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Chapter 14 Overview
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Social perception
Attraction
Conformity, obedience, and compliance
Group influence
Attitudes and attitude change
Prosocial behavior
Aggression
Prejudice and discrimination
Social Perception
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Social psychology is the subfield that
attempts to explain how the actual,
imagined, or implied presence of others
influences the thoughts, feelings, and
behavior of individuals
– Confederate is a person who poses as a
participant in an experiment but is actually
assisting the experimenter
– Naïve subject is a person who has agreed to
participate in an experiment but is not aware
that deception is being used to conceal its real
purpose
Why are first impressions so
important?
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The primacy effect
– An overall impression of another person is
influenced more by the first information received
about that person than by information that
comes later
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Once formed, an impression acts as a
framework through which later information
is interpreted
What is the difference between a
situational attribution and a
dispositional attribution?
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An assignment of a cause to explain one’s
own or another’s behavior
When we explain our own failures, we tend
to make situational attributions
– Attributing behavior to an external cause or
factor related to a situation
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When we explain other people’s failures, we
are more likely to make dispositional
attributions
– Attributing behavior to an internal cause, such
as a personality trait
What is the difference between a
situational attribution and a
dispositional attribution?
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The tendency to attribute other people’s
behavior to dispositional causes and our
own to situational causes is referred to as
the actor-observer bias
People generally attribute their successes to
dispositional causes and their failures to
situational causes
– This is referred to as the self-serving bias
Attraction
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Think about your friends. What makes
you like, or even fall in love with, one
person and ignore or react negatively
to someone else?
What factors contribute to
attraction?
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Proximity
– We tend to like and feel attracted to people who
are frequently in our local environment
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The mere-exposure effect
– The tendency to feel more positively toward a
stimulus as a result of repeated exposure to it
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Reciprocity
– We tend to like people who like us
What factors contribute to
attraction?
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People of all ages have a strong tendency to
prefer physically attractive people
People who are physically attractive are
also perceived as having other favorable
qualities
– This is known as the halo effect
How do psychologists explain
romantic attraction and mating?
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The matching hypothesis proposes that
people choose mates who are similar to
themselves in physical attractiveness and
other attributes
– Similarity attracts and is associated with marital
success
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Evolutionary psychologists argue that
men and women prefer mates on the basis
of what they can contribute to reproductive
success
– Men prefer young, attractive women
– Women prefer men with resources and high
status
How does Sternberg’s triangular
theory of love account for the
different kinds of romantic love?
Conformity, Obedience,
and Compliance
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Conformity is changing or adopting a
behavior or an attitude in an effort to
be consistent with the social norms of
a group or the expectations of other
people
– Social norms are the attitudes and
standards of behavior expected of
members of a particular group
What did researchers find when
they varied the circumstances of
Milgram’s classic study of
obedience?
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Research participants (the “teachers”)
believed that they were giving electric
shocks to another participant (the “learner”)
Shock intensity increased each time the
learner answered incorrectly
If the teacher hesitated, experimenter told
him that he must continue
26 out of 40 participants (65%) continued
to highest possible shock intensity: 450
volts
All 40 went up to at least 300 volts
What did researchers find when
they varied the circumstances of
Milgram’s classic study of
obedience?
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Nearly as many participants went all the
way to 450 volts (48%) when the
experiment was conducted at a run-down
office building away from Yale University
But only 10% obeyed and gave maximum
shock when they saw another person defy
the experimenter and refuse to obey
What are three techniques used to
gain compliance?
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Foot-in-the-door technique
– Gaining agreement to a small request first to make a
person more likely to agree to a larger request later
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Door-in-the-face technique
– Making a large request, with the expectation that the
person will refuse, to make the person more likely to
comply with a smaller request later
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Low-ball technique
– Making an attractive initial offer to get a person to commit
to an action, but then making the terms less favorable
Group Influence
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Being part of a group often means
giving up a bit of individuality, but the
reward is the support and camaraderie
of the group. Clearly we behave
differently in a variety of ways when
we are part of a group, small or large.
How does social facilitation affect
performance?
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Social facilitation is any positive or
negative effect on performance that can be
attributed to the presence of others
When others are present
– Performance is usually enhanced on easy tasks
and tasks at which we are skilled
– Performance usually suffers on difficult tasks at
which we are not skilled
What is social loafing, and what
factors reduce it?
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The tendency to put forth less effort when
working with others than when working
alone
Social loafing is common
– When individual contributions to a group project
cannot be identified
– Among people who score low in achievement
motivation
– In individualistic societies
How do group polarization and
groupthink influence decision
making?
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Group polarization
– Occurs when, after discussion, group members
shift to more extreme positions in the directions
they were already leaning
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Groupthink
– Occurs when a group’s desire to maintain
solidarity outweighs other considerations, a
process that often leads to poor decisions
How do social roles influence
individual behavior?
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Social roles are socially defined behaviors
considered appropriate for individuals
occupying certain positions within a group
Social roles can shape behavior
– In Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison
Experiment, participants’ behaviors were
dramatically influenced by roles
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“Guards” became heartless and sadistic
“Prisoners” became subservient
Identification with their roles led to deindividuation
Attitudes and Attitude
Change
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A relatively stable evaluation of a
person, object, situation, or issue,
along a continuum ranging from
positive to negative
What are the three components of
an attitude?
What is cognitive dissonance, and
how can it be reduced?
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An unpleasant state that can occur when
people become aware of inconsistencies
between their attitudes or between their
attitudes and their behaviors
People usually try to reduce dissonance by
changing their behavior, changing their
attitudes, or explaining away the
inconsistency or minimizing its importance
Methods of reducing cognitive
dissonance
What are the elements of
persuasion?
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Persuasion is a deliberate attempt to
influence the attitudes and/or behavior of
another person
The four elements of persuasion are
–
–
–
–
The
The
The
The
source of the communication
audience
message
medium
What are the elements of
persuasion?
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Factors that make a source more
persuasive include
– Credibility
– Attractiveness
– Likeability
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Audiences with low IQs tend to be more
easily persuaded than those with low IQs
What are the elements of
persuasion?
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A one-sided message is usually most
persuasive when the audience is not wellinformed on an issue
A two-sided message is usually most
persuasive when the audience is wellinformed
Experimental studies suggest that television
is the most effective medium through
which to communicate a persuasive
message
Prosocial Behavior
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Behavior that benefits others, such as
helping, cooperation, and sympathy
What motivates one person to help
another?
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Some helping behavior is motivated by
altruism
– Behavior that is aimed at helping another that
requires self-sacrifice and is not performed for
personal gain
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We are more likely to help those in need
– If we are in a committed relationship with them
– Or if we perceive them to be similar to us
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Cultural norms also influence helping
behavior
What is the bystander effect, and
why does it occur?
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As the number of bystanders at an
emergency increases, the probability that a
victim will receive help decreases
Darley and Latané (1968): This results
from diffusion of responsibility
Aggression
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The intentional infliction of physical or
psychological harm on others
What biological factors are thought
to be related to aggression?
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Twin studies and adoption studies
indicate a genetic link for criminal
behavior
Low arousal level of the autonomic
nervous system is related to antisocial
and violent behavior
A high level of testosterone is
correlated with aggressive behavior in
males
What biological factors are thought
to be related to aggression?
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Low levels of the neurotransmitter
serotonin is associated with violent
behavior
Brain damage, alcohol abuse, and
high levels of childhood lead
exposure are also associated with
aggressive behavior
What other factors contribute to
aggression?
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Frustration produces aggression
– This is referred to as the frustration-
aggression hypothesis
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Aggression is often triggered by aversive
conditions, such as pain, loud noise, and
crowding
Belief in the superiority of one’s own group
over other groups may lead to aggression
toward others
According to social learning theory,
what causes aggressive behavior?
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Proposes that people acquire aggressive
responses by observing aggressive models
The theory is supported by findings that
people who were abused as children are
more likely to be abusers as parents
Also, research provides overwhelming
evidence of an association between TV
violence and aggressive behavior by viewers
Prejudice and
Discrimination
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Prejudice consists of attitudes
(usually negative) toward others based
on their gender, religion, race, or
membership in a particular group
Discrimination consists of behavior
(usually negative) directed toward
others based on their gender, religion,
race, or membership in a particular
group
What factors contribute to the
development of prejudice and
discrimination?
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Realistic conflict theory
– Proposes that prejudice can arise out of
competition between groups for scarce
resources
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Prejudice can also be caused by people’s
tendency to divide the world into distinct
social categories
– In-groups and out-groups
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Social-cognitive theory
– Proposes that prejudice is learned in the same
way that other attitudes are– through modeling
and reinforcement