Download Social Psychology Chapter 13

Social Psychology
Chapter 13
Social Psychology
Social psychology:
ATTITUDES
Attitudes:
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Cognitive Dimension:
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Emotional Dimension:
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Behavioural Dimension:
How are Attitudes Formed?
Learning
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Operant conditioning
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Observational learning
•
How are Attitudes Formed?
Does behaviour shape attitudes?
•
“Stanford Prison Experiment”: college students asked to act and dress as prisoners
or guards quickly developed attitudes consistent with their assigned role.
Persuasion: Changing Attitudes
4 Key Components (Carl Hovland):
• Communicator
• Communication
• Medium
• Audience
The Elaboration Likelihood Model
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Adaptive:
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attitude change can be accomplished via two routes:
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Central Route:
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Peripheral Route:
Attitude Consistency:
Cognitive dissonance (Festinger):
Social Cognition
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Social cognition:
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Impression formation:
Mental Shortcuts
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pragmatic rules of the thumb
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False Consensus Effect:
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Framing:
Assessing the World by Using Nonverbal Communication
• nonverbal communication
• Often plays a greater role in impression formation than oral communication.
Facial Expressions
Six basic emotions are distinguished in facial
expressions cross culturally:
Body Language
Body Language: Body positions, gestures, and movements that convey information
about moods and attitudes.
Eye Contact
• People tend to judge others based on eye contact.
• Eye contact is a powerful form of nonverbal communication in all cultures.
• The meaning of eye contact is culturally defined
Attribution
Inferring the Causes of Behavior
Attribution
Kelly’s Attributional Model
Criteria used to determine whether the causes of behavior are internal or external:
1) Consensus
2) Consistency
3) Distinctiveness
Errors in attribution
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Fundamental attribution error
– Napolitan & Goethals (1979) classic study demonstrating fundamental attribution
error
Errors in attribution
•
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Actor-Observer Effect
Self-serving bias
.
Prejudice: The Darker Side of Attitudes
Definitions:
• Prejudice =
• Stereotypes =
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Discrimination
What causes prejudice?
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Social Learning Theory
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Motivational theory
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Cognitive Theory
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Personality Theory
Social Learning Theory
Motivational Theory
• Based on the idea that people compete for scarce resources
• Asserts that people tend to dislike individuals who are viewed as competitors
• This dislike is generalized to entire groups
Cognitive Theory
• Mental shortcuts can lead to:
– Illusory correlations:
– Social categorization
Classic Study of Stereotyping & Prejudice
• Bodenhausen & Wyer (1985)
– Subjects read vignettes about people who had committed crimes and were asked
to make parole recommendations.
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Name of criminal = ‘John T.’, ‘Carlos Ramirez’ or ‘Ashley Chamberlain’
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Crime = embezzling company funds by forging signatures, or brutally attacking a
man in a bar after an argument.
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Sometimes an explanation of the crime was provided
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Subjects likely to recommend parole of ‘John T.’ regardless of crime (no
stereotype)
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Less likely to recommend parole if crime fit stereotype i.e. Chamberlain
embezzled, Ramirez attacked)
SOCIAL INFLUENCE
• Social influence
CONFORMITY
• Conformity –
• Asch (1951) conducted the following experiment::
– Seven to nine people were asked to judge which of three lines matched a
standard line
– Only one group member, the “naïve” participant, was really unaware of the
purpose of the study
– The other “participants” deliberately gave false answers
– Asch found some naïve participants would go along with the group, even when the
answer they gave was obviously wrong
Factors influencing conformity:
• Amount of information –
• Relative competence of the group –
• Position within a group –
• Public nature of behaviour Why Do People Conform?
• Social conformity approach –
• Attribution -
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Independence -
•
Expediency OBEDIENCE
• Obedience
Obedience: The Milgram Studies
• Classic studies of obedience were performed by Stanley Milgram
• Milgram told participants they would be participating in a study of the effects of
punishment on learning
• Their task was to administer electric shock to a “learner,” but in reality, the “learner”
was a confederate
Results
•
•
•
•
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No participant stopped before 300v
65% administered all 30 levels of shock
Teacher did display distress
Concluded obedience to authority common
What about female participants?
Explaining Milgram’s Results
• Psychological Distance –
• Cognitive Reinterpretations –
• Slippery slope Ethical Issues
• Milgram’s study raised ethical issues
• To ensure that there are no long-lasting ill effects from participating in a study,
participants are debriefed
•
Debriefing
PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
Prosocial Behaviour: Helping
• Prosocial behaviour –
• Altruism
Bystander Apathy:Not helping
• Latané and Darley found that whether or not someone helps depends on a series of
interconnected events and decisions
• The potential helper must:
Reasons for not helping include:
• Ambiguity –
• Pluralistic Ignorance –
• Diffusion of Responsibility –
• The Bystander Effect -