Download Social Psychology

01/07
An individual who experiences major distortions
of reality is most likely suffering from which of
the following types of disorders:
A)Anxiety
B) Mood
C) Adjustment
D) Schizophrenia
E) Bipolar
1/08
Jared wants to use the foot-in-door technique to try to convince his parents
to buy him a car. Which of the following would most clearly demonstrate his
correct application of the technique?
A) He asks his parents for a very expensive truck, and when they refuse, he
asks for an economy car.
B) He tells his parents that he will sacrifice half his allowance for a year if
they buy him a car.
C) He asks his parents to buy him a bicycle, and when they agree to do that,
he asks them to buy him a car instead.
D) He tells his parents that if they buy him a car, he will wash their car every
week and drive his little sister to school.
1/09
With which of the following would a cognitively
oriented therapist most likely be concerned:
A) The number of negative self-statements
made by the patient.
B) The temperament of the patient as a child
C) The number of individuals in the patient’s
household
D) The physiological makeup of the patient
E) The responses made by the patient on a
projective test.
Chapter 18: Social
Psychology
Attitude
Attraction
Aggression
Group Behavior
Studying the way we think about,
influence, and relate to one another.
Attribution Theory
• Explains how people determine the
cause of the behavior they
observe.
It is either a….
• Situational Attribution
(The situation)
• Dispositional Attribution
( The person’s
personality/disposition)
Example: A teacher may wonder
whether a child’s hostility reflects
an aggressive personality
(personality disposition) or a
reaction to stress or abuse
(situation)
Fundamental Attribution Error
•
David Napolitan and
George Goethals
experiment with
Williams College
Students.
Attributed teacher’s
behavior to her
disposition.
Have you ever had a
negative view of an
actor/actress because
of a role they played?
The tendency for observers to
underestimate the impact of the situation
and to overestimate the impact of personal
disposition.
• Individualistic
(stronger)V. Collectivistic
Cultures
False Consensus Effect
Just-World Bias (society)
Self-Serving Bias
If you win it is
because you are
awesome…if you
lose, it must have
been the coach or
weather or….
Attitudes
feelings often based on our beliefs that predispose us to respond in a
particular way to objects, people, and events
•
•
•
•
Attitudes predict behavior
imperfectly
Attitudes often follow a behavior
Advertising is ALL based on
attitude formation.
Mere Exposure
Effect
Compliance Strategies
Convincing people to act against their beliefs can affect their
attitude.
•
•
Ex. U.S. POW in Korean War.
Foot-in-the-door
phenomenon-The tendency for
people who have first agreed to
a small request to comply later
with a larger request. Good and
bad!
Ex. California “Drive Carefully” sign.
Started with 3 inch “Be a Safe
Driver” sign.
•
•
Door-in-the-face phenomenona big request is made (knowing
they will reject) in order for
someone to accept a smaller
request.
Role playing affects attitudes!!
Zimbardo’s Prison Study
Zimbardo
Prison Study
• Showed how we
deindividuate AND become
the roles we are given.
• Students at Stanford played
the roles of prisoner and
prison guards in the
basement of the psychology
building.
• Zimbardo had to call off the
study after 6 days
Abu Ghraib
• Us Prison in Iraq
Attitude and Behavior
• Do attitudes tell us about
someone’s behavior?
• LaPiere’s Study
(actions don’t always follow our
intentions)
Cognitive Dissonance
Theory
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.
• Leon Festinger
• People want their attitudes and
actions to be congruent
• They usually bring their attitudes
into line with their actions
Example: U.S. War in Iraq.
Why did we originally go to war in
Iraq?
38% justified in WMD….58%
Conformity
Adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group
standard.
•
•
•
Chameleon Effect: Unconsciously mimic
others’ expressions, postures, and voice
tones. Helps understand what they are
feeling.
Copy cat Columbine (all except Vermont)
Marilyn Monroe suicide
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
Others in the group observe one’s behavior
The group is at least three people.
One admires the group’s status
One had made no prior commitment to any
response
One’s culture strongly encourages respect
for social standards.
Reasons for Conforming
• Normative Social Influence: Influence resulting
from a person’s desire to gain approval or
avoid disapproval.
Ex. Tony Smith
• Informational social
Influence: Influence resulting from one’s
willingness to accept other’s opinions about
reality.
Ex. Denton in British Highway (30 miles)
Obediance
• Key term: Obedience to
authority
An outcome of social influence
where an individual acts
according to the orders of some
authority figure.
It is assumed that without the
order the person would have not
acted in this way.
• What types of people would you obey?
(write on white boards)
• Look at the following slide that contains 14 pictures
of people in uniforms.
• If they ordered you to do something who would you
most likely obey?
Put in order 1=definitely would obey!! & 14= Know
way!
What if a person in authority asked you to do something you
didn’t agree with like harm another person?
What if the authority figure appears to have a higher
status than we do?
What if you couldn’t see that target of the violence?
Would you obey the order if you saw a peer blindly
complying with the authority figure?
What if you were being watched over or supervised by
an authority figure who is giving the orders?
What if you felt like you were merely assisting someone
else doing the actual dirty work?
How many of us would
become abusive and
sadistic if power was
placed in our hands?
You see the following
advertisement….you’re interested, you
could do with some beer money…..
•
Obedience to Authority experiment (electric shock test) by Stanley Milgram
(1963)
•
Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, conducted a study focusing on
the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience. He
examined justifications for acts of genocide offered by those accused at the
World War II, Nuremberg War Crimes trials. Their defence often was based on
"obedience" - - that they were just obeying orders whilst under the authority of
their superiors.
•
“I set up a simple experiment to test how much pain an
ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply
because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist.
Stark authority was pitted against the subjects' strongest
moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the
subjects' ears ringing with the screams of the victims,
authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness
of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an
authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the
fact most urgently demanding explanation." Milgram (1974)
Remember these? Milgram found that people are capable of
hurting others in all of the situations below
What if the authority figure appears to have a higher
status than we do?
What if you couldn’t see that target of the violence?
Would you obey the order if you saw a peer blindly
complying with the authority figure?
What if you were being watched over or supervised by
an authority figure who is giving the orders?
What if you felt like you were merely assisting someone
else doing the actual dirty work?
Milgram’s Study of
Obedience (1963,1974)
Milgram Experiment
Results of the Milgram Study
63%
What did we learn from Milgram?
• Ordinary people can do
shocking things if:
• The person giving orders was
close
• The authority figure had
credibility
• The victim was depersonalized or at a distance
• There were no role models for
defiance
Real Life Example: Holocaust
Summer of 1942
• 500 German reserve police officers were ordered by a visibly
upset commander to round up the village’s Jews and send half
to working camps and to shoot the other half on the spot.
• Only a dozen refused to do so.
• The rest of the 485 recruits, most family men, killed about
1500 helpless women, children, and elderly by shooting them
in the back of the head while laying face down.
• Some did end up dissenting as they heard the pleas (20%)
• However, the disobedient were in the minority.
Group Dynamics
Social Facilitation Theory
(Norman Triplett) Prescence of other’s boosts performance.
• If you are really good at
something….or it is an easy
task…you will perform
BETTER in front of a group.
• If it is a difficult task or you
are not very good at it…you
will perform WORSE in front
of a group (social
impairment).
• Works with comedy as well
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.
• Clapping example (1/3rd less),
tug of war example (82% as
much effort)
• Why?
1. Less accountable
2. View contribution as
dispensible
Deindividuation
The loss of self awareness and self restraint occurring in group
situations that foster arousal and anonymity.
• People get swept up in
a group and lose sense
of self.
• Feel anonymous and
aroused.
• Explains rioting
behaviors.
Group Polarization
The enhancement of a groups prevailing inclinations through
discussion within the group.
• Good & bad results
• Groups tend to make more extreme
decisions than the individual.
Jonestown
Groupthink
•
Group members suppress their reservations about
the ideas supported by the group.
• They are more concerned with group harmony.
• Worse in highly cohesive groups.
• Ex: Newly elected JFK and Bay of Pigs.
• Other examples:
Failure to anticipate Pearl Harbor attack, U.S.
Watergate cover up, and Challenger explosion
HOWEVER, two heads can be better than one. Ex.
Marshall Plan (Truman), Kennedy and Missile Crisis
• THE POWER OF THE INDIVIDUAL
Social Control(power of situation) and personal
control (power of individual).
Three individuals at Abu Ghraib, communism,
“Fullton’s Folly
•
Stereotypes, Prejudice and
Discrimination
Stereotype:
• Overgeneralized idea about a group of
people.
Prejudice: “prejudgment”
• Unjustifiable (usually negative) attitude
towards a group of people-often a
different cultural, ethnic, or gender
group.
Discrimination:
• Action based on prejudice. A negative
behavior.
Example:
To believe that overweight people are
gluttonous, to feel antipathy for an
overweight person, and to be hesitant to
hire an overweight person is be prejudiced.
Prejudice is a negative attitude,
discrimination is a negative behavior.
• Prejudgments color our perceptions
1970s study (horsing around vs. violence)
Does Prejudice Still Occur?
•
•
6 in 10 Europeans said immigrants are a bad influence on their country.
In most places in the world, gays and lesbians can’t comfortably acknowledge who
they love.
• In the United States, the majority of motorists that are stopped and searched are
African American.
Ex. Dr. Elmo Randolph stopped over 100 times over 4 years. Ended up having to sell his
gold BMW.
• In Abu Dhabi, women are not allowed to drive
• Western cultures pay more to men
• Worldwide, women have a lower literacy rate (69% to 83%)
• China (40 million bachelors)
• Suppose you could only have one child…..what would it be? 2/3rds said BOY.
Which person placed an ad seeking a
special lady to love and cherish forever?
How does prejudice occur?
Just world Phenomenon-the
tendency to believe the world is
just and that people therefore
get wheat they deserve and
deserve what they get.
• In one 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.
• Hindsight bias: the women should of
Known better. Others didn’t see the
Women’s actions as inviting rape.
How does prejudice occur?
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•
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Our ancestral need to belong, we are a
group bound species…..we cheer for our
groups, kill for them, die for them.
John Turner and Michael Hogg noted that
through our social identities we associate
ourselves with certain groups and contrast
ourselves with others.
Ingroup: “Us”-people with whom one
shares a common identity.
Outgroup-”Them” –those perceived as
different or apart from one’s ingroup.
Ingroup bias: the tendency to favor one’s
own group
Scapegoat Theory: The theory that
prejudice offers an outlet for anger by
providing someone to blame.
Who have we used as a scapegoat for our
anger in U.S. History?
How does prejudice occur?
• Social Inequalities: People vary in
the amount of money, power, and
prestige they have.
• People tend to develop attitudes
that justify things as they are.
Ex. Many slave owners justified having
slaves by perceiving slaves as lazy,
ignorant, and irresponsible.
• Categorizing: People tend to
simplify and our world into
categories. This forms divisions in
society.
Combating Prejudice
Contact Theory
• Contact between hostile groups will reduce animosity if they are made
to work towards a superordinate goal.
• Sherif camp study
• GRIT: Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction
Start with initiating one or more small, conciliatory acts. This opens up the
door for the other party to reciprocate. Known to increase trust and
cooperation.
• Kitty Genovese Case
Altruism
Unselfish regard for the welfare of
others.
• A stalker repeatedly stabbed her
then raped her
• 38 neighbors heard the screams
• None called the police
• Her attacker fled, then retuned to
stab and rape her again
Bystander Effect
• The tendency for any given bystander
to be less likely to give aid if other
bystanders are present. (40% to 20%)
Pluralistic Ignorance
• People decide what to do by looking to
others.
The Norms for Helping
The best odds of our helping
someone occur when:
• The victim appears to need and
deserve help
• The victim is in some way similar
to us
• We have just observed someone
else being helpful
• We are not in a hurry
• We are in a small town or rural
area
• We are feeling guilty
• We are focused on others and not
preoccupied
• We are in a good mood 
• Why do we help?
Social Exchange Theory: The theory
that our social behavior is an
exchange process, the aim of which
is to maximize benefits and minimize
costs. Ex. Donate blood
Reciprocity Norm: An expectation
that people will help, not hurt, those
who have helped them. Ex. Favors,
gifts, and social invitations
Social Responsibility Norm: An
expectation that people will help
those dependent upon them. Ex.
Little children
Pro-Social Behavior (Altruism)
• Altruism
–The unselfish
regard for the
welfare of others
–Carl Wilkens
–Hotel Rwanda
–Battled Genocide
in Africa
Psychology of Aggression
Any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy
Two types of aggression
1.
Instrumental Aggression-to obtain a certain goal.
2.
Hostile Aggression-to inflict harm or pain.
The Biology of Aggression:
• Genetic Influence: Genes influence aggression. Twin
study…..Y Chromosome
• Neural Influence:
Amygdala!! No one spot however.
• Biochemical Influence: Hormones and alcohol.
Theories of Aggression:
Bandura’s Modeling-OBSERVATION. Rape myth (Gone With
the Wind)
Frustration-Aggression Principle: The principle that
frustration-the blocking of an attempt to achieve some
goal-creates anger, which can generate aggression.
• Aversive Events can cause aggression:
Hot temperatures, physical pain, personal
Insults, etc.
• Rejection induced aggression: If ostracized or made fun
of,more liable to act aggressive.
• Video Games
Artest
Fight
Attraction
4 Factors of Attraction
Proximity
• Geographic nearness
– Dating at work
Mere exposure effect:
• Repeated exposure to something
breeds liking.
• Interesting……
We prefer the face in the mirror (more
familiar), we often pick someone whose
faces incorporate some morphed
features of our own.
• Taiwanese Letters
Physical Attractiveness
Attractiveness
• 100 top grossing films since 1940 found that characters were portrayed as
morally superior to unattractive characters.
• Babies prefer to gaze at attractive faces over unattractive faces.
• The blind can still sense attractiveness
• Attractiveness is surprisingly unrelated to their self esteem. One reason is
the Mere Exposure Effect.
• “Beauty is in the eye of the culture”
• People with symmetrical faces and bodies are more sexually attractive.
What is beauty?
Each culture has their
own definition
Healthy and symmetrical
seems to be considered
attractive across most
cultures
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".
Similarity
• Paula Abdul was wrongopposites do NOT
attract.
• In real life, opposites
retract
• Birds of the same
feather do flock
together.
• Similarity breeds
content.
• Dating websites
Are these cultures really that different?
Reciprocal Liking
• You are more likely
to like someone who
likes you.
• Why?
• Except in elementary
school!!!!
Love
• Passionate Love-an aroused state of
Intense absorption in another, usually
present at the beginning of a love
Relationship.
– Keyed by arousal
– Two factor theory (physical
Arousal and cognitive appraisal).
– Bridge and Pretty girl Experiment
– Men coming off the scary bridge
were more likely to call the girl
– Adrenaline makes the heart grow
Fonder.
Companionate Love
• A deeper, more affectionate
attachment
• Two keys:
• Equity
– when both partners receive in
proportion to what they contribute
• Self-disclosure
– revealing private details about
ourselves