice, stereotypes, person perception, interpersonal attraction First impressions • What did the demo reveal to you? • How did you form your first impression of the professor on the first day? – You would you use the most salient (available and obvious) information • Physical appearance • Gender • Race First impressions (cont.) • Physical attractiveness: – Attractive people rated as more intelligent, caring, capable – Two recent studies showed that finding a professor attractive on the first day of class (not being attracted TO, but finding them attractive) predicted higher course evaluations. First impressions (cont.) • Social schemas and stereotypes also make up part of first impressions – We deal with these in detail later. Attribution Theory: Attributing Causes to Behaviour • Important aspect of forming and changing our opinions about people and issues is our attribution of people's behavior (our explanation for why they did something) Social Attributions How we explain someone’s behavior affects how we react to it Situational attribution “Maybe that driver is ill.” Tolerant reaction (proceed cautiously, allow driver a wide berth) Negative behavior Dispositional attribution “Crazy driver!” Unfavorable reaction (Speed up and race past the other driver, craning to give them a dirty look) Covariation model • How do we attempt to figure out attributions for people's behaviour? • We often seem to ask ourselves about three aspects of people's behaviour that covary: – Consistency: Does the person do the same thing each time? – Consensus: Does everybody do it? – Distinctiveness: Is the response (or behaviour or change) unique to that stimulus (or cause or situation) ? Example: Why does Claire Laugh at that Comedian? • Is it something about the comedian (external attribution) or about Claire (internal attribution)? • Does she always laugh at him? – [Consistency: Does the person do the same thing each time?] • Do other people laugh at him? – [Consensus:Does everybody do it?] • Does she laugh only at him? – [Distinctiveness: Is the behaviour unique to that cause?] – If all answers are yes, then we attribute Claire’s behaviour to an external cause – that specific comedian. Errors of Attribution • However, people make certain systematic mistakes in attributing causes to people's behaviour. This is illustrated in the next demo. Fundamental attribution error • The fundamental attribution error is a tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and to overestimate the influence of internal factors when explaining other people's behaviour. Fundamental attribution error (FAE) (cont.) • Study by Napolitan & Goethals (1979): – Even when people were told that a woman was acting friendly and unfriendly as part of a study, they believed she really was the way she acted; that is, they attributed her behavior to her personality rather that to the situation • Reasons for FAE: 1. Environmental forces on our behavior salient to us 2. We have more information about the external forces impinging on us than on other people 3. We don't want to label ourselves, but we like to label others Self-Serving Bias • Tendency to take credit for positive outcomes by attributing them to internal causes, but to blame negative outcomes on external causes, especially ones beyond one's control – – E.g., I failed the psyc test because: • My room mates were partying all night and I couldn’t study • Exam was too difficult/too picky (external attributions) But I did well on the soc test because: • I am quite intelligent (internal attribution) Attributions in school: Bernard Weiner • Weiner came up with his social-cognitive theory of motivation in the early 1980’s. • Outcomes can be attributed to INTERNAL causes (“I did not understand the material”) • Or EXTERNAL causes (“The teacher did not do a very good job explaining the material”) • The EMOTIONAL response to a situation is connected to the attribution; – As is the resulting reaction to a poor outcome Attitudes: Three components Attitudes and Attitude Change • • • • Schema is a mental organizing framework about a person or thing that we have formed by prior experience (part of the cognitive component of attitudes) When we form an attitude about something, a schema (organizing framework) about that issue is formed in our mind Once organized, schemas can be very difficult to change Although people generally pay attention to new or inconsistent information, if that information contradicts an established schema, it will often be ignored Schemas and Attitude Change • • • • • E.g., study by Lord et al (1979): Two groups; either strongly in favor or against capital punishment Both groups read two studies; one indicating capital punishment worked to deter crime, the other indicating that it did not Subjects perceived studies supporting their position to be more valid, and ignored the other study; their attitudes actually became more extreme In other words, their schema regarding capital punishment were quite resistant to change Schemas and Attitude Change (cont.) In the Lord et al (1979) study: • As they encountered more information about the topic, they shaped the information to the point that it comes into agreement with the existing schema • This process is called assimilation (=altering information to fit existing schemas) Schemas and Attitude Change (cont.) However, schemas do change sometimes as a result of new information, particularly if four conditions are fulfilled: 1. The information is novel or incongruent 2. Have time to think about it 3. Have ability to understand relation to our existing schema 4. Are motivated to change our schema If not, information will not be 'processed' • • The four conditions listed above increases the chances that accomodation will occur Accomodation refers to changing schemas as a result of new information Attitudes and schemas: Social Schema Sometimes our tendency to form schemas can lead to simplistic or inaccurate stereotypes guy Prejudice and discrimination Prejudice and discrimination: Contact hypothesis Groups that are prejudiced against each other rarely have much sustained contact with each other. The contact hypothesis suggests that increased contact, under certain conditions, may decrease prejudice. Those conditions are: 1. Groups must be roughly equal in task-related status. 2. Contact must involve cooperation and interdependence. 3. Contact must be informal so they can get to know each other one-on-one. 4. Contact must occur in a setting where existing norms favour group equality 5. People involved must view each other as typical of respective groups. – Otherwise, "good" guys on other side seen as exceptions Cognitive Dissonance (Pp. 524-526) • Festinger and Carlsmith (1959): Subjects induced to act inconsistently with true feelings often changed those feelings – Tendency reduced when paid more money • Cognitive dissonance: Tension produced when people act in a way inconsistent with attitudes – Reduced by either changing behaviour or changing beliefs – Influential idea, but hard to predict how people react to it Cognitive Dissonance (P. 525) Figure 13.5 Self-Perception Theory (p. 526) • Alternative to dissonance theory in which people use observations of own behaviour as a basis for inferring their own beliefs – Example: If I told people a job was interesting, and kept going to that job, that must mean I like the job • A persuasion technique based on this idea: – Foot-in-the-door Social Influence: Overview (P. 528) • How does the presence of others affect performance? • Social influences on altruism • The power of the group – Conformity • Group decision-making • The power of authority: Obedience – Milgram’s obedience experiment • The role of culture How does the presence of others affect performance? (P. 529) • In the presence of others, performance can be affected in several ways: – Social facilitation: Performance enhanced – Social interference: Performance impaired • Interactions with task difficulty – Others help spur performance of easy tasks, but they hinder performance of new or difficult ones – May happen because presence of others raises arousal • Recall: Performance is best when arousal is not too low (as for easy tasks) or too high (as for difficult ones) Social Influences on Altruism (Pp. 530-531) • Altruism: Acting in a way that shows unselfish concern for the welfare of others • Bystander effect: Reluctance to come to someone’s aid when others are present; “I’m sure someone will help” • Diffusion of responsibility: Allowing sense of responsibility to spread out among those present – Derives from belief that others have already done something to help or soon will • The more witnesses, the less likely any single one will help Group influence video • Conformity – Being a part of the group is safe – The group becomes a part of your identity – Two kinds of conformity • Acceptance: you have internalized an attitude, and express that attitude • Compliance: on the outside, you look like you have accepted – BUT you have not changed your internal way of thinking Other types of conformity • Confederates influencing answers – Group gave the wrong answer; subject chose not to disagree • 76% conformed at least once; 37% conformed even on critical trials • People will conform even in the presence of strangers. Obedience • Doing what the authority figure wants – Big topic after WWII: how could people commit atrocities, saying “I was just following orders” – Milgram’s learner and teacher • What did you think of Milgram’s results? • What does this tell us about social influences? • What do you think about how the psychologists related Milgram’s experiment to the Aryan Nations? Group influences • Going along with the group – Deindividuation: becoming part of a group, and relax normal restraints – swept up in what the group is doing • Can lead to acting contrary to normal behaviour The Power of the Group (Pp. 531-532) • Social loafing: Tendency to put in less effort when working in a group than when working alone – May be connected to the bystander effect, diffusion of responsibility – Groupthink: Tendency for members to become so interested in seeking consensus that they ignore, suppress, dissenting view – Can be countered by encouraging dissent, awareness, of the tendency Group Decision-Making (P. 534) • Group polarization: Tendency for a group’s dominant point of view to become stronger, more extreme with time – May relate to conformity, wish to be liked by other group members • Deindividuation: Loss of individuality that comes from being in a group – Example: People might do things when in a large, rowdy group that they would never do alone – May also relate to diffusion of responsibility Power • What if we put good people in an evil place? The Power of the Group • Deindividuation – Roles played in a group can have a powerful effect on behaviour. – Stanford Prison Experiment: 24 healthy, welladjusted (they were screened) male undergraduates – Paid $15/day for taking part (1978) • Zimbardo said: “Maintain law and order, but no physical violence.” • The guards made up their OWN rules – they felt they needed some rules. • What happened after the first day? • What happened to Zimbardo himself, as the “prison superintendent”? What did “I can’t believe what you are doing to those boys?” do to Zimbardo? • What surprised Zimbardo? – The speed with which things deteriorated Abu Ghraib • Parallels: – Did anything look familiar? Sound familiar? – Zimbardo testified for one of the soldiers charged with torture • He pointed out that everything that happened at the prison could have been predicted by his experiment And now for something a little less disturbing • Or not…. LOVE What makes a face attractive? (p. 541543) • Evolutionary perspective – Want our best reproductive bet: healthy, vigorous, youthful. – What is an “attractive” face transcends culture – babies show preferences for faces adults rate as attractive • “Prototypical” faces – Closest to “average” – Langlois & Roggman found that composite faces rated better than individuals • Socialized components – Standards of beauty change; Marilyn Monroe to Rene Zellweger or Kate Moss Love • Okey dokey. He/she has an attractive face. • Now what? • Environment plays a big role: – – – – Proximity (hey – you’re here) Similarity (we like the same things!) Reciprocity (you like me) Level of arousal (I’m scared – you’re cute) • Why generations of men have learned to take women to scary movies… Theories of love • • • • • • Passionate and companionate love Idea developed by Elaine Hatfield (formerly Walster) and Ellen Berscheid Two kinds of romantic love Passionate love: complete absorption in another, includes sexual feelings and intense emotion, both positive and negative Companionate love: warm, trusting, tolerant affection for another whose life is deeply intertwined with your own Passionate love and companionate love may coexist, but often occur separately Triangular theory of love • Robert Sternberg (1988) has added a third dimension to the above, by splitting companionate love into two components: intimacy and commitment Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love suggests three elements to love: • – – – • Passion: excitement, intense sexual feelings Intimacy: warmth, closeness, sharing Commitment: intent to maintain relationship in spite of difficulties and problems Eight kinds of love relationships that emerge from Sternberg's Triangular Theory of love: – Fatuous love, infatuation, romantic love, liking, companionate, love, empty love, consummate love Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love: Different Types of Love Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love: Changes over Time Triangular theory of love (cont.) • • Sternberg also suggests the type of love change over time. About when does passion peak in a relationship? – • When does passion reach its lowest point? – • Between 2 and 4 years At about 10–15 years When do intimacy, commitment and passion become approximately equal? – • 4–8 years When does intimacy start to decline in relationships? – It doesn’t; according to the figure, intimacy continues to grow throughout most lasting relationships