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Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
Module 25
Social Psychology
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
PERCEIVING OTHERS
• Person perception
– refers to seeing someone and then forming
impressions and making judgments about that
person’s likeability and the kind of person he or
she is, such as guessing his or her intentions,
traits, and behaviors
– physical appearance
• initial impressions and judgments of a person
are heavily influenced and biased by a
person’s physical appearance
– need to explain
• explain why a person looks, dresses, or
behaves in a certain way
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
PERCEIVING OTHERS (CONT.)
• Person perception
– influence on behavior
• first impressions will influence how you would
like or interact with a person
– effects of race
• members of one race generally recognize
faces of other races
• Physical appearance
– Attractiveness
• for better or for worse, a person’s looks matter,
since people who are judged to be more
physically attractive, generally make more
favorable impressions
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
PERCEIVING OTHERS (CONT.)
• Stereotypes
– widely held beliefs that people have certain traits
because they belong to a particular group
– often inaccurate and frequently portray the
members of less powerful, less controlling
groups, more negatively, than members of more
powerful or controlling groups
• Development of stereotypes
– Prejudice
• refers to an unfair, biased, or intolerant attitude
toward another group of people
– Discrimination
• refers to specific unfair behaviors exhibited
toward members of a group
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
PERCEIVING OTHERS (CONT.)
Schemas
– mental categories that, like computer files,
contain knowledge about people, events, and
concepts
Kinds of schemas:
Social cognition
– studies how and what people learn about social
relationships
Person schemas
– include our judgments about the traits that we and
others possess
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
PERCEIVING OTHERS (CONT.)
• Kinds of schemas:
– Role schemas
• based on the jobs people perform or the social
positions they hold
– Event schemas, also called scripts,
• contain behaviors that we associate with
familiar activities, events, or procedures
– Self-schemas
• contain personal information about ourselves,
and this information influences, modifies, and
distorts what we perceive and remember and
how we believe
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
PERCEIVING OTHERS (CONT.)
• Schemas: advantages and disadvantages
– Disadvantages
• schemas may restrict, bias, or distort what we
attend to and remember and thus cause us to
overlook important information
• are highly resistant to change because we
generally select and attend to information that
supports our schemas and deny any
information that is inconsistent with them
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
PERCEIVING OTHERS (CONT.)
• Schemas: Advantages and disadvantages
– Advantages
• contain information about how people think
and behave
• help people analyze and respond appropriately
in a particular social situation
• provide guidelines for how to behave in various
social events (event schemas) and help us
explain the social behavior of others (role
schemas)
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
ATTRIBUTIONS
• Definition
– things we point to as the cause of events, other
people’s behaviors, and our own behaviors
• Internal versus external
– Internal attributions
• explanations of behavior based on the internal
characteristics or dispositions of the person
performing the behavior
– External attributions
• explanations of behavior based on the external
circumstances or situations
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
ATTRIBUTIONS (CONT.)
• Kelley’s model of covariation
– social psychologist Harold Kelley
– Covariation model
• says that, in making attributions, we should look
for factors that are present when the behavior
occurs and factors that are absent when the
behavior does not occur
– Consensus
• determining whether other people engage in the
same behavior in the same situation
– Consistency
• determining whether the person engages in this
behavior every time he or she is in a particular
situation
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
ATTRIBUTIONS (CONT.)
• Kelley’s model of covariation
– Distinctiveness
• determining how differently the person
behaves in one situation when compared to
other situations
– Biases and errors
– Fundamental attribution error
• refers to our tendency, when we look for
causes of a person’s disposition or personality
traits and overlook how the situation influenced
the person’s behavior
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
ATTRIBUTIONS (CONT.)
• Biases and errors
– Actor-observer effect
• refers to the tendency, when you are behaving
(or acting), to attribute your own behavior to
situational factors
– Self-serving bias
• refers to explaining our successes by
attributing them to our dispositions or
personality traits and explaining our failures by
attributing them to the situations
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
ATTITUDES
• Definition
– belief or opinion that includes an evaluation of
some object, person, or event, along a continuum
from negative to positive, that predisposes us to
act in a certain way toward that object, person, or
event
• Components of attitudes
– cognitive component
• includes both thoughts and beliefs that are
involved in evaluating some object, person, or
idea
– affective component
• involves emotional feelings that can be weak
or strong, positive or negative
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
ATTITUDES (CONT.)
• Components of attitudes
– behavioral component
• involves performing or not performing some
behavior
• Functions of attitudes
– predispose
• means that they guide or influence us to behave in
specific ways
– interpret
• means that they provide convenient guidelines for
interpreting and categorizing objects and events
and deciding whether to approach or avoid them
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
ATTITUDES (CONT.)
• Functions of attitudes
– evaluate
• means that they help us stand up for those
beliefs and values that we consider very
important to ourselves
• Attitude change
– Cognitive dissonance
• refers to a state of unpleasant psychological
tension that motivates us to reduce our cognitive
inconsistencies by making our beliefs more
consistent with each other
– Counterattitudinal behavior
• involves taking a public position that runs counter
to your private attitude
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
ATTITUDES (CONT.)
• Attitude change
– Self-perception theory
• we first observe or perceive our own behavior
and then, as a result, we change our attitudes
• Persuasion
– Central route for persuasion
• presents information with strong arguments,
analyses, facts and logic
– Peripheral route for persuasion
• emphasizes emotional appeal, focuses on
personal traits, and generates positive feelings
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES
• Conformity
– refers to any behaviors you perform because of
group pressure, even though that pressure might
not involve direct requests
• Hazing
– part of a group’s initiation ritual, during which
individuals are subjected to a variety of behaviors
that range from:
– humiliating and unpleasant
– potentially dangerous
– both physically and psychologically
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
• Compliance
– kind of conformity in which we give in to social
pressure in our public responses but do not
change our private beliefs
• Obedience
– refers to performing some behavior in response to
an order given by someone in a position of power
or authority
– Milgram’s Experiment
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
• Helping prosocial behavior
– also called helping, is any behavior that benefits
others or has positive social consequences
• Altruism
– form of helping or doing something, often at a
cost or risk, for reasons other than the
expectation of a material or social reward
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
• Why people help
– Empathy
• identify with what the victim must be going
through
– Personal distress
• feelings of fear, alarm, or disgust from seeing a
victim in need
– Norms and values
• feel morally bound or socially responsible to
help those in need
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
• Why people help
– Decision-stage model of helping
– Five stages in deciding to help
1. notice the situation
2. interpret it as one in which help is needed
3. assume personal responsibility
4. choose a form of assistance
5. carry out that assistance
– Arousal-cost-reward model of helping
• make decisions to help by calculating the costs
and rewards of helping
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
• Group dynamics
– Groups
• collections of two or more people who interact,
share some common idea, goal, or purpose,
and influence how their members think and
behave
• Group cohesion and norms
– Group cohesion
• group togetherness, which is determined by
how much group members perceive that they
share common attributes
– Group norms
• formal or informal rules about how group
members should behave
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
• Group dynamics
– Group membership
– Task-oriented group
• members have a specific duties to complete
– Socially oriented group
• members are primarily concerned about
fostering and maintaining social relationships
among the members of the group
• Behavior in crowds
– Crowd
• large group of persons who are usually
strangers, can facilitate or inhibit certain
behaviors
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
• Behavior in crowds
– Facilitation and inhibition
– Social facilitation
• increase in performance in the presence of a
crowd
– Social inhibition
• decrease in performance in the presence of a
crowd
– Deindividuation in crowds
• refers to the increased tendency for subjects to
behave irrationally or perform antisocial
behaviors when there is less chance of being
personally identified
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
• Behavior in crowds
– The bystander effect
• individual may feel inhibited from taking some
action because of the presence of others
– Informational influence theory
• we use the reactions of others to judge the
seriousness of the situation
– Diffusion of responsibility theory
• says that, in the presence of others, individuals
feel less personal responsibility and are less
likely to take action in a situation where help is
required
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
• Group decisions
– Group polarization
• phenomenon in which group discussion
reinforces the majority’s point of view and
shifts that view to a more extreme position
– Groupthink
• refers to a group making bad decisions
because the group is more concerned about
reaching agreement and sticking together,
than gathering the relevant information and
considering all the alternatives
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT.)
• Group decisions
– Ingroup
• includes only the immediate members of the
group
– Outgroup
• includes everyone who is not a part of the
group
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
AGGRESSION
• Genes and environment
– Aggression
• is any behavior directed toward another that is
intended to cause harm
– Social cognitive and personality factors
– Social cognitive theory
• says that much of human behavior, including
aggressive behavior, may be learned through
watching, imitating, and modeling and does not
require the observer to perform any observable
behavior or receive any observable reward
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
AGGRESSION (CONT.)
• Sexual harassment and aggression
– Characteristics and kinds of rapists
– Power rapist
• 70% of all rapes
• not to hurt physically but to possess
– Sadistic rapist
• fewer than 5%
• most dangerous because, for him, sexuality
and aggression have become fused and using
physical force is arousing and exciting
Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 25: Social Psychology
AGGRESSION (CONT.)
• Sexual harassment and aggression
– Characteristics and kinds of rapists
– Anger rapist
• impulsive, savage attack of uncontrolled
physical violence
– Acquaintance or date rape
• knows victim and uses varying amounts
of verbal or physical coercion to force
his partner to engage in sexual activities