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Social Psychology
Chapter 13
Social Psychology
Social psychology:
ATTITUDES
Dimensions
Change
Formation
Consistency
Attitudes:
Dimensions of
Attitudes
1. Cognitive Dimension:
2. Emotional Dimension:
3. Behavioural Dimension:
How are Attitudes Formed?
Learning
- Operant conditioning
- Observational learning
How are Attitudes Formed?
• Does behaviour shape attitudes?
• “Stanford Prison Experiment”:
college students asked to act and
dress as prisoners or guards
quickly developed attitudes
consistent with their assigned role.
Persuasion: Changing Attitudes
4 Key Components (Carl Hovland):
• Communicator
• Communication
• Medium
• Audience
The Elaboration Likelihood Model
• Adaptive:
• attitude change can be accomplished via
two routes:
The Elaboration Likelihood Model
• Central Route:
• Peripheral Route:
Figure 13.2 Elaboration Likelihood Model
Attitude
Consistency:
Cognitive dissonance (Festinger):
Figure 13.3 Cognitive Dissonance
Social Cognition
Mental Shortcuts
Attribution
Nonverbal Communication
Prejudice
Social Cognition
• Social cognition:
• Impression formation:
Mental Shortcuts
• pragmatic rules of the thumb
Mental
Shortcuts
• Representativeness:
•
Availability:
Mental Shortcuts
• False Consensus Effect:
• Framing:
Assessing the World by Using
Nonverbal Communication
Nonverbal Communication
• nonverbal communication
• Often plays a greater role in impression
formation than oral communication.
Facial Expressions
Six basic emotions are distinguished in facial
expressions cross culturally:
Body Language
Body Language:
Body positions, gestures, and movements
that convey information about moods and
attitudes.
Eye Contact
• People tend to judge others based on eye
contact.
• Eye contact is a powerful form of nonverbal
communication in all cultures.
• The meaning of eye contact is culturally defined
Attribution
Inferring the Causes of Behavior
Attribution
Attribution
Kelly’s Attributional
Model
Criteria used to determine whether the causes of
behavior are internal or external:
1) Consensus
2) Consistency
3) Distinctiveness
Errors in attribution
• Fundamental attribution error
– Napolitan & Goethals (1979) classic study
demonstrating fundamental attribution error
Errors in attribution
• Actor-Observer Effect
Errors in Attribution
• Self-serving bias
–.
Prejudice: The Darker Side of
Attitudes
Prejudice
Definitions:
• Prejudice =
• Stereotypes =
Prejudice
• Discrimination
What causes prejudice?
• Social Learning Theory
• Motivational theory
• Cognitive Theory
• Personality Theory
Social Learning Theory
Motivational Theory
• Based on the idea that people compete for scarce
resources
• Asserts that people tend to dislike individuals who
are viewed as competitors
• This dislike is generalized to entire groups
Cognitive Theory
Cognitive Theory
• Mental shortcuts can lead to:
– Illusory correlations:
– Social categorization
Classic Study of Stereotyping & Prejudice
• Bodenhausen & Wyer (1985)
– Subjects read vignettes about people who had committed crimes and were
asked to make parole recommendations.
– Name of criminal = ‘John T.’, ‘Carlos Ramirez’ or ‘Ashley Chamberlain’
– Crime = embezzling company funds by forging signatures, or brutally
attacking a man in a bar after an argument.
– Sometimes an explanation of the crime was provided
– Subjects likely to recommend parole of ‘John T.’ regardless of crime (no
stereotype)
– Less likely to recommend parole if crime fit stereotype i.e. Chamberlain
embezzled, Ramirez attacked)
SOCIAL
INFLUENCE
•Conformity
•Obedience
Social Influence
• Social influence
CONFORMITY
• Conformity –
• Asch (1951) conducted the following experiment::
– Seven to nine people were asked to judge which of three
lines matched a standard line
– Only one group member, the “naïve” participant, was
really unaware of the purpose of the study
– The other “participants” deliberately gave false answers
– Asch found some naïve participants would go along with
the group, even when the answer they gave was
obviously wrong
Factors influencing
conformity:
• Amount of information –
• Relative competence of the group –
• Position within a group –
• Public nature of behaviour -
Why Do People
Conform?
• Social conformity approach –
• Attribution • Independence • Expediency -
OBEDIENCE
• Obedience
Obedience: The
Milgram Studies
• Classic studies of obedience were performed by
Stanley Milgram
• Milgram told participants they would be participating
in a study of the effects of punishment on learning
• Their task was to administer electric shock to a
“learner,” but in reality, the “learner” was a
confederate
Results
•
•
•
•
•
No participant stopped before 300v
65% administered all 30 levels of shock
Teacher did display distress
Concluded obedience to authority common
What about female participants?
Explaining
Milgram’s Results
• Psychological Distance –
• Cognitive Reinterpretations –
• Slippery slope -
Ethical Issues
• Milgram’s study raised ethical issues
• To ensure that there are no long-lasting ill
effects from participating in a study,
participants are debriefed
• Debriefing
PROSOCIAL
BEHAVIOUR
Altruism - helping
Bystander Apathy – Not helping
Prosocial Behaviour: Helping
• Prosocial behaviour –
• Altruism
Bystander Apathy:
Not helping
• Latané and Darley found that whether or not
someone helps depends on a series of interconnected
events and decisions
• The potential helper must:
Bystander Apathy:
Not helping
Reasons for not helping include:
• Ambiguity –
• Pluralistic Ignorance –
• Diffusion of Responsibility –
• The Bystander Effect -