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Social Psychology
17 Social Psychology
 Learning Objectives
 Chapter Outline
 Key Concepts
 Key Contributors
 Teaching the Chapter
 Lecture/Discussion Suggestions
 Classroom Activities
 Experiencing Psychology
 Critical Thinking Questions
 Video/Media Suggestions
 References
 Sources of Biographical Information
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, the student should be able to:
17.1 Describe the domain of social psychology. (p. 479)
17.2 Explain what is meant by social cognition, distinguish between dispositional and situational
attributions, and explain three dimensions that have been offered to explain the attributional process.
(p. 480)
17.3 List and describe two biases that enter into the attribution process. (p. 480-481)
17.4 List and describe three factors that influence the process of person perception. (p. 481-483)
17.5 List and describe four factors that influence our liking for another person. (p. 483-484)
17.6 Distinguish between the important features of two theories of romantic love, briefly summarizing any
research that supports them. (p. 484-486)
17.7 Summarize the scientific evidence in support of the factors that promote romantic love. (p. 486)
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17.8 Define attitude and explain the three components of an attitude. (p. 487)
17.9 Describe the ways in which our attitudes influence our behavior and how our behavior influences our
attitudes. (p. 487-488)
17.10 Describe the elaboration likelihood model and how the qualities of the source, message, and audience
influence the persuasion process. (p. 488-490)
17.11 Distinguish between prejudice and discrimination, and then summarize the factors that have been
found to promote and reduce prejudice. (p. 490-492)
17.12 Define group and groupthink, and then summarize the factors that promote groupthink and criticism
toward the concept. (p. 492-493)
17.13 Explain the resolution of the controversy that surrounded the concept of social facilitation, and then
explain the concept of social loafing. (p. 493-494)
17.14 Describe two types of social influence and explain the significance of the obedience research.
(p 494-498)
17.15 Distinguish between prosocial and altruistic behavior. (p. 498-499)
17.16 Explain the bystander intervention model, describing the five steps. (p. 499-501)
17.17 Define aggression and describe the theories that attempt to account for aggressive behavior,
emphasizing the strengths and weaknesses of each theoretical approach. (p. 502-503)
17.18 Explain the role deindividuation plays in group violence. (p. 503)
Extended Chapter Outline
I. Social Cognition
Psychologists who study social cognition are concerned with how we perceive, interpret, and predict
social behavior.
A. Causal Attribution
Causal attribution is the cognitive process by which we infer the causes of both our own and other
people’s social behavior.
1. Dimensions of Causal Attribution
Weiner identified three dimensions that govern the attribution process: internal-external,
stable-unstable, and controllable-uncontrollable.
2. Biases in Causal Attribution
Because humans are somewhat irrational and subjective, we exhibit biases in the causal
attributions we make.
a. The Fundamental Attribution Error
This is our tendency to attribute other people’s behavior to dispositional factors.
b. Self-Serving Bias
This is the tendency to make dispositional attributions for one’s successes and situational
attributions for one’s failures.
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Social Psychology
B. Person Perception
Person perception is the process of making judgments about the personal characteristics of others.
1. Stereotypes
A stereotype is a social schema that incorporates characteristics, which may be positive or
negative, supposedly shared by almost all members of a group.
2. First Impressions
A first impression functions as a social schema to guide our predictions of a person’s
behavior and our desire to interact with that person.
3. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
The self-fulfilling prophecy is the tendency for one person’s expectations to influence
another person to behave in accordance with them.
II. Interpersonal Attraction
While forming impressions of other people, we also might develop interpersonal attraction toward
some of them.
A. Liking
Several factors influence who we like.
1. Proximity
Research has consistently supported the importance of proximity in the development of
friendships.
2. Familiarity
The mere exposure effect states that the more we interact with particular people, the more we
tend to like them.
3. Physical Attractiveness
We tend to like physically attractive people more than physically unattractive people.
4. Similarity
Life’s circumstances simply put us in settings where we are likely to associate with people
who share our attitudes.
B. Romantic Love
There were few scientific studies of romantic love until the 1970s.
1. Theories of Love
Berscheid and Hatfield distinguish between passionate and companionate love. The twofactor theory of romantic love is based on Schacter and Singer’s two-factor theory of
emotion.
2. Promoting Romantic Love
Among the most important factors in promoting romantic love are similarity, sense of humor,
equity.
III. Attitudes
An attitude is an evaluation, containing cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components, of an idea,
event, object, or person.
A. Attitudes and Behavior
Attitudes may not always accurately predict behavior, and behavior may sometimes affect our
attitudes.
1. The Influence of Attitudes on Behavior
Attitudes that are strongly held or personally important are better predictors of behavior.
Attitude-behavior consistency is also affected by the specificity of the attitude.
2. The Influence of Behavior on Attitudes
The influence of behavior on attitudes is explained by cognitive dissonance theory and selfperception theory.
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B. The Art of Persuasion
Persuasion is the attempt to influence the attitudes of other people. The elaboration likelihood
model states that persuasive messages can take a central route or a peripheral route.
1. The Sources and Persuasion
The source of the message is more likely to be persuasive if it is credible, has expertise, is
trustworthy, and is attractive.
2. The Message and Persuasion
Simply acknowledging the other side of an issue, while strongly supporting your own, is at
times more effective.
3. The Audience and Persuasion
Important audience factors are intelligence and personal importance of the message.
C. Prejudice
Prejudice is a positive or negative attitude toward a person based on her or his membership in a
particular group.
D. Factors that Promote Prejudice
Learning plays an important role. People also exhibit favoritism to their own kind.
1. Factors that Reduce Prejudice
Prejudice may be reduced when there is equal status and social contact.
IV. Group Dynamics
A group is a collection of two or more persons who interact and have mutual influence on each other.
A. Groupthink in Decision Making
Groupthink is the tendency of small, cohesive groups to place unanimity ahead of critical thinking
in making decisions.
B. Group Effects on Performance
One of the first topics to be studied by social psychologists was the influence of groups on the
task performance of their members.
1. Social Facilitation
Social facilitation refers to the improvement in a person’s task performance when in the
presence of other people.
2. Social Loafing
Social loafing is a decrease in the individual effort exerted by group members when working
together on a task.
C. Social Influence
The groups we belong to influence our behavior in ways that range from subtle prodding to direct
demands.
1. Conformity
Conformity is behaving in accordance with group norms with little or no overt pressure to do
so.
2. Obedience
Obedience is the following of orders given by an authority.
V. Prosocial Behavior
Prosocial behavior refers to helping others in need.
A. Altruism
Altruism is the helping of others without the expectation of a reward.
B. Bystander Intervention
Bystander intervention refers to the act of helping someone who is in immediate need of aid.
1. Noticing the Victim
To intervene in an emergency, you must first notice the event or the victim.
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Social Psychology
2. Interpreting the Situation as an Emergency
The same event may be interpreted as an emergency or a nonemergency.
3. Taking Personal Responsibility
As the number of bystanders increases, the likelihood of a bystander intervening decreases.
4. Deciding on a Course of Action
The decisions to intervene depends, in part, on whether the bystander feels competent to meet
the demands of the situation.
5. Taking Action
“Bystander calculus” might explain why bystanders who believe that intervening in an emergency
would place them in danger are less likely to intervene.
VI. Aggression
Aggression is verbal or physical behavior aimed at harming another person.
A. Theories of Aggression
Both physiology and experience are important factors in aggression.
1. Aggression as the Product of Physiology
The earliest theories of aggression claimed that it was instinctive. Evolutionary psychology assumes
there is a hereditary basis for aggression and other social behaviors.
2. Aggression as the Product of Experience
Most researchers look to life experiences as the main determinants of aggression.
B. Group Violence
Group violence is promoted by deindividuation, the process by which group members become less aware of
themselves as individuals and less concerned about being socially evaluated.
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Key Concepts
social psychology
Social Cognition
causal attribution
fundamental attribution error
person perception
self-fulfilling prophecy
self-serving bias
social cognition
social schema
stereotype
Interpersonal Attraction
companionate love
passionate love
Attitudes
attitude
cognitive dissonance theory
elaboration likelihood model
persuasion
prejudice
self-perception theory
Group Dynamics
conformity
foot-in-the-door technique
group
groupthink
obedience
social facilitation
social loafing
Prosocial Behavior
altruism
bystander intervention
negative state relief theory
prosocial behavior
Aggression
aggression
deindividuation
frustration-aggression
hypothesis
Key Contributors
Social Cognition
Harold Kelley
Bernard Weiner
Interpersonal Attraction
Ellen Berscheid
Elaine Hatfield
Attitudes
Kenneth Clark and Mamie
Phipps Clark
Leon Festinger
Irving Janis
Bibb Latané
Stanley Milgram
Robert Zajonc
Group Dynamics
Solomon Asch
John Darley
Aggression
Leonard Berkowitz
Sigmund Freud
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Social Psychology
Teaching the Chapter
One way to begin this chapter is to ask students what they’re doing right now and why. Point out that their behavior
is partly determined by situational factors. Are they sitting quietly listening because everyone else is? Because an
authority (you) demands it? Ask students to talk about what other factors might be influencing their present
behavior.
We try to make sense of our world through causal attributions. When we see someone, something, or some event,
we try to make sense of it. We like the world to be predictable. For instance, we want the behavior of others to be
dispositional so we know what they’ll do or be like in the future (fundamental attribution error), and we want groups
of people to be the same so when we meet other members in the future we’ll know what they’re like (stereotypes).
And, of course, we want our behavior to be predictable, to make sense, and we’re uncomfortable if it doesn’t
(cognitive dissonance).
The research conducted on uninvolved bystanders, conformity, and obedience holds great interest for students. Many
students believe that they would be more willing than other bystanders to get involved, and believe they would be
less conforming and obedient than others. This often makes for an interesting class discussion (count the number of
students wearing blue jeans to class). Discuss the legal implications that pertain to some forms of bystander
involvement. The ethical issues raised by the Asch and Milgram experiments make for lively discussion.
Although Milgram’s experiment is not likely to be replicated, in the recent past Americans have experienced a series
of events that may have implications for obedience to authority. These events include the civil disobedience that
characterized the early days of the civil rights and the Vietnam War protest movement, the Watergate incident, and
the consumerism movement. For example, do we still put medical doctors and professors on a pedestal? Would we
still be as obedient as the participants in Milgram’s study?
Students are also fascinated by the details of the Zimbardo prison experiment, but sometimes miss the main point:
social situations are a powerful influence on our behavior. Ask students to consider all the roles that they play, e.g.,
student, friend, partner, employee, athlete. Now ask students to imagine a world where everyone has been destroyed,
except for them. They are all alone. Who are they? This is difficult to imagine because so much of our day is taken
up with our roles. When we tell adolescents to “be yourself!” what do we mean? Is it possible to be someone devoid
of social influence?
The material pertaining to interpersonal attraction is also received with great interest by most students. One approach
is to ask the class whether an understanding of the psychology of interpersonal attraction is sufficient to manipulate
somebody into “falling in love.” If so, how could this be accomplished? What information relating to interpersonal
attraction could be used by computerized dating services?
Lecture/Discussion Suggestions
1.
Functions of Attitudes. Katz has defined the functional approach to attitudes as “. . . the attempt to
understand the reasons people hold the attitudes they do… at the level of motivation.” (Katz, 1960). To
predict attitude change, one must know what psychological needs are being met. Katz has categorized
the major functions of attitudes. The four most commonly used are the following:


Ego-defensive: protection is offered from real or imagined threats. These threats may be
internal or external. Generally speaking, such threats come from feelings of inferiority, i.e.,
ethnic prejudice. These attitudes are extremely resistant to change.
Knowledge-based: the result of structuring, organizing, and understanding the world around
them. These attitudes help organize what might otherwise be confusing information. Most
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

2.
come directly from cultural roots (stereotypes). These attitudes are usually quite easy to
change by giving adequate information.
Instrumental: usually develop because of their utility in the environment. For example, objects
that punish us usually elicit negative attitudes and vice versa. These attitudes are usually
learned through direct contact. They are relatively easily changed with relevant experience.
Value-expressive: allow a person to express basic values or a concept of self. These usually
provide self-affirmation and serve to confirm one’s identity. Some examples are political
attitudes of liberalism and work attitudes expressing fundamental value of quality. These
attitudes are extremely long-lasting and resistant to change through any sources.
The Dormitory Environment. Environmental psychologists have found some interesting results when
they compared residents of traditionally-styled college dormitories (long corridor, a single lounge, and
bathroom located off the corridor) with residents of a suite-design dorm (three or four rooms clustered
around a lounge and bathroom shared only by the residents of that suite). According to researchers
Baum and Valins (1977), residents of single-corridor dorms spend less time in the dorms, express
greater desire to avoid interaction with other residents, and feel that they have less control over what
happens in their dormitory than residents of suite-design dorms. Furthermore, when freshmen living in
both types of dorms were brought to a laboratory where they were asked to wait with other students, the
residents of single-corridor dorm rooms initiated fewer conversations, sat at a greater physical distance
from the other students, and spent less time looking at the faces of other students (Baum, Harper, &
Valins, 1975).
Lahey, B. B. (1989). Research report-Environmental psychology: Psychological aspects of
architecture and interior design. Psychology: An Introduction 2nd ed. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C.
Brown.
3.
Resisting Groupthink and Polarization. The following topic could also be included in the section on
altruism. It makes a particularly good lead into the study of groups; specifically, what leads people in a
group to break away from or resist groupthink and polarization? The answer is internalized norms of
behavior or external inducement.
Perry London has done an interesting investigation of Germans who risked life and property to help the
Jews escape Nazi occupation. London sought to determine if certain characteristics of personality traits
led to such helping. He recorded conversations with 42 rescued Jews and 27 rescuers. One result of the
study was insight into the extreme difficulty of defining altruistic behavior. Some rescuers were paid
large sums of money, whereas others paid out their entire life savings. Are both truly altruistic? Would
they even fit the definition of prosocial? Situational factors were implicated in whether people
intervened. For example, one wealthy German who devoted 4 years to the effort began because his
secretary pleaded with him to save her Jewish husband.
London did find three characteristics that tended to identify individuals that remained committed to the
cause for long periods:



A spirit of adventure
Identification with an empathic parental model
A sense of being on the margin socially; social marginality is a sense of identification with the
oppressed
London, P. (1970). The rescuers: Motivational hypotheses about Christians who saved Jews from the Nazis.
In J. Macaulay & L. Berkowitz (Eds.), Altruism and helping behavior. New York: Academic Press.
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Social Psychology
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4.
Top-Ten Attributes. Robin Gilmour (1988) found that men and women, when asked to list and rank desirable
attributes in the other gender, produced dramatically different lists.
Attributes women most sought in a man
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Attributes most sought by men in a woman
a record of achievement
leadership qualities
skill at his job
earning potential
a sense of humor
intellectual ability
attentiveness
common sense
athletic ability
good abstract reasoning
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
physical attractiveness
ability in bed
warmth and affection
social skill
homemaking ability
dress sense
sensitivity to others’ needs
good taste
moral perception
artistic creativity
You might ask your class to prepare a similar list (before divulging the results of Gilmour’s survey).
Alternatively, read any of the above attributes to the class and have them predict which top ten list it is from.
Source: Data from R. Gilmour, “Desirable and Negative Qualities” in P. March (Ed.), Eye to Eye, Salem
House Publishers, Topsfield, MD, p. 197.
5.
Effect of Black Racial Stereotypes on Whites. A recent study by Richard Petty of Ohio State found that
priming non-Black students to think of Black stereotypes, by writing a fictional story about “Tyrone,” affected
their performance on questions from the math portion of the GRE. Similarly, previous researchers have found
that when students are primed to think of the elderly, they acted in a more elderly manner, such as walking more
slowly, even when they believed the experiment was over. In this study, students who included more
stereotypical images in their essays about “Tyrone” did worse on the test. Petty notes that this isn’t a measure of
racism. Rather, he believes it is a temporary identification with the person the participant has written about.
Grabmeier, J. (2001). Racial stereotypes hurt academic performance – in whites. The Ohio State University.
Retrieved April 14, 2001 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.acs.ohio-state.edu/units/research/archive/racster.htm
6.
The Development of Prosocial Behavior. According to Nancy Eisenberg, a psychologist at Arizona State
University, a baby as young as 10 to 14 months of age will look upset when someone else falls down or cries. In
the second year, a child may begin providing rudimentary comfort to others, such as by patting the head of
another who appears to be in pain. At 3 or 4 years of age, prosocial behavior is more common. One group of
researchers, who observed twenty-six 3- to 5-year-olds during 30 hours of free play recorded about 1,200 acts of
sharing, helping, comforting, and cooperating.
According to Hoffman, the inborn mechanism that forms the basis for altruism is empathy, which he defines as
feeling something more appropriate to someone else’s situation than to your own. According to Hoffman,
empathy becomes increasingly more sophisticated as we grow. Initially, infants, unable to draw boundaries
between themselves and others, occasionally react to another’s distress as if they themselves had been hurt. At
18 months children can distinguish between themselves and others but continue to assume that others’ feelings
will be similar to their own. By age 2 or 3, children begin to understand that others react differently. Older
children can feel another’s life condition, understanding that his or her distress may be chronic or recognizing
that the distress may come from social discrimination.
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Social Psychology
According to Ervin Staub, a psychologist at the University of Massachusetts, prosocially oriented people have
three defining characteristics: they have a positive view of people in general, they are concerned about others’
welfare, and they take personal responsibility for how other people are doing. Each of these is affected by the
kind of culture one lives in. According to Staub, “It is difficult to lead a competitive, individualistic life without
devaluing others to some extent.” Is raising children to triumph over others a good way to extinguish their
inclination to help?
Kohn, A. (1988, October). Beyond selfishness. Psychology Today, 22 (10), 34–38.
7.
How to Become a Cult Leader. Pratkanis and Aronson (1992) have listed seven suggestions for creating and
maintaining a cult. They are:
1.
Create your own social reality. All sources of outside information should be removed. Isolate members
physically, censor mail, and prevent visits by friends and relatives.
2.
Establish an ingroup composed of True Believers and an outgroup of the Unredeemed. There should be
constant reminders about the superiority of the ingroup.
3.
Generate commitment through dissonance reduction. Maintain obedience through escalating the sense
of commitment.
4.
Establish the attractiveness and credibility of the cult leader. Mythical stories about the
accomplishments of the leader should be passed from member to member.
5.
Send current members out to recruit new members. This attracts new members while encouraging the
current members to engage in self-generated persuasion.
6.
Keep members from thinking undesirable thoughts. New recruits should not be alone where they might
begin to think for themselves. Chanting and singing are good techniques to prevent undesirable
thoughts.
7.
Fixate members’ vision on a phantom. Keep mentioning a promised land and/or the vision of a better
world. By focusing on a future phantom, you can provide a sense of purpose and mission as well as a
powerful incentive to keep working.
To further your discussion of this, ask students to differentiate between the techniques used in cults (“New
Religious Movements,” by those who research them to eliminate the negative connotation) and techniques used
in other groups such as a family or a basketball team. For the most part, the techniques are the same.
Pratkanis, A., & Aronson, E. (1992). Age of propaganda: The everyday use and abuse of persuasion. New
York: W. H. Freeman.
8.
Cults. Americans generally consider cult members to be alienated, vulnerable people; they are often portrayed
by the media as “weird,” “mentally deficient” or dangerous. Although various types of cults have existed in
other nations throughout history, the kinds of confrontation and mass suicide/murder seen at Jonestown,
Guayana, or Waco are rare occurrences. Michael Ross (1983) tested the entire population (42 people) of the
Hare Krishna Temple in Melbourne, Australia. He administered the MMPI, the Eyesenck Personality
Questionnaire, and other psychometric tests. Ross found that all subjects scored within the “normal” range.
Although he found a slight decline in mental health after 1-1/2 years of being a Krishna, he also found slight
improvement after three years.
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Ross, M. W. (1983). Clinical Profiles of Hare Krishna Devotees. American Journal of Psychiatry, 140 (4).
9.
Conducting Research in Other Countries. Conducting research in other countries often means researchers
must use different instruments than are used in the U.S. Gething and Wheeler (1992) found this to be the case
when they were attempting to measure attitudes toward the disabled in Australia. Some Australian participants
felt so uncomfortable with the instrument that many left the questions unanswered. Other respondents tore up the
questionnaires or expressed their anger physically or verbally. The authors discovered that the American
questionnaires expected people to generalize their statements, and that bothered some of the Australians. The
researchers devised a new instrument that did not call for generalizations from the respondents.
Getting, L. & Wheeler, B. (1992). The interaction with disabled person scale: A new Australian instrument
to measure attitudes towards people with disabilities. Australian Journal of Psychology, 44 (2): 75.
Classroom Activities
1.
Persuasion. Bring in several magazines, each with a different target audience. Divide the class into groups,
and give each group one magazine. Each group is to locate five ads and discern the impact of the source, the
message, and the audience for each ad. For example, is the source credible, trustworthy, or attractive? Is the
argument presented one-sided or two-sided? Based on the magazine, is the target audience thought to be highly
intelligent and how important might the ad’s message be to the target audience?
2.
Bystander Intervention. The text notes five steps to the process of bystander intervention: noticing the victim,
interpreting the situation as an emergency, taking personal responsibility, deciding on a course of action, and
taking action. Divide the class into groups and have them imagine that they were alone with a friend when the
friend suddenly lost consciousness. With no phone in sight, the student runs out to the street seeking help.
There are several groups of people walking along the sidewalk. What can the student do to ensure that all five
steps are met so their friend receives help? Have each group report their course of action to the class.
Experiencing Psychology: A study of personal advertisements
As noted earlier, there are gender differences in the characteristics women and men prefer when they are seeking a
romantic partner. In this exercise you will record data about age preferences in mate selection, analyze it statistically,
and discuss it in the context of what you learned from reading this chapter. You should work in a group of three to
four students and should agree on hypotheses about what you will find.
Method
Materials
Choose one of the Web sites listed below to serve as a source for your data. Each of the sites below is the home page
of a metropolitan newspaper that provides access to the personal advertisement area of their classified section.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/
Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Denver Post: http://www.denverpost.com/
Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/
Miami New Times: http://www.miaminewtimes.com/class/index.html
New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/
Phoenix New Times: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/
San Francisco Chronicle: http://www.sfgate.com/
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Social Psychology
Village Voice: http://villagevoice.com/
Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Select 15 to 20 advertisements in each of the following categories: men seeking women, women seeking men, men
seeking men, and women seeking women. Each of your advertisements must contain the following information: the
advertiser’s age, the advertiser’s sex, the sex of the desired partner, and the exact age range desired. Do not include
any advertisement that is ambiguous on any of these criteria.
Prepare four coding sheets, one for each of the advertiser categories (i.e., heterosexual men and women, gay men,
and lesbians). Each coding sheet should have three columns: one for the advertiser’s age, one for average age of
desired partner, one for a difference score you will compute.
Procedure
Record your data for each of the advertisements you selected using the following procedure. Record the advertiser’s
age. Then compute an average age of desired partner by adding the minimum and maximum age in the range and
divide by 2. For example, if an advertiser specified an age range of 20 to 30, the average age of desired partner
would be 25. Then compute a difference score, the advertiser’s age minus the average age of desired partner, and
record this score on your data sheet. A negative score indicates the advertiser is seeking an older partner; a positive
score indicates the advertiser is seeking a younger partner.
Results
Calculate group means for the difference scores for each of the four advertiser categories. Group means should be
used for drawing a graph showing the difference scores for each of the four advertiser categories (see Chapter 2 and
Appendix B).
Discussion
Discuss whether your results agree with your hypotheses. Do the results support what you read in the chapter? Do the
results support any of the theories discussed in the chapter? Were there any differences between men and women?
Where there any differences between the heterosexual women and men, gay men, and lesbians? Are there any other
conclusions that can be reached from the data?
As a researcher, you should also note any shortcomings of the study and things you would change to improve it.
Finally, you should suggest a research study that would be a logical offshoot of this study.
Critical Thinking Questions
1.
If you were an advertiser, how should you apply the research information on persuasion to influence the
behavior of consumers?
2.
Describe at least two situations in which you (or an acquaintance) committed attribution errors.
3.
In what ways does our society benefit from having members who conform and who are obedient? In what ways
are conformity and obedience potentially dangerous to our society?
4.
Can stereotypes be eliminated? Can they be changed? Why or why not?
5.
Can cognitive dissonance theory and self-perception theory coexist? Explain your answer.
6.
Can such seemingly intangible experiences as falling in love (and staying in love) be quantified and explained
experimentally? How can (or should) this information be used by members of our society?
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Chapter Seventeen
7.
Describe the types of attributions you have observed someone use to help explain the dissolution of a
relationship. What purposes were served by these attributions?
8.
Will our knowledge of interpersonal attraction ever reach a point at which we can accurately predict which
individuals will like or love each other? Why or why not?
9.
Based on your reading of the text, what can you personally do to reduce prejudice, both your own and that of
others?
10. What is the difference between leading and controlling?
Video/Media Suggestions
Beyond hate (Insight Media, 1991, 88 minutes) This powerful program chronicles the impact of hate on its victims.
Using interviews with Elie Wiesel, Jimmy Carter, Nadine Gordimer, Myrlie Evers, Nelson Mandela, and Nesse
Godin, as well as perpetrators of hate, it explores bases of hate and its psychological mechanisms. Should be a part
of every school, university, and public library collection…Highest Recommendation.” — Video Rating Guide
Chemistry of love (Insight Media, 1997, 60 minutes) Some contemporary scientific studies show that lust, love, and
fidelity have more to do with biology and evolution than with emotion and conscious thought. Focusing on
hormones, brain chemistry, and the mental templates that determine sexual arousal, this PBS video examines the
scientific mysteries of romantic love and sexual attraction. Produced by WETA.
A class divided (Insight Media, 1985, 60 minutes) This award-winning PBS Frontline documentary is the follow-up
to the classic blue-eyed/brown-eyed experiment conducted by Jane Elliott in her Iowa elementary classroom.
Fifteen years after the original experiment, Elliott interviews her former students to evaluate the long-term effects
of this experiment in the psychology of stereotyping. The video also shows the experiment conducted in a prison
environment, where the results supported the original findings. Produced by Yale University Films. Emmy Award.
The credibility factor (CRM Films, 1990, 22 minutes) Distinguishes between effective and ineffective leaders and
discusses how to build credibility and fulfill the expectations of followers.
Discovering psychology 20: Constructing social reality (Annenberg/CPB Project, 1990, 30 minutes) Focuses on
the various factors that contribute to our interpretation of reality. Shows that knowledge of the psychological
processes involved can help us to become more independent and empathetic.
Gender and relationships (Insight Media, 1990, 30 minutes) Explaining why human emotional interactions and
attachments are so complex, this video stresses that even the most respected authorities remain uncertain about
which factors influence people’s feelings of love, affection, and sexual attraction. It examines some of the most
beguiling mysteries of the ages: What is love? What makes sexual behavior “normal” or “abnormal”? Do men and
women differ in their sexual motives and behavior?
Group dynamics in the electronic environment (Insight Media, 1996, 30 minutes) Reviewing psychological
experiments on group behavior, this video examines group dynamics in cyber-communication. It differentiates
between synchronous communication and asynchronous communication and probes social and contextual factors.
Groupthink (Revised edition) (CRM, 1990, 22 minutes) Discusses the role played by groupthink in the Challenger
space shuttle disaster.
Killing screens: Media and the culture of violence (Insight Media, 1994, 40 minutes) This video addresses
psychological, political, social, and developmental effects of media violence. George Gerbner explains the
negative effects as desensitization to and encouragement of real violence. Recommended, Video Librarian.
Listening after Littleton (Insight Media, 1999, 60 minutes) The Columbine High School shooting prompted
questions across America about the safety of schools and possible strategies for recognizing and addressing
warning signs of violence. This video presents a forum in which parents, students, and teachers discuss what can
be done to prevent future tragedies.
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Social Psychology
Maintaining self-esteem against all odds (Insight Media, 1993, 41 minutes) Exploring the ways in which people
maintain dignity, optimism, and a sense of self-worth in the face of social discrimination or misfortune, this video
explains some of the methods people use to protect their self-esteem. It presents the findings of two social
psychologists who reveal that, paradoxically, victims of prejudice sometimes end up with higher self-esteem than
other people.
Marriage as bastion of racism and sexism (Insight Media, 1993, 50 minutes) The prevalence of racism and sexism in
American society may be manifest most insidiously in people’s marital choices. This video examines statistics that
show how the majority of American marriages reinforce the social status quo: interracial marriages are rare and
women typically marry men who are older, better educated, and more powerful than they are.
May-December love (Insight Media, 1999, 50 minutes) Exploring the psychology of the May-December romance,
this video features the stories of love relationships with unusual age gaps. It questions the significance of the
biological and psychological factors that usually motivate people to seek mates of their own age and addresses
societal disapproval of significant age differences in romantic relationships.
Overcoming prejudice (Insight Media, 1996, 59 minutes) This documentary examines the origins of prejudice,
discussing how it can be learned at home, can be a result of fear or ignorance, or can be a reaction to mistreatment.
It considers the adverse effects of prejudice and includes the testimony of people who have overcome their own
prejudices.
Patterns of abuse: Exploding the cycle (Insight Media, 1999, 23 minutes) Addressing the aggression and violence
with which some people respond to internal or external pressures, this video focuses on the link between abuse of
animals and abuse of other people. It considers different forms of violence, examines relationships between
abusers and victims, and describes intervention tactics.
Quiet rage: The Stanford prison experiment (Insight Media, 1990, 50 minutes) This video documents the landmark
study of the power of social situations in which Philip Zimbardo created a mock prison, dividing students into two
groups — prisoners and guards. The video shows how the behavior of the groups rapidly conformed to their
assigned roles. It includes updated footage of Zimbardo escorting current college students through the mock
prison. The color footage fades to black and white as original archival footage takes viewers through the
chronology of this xperiment
Roadrage: Havoc on the highway (Insight Media, 1998, 20 minutes) Aggressive driving tactics such as tailgating,
weaving, and making illegal lane changes can inspire honking, cursing, and even spitting from others on the road.
This video examines road rage, identifies and analyzes conflagratory driving situations, and offers expert
commentary explaining why otherwise temperate people lose control of their anger while driving.
Sexual attraction (Insight Media, 1997, 48 minutes) Integrating commentary of psychologists, biologists, and
anthropologists with real-life case studies, this video examines human sexual attraction. It explores the relationship
between sexual desire and procreative drive and considers the implications of monogamy and love at first sight. It
also discusses pheromones.
Silent witnesses: The Kitty Genovese murder (Insight Media, 1999, 50 minutes) In 1964, Kitty Genovese was
brutally murdered in a New York City neighborhood. Thirty-eight neighbors heard her screams and some watched
as the killer stabbed her under a street light, disappeared, and then returned to mutilate and rape her. They did
nothing to help her. This video grapples with the disturbing question of human apathy in the face of atrocity.
Social psychology (Insight Media, 1990, 30 minutes) This program discusses several research studies and findings
on stereotyping and prejudice, attribution theory, and the power of social roles.
A study of genocide and ethnic cleansing (Insight Media, 1998, 30 minutes) Hosted by Norman Naimark, this video
examines the psychological and strategic motivations of groups of people whose goal is to exterminate, rather then
simply conquer, their enemies.
The uncommon sense of social psychology (Insight Media 1994, 2 volumes, 154 minutes total) This series consists of
six lectures presented by Linda George of Duke University. Explaining why she feels that much of what is known
about human behavior is wrong, she presents the results of studies on everyday behavior.
Understanding prejudice (Insight Media, 1992, 90 minutes) Psychiatrist Price M. Cobbs explains how prejudice and
stereotyping are natural human functions, developed for coping with a threatening environment. He describes the
principles of ethnotherapy and encourages the oppressed to move from blaming others to mastering their
situations.
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Chapter Seventeen
Virus of violence (Insight Media, 1999, 60 minutes) This video features the commentary of David Grossman, an
expert in the field of human aggression and the roots of violence and violent crime. Grossman believes the
desensitization of children to violence through video games is directly responsible for the recent outbreak of
school shootings.
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