Download Module 25 Social Psychology

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
Module 25
Social Psychology
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
PERCEIVING OTHERS
•
Person perception
– refers to seeing someone and then forming impressions
and making judgments about that person’s likeability and
the kind of person he or she is, such as guessing his or her
intentions, traits, and behaviors
– 4 influences on person perception:
1. physical appearance
– initial impressions and judgments of a person are
heavily influenced and biased by a person’s
physical appearance
– for better or for worse, a person’s looks matter,
since people who are judged to be more physically
attractive, generally make more favorable
impressions
2. need to explain
– explain why a person looks, dresses, or behaves in
a certain way
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
PERCEIVING OTHERS (CONT.)
–
4 influences on person perception
3. influence on behavior
– first impressions will influence how you would like
or interact with a person
4. effects of race
– members of one race generally recognize faces of
other races
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
PERCEIVING OTHERS (CONT.)
Implicit Personality
Theory - Example
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
PERCEIVING OTHERS (CONT.)
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Stereotypes
– widely held beliefs that people have certain traits because
they belong to a particular group
– often inaccurate and frequently portray the members of less
powerful, less controlling groups, more negatively, than
members of more powerful or controlling groups
– Purpose – mental standards for judging others, and
thought-saving devise
Development of stereotypes
– Prejudice
• refers to an unfair, biased, or intolerant attitude toward
another group of people
– Discrimination
• refers to specific unfair behaviors exhibited toward
members of a group
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
Death Penalty/ Prejudice
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
PERCEIVING OTHERS (CONT.)
•
Schemas
– mental categories that, like computer files, contain knowledge
about people, events, and concepts
– Part of social cognition, which studies how and what people learn
about social relationships
– Kinds of schemas:
• Person schemas
– include our judgments about the traits that we and others
possess
• Role schemas
– based on the jobs people perform or the social positions
they hold
• Event schemas, also called scripts,
– contain behaviors that we associate with familiar
activities, events, or procedures
• Self-schemas
– contain personal information about ourselves, and this
information influences, modifies, and distorts what we
perceive and remember and how we believe
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
PERCEIVING OTHERS (CONT.)
• Schemas: advantages and disadvantages
– Disadvantages
• schemas may restrict, bias, or distort what we
attend to and remember and thus cause us to
overlook important information
• are highly resistant to change because we
generally select and attend to information that
supports our schemas and deny any
information that is inconsistent with them
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
PERCEIVING OTHERS (CONT.)
• Schemas: Advantages and disadvantages
– Advantages
• contain information about how people think
and behave
• help people analyze and respond appropriately
in a particular social situation
• provide guidelines for how to behave in various
social events (event schemas) and help us
explain the social behavior of others (role
schemas)
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
ATTRIBUTIONS
• Definition
– things we point to as the cause of events, other
people’s behaviors, and our own behaviors
• Internal versus external
– Internal attributions
• explanations of behavior based on the internal
characteristics or dispositions of the person
performing the behavior
– External attributions
• explanations of behavior based on the external
circumstances or situations
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
ATTRIBUTIONS (CONT.)
•
Kelley’s Covariation model
– says that, in making attributions, we should look for factors
that are present when the behavior occurs and factors that are
absent when the behavior does not occur
– Consensus
• determining whether other people engage in the same
behavior in the same situation
– Consistency
• determining whether the person engages in this behavior
every time he or she is in a particular situation
– Distinctiveness
• determining how differently the person behaves in one
situation when compared to other situations
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
ATTRIBUTIONS (CONT.)
•
Biases and errors
– Fundamental attribution error
• refers to our tendency, when we look for causes of a
person’s disposition or personality traits, to overlook how
the situation influenced the person’s behavior
– Actor-observer effect
• refers to the tendency, when you are behaving (or
acting), to attribute your own behavior to situational
factors
– Self-serving bias
• refers to explaining our successes by attributing them to
our dispositions or personality traits and explaining our
failures by attributing them to the situations
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
ATTITUDES
•
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Definition
– belief or opinion that includes an evaluation of some object,
person, or event, along a continuum from negative to
positive, that predisposes us to act in a certain way toward
that object, person, or event
Components of attitudes
– cognitive component
• includes both thoughts and beliefs that are involved in
evaluating some object, person, or idea
– affective component
• involves emotional feelings that can be weak or strong,
positive or negative
– behavioral component
• involves performing or not performing some behavior
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
ATTITUDES (CONT.)
• Functions of attitudes
– predispose
• means that they guide or influence us to behave in
specific ways
– interpret
• means that they provide convenient guidelines for
interpreting and categorizing objects and events
and deciding whether to approach or avoid them
– evaluate
• means that they help us stand up for those beliefs
and values that we consider very important to
ourselves
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
ATTITUDES (CONT.)
•
Attitude change
– Cognitive dissonance
• refers to a state of unpleasant psychological tension that
motivates us to reduce our cognitive inconsistencies by
making our beliefs more consistent with each other
• Counterattitudinal behavior
– involves taking a public position that runs counter to
your private attitude
– Allows us to reduce cognitive dissonance
– Self-perception theory
• we first observe or perceive our own behavior and then, as
a result, we change our attitudes
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
ATTITUDES (CONT.)
•
Persuasion
– Central route for persuasion
• presents information with strong arguments, analyses,
facts and logic
– Peripheral route for persuasion
• emphasizes emotional appeal, focuses on personal
traits, and generates positive feelings
– Elements of persuasian
• Source of the message
• Content of the message
• Characteristics of the audience
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES
•
•
Conformity
– refers to any behaviors you perform because of group
pressure, even though that pressure might not involve direct
requests
– Asch’s Experiment
• Results
– 75% participants conformed to at least one wrong
choice
– subjects gave wrong answer (conformed) on 37%
of the critical trials
– Why? – informational influence
Hazing
– part of a group’s initiation ritual, during which individuals are
subjected to a variety of behaviors that range from:
– humiliating and unpleasant
– potentially dangerous
– both physically and psychologically
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES
Asch’s Experiments on Conformity
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All but 1 in group was
confederate
Seating was rigged
Asked to rate which line
matched a “standard”
line
Confederates were
instructed to pick the
wrong line 12/18 times
Standard lines
1
2
3
Comparison lines
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
• Compliance
– kind of conformity in which we give in to social
pressure in our public responses but do not
change our private beliefs
• Obedience
– refers to performing some behavior in response to
an order given by someone in a position of power
or authority
– Milgram’s Experiment
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
Milgram’s Experiment
•Basic study procedure:
•teacher and learner (learner always
confederate)
•watch learner being strapped into
chair
•learner expresses concern over his
“heart condition”
•Teacher goes to another room with
experimenter
•Shock generator panel – 15 to 450
volts, labels “slight shock” to “XXX”
•Asked to give higher shocks for every
mistake learner makes
•Learner protests more and more as
shock increases
•Experimenter continues to request
obedience even if teacher balks
120 “Ugh! Hey this really hurts.”
150 “Ugh! Experimenter! That’s all.
Get me out of here. I told you
I had heart trouble. My heart’s
starting to bother me now.”
300 (agonized scream) “I absolutely
refuse to answer any more.
Get me out of here. You can’t hold
me here. Get me out.”
330 (intense & prolonged agonized
scream) “Let me out of here.
Let me out of here. My heart’s
bothering me. Let me out,
I tell you…”
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
• Prosocial behavior
– also called helping, is any behavior that benefits
others or has positive social consequences
• Altruism
– form of helping or doing something, often at a
cost or risk, for reasons other than the
expectation of a material or social reward
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
• Why people help
– Empathy
• identify with what the victim must be going
through
– Personal distress
• feelings of fear, alarm, or disgust from seeing a
victim in need
– Norms and values
• feel morally bound or socially responsible to
help those in need
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
•
Why people help
– Decision-stage model of helping
• Five stages in deciding to help
1. notice the situation
2. interpret it as one in which help is needed
3. assume personal responsibility
4. choose a form of assistance
5. carry out that assistance
– Arousal-cost-reward model of helping
• make decisions to help by calculating the costs and
rewards of helping
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
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Groups
– collections of two or more people who interact, share some
common idea, goal, or purpose, and influence how their
members think and behave
Group cohesion
– group togetherness, which is determined by how much
group members perceive that they share common attributes
Group norms
– formal or informal rules about how group members should
behave
Group membership
– Task-oriented group - members have a specific duties to
complete
– Socially oriented group - members are primarily concerned
about fostering and maintaining social relationships among
the members of the group
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
•
Behavior in crowds
– Crowd - large group of persons who are usually strangers,
can facilitate or inhibit certain behaviors
– Facilitation and inhibition
• Social facilitation - increase in performance in the
presence of a crowd
• Social inhibition - decrease in performance in the
presence of a crowd
– Deindividuation in crowds
• refers to the increased tendency for subjects to behave
irrationally or perform antisocial behaviors when there is
less chance of being personally identified
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
•
Behavior in crowds
– The bystander effect
• individual may feel inhibited from taking some action
because of the presence of others
• Informational influence theory
– we use the reactions of others to judge the
seriousness of the situation
• Diffusion of responsibility theory
– says that, in the presence of others, individuals feel
less personal responsibility and are less likely to
take action in a situation where help is required
• Kitty Genovese example
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
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Group polarization
– phenomenon in which group discussion reinforces the majority’s
point of view and shifts that view to a more extreme position
Groupthink
– refers to a group making bad decisions because the group is more
concerned about reaching agreement and sticking together, than
gathering the relevant information and considering all the
alternatives
– Avoid by using vigilant decision making
Ingroup
– includes only the immediate members of the group
Outgroup
– includes everyone who is not a part of the group
Sherif’s Cave Experiment
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
•
Sherif’s Cave Experiment
– 11–12 year-old boys at camp
– boys were divided into 2 groups and kept separate
from one another
– each group took on characteristics of distinct social group,
with leaders, rules, norms of behavior, and names
– Leaders proposed series of competitive interactions which
led to 3 changes between groups and within groups
• within-group solidarity
• negative stereotyping of other group
• hostile between-group interactions
– Overcoming the strong we/they effect
• establishment of common goals--groups had to
cooperate to solve a common problem (e.g., breakdown
in camp water supply)
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
AGGRESSION
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Aggression
– is any behavior directed toward another that is intended to cause
harm
Model of aggression:
– Interaction of genetic/environment factors
– Social cognitive factors - says that much of human behavior,
including aggressive behavior, may be learned through watching,
imitating, and modeling and does not require the observer to
perform any observable behavior or receive any observable
reward
– Personality factors
Situational Cues
– Frustration-aggression hypothesis – when goals are blocked,
become frustrated and respond with anger and aggression
– Modified frustration-aggression hypothesis – although frustration
may lead to aggression, a number of situational and cognitive
factors may override with aggressive response
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
AGGRESSION (CONT.)
•
Characteristics and kinds of rapists
– Power rapist
• 70% of all rapes
• not to hurt physically but to possess
– Sadistic rapist
• fewer than 5%
• most dangerous because, for him, sexuality and
aggression have become fused and using physical force
is arousing and exciting
– Anger rapist
• impulsive, savage attack of uncontrolled physical
violence
– Acquaintance or date rape
• knows victim and uses varying amounts of verbal or
physical coercion to force his partner to engage in
sexual activities