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Transcript
Unit 7: Social Psychology Ch 18: Individual Interaction Ch 19: Group Interaction Ch 20: Attitudes and Social Influence Ch 21: Psychology: Present and Future Ch 18 – Individual Interaction • Why we need friends • Social psychology seeks to explain how our thoughts, feelings, perceptions, + behaviors are influenced by interactions w/ others. • Social cognition is a subfield of social psych. that focuses specifically on how we perceive, store, + retrieve information about social interactions. • As infants we learn to associate close personal contact w/ the satisfaction of basic needs. • Being around other humans becomes a habit that is difficult to break. We develop needs for praise, respect, love, affection, + other rewarding experiences that can only be satisfied by others. • Anxiety + • We seem to need company most when we’re afraid companionship or anxious. We also need it when we’re unsure of ourselves + want to compare our feelings w/ others. • We like to compare our experiences w/ others. (How many of you asked one or more of your classmates how they did on your last psychology test when you got them back?) • This helps us to understand our own situation. • This is how we learn our strengths + weaknesses. • When we are uncertain, we want to socialize w/ people who are in a similar situation. • Friends offer support in trying times b/c they can serve as mediators + can react to our problems. • Friends tend to help high stress, be of no significant help w/ average amounts of stress, + hinder people’s ability to deal w/ low levels of stress. • By repeatedly going over low stressful events, you might your sensitivity to them. • How we choose friends • Although modern methods of transportation + communication make it easier to be friends w/ all kinds of people, we rarely go beyond the most convenient methods in making friends. • Proximity – physical proximity refers to the distance of one person to another person. The closer 2 individuals are geographically (home, school, work, etc…), the more likely they are to form a relationship. We tend to form relationships w/ people we see regularly. • Reward values – what are you getting out of the friendship? • Stimulation value is the ability of a person to interest you in or to expose you to new ideas + experiences. • Utility value is the ability of a person to help another achieve his/her goals. • Ego-support value is the ability of a person to provide another person w/ sympathy, encouragement, + approval. • Physical appearance – our appearance greatly influences others’ impressions of us. People feel better about themselves when they associate w/ people whom others consider attractive. • We often consider those w/ physical beauty to be more responsive, interesting, sociable, intelligent, kind, outgoing, + poised. • This is true of same-sex + oppositesex relationships. • One study showed that the only positive characteristic attractive people displayed more was that they tend to be more comfortable in social settings. • We usually seek out others whom we consider to be our equals in attractiveness. • Approval – we tend to like people who agree w/ + support us b/c they make us feel better about ourselves (ego-support value). • Similarity – we tend to choose friends whose backgrounds, attitudes, + interests are similar to our own. Why? • Agreement on what is worthwhile + fun, which provides the basis for shared activities. • Most of us feel uneasy around people who are constantly challenging our views. • Most of us are self-centered enough to assume that people who share our values are basically decent + intelligent. • People who agree about things usually find it easier to communicate w/ each other. • Complementarity – the attraction that often develops b/w opposite types of people b/c of the ability of one to supply what the other lacks. • Helps in some relationships, but most psychologists agree that similarity is a much more important factor. End Section 1 • 1st impressions • Your expectations of a person are often based on your 1st impression of him/her. • Your 1st impression is usually based on a person’s physical appearance. • The primacy effect is the tendency to form opinions of others based on 1st impressions. • These initial judgments often influence us more than later information does. • These impressions sometimes become a self-fulfilling prophecy b/c the way you act toward someone changes depending on your impression of him/her which influences how that person interacts w/ you. • Schemas • Forming impressions helps us place these people into categories or schemas. • Schemas are different for each individual. • When you meet someone who exhibits a particular characteristic, you might assume he/she possesses other characteristics based on your past experience. • Ex. You meet someone who is intelligent + assume she is also interesting. Another person meets her, but assumes she must also be boring. • We also develop schemas about people we’ve never met but only heard of. • Schemas allow us to explain a person’s past behavior + to predict his/her future behavior. They also allow us to organize information so that we can respond appropriately in social situations. • Stereotypes • Are a set of assumptions about people in a given category often based on half-truths + non-truths. • Occur when we develop schemas for entire groups of people. • May contain positive or negative information. • Attribution theory • A collection of principles based on our explanations of the causes of events, other people’s behavior, + our own behaviors. • Internal (or dispositional) attributions refers to a person’s personal characteristics. • External (or situational) attributions refers to outside influences on their behavior. • The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to attribute others’ behavior to internal attributions + ignore the external factors contributing to their behavior. • The actor-observer bias is our tendency to focus on internal factors when explaining the behavior of others, but more on external factors when explaining our own. • We realize our own behavior changes from situation to situation, but when we observe people we don’t take that into account. • The self-serving bias is our tendency to claim success is due to our efforts, while failure is due to circumstances beyond our control. • Nonverbal communication • Is the process through which messages are conveyed using space, body language, + facial expressions. • People are often unaware of their nonverbal communication. • We are more aware of nonverbal communication when we’re on the receiving end of the messages. • Body language refers specifically to our use of space, posture, + gestures. • Although the use of body language is often unconscious, many of the postures we adopt + gestures we make are governed by social rules. End Section 2 • Parent-child • Many psychologists believe that early + persistent relationships patterns of parent-child interaction can influence people’s later adult expectations about their relationships w/ the significant people in their lives. • If our caregivers are loving, responsive + consistent, we will trust other people to meet our needs. • If our caregivers are unaffectionate, unresponsive, + inconsistent, we will most likely be more mistrustful of other people. • As we form relationships w/ people outside our families, we apply what we’ve learned from our families. • Our parents (may) provide us w/ the 1st example of a marital relationship. • Many people tend to duplicate this model (for better or worse). • In our society, parent-child conflict may develop during adolescence. • Generational identity is the theory that people of different ages tend to think differently about certain issues b/c of different formative experiences. • Romantic love • While love w/o marriage is becoming more common in our society, marriage w/o love is still unpopular. • Marrying for convenience, companionship, financial security, or any reason that doesn’t include love strikes most of us as impossible or at least unfortunate. • Some believe that one of the main reasons it’s difficult for many people to adjust to love + marriage is b/c we have exaggerated ideas about love. This could also explain the #s of divorce. • There are 2 types of love: • Passionate love: intense, sensual, + all-consuming. • Feelings of great excitement, intense sexuality, + the threat that it might go away. When it subsides, it MIGHT grow into the 2nd type. • Companionate love: friendship, liking someone, mutual trust, + wanting to be w/ them. • More stable, includes commitment + intimacy. • Like vs. (romantic) love • • • • • • Liking is based primarily on respect for another person + the feeling that he/she is similar to you. Loving has 3 major components: • Need (attachment) • Caring (the desire to give) • Intimacy (a special knowledge of each other derived from uncensored self-disclosure) People in love feel strong desires to be w/ each other, to touch, to be praised + cared for, to fulfill, + be fulfilled. W/o caring, need becomes self-centered, but w/o need, caring becomes charity or plain kindness. Men + women tend to express the same degree of love for each other, but women tend to like their boyfriends more than their boyfriends like them. • Women also tend to love + share intimacies w/ their same-sex friends more than men do. When both partners express their interest in each other, the relationship is likely to progress. • So love isn’t something that happens to you, it’s something you seek + create. • The triangular theory of love • Another psychologist proposed the triangular theory of love which contends that love is made up of 3 parts: • Intimacy • Passion • Commitment • The various combinations of these parts account for the many different ways love is experienced. • Early love is heavy on passion + light on commitment, whereas a couple celebrating their 50th anniversary is heavy on intimacy + commitment, but probably light on passion. • Marriage • A couple’s formal + public commitment to each other. • Odds for a successful marriage improve if they have similar cultural, economic, + educational backgrounds + practice the same religion. • Odds are even better if their parents were happily married, they had happy childhoods, + maintain good relationships w/ their families. • 2 principles tend to govern behavior leading to successful marriages: • Endogamy – The tendency to marry someone who is from one’s own social group. • Homogamy – The tendency to marry someone who has similar attributes – such as physical attractiveness, age, + physique. • Marital problems + divorce • In general, healthy adjustment to marriage depends on 3 factors: 1. Whether their needs are compatible. 2. Whether their images of themselves + each other are compatible. 3. Whether they agree on what their roles in the marriage are. • External factors may make it impossible for either to live up to their own role expectations, but often the couple just grows apart. • In many ways, divorce is like adjusting to death. A person often feels angry even if he/she wanted the divorce. Other common emotions are resentment, fear, loneliness, anxiety, + mostly the feeling of failure. • Separation shock often occurs – this is when divorced people go through a period of mourning that lasts until they suddenly realize they have survived. • They then begin to construct new identities as single people. • Children + divorce • A divorce is usually far more difficult for the children than the parents. This is b/c: • Children usually don’t want the divorce. • Children usually don’t understand the reasons for the divorce. • Children rarely have any control over the outcome of a divorce. • Children aren’t as emotionally mature + able to cope w/ the experience. • A child whose parents divorce may exhibit behaviors like emotional outbursts, depression, +/or rebellion. • How long these behaviors last may be determined by the harmony of the parents’ relationship, the stability of the child’s life, + the adequacy of the caregiving arrangement. • Most children do eventually come to terms w/ the divorce. • It helps if the parents explain the divorce + allow the child to express his/her feelings. End Section 3 Ch 19 – Group Interaction • Groups • A collection of people who have a degree of interdependence, + some amount of communication, + shared goals. • People who congregate but don’t interact aren’t considered a group but an aggregate. So interaction is the key factor in forming a group. • Interdependence occurs when any action by 1 member will affect or influence the other members. • In small groups, members usually have a direct influence on each other. But in large groups, the influence may be indirect. • Communication is crucial to the functions of a group. It may be directed outwards toward nonmembers or internal for group members to discuss group activities + share common goals. It also aids members’ feelings of belonging. • Shared goals – 2 kinds: • Task functions – activities directed toward getting a job done. • Social functions – responses directed toward satisfying the emotional needs of members. • Usually groups meet both types of goals, but 1 type is dominant. • A centralized organization seems more useful for task-oriented groups, whereas a decentralized network is more useful in socially oriented groups. • Why do we • They satisfy our need to belong. join groups? • We use group members as standards against which to evaluate ourselves + our experiences. • Groups our uncertainty. • Group members may offer us support in trying times. • Groups provide us w/ companionship. • Groups help us accomplish things that we couldn’t do alone. • How are groups • Factors that a group’s cohesiveness are: held together? • Norms: unwritten rules that govern the behavior + attitudes of group members. • Includes rules, tendencies, + habits. • Group members are punished for breaking them – may only be criticism. • Ideology: the set of principles, attitudes, + defined objectives for which a group stands – their values. • Commitment: demonstration of personal sacrifice + participation. • If a person is willing to pay $, endure hardship, or undergo humiliation to join a group, he/she is likely to continue w/ that group. • When people actively participate in group decisions + share the rewards of a group’s accomplishments, their feelings of belonging . • Types of groups • When a group’s members identify w/ their group, they are known as the in-group. • The out-group includes everyone who isn’t a member of the in-group. • A primary group is a group of people who interact daily face-to-face. • Tend to be more personal. • A secondary group is a larger group of people w/ whom you might have a more impersonal relationship. • Social facilitation vs. social inhibition • Social facilitation refers to the tendency to perform better in the presence of a group. • Ex. “Home team advantage”. • Seems to occur when participants perform simple or well-learned tasks. • Social inhibition refers to the tendency to perform worse in the presence of a group. • Ex. Stuttering when giving a speech. • Seems to occur when participants perform complex tasks or tasks that involve unfamiliar factors. • The effect of a crowd on your behavior may also be a reflection of your concern about being evaluated. • It’s about confidence! • Interactions w/in groups • The particular role(s) we play w/in groups is important. Each group member has certain unique abilities + interests, + the group has a # of different tasks that need to be performed. • There are many aspects to group structure: • The personal relationships b/w individual members • The rank of each member on a particular dimension (ex. Popularity or power, amount of resources). • The roles (behaviors expected of individuals) the members are expected to play. • Sometimes the roles a person plays may conflict. • Decision making • Group polarization is the theory that group discussion reinforces the majority’s point of view + shifts group members’ opinions to a more extreme position. • The repetition of the same arguments results in stronger attitudes in support of the majority’s view. • BUT if opinions of a group are equally split on an issue before a discussion, the group discussion usually results in compromise. • Groupthink refers to poor group decision making that occurs as a result of a group emphasizing unity over critical thinking. • Group members refrain from criticizing each other + may not discuss opposing viewpoints. • Decision making can be improved by encouraging group discussion, hearing ALL viewpoints, + challenging each other’s views. Also, focus on the task. • Leadership • A leader embodies the norms + ideals of the group + represents the group to outsiders. W/in the group, the leader initiates action, gives orders, makes decisions, + settles disputes. • An effective leader has a great deal of influence on the other members. • Leaders tend to be better adjusted, more selfconfident, more energetic + outgoing, + slightly more intelligent than other members of their group. • When a leader is charismatic, followers trust the correctness of his/her views, obey him/her willingly, feel affection for the leader, + are more motivated to perform at peak levels. • Styles of leadership: • Authoritarian – makes all the decisions + assigns tasks. • Laissez-faire – only minimally involved in group decision making, he/she encourages the group to make its own decisions. • Democratic – encourages the group to make End Section 1 decisions through consensus. • Group • Conformity is acting in accord w/ group norms pressure or customs usually b/c of direct or indirect to conform group pressure. • Many people sometimes conform to other people’s ideas of the truth, even when they disagree. • Why do we conform? • Most children are taught the overriding importance of being liked + accepted. • Conformity is the standard means of gaining this approval. • We learn to follow orders throughout our lives. • We are more likely to follow rules when an authority figure is present. • We usually only need 1 person disagreeing w/ the majority in order to be willing to go against a smaller group. It seems that it’s hardest to stand alone. • Even when we conform, we might not actually change our beliefs. This contradiction of public behavior + private belief is known as compliance. • Factors that • Belonging to a group that emphasizes conforming the role of groups rather than behavior in people individuals. • The desire to be liked by other members of the group. • Low self-esteem. • Social shyness. • Lack of familiarity w/ a task. • Group size (conformity as the size of the group grows to 5-6 people. After that conformity levels off). • Cultural influences. • Obedience to authority • The influence other people have on your attitudes + behavior is considerable. Sometimes this influence is direct + obvious, other times it’s indirect + subtle. • Obedience is a change in attitude or behavior brought about by social pressure to comply w/ people perceived to be authorities. • It can be useful or destructive. • The abuses of German Nazis + American soldiers in Vietnam show that individuals often obey irrational commands, even when obedience goes against their conscience. • The Milgram experiment • P.558-560. • During 1960s, Stanley Milgram wanted to determine whether participants would administer painful shocks to others just b/c an authority figure told them to. • It was a study on people’s responsiveness to authority. • Almost 1,000 male participants were told the study was on how punishment effected learning. • Participants, the “teachers”, were told to administer an electric shock to the “learners” when they answered incorrectly. • Shocks weren’t real – but learners acted as if in severe pain. • 65% of the “teachers” administered the full shock possible b/c they were told to. • The teachers often showed signs of extreme discomfort + many wanted to quit but continued as instructed. • People assume that authorities know what they are doing, even when their instructions seem to be immoral. • The experiment has been repeated w/ similar results. • P. 561-562. • The Stanford prison experiment • In 1971, Philip Zimbardo wanted to determine how participants of similar backgrounds would respond to being placed in a simulated prison environment w/ ½ acting as guards + ½ as prisoners. The experiment was planned to last 2 weeks. • He created a “prison” in the basement of a building at Stanford Univ. Male volunteers were questioned + then randomly assigned the role of guard or prisoner. • W/in 2 days, the guards began behaving very harshly w/ the prisoners (excessively punishing + humiliating them) + the prisoners, whom at 1st rebelled, eventually became angry + depressed. • The experiment was called off after 6 days. • Participants, although drastically affected at the time, reported no lasting effects. • Showed the power of a situation in affecting people’s actions + personalities. • Led to new, tougher ethical standards for psychology experiments. End Section 2 • Aggression • Any behavior intended to do physical or psychological harm to others. • There are several theories about what causes people to act in aggressive ways: • Biological factors – Humans have innate biological factors that cause aggression (like some wild animals). Neurotransmitters also influence a person’s aggressive behavior. • Cognitive factors – Children learn aggressive behavior by observing + imitating adults. The media also teaches aggressive behavior to children + they can become immune to violence. • Personality factors – Certain personality traits (like impulsiveness, little empathy, w/ a dominating nature) can turn a person into a bully. Aggressive people may also be arrogant + often strike out at others to affirm their sense of superiority. • Environmental factors –The frustration-aggression hypothesis states that frustration or a failure to obtain something expected leads to aggression in certain situations. • Controlling aggression • So aggression is a combination of biological, cognitive, personality, + environmental factors. • How do we limit + control aggression? • Catharsis is releasing anger or aggression by letting out powerful negative emotions. • This can be done by talking it out w/ someone, doing something active, etc… • But some believe that expressing aggression may lead to more aggression b/c you focus on the problem. • Punish children for violent behavior (but the punishment must not be excessive) + limit the amount of violence they’re exposed to. • Can be controlled by teaching people to react to disappointments in ways other than violence. • Group conflict vs. cooperation • Conflicts b/w groups are a fact of life, but why do they occur + persist? • Studies have found that competition (even if it starts out friendly) can lead to conflict. • However, when 2 opposing groups have to work together + cooperate for the good of all, gradually intergroup tensions lessen + may go away. • So the key to ending conflict is cooperation. • A social trap is when individuals in a group decide not to cooperate, but to act selfishly + create a bad situation for all. • Helping others (or not) • Altruism is the helping of others, often at a cost or risk, for reasons other than expectation of a reward. • Diffusion of responsibility occurs when the presence of others lessens an individual’s feelings of responsibility for his/her actions or failure to act. • We assume that someone else will/should act. • The bystander effect occurs when an individual doesn’t take action b/c of the presence of others. • People may even encourage each other not to act. • The larger the crowd, the less likely we are to act. • We also have a tendency to minimize the need for any response. We may hear screams + wait to make sure it’s a real emergency rather than embarrass ourselves by acting immediately. • It’s easier to believe nothing is wrong if others are behaving calmly + may even make you think that not doing anything is the proper thing to do. • We are more likely to act if a leader is present, we know the person who needs help, know what kind of help is needed, have seen the correct response modeled before, +/or expect future interactions w/ the person needing help. • Social loafing refers to the tendency to put less effort into work when sharing the workload w/ others. • We realize that our individual contributions are not as apparent + easily measured in a group setting + may also experience a sense of accountability. • When people act as individuals, obey their consciences, + are concerned w/ self-evaluation, we think of them as individualistic. But when deindividuation occurs, people lose their sense of self + follow group behaviors. They may behave irrationally when there is less chance of being personally identified. • May feelings of guilt or self-awareness causing normally pleasant people to commit violence. • But social pressure can also lead people to do good things as well – or just refrain from doing bad things. End Section 3 Ch 20 and 21 Quiz Ch 20 – Attitudes and Social Influence • Attitude • A predisposition to act, think, + feel in particular ways towards a class of people, objects, or an idea. • Where do attitudes come from? • Conditioning – classical + operant. • Cognitive evaluation – we form opinions after thinking about something or sometimes w/ very little thought. • Other sources – culture, parents, peers, experiences, etc… • Functions of attitudes • Help us make up our self-concept (how we see or describe ourselves; our total perception of ourselves). • Social groups have attitudes as well. • People in the same conditions tend to have the same attitudes b/c they are exposed to the same information. • Serve as guidelines for interpreting + categorizing people, objects, + events, as well as guide us to behave in certain ways. • So they tell us what to approach + what to avoid. • Sometimes our attitudes aren’t consistent w/ our behavior. Your behavior may reflect your attitudes more/less strongly depending on why you formed a certain attitude. • Many psychologists believe that the attitudes that most strongly predict behavior are those acquired through direct experience. End Section 1 • Attitude • There are 3 main processes involved in forming or change changing attitudes: • Compliance – a change of behavior to avoid discomfort or rejection + to gain approval. • We often give in to social pressure, but this is usually only temporary + the attitude doesn’t really change. • Identification – seeing oneself as similar to another person/group + accepting the attitudes of another person/group as one’s own. • It’s different from compliance b/c the person believes the newly adopted views. • But these attitudes are weak, b/c if a person stops identifying w/ the other person/group, the attitude may change. • Internalization – incorporating the values, ideas, + standards of others as part of oneself. • The attitude becomes an integral part of the person. • It’s most likely to occur when an attitude is consistent w/ a person’s basic beliefs + supports his/her selfimage. • This is the most lasting of the 3 types of attitude formation/change. • Compliance or identification may lead to the internalization of an attitude. • Often the 3 overlap. • Cognitive consistency • Our attitudes change b/c we’re always trying to get things to fit together logically inside our heads. • Holding 2 opposing attitudes can create internal conflict. • Cognitive dissonance is the uncomfortable feeling when a person experiences conflicting thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, or feelings. • To reduce dissonance, it’s necessary to change either the behavior or the conflicting attitudes. • How do we reduce dissonance? • By denying it exists. • Avoiding situations or exposure to information that would create conflict. • By changing the attitude +/or reevaluating the event. • The process of dissonance reduction doesn’t always take place consciously. • Attitudes + actions • Actions can affect attitudes – if you act + speak as though you have certain beliefs + feelings, you may begin to really believe + feel that way. That is known as counterattitudinal behavior. • This is also a method of reducing cognitive dissonance. • People have a need for self-justification (the need to rationalize one’s attitude + behavior). • Studies have shown that if people are led to believe they’ve hurt someone, they will convince themselves they didn’t like the victim + so the victim deserved the injury. • A self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when a person acts in such a way as to make a belief, prediction, or expectation come true. • Ex. You think people are basically nice + so you are very friendly – making people like you, or you think people are basically rude + so you are very unfriendly – making people avoid you. • Prejudice • A preconceived attitude toward a person or group that has been formed w/o sufficient evidence + isn’t easily changed. • PREJUDGEMENT. • It’s not always negative. • Can be based on social, economic, or physical factors. • A stereotype is an oversimplified, hard to change way of seeing people who belong to some group. • A role is an oversimplified, hard to change way acting. • What causes prejudice? • People tend to be prejudice in favor of those they see as similar to themselves + against those they see as different. • May acquire it through social learning. • Other causes as well. • Discrimination is the unequal treatment of members of certain groups. • Prejudice is an attitude + discrimination is an action. • A person may be prejudice, but not discriminate. Also, a person may discriminate (due to something like social pressure) but not be prejudice. End Section 2 • Persuasion • A direct attempt to influence attitudes. • The persuader’s main hope is that by changing the other person’s attitudes, he/she can change that person’s behavior as well. • Persuasive communication can be broken into 4 parts: 1. The source of the message. • Is it trustworthy + sincere? • Is he/she knowledgeable about the subject? • Is he/she likeable? - If the answer to all these questions is yes, the message is more likely to be accepted. - The boomerang effect is when a change in attitude or behavior opposite of the one desired by the persuader occurs. - Ex. You don’t like the sports player trying to get you to buy a particular pair of shoes. 2. The message itself. • The persuasiveness of a message depends on its content + how it is composed + organized. • The central route for persuasion relies on presenting information logically. • The peripheral route for persuasion relies on emotional appeals. 3. The channel through which it’s delivered. • When, where, + how the message is delivered. • Personal contact is usually the most effective. • Movies, tv, + the internet are more effective media of persuasion than printed ads b/c we’re more likely to believe what we see + hear. 4. The audience that receives it. • Persuading people to alter their views depends on knowing who they are + why they hold the attitudes they do. • You need to know what motivates them. • People tend to ignore information that doesn’t support their beliefs. • Heuristics • Rules of thumb or shortcuts that may lead to but doesn’t guarantee a solution. • If an individual isn’t interested in an issue, he/she is likely to rely on heuristic processing (a very casual, lowattention form of analyzing evidence). • Advertisers use heuristics to get us to buy their products by using key words, stressing their product’s popularity, having it endorsed by a celebrity, etc… • The sleeper • The delayed impact on attitude change of a effect persuasive communication. • Changes in attitude aren’t always permanent + usually have their greatest impact immediately + then fade away. • So why might the persuasion be delayed? • The tendency to retain the message but forget the source (this is significant if the source was viewed negatively). • It can take time for the message to sink in + people to change their minds. • The inoculation • Is developing a resistance to persuasion by effect exposing a person to arguments that challenge his/her beliefs so that he/she can practice defending them. • A person who has resisted a mild attack on his/her beliefs is ready to defend them against a stronger attack that might otherwise have been overwhelming. • It motivates individuals to defend their beliefs more strongly + gives them practice in defending their beliefs. • The most vulnerable attitudes you have are the ones that you’ve never had to defend. • Brainwashing • An extreme form of attitude change involving physical torture + psychological manipulation by use of peer pressure, threats, rewards, guilt, +/or intensive indoctrination. • People’s convictions are broken down + they accept new patterns of belief, feeling, +/or behavior. • Brainwashing is done by: • Stripping away all identity + subjecting him/her to intense social pressure + physical stress. • Rewarding every act of compliance to his/her capturers. • Eventually, the person begins to believe what his/her capturers wish. End Section 3 Ch 21 – Psychology: Present and Future • Careers in • Psychology is a logical undergraduate major for psychology people planning graduate work in fields like sociology, social work, law, medicine, or education. • These are all fields in which human behavior plays a key role. • Some career options are: • Crisis hot line advisor. A crisis intervention program is a short-term psychological first aid that helps individuals + families deal w/ emergencies or highly stressful situations. • Certain types of salesmen – good salesmen tend to be sensitive to others. • Mental health assistant. • Personnel director – involves getting the right people hired for jobs + keeping them motivated + efficient. • School psychologist. • Clinical psychologist – provides therapy. Often self-employed. • Consulting psychologist – often provides short-term services for businesses regarding human behavior + how it relates to the services/product the business provides. End Section 1 • Fields of psychology • Psychology is among the fastest growing fields according to the US Bureau of Labor. • Forensic psychology deals w/ diagnosis, evaluation, treatment, + testimony regarding the law + criminal behavior. • Industrial/organizational psychology deals w/ the psychology of the workplace. • They help businesses operate more efficiently + humanely. • Sports psychology studies athletics + athletic performance. • They focus on maximizing performance through techniques like visualization (mentally rehearsing the steps involved in a successful performance or process). • Psychology’s contributions to society • Mental health • The mentally ill are no longer seen as being “possessed” + needing to be put in chains, but as needing care + understanding. • Testing • Psychologists have played a leading role in devising + updating many tests (IQ, career interest inventories, etc…) including the SAT (a standardized test that measures verbal, written, + mathematical reasoning abilities) + the ACT (a standardized test that consists of 4 assessment tests that measure academic development). • Everyday living • Educational programs (daycare, tv, etc…) • Childrearing • Learning/behavior modification • Much, much more… • Experimental • Experimental psych uses a variety of vs. applied scientific methods to study human + animal psychology behavior. • Applied psych puts the knowledge of psych to work solving human problems. • Both gather the available evidence + offer the best explanation they can find. • Both study behavior + use similar processes. • Applied psychologists search for immediate solutions + experimental psychologists for long-range answers. • The challenges of psychology • Social change, urban problems, early learning, the biological bases for behavior, reduction of violence, etc… are all among the challenges facing psychologists today. • Gerontology is the study of aging. It’s becoming increasingly important as people are living longer. • The top 3 killers of children + adolescents in our society are accidents, violence, + drugs – mostly psychological problems. • Many of the dangers facing society today are caused by social problems, so they can only be solved by changing the behavior + attitudes of individuals + communities. End Section 2