Social Psychology

1
Social Psychology

• Chapter 15

2
Social Psychology

• The scientific study of the ways in which the
  thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of one
  individual are influenced by the real, imagined,
  or inferred behavior or characteristics of other
  people

3
Social Cognition

• How do we explain, interpret and judge behavior?

4
Impression Formation What do we think of others
behavior?

• Schema a set of beliefs or expectations about
  something/someone based on past experiences
• Ready-made category
• Allows us to make inferences about others
• Also plays a major role in how we interpret and
  remember information
• E.g. if we witness a mother reprimanding her
  child at the supermarket, we might assume she is
  a bad or abusive mother because we saw something
  similar in a Lifetime movie, and we may even
  assign her other traits that go along with this
  assumption even if she doesnt actually
  demonstrate those traits!

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Impression FormationWhat do we think of others
behavior?

• Primacy effect early information is a greater
  determinant of
• Early information about someone makes a greater
  impact than later information in forming
  impressions
• Cognitive Misers
• Humans dont like to spend too much time figuring
  people out
• Go with the initial impression to save time

6
Impression FormationWhat do we think of others
behavior?

• Self-fulfilling prophecy
• A persons expectations about another elicits
  behavior from the other person that confirms the
  expectations
• e.g. High school coach is told by middle school
  coach that a player coming up is amazing. High
  school coach treats this player as though s/he is
  talented, and the player responds accordingly,
  confirming the initial belief.
• Stereotypes
• A set of characteristics believed to be shared
  by all members of a social category
• Can become the basis for self-fulfilling
  prophecies
• e.g. Elderly people are cheap! You are a waiter
  in a restaurant and make this assumption, so you
  dont provide the greatest service. Then your
  tip is smaller and you believe it is because the
  old people are cheap!

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AttributionHow do we explain behavior?

• Theory that addresses the question of how people
  make judgments about the causes of behavior
• e.g. Why did I fail the test?
• e.g. Why did my best friend stop talking to me?
• Heider (1958) says we first decide if the cause
  is personal (internal attribution) or situational
  (external attribution).
• Personal/Internal Behavior caused by that
  individuals characteristics
• Situational/External Circumstances prompted the
  individuals behavior

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AttributionHow do we explain behavior?

• Three criteria used to judge behavior as personal
  or situational (Kelley, 1967)
• Distinctiveness How do the persons responses
  vary from situation to situation?
• Consistency Has this behavior occurred before?
• Consensus Do other people behave this way?
• If the behavior is low on consistency, we
  attribute the behavior to a passing situational
  factor right away.
• e.g. I have never failed a psych test before! It
  was just a one-time, unusual occurrence due to
  the unique situation. I had an AP test that day
  so I couldnt study for my psych test thats
  why I failed!
• If the behavior is low on distinctiveness and
  consensus, but high in consistency, we would say
  the cause is internal or personal.
• e.g. I often fail tests. Nobody else failed the
  psych test. Its ME!
• If the behavior is high on distinctiveness and
  consensus, but high on consistency, we say the
  cause is external or situational.
• e.g. I never fail tests! Everyone else also
  failed this test. Its the TEST!

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Biases in Attribution

• Fundamental Attribution Error
• Tendency to overemphasize personal causes for
  others behavior and underemphasize personal
  causes for our own behavior
• e.g. She cut me off because she is a terrible
  driver!
• e.g. I cut someone else off because I am late
  for work.
• Defensive attribution and the Self-Serving Bias
• Tendency to attribute our successes to our own
  efforts and our failures to external factors
• e.g. I failed the test because the teacher made
  it impossible and clearly she hates me! OR I
  got an A because Im a genius!
• Just-World Hypothesis
• Assumption bad things happen to bad people and
  good things happen to good people
• e.g. She got herpes because she is a strumpet!
• e.g. She will win the election because shes
  sooooo nice.
• Attribution across cultures varies dramatically
• E.g. Japanese vs. American students and
  explaining academic performance
• Why do we have these biases?

10
Interpersonal AttractionWhat determines whether
we like someone?

• Attraction is closely linked to
• 1. Proximity/propinquity
• We are attracted to people who are in the same
  space as we are
• Has the internet changed this at all?
• 2. Physical attractiveness
• We like physically attractive people!
• Being with hot people makes us feel like we are
  hot, too!
• 3. Similarity
• In attitudes, interests, values, and background
• Opposites only attract for the short term
• 4. Exchange how do we reward each other?
• We like people who appreciate us
• Should be even
• 5. Intimacy how much trust and closeness is
  there?
• Self disclosure
• Should be equal
• Impact of physical attractiveness on attribution
  and on impression formation
• Beauty and the Best article
• People believe that physically attractive
  individuals are smarter, friendlier, and
  generally better based solely on their physical
  attributes!

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Attitudes
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AttitudesIs a persons behavior a reflection of
his/her attitudes?

• Attitudes are relatively stable beliefs,
  feelings, and behaviors directed toward
  something/someone
• Typically, feelings and beliefs about a
  person/thing correspond with behaviors toward
  that person/thing, but not always
• Self-monitoring tendency to observe a situation
  to determine how best to act.
• High self-monitors look for social cues about how
  they are expected to behave in a given situation,
  overriding their attitudes, making it difficult
  to predict behavior based on attitudes.
• Low self-monitors express and act on their
  attitudes consistently making prediction easier.

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Attitude Development

• Many factors contribute to the development of
  attitudes
• Imitation
• Reward
• Teachers
• Peers
• Mass media

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Prejudice and Discrimination

• Prejudice
• An intolerant, unfavorable, and rigid attitude
  toward a group of people negative stereotypes.
• Ultimate Attribution Error tendency to use
  stereotyped beliefs about a group to make
  internal attributions about shortcomings and
  external attributions about successes.
• Discrimination
• An act or series of acts that denies
  opportunities and social esteem to an entire
  group of people or individual members of that
  group

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Sources of PrejudiceWhere does it come from?

• Frustration-aggression theory
• People who are frustrated in their goals may turn
  their anger away from the proper target toward
  another, less powerful target
• Authoritarian personality
• Personality pattern characterized by rigid
  conventionality, exaggerated respect for
  authority, and hostility toward those who defy
  social norms
• Racism
• Prejudice and discrimination directed at
  particular racial group based on the belief that
  certain groups are innately inferior
• What Would You Do part 1
• What Would You Do part 2
• In-Group Bias Belief that those with whom you
  identify are not only different, but BETTER than
  those outside the group.

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Reducing Prejudice

• Recategorization
• Try to expand our schema for a particular group
• What qualities are shared between groups
• Controlled processing
• Train ourselves to be more mindful of people who
  differ from us
• Think about examples that fall outside the
  stereotypes
• Improving contact between groups
• Group members must have equal status
• Need one-on-one contact with other group
• Relations are improved when groups come together
  to cooperate
• Social norms should encourage contact

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Inducing Prejudice Jane Elliott

• Elementary education teacher Jane Elliot wanted
  to teach her class about discrimination after the
  assassination of Martin Luther King.
• She designed an experiment to show how easily
  children could be transformed into prejudiced
  monsters.
• A Class Divided video on Elliotts work

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Attitude ChangeWhat makes us change our mind?

• Process of persuasion
• Must pay attention to the message
• Must comprehend the message
• Comprehension leads to acceptance
• Communication model
• Source credible spokesperson?
• Message present both sides!
• Medium written for complex messages video for
  more simple face to face is best!
• Audience how committed is audience to their
  point of view?
• People with low self esteem easier to change
• Intelligent people more resistant to change

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Attitude Change

• Cognitive Dissonance (Leon Festinger)
• Perceived inconsistency between two cognitions
• e.g. I am an honest person and I cheated on
  the test
• Dissonance can be reduced through attitude change
• e.g. I am not that honest
• An alternative is to increase the number thoughts
  that support one or the other dissonant
  cognitions
• e.g. I have never stolen, never gotten arrested,
  never cheated on a FINAL, etc.

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Social Influence
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Cultural Influence

• Culture greatly influences attitudes and
  behaviors
• Cultural truism
• Beliefs that most members of a society accept as
  self-evidently true
• People in the culture do not question these
• e.g. Eating dog is unacceptable.
• Truisms are the backbone of norms, shared
  expectations about how to behave in a given
  culture.

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Cultural Assimilators

• Not all cultures are the same, and not all
  cultures have the same norms.
• People in a given culture may feel their way is
  the right way, and other cultures are
  backwards.
• This is the basis of ethnocentrism, or the belief
  that ones own culture superior.
• Examining cultural assimilators helps to reduce
  these assumptions.
• Cultural assimilators are the explanations for
  why members of a culture have a particular
  behavior.
• Understanding cultural assimilators helps people
  to maintain an open mind about other cultures
  norms and values.

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Conformity

• Voluntarily yielding to social norms, even at the
  expense of ones own preferences
• Asch Experiment
• Conformity across cultures
• Tends to be higher in collectivist cultures

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Compliance

• Change in behavior in response to an explicit
  request from another person or group
• Work of Robert Cialdini and the methods of
  gaining compliance
• Foot-in-the-door effect Get them to say yes to a
  small request first
• Lowball procedure Get compliance then raise
  price of compliance
• Door-in-the-face effect Get them to decline
  large request then ask something smaller

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Obedience

• Change in behavior in response to a command from
  another person, typically an authority figure
• Milgrams studies on obedience show willingness
  to follow commands
• Milgram Revisited

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Social Action
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Social Action

• Deindividuation
• Loss of personal sense of responsibility in a
  group
• People more likely to engage in risky behavior
  when anonymous
• Helps to explain mob behavior
• Mob Behavior also facilitated by the snowball
  effect, when one vocal person convinces a few
  people, who convince a few more, etc.
• Helping Behavior
• Altruistic behavior
• Helping behavior that is not linked to personal
  gain
• Bystander effect
• Helpfulness decreases as bystanders increase
• Kitty Genovese Case and the bystander effect
• Mood can affect willingness to help
• Cultures differ in amount of help offered in
  response to requests for minor help (collective
  cultures more willing)

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Group Decision Making

• Risky Shift
• Increased willingness to take risks when making
  decisions as a group as opposed to making
  decisions as individuals.
• Polarization in group decision making
• Shift toward more extreme position following
  group discussion
• The effectiveness of groups
• The more people in the group
• The more stable the group is
• The less cohesive/efficient the group may become
• Social loafing
• Tendency to expend less effort when part of a
  large group
• Groupthink
• Pressure to conform to group

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Leadership

• Great person theory
• Personal qualities qualify one to lead
• Right place-right time theory
• Circumstances are optimal for individual with
  particular characteristics
• Fielders Contingency Theory
• Depends on the traits of the leader, the
  circumstances, and the interaction of the group
  itself.
• Task-Oriented vs. Relationship Oriented Leaders
• In extreme circumstances very good or very bad
  best to be task oriented.
• In moderate circumstances, best to be
  relationship oriented.