Download Thinking/Influences Unit Guide

SOCIAL THINKING
Social psychology: scientific study of how we think about, influence and relate to one another
 BIG emphasis of social psychology is social cognition (mental processes associated with the ways
in which people perceive and react to others)
 Through social cognition, each person creates a unique perception of reality
Explaining behavior: Attribution
 Attribution: process of explaining the causes of people’s behavior, including ones own, either by
crediting the external situation or the person’s internal disposition
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Fundamental attribution error: tendency to overattribute the behavior of others to internal
factors, such as personal disposition (personality traits)
When it comes to our own behavior, we are much more aware and sensitive to how
our behavior changes with the different situations we encounter, rather than our
personality traits alone
Do our attitudes influence our actions or do our actions affect our attitudes?
 Attitudes: beliefs and feelings that predispose our reactions to objects, people and events
 Social psychologists believe that attitudes are made up of three components:
 Cognitive
 Affective
 Behavioral
 Our attitudes will influence our actions IF…
 Outside influences on what we say and do are minimal.
 The attitude is specifically relevant to the behavior.
 We are keenly aware of our attitudes.
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Often however, out attitudes FOLLOW our behavior/actions
 Foot-in-the-door phenomenon: tendency for people who agree to a small request to
comply with a large one

Door-in-the-face phenomenon: asking first for a big favor (or one that is likely to be
denied), then after being turned down, the askee agrees that request was excessive
and asks for something less…something that the person really wanted in the first
place
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Role playing affects attitudes – Zimbardo’s (Stanford) Prison Experiment
**Main lesson= the situation affects our behavior even if our
behavior is against our morals or how we normally would behave.
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Cognitive dissonance theory: when people become aware of the inconsistencies
(dissonance) between their attitudes and behavior, they become anxious and are
motivated to make them consistent
 Developed by Leon Festinger
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SOCIAL INFLUENCE
Social influence: the process by which the actions of an individual or group affect the behavior of
others
 Social Standards of behavior
Social roles – socially defined patterns of behavior that are expected of persons in a given setting or
group
Social norms – a group’s expectations regarding what is appropriate and acceptable for its members’
attitudes and behaviors
Conformity, Compliance and Obedience
Conformity – changing behavior or attitudes in order to follow the beliefs or standards of other people
 Solomon Asch – Line experiment
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What items influence conformity?
 Size of the group
 Status of the group
 Observation of the group
 Unanimity of the group
 Reasons for conformity
 Normative social influence – want to avoid rejection or gain social approval
 Informative social influence – due to the fact that group may provide valuable
information, want to accept the opinions of others
Compliance -- adjusting one’s behavior because of an explicit or implicit request
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Obedience – change in behavior in response to the command of someone in a position of
authority
 Stanley Milgram – obedience study
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What influences obedience?
 Prestige
 Presence of others who disobey
 Personality characteristics
Group influence
o Social dilemmas – situations in which selfish behavior that benefits individuals in the short
run may spell disaster for an entire group in the long run
 “The prisoner’s dilemma”: 2 people separated immediately after arrested for a
serious crime – DA believes they are guilty but lacks evidence – each can either
confess or not
 if they both refuse to confess, each will be convicted of a minor offence and
jailed for one year
 if they both confess, DA will recommend a 5-year sentence
 If one remains silent and one confesses, DA will allow confessing prisoner to
go free, whereas the other will serve the maximum 10-year sentence
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Social facilitation: tendency to perform better when in the presence of others…usually
occurs with simple or well-learned tasks but not difficult or not-yet-mastered tasks
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Social loafing: tendency for people in a group to exert less effort than when working
individually
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Deindividuation: being less self-conscious and less restrained in a group situation
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Group polarization: enhancement of a groups tendencies – occurs when people in a group
discuss attitudes that most favor or oppose
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Groupthink: way of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in decision-making
overrides the possible alternatives
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Self-fulfilling prophesy: one person’s belief about others leads one to act in ways that
appears to conform to that belief