Download LO 18.2

Psychology
CHAPTER
7
Social Psychology
Module 18
Social Influence
Learning Objectives
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LO 18.1
LO 18.2
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LO 18.3
LO 18.4
Do people act differently in different situations?
How does the presence of others affect an
individual's behavior?
How do group dynamics influence behavior?
How can an individual change a group's behavior?
Social Psychology and
Social Influence
LO 18.1 Do people act differently in different situations?
• Social psychology – the scientific study
of how a person's thoughts, feelings,
and behavior are influenced by the real,
imagined, or implied presence of
others.
• Social influence - the process through
which the real or implied presence of
others can directly or indirectly
influence the thoughts, feelings, and
behavior of an individual.
Conformity and Compliance
LO 18.2 How does the presence of others affect an individual's behavior?
• Conformity - changing one's own
behavior to match that of other people.
• Consumer psychology – branch of
psychology that studies the habits of
consumers in the marketplace.
• Compliance - changing one's behavior
as a result of other people directing or
asking for the change.
Figure 18.1 Matching Lines in Asch's Study
Participants in Asch's famous study on conformity were first shown the three lines on the left. They were then shown
the line on the right and asked to determine which of the three lines on the left it was most similar to. Which line would
you pick? What if you were one of several people, and everyone who answered ahead of you chose line 3? How would
that affect your answer? Source: Adapted from Asch (1956).
Four Ways to Gain Compliance
LO 18.2 How does the presence of others affect an individual's behavior?
• Foot-in-the-door technique - asking for
a small commitment and, after gaining
compliance, asking for a bigger
commitment.
Four Ways to Gain Compliance
LO 18.2 How does the presence of others affect an individual's behavior?
• Door-in-the-face technique - asking for
a large commitment and being refused,
and then asking for a smaller
commitment.
– Norm of reciprocity - assumption that if
someone does something for a person, that
person should do something for the other
in return.
Four Ways to Gain Compliance
LO 18.2 How does the presence of others affect an individual's behavior?
• Lowball technique - getting a
commitment from a person and then
raising the cost of that commitment.
• That's-not-all technique - a sales
technique in which the persuader
makes an offer and then adds
something extra to make the offer look
better before the target person can
make a decision.
Obedience
LO 18.2 How does the presence of others affect an individual's behavior?
• Obedience - changing one's behavior at
the command of an authority figure.
• Milgram study - “teacher” administered
what they thought were real shocks to
a “learner.”
Task Performance
LO 18.2 How does the presence of others affect an individual's behavior?
• Social facilitation - the tendency for the
presence of other people to have a
positive impact on the performance of
an easy task.
• Social impairment - the tendency for
the presence of other people to have a
negative impact on the performance of
a difficult task.
Task Performance
LO 18.2 How does the presence of others affect an individual's behavior?
• Social loafing - the tendency for people
to put less effort into a simple task
when working with others on that task.
Group Interaction
LO 18.3 How do group dynamics influence behavior?
• Groupthink - kind of thinking that
occurs when people place more
importance on maintaining group
cohesiveness than on assessing the
facts of the problem with which the
group is concerned.
Group Interaction
LO 18.3 How do group dynamics influence behavior?
• Deindividuation - a person's loss of his
or her sense of self caused by the
stimulating feeling of being in a group
combined with the lack of responsibility
that comes from being in a crowd.
Group Interaction
LO 18.3 How do group dynamics influence behavior?
• Group polarization - the strengthening
of shared beliefs through discussion.
Table 18.1
Sample Script Items from Milgram's Classic Experiment
Leaders
LO 18.4 How can an individual change a group's behavior?
• Great person theory of leadership attributed to 19th century Scottish
historian Thomas Carlyle, states that
leaders are extraordinary people who
lead because they are born to do it.
• Transactional view of leadership proposes that many factors combine to
form the right conditions for the right
kind of leader.
Leaders
LO 18.4 How can an individual change a group's behavior?
• Transformational view of leadership - a
third view of leadership; proposes that
transformational leaders have certain
personality traits that inspire change in
individuals and in organizations.
Leadership Styles
LO 18.4 How can an individual change a group's behavior?
• There are two major leadership styles,
both of which affect the group.
• Task oriented - skilled at getting the
goals of the group accomplished
efficiently and well.
• Relationship-oriented - skillful at
getting people in the group to work
together in harmony.
Module 19
Social Cognition
Learning Objectives
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LO 19.1
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LO 19.2
LO 19.3
What are attitudes, and how do they relate to
behavior?
How can attitudes be changed?
How do people use attribution theory to explain the
actions of others?
Social Cognition
LO 19.1 What are attitudes, and how do they relate to behavior?
• Social cognition - focuses on the ways
in which people think about other
people and how those thoughts
influence behavior.
• One area concerns formation and
influence of attitudes on the behavior
and perceptions of others.
Attitudes
LO 19.1 What are attitudes, and how do they relate to behavior?
• Attitude - a tendency to respond
positively or negatively toward a
certain person, object, idea, or
situation.
• The three components of an attitude
are the affective (emotional)
component, the behavioral component,
and the cognitive component.
Attitudes
LO 19.1 What are attitudes, and how do they relate to behavior?
• General attitude - person holds attitude
about something without reflecting that
attitude in his or her behavior and see
no contradiction.
Attitudes
LO 19.1 What are attitudes, and how do they relate to behavior?
• Specific attitude - attitude that
something without reflecting that
attitude in his or her behavior and see
no contradiction.
• Attitudes are often poor predictors of
behavior unless the attitude is very
specific or very strong.
Figure 19.1
The ABC Model of Attitudes
Formation of Attitudes
LO 19.1 What are attitudes, and how do they relate to behavior?
• Direct contact with the person,
situation, object, or idea.
• Direct instruction from parents or
others.
• Interacting with other people who hold
a certain attitude.
• Watching the actions and reactions of
others to ideas, people, objects, and
situations.
Figure 19.2 Models of Attitude Formation
Attitudes are formed by direct contact with the person, idea, situation, or object that is the focus of the attitude. Attitudes
can also be learned through direct instruction and interaction with others. Vicarious or observational learning is
observation of other people's actions and reactions to various objects, people, or situations. An attitude can be learned
by observing the emotional reactions of others, and behavior can be observed and imitated.
Cognitive Dissonance
LO 19.1 What are attitudes, and how do they relate to behavior?
• Cognitive dissonance - sense of
discomfort or distress that occurs when
a person's behavior does not
correspond to that person's attitude.
– Lessened by changing the conflicting
behavior, changing the conflicting attitude,
or forming a new attitude to justify the
behavior.
Persuasion
LO 19.2 How can attitudes be changed?
• Persuasion - the process by which one
person tries to change the belief,
opinion, position, or course of action of
another person through argument,
pleading, or explanation.
– Key elements in persuasion are the source
of the message, the message itself, and
the target audience.
Persuasion
LO 19.2 How can attitudes be changed?
• Persuasion – (continued)
- Central-route processing - type of information
processing that involves attending to the
content of the message itself.
Persuasion
LO 19.2 How can attitudes be changed?
• Persuasion – (continued)
– Peripheral-route processing - type of
information processing that involves
attending to factors not involved in the
message, such as the appearance of the
source of the message, the length of the
message, and other noncontent factors.
Attributions
LO 19.3 How do people use attribution theory to explain the actions of others?
• Attribution - the process of explaining
one's own behavior and the behavior of
others.
• Attribution theory - the theory of how
people make attributions.
Attributions
LO 19.3 How do people use attribution theory to explain the actions of others?
• Attribution theory – (continued)
– Situational cause - cause of behavior
attributed to external factors, such as
delays, the action of others, or some other
aspect of the situation.
– Dispositional cause - cause of behavior
attributed to internal factors such as
personality or character.
Attributions
LO 19.3 How do people use attribution theory to explain the actions of others?
• Fundamental attribution error (actorobserver bias) - the tendency to
overestimate the influence of internal
factors in determining behavior while
underestimating situational factors.
LO 7.4 Definition of intelligence
Module 20
Social Interaction
Learning Objectives
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LO
LO
LO
LO
20.1
20.2
20.3
20.4
How are prejudice and discrimination different?
What factors govern attraction and love?
How does aggressive behavior develop?
What is prosocial behavior?
Prejudice and Discrimination
LO 20.1 How are prejudice and discrimination different?
• Prejudice - negative attitude held by a
person about the members of a
particular social group.
• Discrimination - treating people
differently because of prejudice toward
the social group to which they belong.
Prejudice and Discrimination
LO 20.1 How are prejudice and discrimination different?
• Forms of prejudice and discrimination
based on age, sex, race or ethnicity,
weight, religion, economic status, and
other physical and social
characteristics.
Prejudice and Discrimination
LO 20.1 How are prejudice and discrimination different?
• In-groups - social groups with whom a
person identifies; “us.”
• Out-groups - social groups with whom
a person does not identify; “them.”
• Stereotype - a set of characteristics
that people believe is shared by all
members of a particular social
category.
Prejudice and Discrimination
LO 20.1 How are prejudice and discrimination different?
• Realistic conflict theory - theory stating
that prejudice and discrimination will be
increased between groups that are in
conflict over a limited resource.
• Scapegoat - a person or a group,
typically a member or members of an
out-group, who serves as the target for
the frustrations and negative emotions
of members of the in-group.
Stopping Prejudice
LO 20.1 How are prejudice and discrimination different?
• Social cognitive theory - referring to
the use of cognitive processes in
relation to understanding the social
world.
• Social identity theory - theory in which
the formation of a person's identity
within a particular social group is
explained by social categorization,
social identity, and social comparison.
Stopping Prejudice
LO 20.1 How are prejudice and discrimination different?
• Social identity theory – (continued)
– Social identity - the part of the self-concept
including one's view of self as a member of
a particular social category.
– Social comparison - the comparison of
oneself to others in ways that raise one's
self-esteem.
Stopping Prejudice
LO 20.1 How are prejudice and discrimination different?
• Stereotype vulnerability - the effect
that people's awareness of the
stereotypes associated with their social
group has on their behavior.
• Self-fulfilling prophecy - the tendency
of one's expectations to affect one's
behavior in such a way as to make the
expectation more likely to occur.
Stopping Prejudice
LO 20.1 How are prejudice and discrimination different?
• Equal status contact - contact between
groups in which the groups have equal
status, with neither group having power
over the other.
Attraction
LO 20.2 What factors govern attraction and love?
• Interpersonal attraction - liking or
having the desire for a relationship with
another person.
• Proximity - physical or geographical
nearness.
Attraction
LO 20.2 What factors govern attraction and love?
• People like people who are similar to
themselves OR who are different from
themselves (complementary).
• Reciprocity of liking - tendency of
people to like other people who like
them in return.
Love
LO 20.2 What factors govern attraction and love?
• Love - a strong affection for another
person due to kinship, personal ties,
sexual attraction, admiration, or
common interests.
• Sternberg states that the three
components of love are intimacy,
passion, and commitment.
Love
LO 20.2 What factors govern attraction and love?
• Romantic love - type of love consisting
of intimacy and passion.
• Companionate love - type of love
consisting of intimacy and commitment.
Figure 20.1 Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love
This diagram represents the seven different kinds of love that can result from combining
the three components of love: intimacy, passion, and commitment. Notice that
some of these types of love sound less desirable or positive than others. What is the
one key element missing from the less positive types of love? Source: Adapted from
Sternberg (1986b).
Aggression
LO 20.3 How does aggressive behavior develop?
• Aggression - actions meant to harm or
destroy.
• Biological influences on aggression may
include genetics, the amygdala and
limbic system, and testosterone levels.
• Social role - the pattern of behavior
that is expected of a person who is in a
particular social position.
– Violent TV, movies, and videos are related
to aggression.
Altruism
LO 20.4 What is prosocial behavior?
• Prosocial behavior - socially desirable
behavior that benefits others.
• Altruism - prosocial behavior that is
done with no expectation of reward and
may involve the risk of harm to oneself.
Bystander Effect
LO 20.4 What is prosocial behavior?
• Bystander effect - referring to the
effect that the presence of other people
has on the decision to help or not help,
with help becoming less likely as the
number of bystanders increases.
Bystander Effect
LO 20.4 What is prosocial behavior?
• Diffusion of responsibility - occurring
when a person fails to take
responsibility for actions or for inaction
because of the presence of other
people who are seen to share the
responsibility.
Five Steps in Making
a Decision to Help
LO 20.4 What is prosocial behavior?
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Noticing
Defining an emergency
Taking responsibility
Planning a course of action
Taking action