Social Psychology

1. Social Psychology

2. Social Psychology - study of how people think, feel, and act in various social situations

3. Social Cognition – processing of info. in social situations

4. Impression Formation Primacy effect Group 1Group 2 Asch (1946) intelligent envious industrious stubborn impulsive critical critical impulsive stubborn industrious envious intelligent

5. Impression Formation Primacy effect Positive 1stNegative 1st Asch (1946) intelligent envious industrious stubborn impulsive critical critical impulsive stubborn industrious envious intelligent

6. Impression Formation Primacy effect Jones et al., (1968) Participants watched student taking test Number of Correct Answers Estimated Questions 1-15 – correct Questions 15-30 – incorrect 20/30 Questions 1-15 – incorrect Questions 15-30 – correct 12/30 Correct 1st Incorrect 1st

7. Confirmation bias - interpreting new info. to be consistent with current beliefs

8. Confirmation Bias Darley and Gross (1983) Participants rated academic potential Group 1 - from an upper-middle class neighborhood Group 2 - from a run-down neighborhood

9. Darley and Gross (1983)

10. Conformity- behaving in accordance to the expectations or behaviors of others

11. Conformity- behaving in accordance to the expectations or behaviors of others Asch (1951) - participants conformed 32% of the time on critical trials Factors that influence conformity 1. personal security 2. group size 3. consensus 4. attractiveness of confeds

12. Obedience - behaving in accordance with a demand History provides examples 1. WWII - Germans obeyed Hitler - killed 6 million Jews

13. Obedience - behaving in accordance with a demand History provides examples 1. WWII - Germans obeyed Hitler - killed 6 million Jews 2. 1978 - 900 followers of Jim Jones committed suicide

14. Obedience - behaving in accordance with a demand History provides examples 1. WWII - Germans obeyed Hitler - killed 6 million Jews 2. 1978 - 900 followers of Jim Jones committed suicide Milgram (1963)

17. Why did 65% go all the way? Why were 35% unable to continue? Personal Responsibility

18. Testing differences in proportions b/w or among groups? Chi-square test of association

19. Compliance - behaving in accordance to a request Foot-in-the-door technique Freedman & Fraser (1966) Would you let a team rummage through your cabinets to record household items that you use?

20. Compliance - behaving in accordance to a request Foot-in-the-door technique Freedman & Fraser (1966) Conditions Performance - small request followed by large request Agree Only - small request was agreed to but not done Familarization – participants talked w/ requester Big Request Only - participants only asked the big request

22. Door-in-the-face technique

23. Door-in-the-face technique Cialdini (1975) Big Request Would you serve as a Big Brother or Big Sister at a juvenile detention center for 2 hours a week for an extended period of time? Small Request Would you supervise a two-hour trip to the zoo? Conditions Big request followed by small request Small request only Familiarization

25. Other techniques Recipriocity - prior to the request a small gift is given

26. Other techniques Lowball- offer appears to good to be true - hidden costs added later

27. Stereotypes – Payne (2001)

28. Stereotypes – Payne (2001)

29. McRae et al. (1995) IVs Type of Video (makeup, chopsticks, control) Trait Stereotype (woman, Chinese) DV = Decision Latencies example words: emotional gracious

30. Social Psychology – Other Methodological Issues Between Subjects - equivalent groups - large Ns - random assignment - make IV manipulation extreme - make DV measurement sensitive Experimenter Bias – experimenter expectations influence results - employ “blind” research assistants Demand Characteristics – cues that subject uses to form hypotheses about what the experiment is about - adequate control is needed - placebo effect - can’t just run treatment vs. no treatment - need fake treatment