Download Chapter 6 - Gordon State College

Human Adjustment
John W. Santrock
Chapter 6:
Social Thinking, Influence,
and Intergroup Relations
McGraw-Hill
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-2
SOCIAL THINKING
Making Attributions
Forming Impressions
Changing Attitudes
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-3
Making Attributions
Attributions = thoughts about why people behave
the way they do
 Fundamental attribution error - tendency for
observers to overestimate importance of a person’s
traits and underestimate importance of situations when
they seek to explain someone else’s behavior
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Fundamental
Attribution Error
McGraw-Hill
6-4
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-5
Self-Serving Bias
 Self-serving bias - we tend to be self-enhancing, and
we often exaggerate positive beliefs about ourselves.
 We tend to attribute our successes to our own
characteristics and attribute our failures to external
factors
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Forming Impressions Stereotyping and Attitudes
6-6
 We often use stereotypes in forming impressions
Stereotype = generalization about a group’s
characteristics that does not account for
variations from one individual to another
Attitudes = evaluations of people, objects,
and ideas
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-7
Impression Management
Impression management (self-presentation) = process
of acting in a way that presents a desired image
 Nonverbal cues (facial expression, eye contact, body
posture, gestures) are important in self-presentation
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-8
Impression Management
 Techniques of impression management include:
– conforming to situational norms
– showing appreciation of others
– behavioral matching (imitating behavior of other person)
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-9
Self-Monitoring
Self-monitoring = paying attention to impressions you
make on others and the degree to which you fine-tune
your performance
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-10
Changing Attitudes
 Attitude persuasion research focuses on:
– communicator (source) - who conveys the message
– message - communication
– medium - how message is conveyed
– target (audience) - who receives message
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-11
SOCIAL INFLUENCE
Conformity
Obedience
Compliance
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-12
Conformity
Conformity = change in person’s behavior to coincide
more closely with a group standard
 Solomon Asch (1951) reported participants in a linematching task conformed one-third of the time
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-13
Figure 6.2 Asch's Conformity Experiment
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-14
Factors That Contribute to Conformity
 Normative social influence - conforming because we
seek approval or avoid disapproval from others
 Informational social influence - conforming because
we want to be right
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-15
Factors That Contribute to Conformity
 Factors that contribute to conformity:
– unanimity of group
– prior commitment
– personal characteristics
– group members’ characteristics
– cultural values
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-16
Obedience
Obedience = behavior that complies with explicit
demands of the individual in authority
 Stanley Milgram (1965) reported that up to two-thirds of
participants in a research study on punishment would
obey an order to deliver an electric shock to a stranger
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-17
Adjustment Strategies for Resisting an Unjust
Request by a Person in a Position of Authority
1. Give appearance of complying
2. Publicly dissent by showing doubts but still follow
order
3. Openly disregard order and refuse to comply
4. Challenge authority
5. Get higher authorities to intervene
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-18
Compliance
Compliance = change in behavior in response to a
direct request
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-19
Compliance
 Robert Cialdini (2001) identified six principles of
persuasion and compliance:
– reciprocation (repay what someone provided)
– commitment and consistency (agree to requests
consistent with prior commitment)
– social proof (examine what others are doing)
– liking (prefer to say yes to people we know and like)
– authority (pressure to comply with request from authority)
– scarcity (opportunity more valued when less available)
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Adjustment Strategies For Resisting
Persuasion and Compliance Techniques
6-20
1. Defend against use of reciprocity pressures
2. Resist influence of commitment and consistency
pressures
3. Reduce susceptibility to faulty social proof
4. Reduce unwanted influence of liking
5. Defend against detrimental effects of authority
6. Combat scarcity pressures
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-21
INTERGROUP RELATIONS
Groups and Their Functions
Group Identity: Us Versus Them
Prejudice and Discrimination
Immigration
Ways to Improve Interethnic Relations
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-22
Groups and Their Functions
 Functions of groups:
– satisfy personal needs
– reward
– provide information
– raise self-esteem
– give identity
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-23
Group Identity: Us Versus Them
 Social identity - way you define yourself in terms of
your group membership
 Kay Deaux (2001) identified 5 types of social identity:
– ethnic and religious
– political
– vocations and avocations
– personal relationships
– stigmatized groups
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-24
Social Identity Theory
 Henry Tajfel (1978) proposed social identity theory we can improve our self-image by enhancing our social
identity (favoring our in-group and disparaging our outgroup)
Ethnocentrism - tendency to favor one’s own group and
believe it is superior
to other groups
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-25
Prejudice and Discrimination
Prejudice = unjustified negative attitude toward
an individual based on the individual’s
membership in a group
Discrimination = unjustified negative or
harmful action toward a member of a group
simply because the person belongs to that
group
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-26
Sources of Prejudice
 Sources of prejudice include:
– individual personality
– competition between groups over scarce resources
– motivation to enhance self-esteem
– cognitive processes that contribute to stereotypes
– cultural learning
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-27
Modern Racism
 Old-fashioned racism - overt; asserting inferiority of
non-whites
 Modern racism - negative feelings about minority
groups; covert; unconscious; denied
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-28
Immigration
 Stressors of immigrants include:
– language barriers
– separation from support networks
– dual struggle to preserve ethnic identity
and to acculturate
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
6-29
Ways to Improve Interethnic Relations
 Task-oriented cooperation - stress cooperation
– Aronson (1986) suggested the jigsaw classroom, in which
each student makes a contribution to the learning of the
whole
 Intimate contact - sharing one’s personal worries,
successes, personal ambitions and coping strategies
 Acknowledge diversity - recognizing and respecting
differences
McGraw-Hill
©2006 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.