Download PSYCHOLOGY: Perspectives 2nd Edition

PSYCHOLOGY:
Perspectives & Connections
2nd Edition
GREGORY J. FEIST
ERIKA L. ROSENBERG
Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies,
Inc.
Social Behavior
Chapter Fourteen
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Inc.
Social Psychology

Study of how living among others
influences thought, feeling, and
behavior
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Inc.
Group Living and
Social Influence
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Inc.
Group Living and Social
Influence

Social facilitation
– Phenomenon in which the presence of others
improves one’s performance

Social loafing
– Phenomenon in which the presence of others
causes one to relax one’s standards and slack off
– Have you ever been assigned to a group project
where one member didn’t pull their weight?
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Inc.
Conformity

Social norms
– Rules about acceptable behavior imposed
by the cultural context in which one lives

Conformity
– Tendency of people to adjust their
behavior to what others are doing or to
adhere to the norms of their culture
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Inc.
Conformity

Study by Solomon
Asch (1951)
– Groupthink


Occurs when the
thinking of the group
takes over
Can lead to
detrimental, even
disastrous, outcomes
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Inc.
Minority Social Influence


In order to change the majority view
the minority, one must present a
logical argument
Usually by means of informational
social influence
– How might a single jury member convince
11 other people that she is right and they
are wrong?
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Inc.
Obedience

Type of conformity in which a person yields
to the authority of another person
– Stanley Milgram’s obedience study


Showed how powerful situations can make reasonable
people do things that seem cruel and unusual
As with other classic studies, Milgram’s research led to
an ongoing debate over what is and what is not ethical
treatment of research participants
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Inc.
Milgram’s Obedience
Study
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Inc.
Exclusion and Inclusion

In-group/out-group bias
– Tendency to show positive feelings
toward people who belong to the same
group as we do, and negative feelings
toward those in other groups
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Inc.
Exclusion and Inclusion

Out-group homogeneity
– Tendency to see all members of an outgroup as the same
– Social rejection
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Prejudice and
Discrimination

Discrimination
– Preferential treatment of certain people,
usually driven by prejudicial attitudes

Can result from institutionalized rules
– “Flight attendants must not be excessively
overweight”
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Inc.
Nature and Nurture of
Attitudes

Nature
– Some attitudes, like in-group bias, made
sense, because humans evolved in small
social groups, and it made sense for
people to trust those who are most like
them

Nurture
– Exposure increases our preference for
different things and people
Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies,
Inc.
Attitude Change

Cognitive
dissonance
– Feeling of
discomfort caused
by information that
is different from a
person’s conception
of himself as a
reasonable and
sensible person
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Social Relations
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Nature and Nurture of
Aggression

Aggression
– Violent behavior that is intended to cause
psychological or physical harm, or both, to
another being


Hostile aggression
Instrumental aggression
– Influenced by brain structures and hormones


Hypothalamus, prefrontal cortex, and amygdala
Testosterone and serotonin
Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies,
Inc.
Nature and Nurture of
Aggression

Social influences on
aggression
– The closer we are
to our goal when
we become
frustrated, the more
aggressive we are
likely to be
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Inc.
Nature and Nurture of
Aggression

Social influences on aggression
– Albert Bandura

Social learning theory
– Bobo Doll experiment
– Experiments strongly suggest that watching TV
violence leads to aggressive behavior in children
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Inc.
Prosocial Behavior


Behaviors that benefit others
Bystander Effect (Latané and Darley,
1968)
– The greater the number of bystanders
who witness an emergency, the less likely
any one of them is to help

Diffusion of responsibility
– Case of Kitty Genovese
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Inc.
Prosocial Behavior

Altruism
– Selfless attitudes and behavior toward others

Kin selection
– Evolutionary favoring of genes that prompts individuals
to help their relatives or kin

Reciprocal altruism
– Act of helping others in the hope that they will help us in
the future

Social exchange theory
– We help others when the benefits to ourselves are likely
to outweigh the costs
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Inc.
Prosocial Behavior

Empathy
– Ability to share the feelings of others and
understand their situations

Empathy-altruism hypothesis
– Idea that people help others selflessly only when
they feel empathy for them
Egoistic motivation
 Empathetic motivation

Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies,
Inc.