Download Introduction to Psychology

Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY
Chapter 18
Social Psychology
James A. McCubbin, PhD
Clemson University
Worth Publishers
Social Thinking
Social Psychology
scientific study of how we think about,
influence, and relate to one another
Attribution Theory
tendency to give a causal explanation for
someone’s behavior, often by crediting either
the situation or the person’s disposition
Attribution Theory
 Attribution theory is a Social Psychological theory that
relates to the way in which people explain their own
behavior and that of others. According to this theory,
people tend to attribute (or explain) psychological or
external causes as the determining factor in behavior.
For example, if someone acts mean to you one day,
would you attribute the behavior to the person being a
jerk (internal attribution) or to the person having a bad
day (external attribution)? Attribution theory examines
the ways in which people make these attributions. Make
sure you review the definition for the Fundamental
Attribution Error, which relates directly to this.
Social Thinking
Fundamental Attribution Error
tendency for observers, when analyzing
another’s behavior, to underestimate the
impact of the situation and to overestimate
the impact of personal disposition
Attitude
belief and feeling that predisposes one to
respond in a particular way to objects, people
and events
Fundamental Attribution Error
Example
 Imagine this situation, you are at school and someone you
know comes by, you say hello, and this person just gives you
a quick, unfriendly "hello" and then walks away. How would
you attribute this situation -- why did this person act this
way? If you react to this situation by saying the person is a
"jerk" then you have made the fundamental attribution error;
the tendency for an observer, when interpreting and
explaining the behavior of another person (the actor), to
underestimate the situation and to overestimate the personal
disposition. Maybe the person was having the worst day of
their life, just found out a loved one died, failed a test and
was feeling devastated, etc. In this case, the situation may
have caused them to act in a way that was different than
their normal happy self. But, you, as a normal observer,
would instead attribute their behavior to them as a
person...acted that way because that is the type of person
they are.
Social Thinking
How we explain someone’s behavior affects how
we react to it
Situational attribution
“Maybe that driver is ill.”
Tolerant reaction
(proceed cautiously, allow
driver a wide berth)
Dispositional attribution
“Crazy driver!”
Unfavorable reaction
(speed up and race past the
other driver, give a dirty look)
Negative behavior
Social Thinking
Our behavior is affected by our inner attitudes
as well as by external social influences
Internal
attitudes
External
influences
Behavior
Social Thinking
 Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon
tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to
comply later with a larger request
For example, someone might want you to give to give 5 hours
of your time a week for the three months as a volunteer to a
charity (a big request). But to get you to agree to this big
request, they first ask you to volunteer for 1 hour one time and
one time only. After hearing this small request, which you are
willing to agree to, they then work their way up asking you to
volunteer time until you are willing to agree to the big request.
You are more likely to agree to this when you have already said
yes to the small request.
Social Roles
Role
set of expectations about a social position
defines how those in the position ought to behave
 We all have roles that we play. No, not in roles in a
"play", but roles we play in life. To a psychologist, a role
is a set of expectations about the ways in which people
are supposed to behave in different situations. Roles are
dependent on all sorts of things like the position a
person holds, the culture, etc. For example, a person
who is the CEO of a company is expected to act in
certain ways specifically because of the title the person
holds and the expectations we have in our society about
the ways CEOs should behave.
Cognitive Dissonance
Exercise
Draw a five-point Likert Scale on your
piece of paper.
Example:
Social Thinking
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
we act to reduce the discomfort
(dissonance) we feel when two of our
thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent
example- when we become aware that
our attitudes and our actions clash, we
can reduce the resulting dissonance by
changing our attitudes
Social Thinking
Cognitive dissonance
Social Influence
Conformity
adjusting one’s behavior or
thinking to coincide with a group
standard
Normative Social Influence
influence resulting from a person’s
desire to gain approval or avoid
disapproval
Social Influence
Asch’s conformity experiments
Social Influence
Norm
an understood rule for accepted
and expected behavior
prescribes “proper” behavior
Informational Social Influence
influence resulting from one’s
willingness to accept others’
opinions about reality
Social Influence
50%
Difficult judgments
40
Percentage of
conformity to
confederates’
wrong answers
Conformity highest
on important
judgments
30
20
10
Easy judgments
0
Low
High
Importance
Participants
judged
which
person in
Slide 2 was
the same
as the
person in
Slide 1
Social Influence
Milgram’s follow-up obedience experiment
Percentage
of subjects
who obeyed
experimenter
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
The majority of
subjects continued
to obey to the end
Moderate
Very
Extreme
XXX
Slight (75-120) Strong
strong Intense intensity Danger (435-450)
(15-60)
(135-180) (195-240) (255-300) (315-360) severe
(375-420)
Shock levels in volts
Social Influence
Testing facilitated communication
Social Influence
Social Facilitation
improved performance of tasks in the
presence of others
occurs with simple or well-learned tasks but
not with tasks that are difficult or not yet
mastered
Social Loafing
tendency for people in a group to exert less
effort when pooling their efforts toward
attaining a common goal than when
individually accountable
Social Facilitation
Home Advantage in Major Team Sports
Sport
Games
Studied
Home Team
Winning
Percentage
Baseball
23,034
53.3%
Football
2,592
57.3
Ice hockey
4,322
61.1
Basketball
13,596
64.4
Soccer
37,202
69.0
Social Influence
Deindividuation
loss of self-awareness and selfrestraint in group situations that
foster arousal and anonymity
Social Influence
Group Polarization
enhancement of a group’s prevailing
attitudes through discussion within the
group
Groupthink
mode of thinking that occurs when the
desire for harmony in a decision-making
group overrides realistic appraisal of
alternatives
Social Influence
High +4
+3
+2
High-prejudice
groups
+1
Prejudice 0
Low-prejudice
groups
-1
-2
-3
Low -4
Before discussion
After discussion
If a group is
like-minded,
discussion
strengthens its
prevailing
opinions
Social Influence
Self-fulfilling Prophecy
occurs when one person’s belief
about others leads one to act in
ways that induce the others to
appear to confirm the belief
Social Relations
Prejudice
an unjustifiable (and usually negative)
attitude toward a group and its members
involves stereotyped beliefs, negative
feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory
action
Stereotype
a generalized (often over generalized) belief
about a group of people
Social Relations
Americans today express much less racial
and gender prejudice
Percentage 90
answering 80
yes 70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Would you vote for
a woman president?
Do whites have a right
to keep minorities out of
their neighborhoods?
1936 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995
Year
Social Relations
Ingroup
“Us”- people with whom one shares a
common identity
Outgroup
“Them”- those perceived as different or apart
from one’s ingroup
Social Relations
Ingroup Bias
tendency to favor one’s own group
Scapegoat Theory
theory that prejudice provides an outlet for
anger by providing someone to blame
Just-World Phenomenon
tendency of people to believe the world is
just
people get what they deserve and deserve
what they get
Social Relations
Aggression
any physical or verbal behavior
intended to hurt or destroy
Frustration-Aggression Principle
principle that frustration – the blocking
of an attempt to achieve some goal –
creates anger, which can generate
aggression
Social Relations
Uncomfortably hot weather and aggression
Murders 8.0
and rapes
per day in
7.5
Houston, Texas
7.0
6.5
6.0
40-68
69-78
79-85
86-91 92-99
Temperature in degrees Fahrenheit
Social Relations
Juvenile violent crime arrest rates
Arrest per 1,000
100,000
15- to 17- 900
year-olds 800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
Social Relations
Men who sexually coerce women
Sexual
promiscuity
Coerciveness
against
women
Hostile
masculinity
Social Relations
Conflict
perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or
ideas
Social Trap
a situation in which the conflicting parties, by
each rationally pursuing their self-interest,
become caught in mutually destructive
behavior
Social Relations
Person 1
Person 2
Choose B
Choose A
Choose A
Choose B
Optimal
outcome
Probable
outcome
Social trap
by pursuing
our selfinterest and
not trusting
others, we can
end up losers
Social RelationsAttractiveness
Proximity
mere exposure effect- repeated exposure to
novel stimuli increases liking of them
Physical Attractiveness
youthfulness may be associated with health
and fertility
Similarity
friends share common attitudes, beliefs,
interests
Social Relations
Passionate Love
an aroused state of intense positive
absorption in another
usually present at the beginning of a
love relationship
Companionate Love
deep affectionate attachment we feel
for those with whom our lives are
intertwined
Social Relations
Equity
a condition in which people receive from a
relationship in proportion to what they give to
it
Self-disclosure
revealing intimate aspects of oneself to
others
Altruism
unselfish regard for the welfare of others
Social Relations
The decision-making process for
bystander intervention
Notices
incident?
Yes
Interprets
incident as
emergency?
No
No
help
Yes
Assumes
responsibility?
No
No
help
No
No
help
Yes
Attempts
to help
Social Relations
100
Percentage
attempting
to help
Bystander Effect
90
90
80
80
tendency for
any given
bystander to be
less likely to
give aid if other
bystanders are
present
70
70
60
60
50
50
40
40
30
30
20
20
10
10
0
0
11
2
2
33
Number of others
presumed available to help
44
Social Relations
Social Exchange Theory
the theory that our social behavior is
an exchange process, the aim of
which is to maximize benefits and
minimize costs
Superordinate Goals
shared goals that override differences
among people and require their
cooperation
Social Relations
Graduated and Reciprocated
Initiatives in Tension-reduction (GRIT)
a strategy designed to decrease
international tensions
one side announces recognition of mutual
interests and initiates a small conciliatory act
opens door for reciprocation by other party