Download Social Psychology – Modules 53-55

Social Psychology – Modules 53-55
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How we think about, influence and
relate to others
Attribution Theory
How people explain someone’s behavior
 Behavior is attributed either to disposition
or situations
 Disposition – Internal factors – Personality
traits
 Situations –
External factors Environment
 Ex. A hostile student
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Fundamental Attribution Error People have a tendency to default to
what “kind” of a person someone is
rather than rather than the environment
 ***Tend to favor disposition over
situation
 Ex. “Rude” waitress
talking back
 Ex. Quiet student in class
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Ex. Poverty/Unemployment
The Foot in the Door Phenomenon
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A tendency for people who agree to a
small request to comply later with a
larger one – Ex. Army Recruitment Centers
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Attitudes are also affected by role playing
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
People are motivated to have consistent
attitudes and behaviors
 People often change their attitudes to bring
them into agreement with their actions
 Individuals experience tension when thoughts
and actions don’t coincide
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Social Influence
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Conformity, Compliance and Group
Behavior can illustrate the enormous power of
social influence on our attitudes, beliefs,
decisions and actions
Advertisers and salespeople use principles of
social influence to sway our decisions to buy,
vote, donate, etc.
Conformity
Adjusting our thinking or behavior to
bring it in line with some group standards
Why conform?
 Suggestibility can have devastating results
 Ex. Following the death of Marilyn
Monroe, suicides in U.S. spiked by more
than 200
 Ex. In Germany and the U.S., suicide rates
escalate following fictional suicides on
Soap Operas
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Reasons for Conforming
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Why do we clap when others clap? Eat as
others eat? Wear what others wear?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxB-H6f3crY
We are sensitive to Social Norms –
understood rules for accepted and expected
behavior because of the potential price for
being different
 We seek to avoid rejection and strive to gain
social approval
 Ex. Marco Lokar – Seton Hall Basketball
Player - 1991
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Obedience
People often
comply with social
pressures – How
do they respond
to outright
commands?
 Milgram Study –
Nazi Germany – “
I was only
following orders”
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Behavior in the presence of others Social Facilitation –
Performance is often
stronger in the
presence of others
 ***Opposite can also
be true
 Social loafing
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Group Pressure and Conformity - Solomon Asch –
Suggestibility test -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIh4MkcfJA
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Conformity is strengthened when:
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We are made to feel insecure or incompetent
The group has at least three people
The group is unanimous
We admire the group’s status and
attractiveness
We have made no prior commitment to a
response
Others in the group observe our behavior
Our culture strongly encourages respect for
social standards
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Group Polarization
The tendency of a group to make more
extreme decisions than the group
members would make individually
 ***In a group setting there is Diffusion of
Responsibility
 Ex. In 1,500 cases where judges sat alone
they took an extreme course of action only
30% of the time. However when sitting in
a group of 3 this figure more than doubled
to 65%
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Group Think
Coined by Irving
Janis
 Groups often make
poor decisions when
too little conflict
exists within the
group
 Flaws of a plan are
often overlooked to
avoid “rocking the
boat”
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Group Think - continued
Occurs when members of the group are
more concerned with preserving
solidarity than objectively evaluating all
the alternatives
 Symptoms associated with Group
Think:
 Close-mindedness
 Rationalization
 Ignoring dissent
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Minority Influence
A minority in the
group that
unswervingly holds to
its position is far
more successful in
swaying the majority
than the minority that
waffles
 Ex. Members of a jury
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Social Relations
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Aggression – Any physical or
verbal behavior intended to
hurt or destroy, whether done
out of hostility or as a calculated
means to an end
Ex. An assertive, persistent
salesperson is not aggressive
A dentist who makes you feel
pain is not aggressive
Cyber bully…aggressive
The Biology of Aggression
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There are three levels
of physiological
influences – Genetic,
Neural, and
Biochemical
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Twins independently
admitted to having a
“violent temper”
“Vicious Mice”
Finnish Psychologist Kirsti Lagerspetz
 Bred aggressive and more passive mice for
25 generations
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Neural Influences
AP Exam Review…
 Animal and Human
brains have neural
systems that, when
stimulated, produce
aggressive
behavior. Which
portions of the
brain?
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Biochemical Influences
Hormones and other substances in the
blood influence the neural systems that
activate and inhibit aggression
 A raging bull will become gentle when
testosterone levels are reduced – vice
versa
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Biochemical Influences – cont’d
Violent Criminals tend to be muscular, young males
with lower than average intelligence scores and
higher than average testosterone levels
 High testosterone levels correlate with delinquency,
hard drug use and aggressive behavior – these
effects are also intensified by alcohol
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Frustration-Aggression Principle
Frustration causes
anger, which often
generates aggression
 Aggressive behavior
can be learned
through direct
rewards – children
who grow up
observing aggressive
models often imitate
the behaviors that they
see
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Tidbits about Aggression
Watching violence on
TV does correlate with
violence in real life
 Over the last 3 plus
decades, America’s
known rape rate has
tripled – Unreported
rapes greatly
outnumber those
reported
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Aggression Tidbits – cont’d
Correlational studies show that in times and
places where sexual materials are freely
available, rates of sexual violence are higher
 Hawaii – Number of reported rapes rose almost
900% between 1964-1974, dropped when
pornography restraints were temporarily
imposed, then rose again when the restraints
were lifted
 Exceptions to every rule - Japan
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Lab Experiment
One group viewed sexually explicit films
for six weeks – A second group viewed
non-erotic films during the same span
 Three weeks later, both groups viewed a
newspaper report about a man
convicted, but not yet sentenced for
raping a hitchhiker
 When asked to suggest a prison term,
those who viewed the sexually explicit
films recommended sentences half as
long as the other group
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The Bystander Effect – “The Genovese
Syndrome”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPnK0NCn_M
Q
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N26pYx0rgW
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I
1964 – Queens, NY – Kitty
Genovese was stabbed and
raped around 3:30AM
 38 people reported either
seeing or hearing the incident
 Attacked fled, and returned to
stab her 8 more times
 30 minutes later, someone
finally called for help
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Bystander Effect – cont’d
Three steps are important in helping:
 The incident must be noticed
 The incident must be interpreted as an
emergency
 The bystander must assume responsibility
for helping
 ***When people think that it is their sole
responsibility to help, they are more likely
to do so. Opposite is true due to Diffusion
of Responsibility
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Odds of Helping are best when…
We have just observed someone else being
helpful
 We are not in a hurry
 The victim appears to need, and deserve help
 We are, in some way, similar to the victim
 We are in a small town, or rural area
 We feel guilty
 We are focused on others, and not
preoccupied
 We are in a good mood
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The Psychology of Helping
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Social Exchange Theory – If the
anticipated rewards of helping exceed the
anticipated costs…you help
The Psychology of Helping – cont’d
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Social Norms also influence helping
The Reciprocity Norm teaches us that we
should return help, not harm, to others
Attraction
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What factors predict whether two people will
become close friends or romantically
involved?
Proximity – Before friendships develop, they
must begin – Geographic Nearness is perhaps
the most powerful predictor of friendship
Studies reveal people are most likely to marry
those from same neighborhood, office,
parking lot, etc.
Part of the Mere Exposure Effect – Repeated
Exposure to stimuli increases our likelihood of
Attraction – cont’d
Physical Attractiveness – What most
impacts your first impressions?
 Intelligence?
 Personality?
 Sincerity?
 Hundreds of studies indicated it is much
more superficial…Appearance
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS_jdcV5Qs
M&feature=related
Attraction – cont’d
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Attractive people are perceived as happier,
more sensitive, more successful, and more
socially skilled
However… they are often viewed as less
honest, and less compassionate
Do you love someone because they are
beautiful, or is the person beautiful because
you love them?
Attraction – cont’d
Similarity – Do opposites attract?
 Not usually…we tend to like things or
people that are like us
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLeKEr5JC
FM&feature=related
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Friends and couples are not usually paired
with people unless they share common
attitudes, beliefs or interests
Attraction – cont’d
 Romantic
Love – Two types of love
 Temporary Passionate Love – Key
ingredient is arousal
 Companionate Love – More
enduring, based on equity and trust.
Vital ingredient is self-disclosure –
revealing intimate details about
yourself