Download Social Psychology - Coweta County Schools

“The thoughts, feelings, and behavior of
individuals as shaped by the actual,
imagined, or implied presence of others”
Gordon Allport
Major Themes
• Human beings are social by nature
• Humans are shaped by & shape society/culture
• Survival tool - ability to formulate stereotypes
In the beginning…..
• Norman Triplett (1897) –
1st social psychological experiment
[18 years after birth of psychology as science]
• Interested in increased ability in presence of others
• Led to complex body of literature on social facilitation
•1908 with publication of Ross & McDougall’s
Social Psychology text
Overall framework for social psychology begins.
Inspired by father of modern social psychology –
Kurt Lewin
Lewin proposed “formula”:
“behavior is a function of the person in the environment”
• Normative social
influence —Conforming
to group pressure out of
need for acceptance or
approval
• Informational social
influence —Conforming
to group pressure out of
need for direction and
information
• Reference Groups —
People we conform to or
go along with, because
we like and admire them
and want to be like them
Conformity
Key Terms
• Saliency bias —tendency to
focus on most noticeable factors
when explaining causes of
behaviors
• Self-serving bias —taking
credit for our successes and
externalizing our failures
• Attitude —learned
predisposition to respond
cognitively, affectively, and
behaviorally to particular object
• Deindividuation —Increased arousal and
reduced self-consciousness, inhibition, and
personal responsibility that sometimes occurs in
group, particularly when members feel
anonymous
Group Decision Making
• Groupthink —Faulty decision making that
occurs when highly cohesive group strives for
agreement and avoids inconsistent information
Silence = Consent
Group members practice Mindguarding
Newly married couples
Iraq war
Irving Janis concept after Bay
of Pigs Fiasco
Group Decision Making
• Group polarization —Group’s movement
toward either riskier or more conservative
behavior, depending on members’ initial
dominant tendency
(if were violent as individuals, will be violent as a group)
– Is form of “confirmation bias”
People can ignore stuff that contradicts what they want to be true
disconfirmation bias: People overly criticize that which contradicts
what they want to be true
expectancy effect: People see patterns in support of their ideas
where nothing actually exists
status quo bias: People like to stick with what they know
Group Think
– Combat GT by
having a “devil’s
advocate”
– Minority
Influence: small
group can get an
alternate opinion
out better than
an individual
Fundamental Attribution Error
• When looking at other people’s behavior, we
tend to explain it dispositionally
(it’s part of person’s disposition)
We tend to ignore impact of situation.
• Yet, think about how we explain our own
failures – do we tend to blame
ourselves or something about
the situation?
Decision-Making Process for
Bystander Intervention
Genovese Effect
Notices
incident?
No
No
help
Yes
Interprets
incident as
emergency?
No
No
help
Yes
Assumes
responsibility?
No
No
help
Yes
Attempts
to help
• Asch Conformity
Person Perception
• Milgram
Obedience
•Festinger
Cognitive Dissonance
Social Comparison
•Heider
Balance Theory
Attribution Theory
•Zimbardo
Prison Study
•Sherif
Robber’s Cave Experiment
Power of the Situation
• Look for consistencies in human behavior
*explain behavior through internal dispositions
• Social Psychologists emphasize influences/
constraints of situation
• Explanations for behavior known as attributions.
• Internal explanations are referred to as
dispositional, external as situational
Cognitive Dissonance Theory and
Confirmation Bias
• Confirmation bias —we tend to accept
data/input that confirms what we already
believe to be true
• Cognitive dissonance theory —we
discover inconsistencies between our
attitudes and/or behaviors, we experience
discomfort which we try to alleviate through
attitude changes
Leon Festinger's cognitive dissonance experiment, in
which participants who were paid $1 to say they enjoyed
a boring task, liked it better at the end of the study than
those who were paid $20. People justified the lie by
changing their previously unfavorable attitudes about the
task (1959).
Cognitive dissonance was the recital of
Aesop's fable "Sour Grapes." The fox
cannot get the grapes and leaves
without them. He is feeling some
cognitive dissonance. He wants the
grapes but fails to get them. He now
changes his belief about the grapes in
an effort to justify his actions. He
states that he now believes that the
grapes are sour.
Social Influence
• Conformity—changing behavior as result of real
or imagined group pressure
• Obedience—following direct commands, usually
from authority figure
Obedience Factors
Power of authority
Distance between teacher &
learner (i.e., in “shock experiment”)
Assignment of responsibility
Modeling/imitation
Ingroups and Outgroups
• Ingroup Favoritism —
Viewing members more
positively than members of
outgroup.
• Outgroup Homogeneity
Effect —Judging members of
more alike and less diverse
than members of ingroup.
History of Social Psychology Age of Activism
1960’s
• Stereotyping and Prejudice
– School Desegregation
• Aggression
- Bullet Theory
• Altrusim
– Bystander Intervention
• Interpersonal Relations
– Attraction
Prejudice and Discrimination
• Stereotype — belief
about characteristics of
people in group
generalized to
all members
• Prejudice —learned,
generally negative,
attitude toward members
of group
• Discrimination —
negative behaviors
directed at members of
group
Aggression
•Biological factors
Instinct
Genes
Brain & nervous system
Substance abuse &
mental disorders
Hormones &
neurotransmitters
• Psychological factors
– Aversive stimuli
– Culture and learning
– Media and video
games Bobo Doll
James Suleiman’s
Social Loafing
Why Do People Loaf?
VS
Attraction
• Physical Attractiveness (symmetry)
• Proximity
• Similarity
Love
Eros—erotic love/romantic love
Philia—fraternal love (love between
friends or siblings)
Agape—unconditional love
(companionate love)
 Romantic Love – Looking for
Love 
•
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Men Want:
Physical attractiveness
Ability in bed
Warmth and affection
Social skill
Homemaking ability
Dress sense
Sensitivity to others’
needs
• Good taste
• Moral perception
• Artistic creativity
•
•
•
•
•
•
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•
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Women Want:
Record of achievement
Leadership qualities
Skill at the job
Earning potential
Sense of humor
Intellectual ability
Attentiveness
Common sense
Athletic ability
Good abstract
reasoning
Altruism
• Actions designed to help others with no obvious
benefit to the helper
– Egoistic model —Helping that is motivated by
anticipated gain—later reciprocation, increased selfesteem, or avoidance of guilty and distress
– Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis —
Helping because of empathy for someone in need
Helping breaks down in crowd largely due to:
Diffusion of responsibility —Assuming someone else will
take action (or responsibility)
Genovese Effect