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Social Psychology
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Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006
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What is Social Psychology?
Social Psychology is the science of how people
are affected by the real or imagined
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of others
and by the social situation
In other words, how we affect and are affected
by others
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2006
What is the Social Self?
The Self in Social Psychology
– Self-awareness required to form a selfconcept – our perceptions of our self
– Self-esteem: Feelings about the self
– Self-presentation: The behavioral aspect
of the self
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ATTRIBUTION THEORY
Looks to explain how we perceive the “causes”
of events
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Internal Vs. External Attributions
• Internal Attributions – attributing the cause to
personality
– “That driver just cut me off. What a jerk!”
• External Attributions –
attributing the cause to the situation or
external factors
– “That driver just cut me off. She
must be distracted.”
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Errors in Attribution
– Self-Serving Bias (helps us maintain our self-esteem)
• “I passed the psychology test because I’m smart. I
failed the math test because it was unfair.”
– Fundamental Attribution Error –
*underestimating situational/external factors and
overestimating personality/dispostional factors
• “He yelled at his mother because he’s mean.”
• Not because he’s having a bad day, she said
something rude, etc.
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Thinking About Self and Others
• Errors in Attribution
– Lead to blaming others inappropriately
– Also lead to failure to accept responsibility for
our own behavior
– Do not exist equally in all cultures
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How Are Attitudes Related to
Behavior?
• Attitudes are
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Patterns of evaluative beliefs
About ideas, objects, other people
Based on past experiences
Play a role in one’s behavior
Usually involve judgments of good or bad
Usually long-lasting, but may be changed
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How Are Attitudes Related to
Behavior?
Dimensions of Attitudes
1. Cognitive dimension
2. Emotional dimension
3. Behavioral dimension
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Dimensions of Attitudes
• We are sometimes unaware of all dimensions
of our attitudes
– Explicit attitudes are those we are aware of
– Implicit attitudes are those we are unaware
of
• Unconscious and uncontrollable
• Automatically activated
• Affect behavior
• E.g., implicit racial attitudes
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How Are Attitudes Related to
Behavior?
Does Behavior Determine Attitudes?
– Common-sense view
• Attitudes shape behavior
• Behavior follows from attitudes
– Bem’s Self-Perception Theory
• We observe and interpret our own behavior
• Then attitudes are formed
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Does Behavior Determine
Attitudes?
• Cognitive Dissonance Theory
– When attitudes conflict with each other or
when attitudes conflict with behavior, a state
of discomfort arises
• Cognitive dissonance
– People are motivated to reduce cognitive
dissonance
– By changing attitude
– By changing behavior
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How Are Attitudes Related to
Behavior?
How Does Attitude Change Occur?
1. Attitude Change Through Persuasion
a. Source of the persuasive message (Who?)
b. Message (What?)
– Argument quality
– Fear appeals
– Repetition – THE MERE EXPOSURE EFFECT
c. Medium through which message is
communicated (How?)
d. Audience characteristics
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How Do People Relate to Each
Other?
Attraction and Relationship Formation
1. Proximity
2. Physical Attractiveness
3. Similarity
4. Complementarity
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Attraction and Relationship
Formation
Friendships
– Concept develops in preschool
– Gender differences emerge early
Definitions of Love
– Three components (Sternberg, 1986)
– Intimacy
– Commitment
– Passion
– Companionate love
– Consummate love
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Attraction and Relationship
Formation
Intimate and Love Relationships
– Intimacy
• Not present in all friendships or romantic
relationships
• Related to self-disclosure
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How Do People Relate to Each
Other?
Aggression and Violence
– Aggression is any behavior intended to
harm another person or thing
• Physical
• Verbal
• Emotional
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Aggression and Violence
Is Aggression Innate?
– The potential to behave aggressively may
be innate, but whether people behave
aggressively or not depends on learned
inhibitory responses and social context
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Aggression and Violence
Does Frustration Cause Aggression?
– Frustration–aggression hypothesis
– More likely, frustration creates a
readiness for aggression (Berkowitz,
1964)
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Aggression and Violence
Do People Learn How to Be Aggressive?
– Social learning theory
– Violence in the media (MODELING)
• Effects may be long-lasting
• Effects on immediate behavior
• More exposure, more aggression
• Less likely to help real-life victims of
violence
• Desensitizes to violence
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Aggression and Violence
Can Aggression Be Controlled?
– Punishment is not very successful
– Some violence prevention programs are
successful
• Help children interpret others’ behaviors as
less hostile
• Develop interpersonal skills
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How Do People Relate to Each
Other?
Prosocial Behavior – any behavior that benefits
others
Altruisim: Helping Without Rewards
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Prosocial Behavior
The Bystander Effect
– Witnesses’ unwillingness to help during an
event
• Increases when there are more witnesses
– Latane and Darley (1970)
• Is it an emergency?
• Use other witnesses’ behavior as cues
• Diffusion of responsibility
• Even the imagined presence of others
decreases the likelihood of helping
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The Bystander Effect
• When are bystanders more likely to offer
help?
– When alone
– When they feel competent to help
– When they know the victim
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Stereotypes
• Fixed, simplified ideas about the attributes
of a specific group
• Mental shortcuts to categorize objects
and people
• Often ignores individual differences
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Stereotypes
• Illusory Correlations help maintain
stereotypes
– An incorrect connection between two events
that seem to be related
• Often due to memory distortions
• Stereotype threat
– Occurs when in a situation that one fears will
confirm a stereotype about one’s group
– Stereotype threat alone can lead to
worsened performance
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Prejudice and Discrimination
– Prejudice is a negative evaluation of a
group
– Discrimination is behavioral
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Prejudice and Discrimination
• Explanations for prejudice
– Authoritarian personality
• Characteristic of prejudiced people
• See the world as good or bad
• Are prejudiced against those they blame
for their failures
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Prejudice and Discrimination
• Explanations for prejudice
– Realistic conflict theory
• Prejudice stems from competition for
scarce resources
• Allport
Competition
Arousal
Erroneous
Generalizations
Prejudice
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Prejudice and Discrimination
• Explanations for prejudice
– Social Learning Theory
• Children learn to be prejudiced
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Prejudice and Discrimination
• Overt prejudice and discrimination less
common now
• Today, psychologists study more subtle,
automatic prejudice
– Implicit attitudes
• Measures reaction times
• Faster reaction times indicate stronger
associations between concepts
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Prejudice and Discrimination
• Modern Racism
– Prejudice and discrimination expressed in
subtle ways
• Individuals may possess positive explicit
attitudes and negative implicit attitudes
• Sexism
– Prejudice based on gender
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