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Social Psychology
Unit 8
Social Psychology
Social Perception
 Cognition
 Process individuals use to gather and remember
information about others and to formulate
inferences from that information
 First Impressions: First Information ones learns
about another
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◦ First impressions make one live up or down to the
expectations that first meeting set
◦ Primacy Effect: The effect is not on just the person making the
impressions but also on the one receiving that impression
Social Psychology
Stereotype: Generalized belief or
expectation about a group of people
 Prejudice: Unfavourable stereotype;
negative attitude toward a group of people
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Attribution
 Attribution Theory
◦ Set of thought processes used to assign
causes to an individuals own behaviour or to
the behaviour of others.
◦ Internal Attributions: Explanations focus
on individuals personal, stable characteristics
such as personality, attitudes, or abilities.
Internal attributes are considered
dispositional attributes.
◦ External Attributions: Stimuli in the
environment, occurrences during the day,
and rewards and penalties.
Attribution
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Harold Kelley: Theory that individuals rely on
three types of information.
◦ 1. Consensus Information: How a persons behaviour
compares with another's
◦ 2. Consistency Information: Info to determine
whether internal or external attributes play a role in
person’s behaviour
◦ 3. Distinctiveness: Refers to how a person’s behaviour
varies from one object or social partner to another
Attribution
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Fundamental Attribution Error: The overemphasis on internal
explanations that are affecting behaviour.
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Actor Observer Effect:
◦ In explaining ones conduct, the individual plays the role of the observer yet
when the same individual provides reasons for there own behaviour the
individual plays the role of the actor
◦ People tend to alter attributions in an effort to present
themselves in a favourable light
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Self Serving Biases: Maximize success and
minimize failure
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Self-Handicapping Strategy: Protecting ones image by
putting themselves at a disadvantage
Attitudes and Persuasion
Attitude: Like or dislike that has an emotional component
 Persuasion: An attempt to alter a person’s attitude or
behavior
 A Likert Scale: Named after a psychologist (Rensis Likert)
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◦ Evaluations of a specified topic from strongly agree to strongly
disagree, by a scale ranging from 1 to 5 or 7
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Monitoring:Your level of awareness of your own behavior.
◦ High Self-Monitors: In unfamiliar situations some people look
around to determine what others are doing as well as what is
expected of them
◦ Low Self Monitors: Pay less attention to what others expect and
instead just do what they feel they want to do.
Attitudes and Persuasion
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Richard Petty & John Cacioppo
◦ There is a distinction between people who spend effort, carefully
considering the evidence, and those that put more focus on superficial
factors, such as the speakers appearance and reputation, or the sheer
number of arguments presented, rather than evaluating the actual content
Central Route to Persuasion: Those individuals who invest
time to evaluate the evidence
 Peripheral Route to Persuasion: Those individuals who
invest time in the peripheral/superficial factors outside of the
individual or their argument.
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Delayed Message Influences
Sleeper Effect: An instance where a message may be rejected
because of peripheral route influences, without much thought
given by the individual
 Minority Influence: The majority rejection of a worthwhile
idea because a little respected minority group proposed the
idea
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Factors Affecting Persuasion
Some people are persuaded more easily than
others
 Ease of persuasion is affected by several factors
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◦ Forewarning Effect: Knowing that someone is
attempting to persuade you may weaken the effect
◦ Ex: informing the audience that they are going to hear a
persuasive speech on a particular topic may weaken the
effect and attitudes of the audience
◦ Inoculation Effect: Beginning with a weak argument
and moving to a strong one
 May reject both arguments because they heard the weak one first and
formed there own biases
Cognitive Dissonance
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There is a desire for individuals to want a consistency,
or consonance, among their cognitions (beliefs,
opinions, elements of knowledge)
Dissonance: Inconsistency between attitudes or
behaviors, causes discomfort
Cognitive Dissonance: When a discrepancy
exists between what a person already knows
and believes and new information that one has
received about a specific topic
◦ Dissonance can be decreased by:
 Reducing the importance of the dissonant belief
 Making new beliefs that increase consonance
 Eliminating the dissonant attitude or behavior
Attraction
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Proximity
Closeness
People become friends with people they live
with or work with
Mere Exposure Affect: The more people
make contact with someone or something, the
more likely the individual will view the
person/object in a positive light
Similarity
Attraction
 The
Equity Principle
◦Exchange or equity theories
◦Social relationships involve transactions in
which people exchange goods and services
Partner Selection
◦Child rearing
◦Special Considerations
◦Similar attitudes
◦Personalities
Interpersonal Influence
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Conformity
Solomon Asch Study
Responsibility to others
Pluralistic Ignorance
Social Loafing
A Social Role
Obedience
Interpersonal Influence
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Group Decision Making
◦ Group Polarization
◦ Group Think
◦ Group Therapy
◦ Self-Help Groups
◦ Group Shift
 Risky Shift
 Cautious Shift
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Aggression
◦ Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis
Group Processes
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Conformity
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Solomon Asch
Frequent abuse of alcohol and other drugs
History of impulsive acts
Growing up in a violent neighbourhood
Feeling no guilt after harming someone
History of suicide attempts
Watching violence on television
Group Processes
Sex-Related Violence
 Rape
 Sex Abuse
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