Download Chapter 16: Social Behavior

Chapter 16: Social
Behavior
The way individuals’
thoughts, feelings, &
behavior are influenced
by others
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Social Psychology
 Person
perception
 Attribution processes
 Interpersonal attraction
 Attitudes
 Conformity and obedience
 Behavior in groups
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Person Perception:
Forming Impressions of Others

Effects of physical appearance.


Cognitive schemas.

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We ascribe desirable personality characteristics &
more competent to those who are good looking. They
have better jobs & get paid more.
Social schemas. Are organized clusters of ideas
about categories of events & people. (Dates, meetings,
dumb jokes)
Stereotypes.

Are products of schemas shared by cultures, that
people have certain characteristics b/c of their
membership of the group. (sex, age, ethnicity, job)
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Figure 16.1 Examples of social schemas
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Person Perception:
Forming Impressions of Others

Subjectivity in person perception.
Perception is
subjective to what they see & how they see it.
 Illusory Correlation. People overestimate the
encounters that confirm a stereotype and underestimate #
of disconfirmations.
 Selective Attention. Selectively recall facts that fit
with their schemas & stereotypes.
 Spotlight Effect. Assume that the social spotlight
shines more brightly on them than it actually does.
 Illusion of Asymmetric Insight. Tendency to think
that their knowledge of their peers is greater then theirs
peer knowledge of them.
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Person Perception:
Forming Impressions of Others

Evolutionary perspectives. Argue that many biases
seen in social perception were adaptive of humans’ ancestral
environment.
 Categorizing traits, help us separate friend from foe.
 In-group. Us
 Out-group. Them
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Attribution Processes: Explaining Behavior
Attributions. Inferences that people draw about the causes
of events, others’ behavior & their own behavior
Internal. The cause of behavior to personal dispositions,
traits, abilities, & feelings.
External. The cause of behavior is to situational demands
& environmental constraints.
Weiner’s
model of attributions
4 Types of Attributions for
Lack of ability
Inadequate effort
Too much competition
Bad Luck
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Success & Failure
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Attribution Processes: Explaining Behavior
Biases
in attributions
Fundamental
attribution error. Observer’s bias in
favor of internal attributions in explaining others’
behavior, actor favors external attribution.
Defensive attribution. Blame victims for their
misfortune, so that you feel less likely to be victimized
Self-serving bias. Attribute your success to
personal factors & failure to situational factors.
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Figure 16.4 An alternative view of the
fundamental attribution error
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Attribution Processes: Explaining Behavior
Cultural
influences
Individualism. Putting personal goals ahead of group
goals & defining one’s identity in terms of personal.
Collectivism. Putting group goals ahead of personal
goals & defining one’s identity in terms of group.
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Close Relationships: Liking and Loving

Key factors in attraction

Interpersonal Attraction. Positive feelings towards

Physical attractiveness. In the initial stage of dating it




another.
continues to influence the course of commitment.
Matching hypothesis. People of approximately equal
physical attractiveness are likely to select each other as
partners.
Similarity. ”birds of a feather flock together”
Reciprocity. Liking those who show that they like you.
Romantic Ideals. People want their partner to measure up
to their ideals & we evaluate our partner to those standards.
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Close Relationships: Liking and Loving
Perspectives
Hatfield
on love
& Berscheid
Passionate
love. Complete absorption in another
intense emotions of ecstasy.
Companionate love. Warm, trusting, tolerant affection
for another whose life is deeply intertwined.
Sternberg
Intimacy. Warm, closeness & sharing in a
relationship
Commitment. Intent to maintain a relationship in
spite of difficulties & costs that may arise.
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Figure 16.7 Infant attachment and
romantic relationships
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Attitudes and Attitude Change
3
components
cognitive,
Factors
affective, and behavioral
in changing attitudes
Source. Person who sends the communication
Message. Info transmitted by the source.
Receiver. The person whom the message is sent to.
Theories
of attitude change
Learning
theory. Classical/Operant/Observational
Cognitive Dissonance theory. Inconsistent & Contradicts
Self-perception theory. Infer attitudes from behavior
Elaboration likelihood model. Central Route/Peripheral Route
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Figure 16.9 The possible components of
attitudes
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Figure 16.10 Overview of the persuasion
process
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Figure 16.12 Cognitive Dissonance
Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) study
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Figure 16.13 Bem’s self-perception
theory
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Yielding to Others: Conformity
Conformity
– Solomon Asch (1950s)
When people yield to real or imagined social pressure
Classic
Group
experiment
size. 2 to 4 participants increase
Group unanimity. When pressure is on we tend
to follow the leader.
Video
Clip
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Yielding to Others: Obedience
Obedience
– Stanley Milgram (1960s)/
Philip Zimbardo (1973)
Form of compliance when following direct commands, usually
from someone in a position of authority.
Controversial
landmark experiment
“I was just following orders”
presence of a dissenter
Video Clip
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Behavior in Groups:
The Influence of Other People
The
bystander effect - Darley and Latane
(1968) People are less likely to help when they are in groups than
when they are alone
Diffusion
Group
of responsibility
productivity
Social
loafing.
Reduction in effort by individuals when working
in groups as compared to when they work by themselves.
Decision
making in groups
Polarization. Occurs when group discussion strengthens a
group’s dominant point of view & produces a shift towards a more
extreme decision in that direction.
Groupthink.
Occurs when members of a cohesive group
emphasizes concurrence at the expense of critical
thinking in arriving at a decision.
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Behavior in Groups:
The Influence of Other People
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Figure 16.21 The three potential
components of prejudice as an
attitude
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Figure 16.22 Relationship between
prejudice and discrimination
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Figure 16.23 Bias in the attributions
used to explain success and failure by
men and women
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