Download Social Psychology

Social Psychology
Attitude
Attraction
Aggression
Group Behavior
Studying the way people relate to others.
Attitudes
• A set of beliefs and feelings.
• Attitudes predispose our
reactions to people, issues, or
objects.
Attitudes
• Advertising is ALL based on
attitude formation.
• Mere Exposure Effect
– people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them (Constant contact leads to appeal)
• Central Route v. Peripheral Route
– Central Route is when people focus on factual information, logical arguments, and a thoughtful analysis of pertinent details.
– Peripheral Route is when people focus on emotional appeals and incidental cues
Attitude and Behavior
• Do attitudes tell us about
someone’s behavior?
•
LaPiere’s Study
– Over two years LaPiere took several trips with a student and his wife, both of whom were ‘charming and personable’ and were also of Chinese origin. Both spoke unaccented American English.
– On a 10,000 mile trip, they were received at 66 hotels and ‘tourist homes’ and rejected only once; they were served in 184 restaurants and cafes, receiving good service in 72 of them.
– Overall, little discrimination was found. However, 6 months later a questionnaire was sent out to every one of the establishments visited, asking “Will you accept members of the Chinese race as guests in your establishment?”. Out of 251, 128 replied. 92% said ‘no’ to the question (LaPiere, 1934).
Attitude and Behavior
You have a belief that cheating on tests is bad.
But you cheat on a test!!!
The teacher was really bad so in that class it is OK.
Cognitive Dissonance
Theory
• First proposed by Leon
Festinger at Stanford.
• People want to have
consistent attitudes and
behaviors….when they are
not they experience
dissonance (unpleasant
tension).
• Usually they will change
their attitude rather than
change their behavior.
Compliance Strategies
(aka Persuasion Strategies)
• Foot-in-the-door phenomenon
– Getting a person to agree to a modest first request as a set‐up for a later, much larger, request.
• Door-in-the-face phenomenon
– a large request is made knowing it will probably be refused so that the person will agree to a much smaller request
• Norms of reciprocity
– how positive actions bring about more positive actions while negative actions bring about more negative actions
Attribution Theory
• Tries to explain how
people determine the
cause of the behavior
they observe.
It is either a….
• Situational Attribution
(social/situational influences)
• Dispositional Attribution
(personality traits)
Fundamental Attribution Error
How do you view your
teacher’s behavior?
You probably attribute it
to their personality
rather than their
profession.
But do you really know?
When you start a romance, you assume that they agree with your world views….honeymoon period.
• We tend to overestimate
the role of dispositional
factors.
•
Causes
– Just-World Phenomenon
• Most people have a need to
believe the world is just and
fair. As a result, they believe
that people generally get what
they deserve. In other words,
we tend to blame the victim
rather than to look at social
causes.
– Saliency Bias
• Situational factors are less
salient (noticeable). As a result,
people focus on visible
personality traits rather than
less visible social context.
Self-Serving Bias
• Most people take credit
for their successes
while at the same time
attributing their
failures to external
situations beyond their
control.
• We are motivated by a
need for self-esteem
and a desire to save
face.
If you win it is because you are awesome…if you lose, it must have been the coach or weather or…. Cultural and Attributional
Biases
• Individualistic cultures, like the U.S. and Canada, emphasize independence and personal responsibility.
• People in these cultures are more likely to commit both the fundamental attribution error and self‐serving bias.
• Collectivist cultures, like Japan and China, emphasize inter‐
dependence and collective responsibility.
• People in these cultures are less likely to make the fundamental attribution error and more likely to be aware of how situations factors influence behavior.
How groups affect our behavior?
Social Facilitation Theory
• If you are really good
at something….or it is
an easy task…you will
perform BETTER in
front of a group
(social facilitation).
• If it is a difficult task
or you are not very
good at it…you will
perform WORSE in
front of a group
(social inhibition).
Social Loafing
• The tendency for people
in a group to exert less
effort when pooling
efforts toward a common
goal than if they were
individually accountable.
– People believe that their contribution to the collective effort is neither appreciated nor important.
– People believe they will “get a free ride” since it will be difficult to assess their contribution to the team or group.
Deindividuation
• The reduction of selfawareness and personal
responsibility that can occur
when a person is part of a
group whose members feel
anonymous.
– People get swept up in a group and lose sense of self.
– The growing sense of anonymity lowers personal accountability so that individuals no longer feel responsibility for their actions.
• Explains rioting behaviors.
Examples
Bystander Effect
• A phenomenon in which
individuals are less likely to
assist in an emergency
situation when other people
are present.
– As the size of a group present at the scene increases, the likelihood that anyone will help a person in need decreases.
– Since responsibility is not explicitly assigned, bystanders assume that someone else will act. Each individual bystander feels less responsible and thus fails to do anything.
The Case of Kitty Genovese
• Kitty Genovese was a 28-yearold woman who managed a latenight bar in Queens, New York.
At 3:20 a.m. on March 13, 1964,
a serial rapist and murderer
attacked Ms. Genovese as she
approached her apartment
building.
– Although Ms. Genovese repeatedly screamed for help, none of the neighbors came to her aid. After 30 minutes, someone finally called the police. The police rushed to the scene only to find that Ms. Genovese had been fatally wounded.
The Case of Kitty Genovese
– Her tragic death focused public attention on the reasons why bystanders failed to come to her rescue. Initially, editorial writers blamed apathy and the depersonalization of life in the big cities.
– Led by Bibb Latane and John Darley, social psychologists conducted hundreds of investigations into the conditions under which bystanders will help.
– Researchers found that bystanders are more likely to help if they see others who are willing to help, if they know or are told how to provide assistance, and if the person in trouble asks a specific person to provide assistance.
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdpdUbW8vbw
Group Polarization
• Groups tend to make
more extreme
decisions than the
individual.
– Group polarization is an intensification of a group’s prevailing opinion. In contrast, conformity occurs when an individual changes his or her attitude to become more like the group’s attitude.
– Myers and Bishop (1970) discovered that discussing racial issues decreased prejudice in a low‐prejudice group of high school students and increased it in a high‐prejudice group.
– Discussions among a stop‐smoking self‐help group increases the members’ resolve to quit smoking.
Groupthink
• The tendency for a
cohesive decisionmaking group to ignore
or dismiss reasonable
alternatives.
– Group members suppress their reservations about the ideas supported by the group.
– They are more concerned with group harmony.
– Worse in highly cohesive groups.
Conformity Studies
• Adjusting one’s
behavior or thinking
to coincide with a
group standard.
Asch’s Study of Conformity
Asch’s Results
• About 1/3 of the
participants conformed.
• 70% conformed at least
once.
To strengthen conformity:
•
•
•
•
The group is unanimous
The group is at least three
people.
One admires the group’s status
One had made no prior
commitment
Milgram’s Study
Of
Obedience
Results of the Milgram Study
What did we learn from Milgram?
• Ordinary people can
do shocking things.
• Ethical issues….
• Would not have
received approval
from today’s IRB
(Internal Review
Board).
Differential Treatment of
Group Members
• In-Groups
– A group a person identifies with and feels that he or she belongs.
– In‐group bias is the tendency to judge the behavior of in‐
group members favorably and out‐group members unfavorably.
• Can hinder the efforts of outsiders to join a new group. In‐group members would perceive the new person as different and would not make him or her feel welcome.
Differential Treatment of
Group Members
• Out-Groups
– A group with which a person does not identify and does not feel as if he or she belongs.
– The out‐group homogeneity effect is the tendency to see members of the out‐group as very similar to one another.
Ethnocentrism
• The tendency to
consider other
cultures, customs, and
values as inferior to
one’s own.
– European explorers and Native Americans frequently expressed ethnocentric judgments towards each other’s cultures.
– Both ethnocentrism and groupthink can lead to inaccurate perceptions and conclusions.
Stereotypes
• A mental image of
members of a group
that exaggerates or
oversimplifies their
characteristics.
– Famous journalist Walter Lippman coined the term “stereotype” to refer to “pictures in our heads” that accompany a category of people.
– Can be both positive and negative
Stereotypes, Prejudice and
Discrimination
Stereotype:
• Overgeneralized idea about a group of people.
Prejudice:
• Undeserved (usually negative) attitude towards a group of people. Ethnocentrism is an example of a prejudice.
Discrimination:
• An action based on a prejudice.
Does perception change with
race?
Is it just race?
NO
• Palestinians and Jews
• Men and Women
How does prejudice occur?
Social Factors:
Just world Phenomenon
• Social divisions based on in‐
groups and out‐groups promote negative stereotypes and prejudice.
•
• Inequalities between “haves,” who possess wealth, power, and prestige and “have‐nots,” who lack social status, promote prejudice.
•
In one popular study female and male subjects were told two versions of a story about an interaction between a woman and a man. Both variations were exactly the same, except at the very end the man raped the woman in one and in the other he proposed marriage. In both conditions, both female and male subjects viewed the woman's (identical) actions as inevitably leading to the (very different) results.
How does prejudice occur?
Emotional Factors:
• Psychological studies and historic examples both indicate that frustration intensifies prejudice. Frustration is often directed toward an innocent target known as a scapegoat.
• Prejudice is often directed at groups perceived as threatening important cultural values.
– For example, prejudice directed at gays and lesbians is incited by the belief that these groups threaten important family values.
Combating Prejudice
Contact Theory
• Contact between hostile groups will reduce animosity if they are made to work towards a superordinate goal.
– Serif Camp Study ‐ 5 Minute History Lesson: Robbers Cave
Prejudices can often lead to a….
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
•
•
A prediction that causes itself to be true.
Rosenthal and Jacobson’s “Pygmalion in the Classroom” experiment.
– The Pygmalian Effect
Attraction and Aggression
Attraction
Positive feelings toward another person
5 Factors of Attraction
Physical Attractiveness
• Research findings consistently indicate that physical attractiveness is one
of the most important factors in explaining why people are initially attracted
to others.
• Men place greater value on physical attractiveness and youthfulness, whereas women place greater value on maturity, financial resources, and ambition.
• Evolutionary psychologists explain these findings by pointing out that men associate beauty and youth with fertility while women associate financial resources and maturity with responsibility and the ability to be a good father.
• According to the matching hypothesis, two members of a romantic pair are most likely to be judged by others as similar in physical attractiveness.
Proximity
• Nearness – people make more friends among those who live and work nearby.
• Familiarity – familiar people seem safe and approachable while unfamiliar people seem dangerous and threatening.
• Mere Exposure Effect
• Repeated exposure to people or products increases the likelihood that we will be attracted to them.
• Advertisers and politicians use this principle when they regularly repeat the same sales and campaign ads. • Repeated exposure to a negative stimulus can decrease attraction.
Similarity
• Research findings
consistently indicate
that we are most likely
to be attracted to
people who share our
interests, values, and
experiences.
– Similarity breeds content – it is a major factor in promoting long‐term relationships.
Reciprocal Liking
• You are more likely to
like someone who likes
you.
• It reflects the notion
that people feel better
about themselves
knowing that they are
likable and enjoy the
company of those who
give them positive
feelings.
• Except in elementary
school!!!!
Liking through Association
• Classical
Conditioning can play
a part in attraction.
• I love Lazy Dog
Cafe. If I see the
same waiter/
waitress every time
I go there, I may
begin to associate
that person with the
good feelings I get
from Lazy Dog Cafe.
Beauty and Culture
Obesity is so revered among
Mauritania's white Moor Arab
population that the young girls are
sometimes force-fed to obtain a
weight the government has
described as "life-threatening".
Are these cultures really that different?
Aggression
Behavior that is intended to cause harm
Instrumental Aggression – aim is not to harm the victim, but to achieve a
goal or protect oneself.
Hostile Aggression – intended to cause damage to a victim; usually the
result of anger or frustration
Biological Influences
• Evolutionary psychologists believe that humans are instinctively aggressive.
• Alcohol abuse is a major factor in many forms of aggression.
• Research studies have linked the male hormone testosterone with aggressive behavior.
Psychosocial Influences
•
•
•
According to the frustration‐aggression hypothesis, frustration can ignite anger that may lead to aggression.
Over 1,000 studies support the connection between exposure to media violence and the likelihood that someone will behave aggressively.
Social rejection, minimal parental control, especially by the father, and parental models of aggression all contribute to aggressive tendencies.
Reducing Aggression
Subordinate Goals
Communication
•
•
Shared goals can override differences among people that cannot be achieved without a joint effort (Robbers Cave Experiment)
Conciliatory Acts
•
•
Researchers have found that reciprocal conciliatory acts can begin the process of reducing tensions between hostile groups.
Diplomats often use this technique to begin peace talks.
•
Does not guarantee a reduction in tensions.
The use of skilled third‐party mediators, such as marriage counselors, labor mediators, and diplomats can help hostile parties air their differences and begin the process of establishing cooperative relations.