Social Psychology

Social Psychology Chapter 13

Social Psychology • Social Psychology: • The scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another “Does her warmth reflect romantic interest, or is that how she relates to everyone?” “Does his absenteeism signify illness, laziness, or stressful work atmosphere?” • Social group: two or more individuals sharing common goals, interacting, and influencing each other’s behavior

Attributions • Attribution Theory: the theory that we tend to give a casual explanation for someone’s behavior, often by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition • Dispositional attribution: behaviors reflect personality (internal) • Situational attribution: behaviors reflect the environment (external) Often we overestimate the influence of personality and underestimate the influence of situations

Attributions • Fundamental Attribution Error: the tendency for observers, when analyzing another’s behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition • Even in study when told the exact opposite • This happens less when describing our OWN behavior, however, when watching a video of ourselves, we would more likely attribute how we react to personality traits rather than the situation (actor-observer bias) • People tend to be more happy when they attribute their partner’s behaviors by the situation rather than his/her personality • Defensive Attribution- a tendency to blame victims for their misfortune, so that one feels less likely to be victimized in a similar ways

Attitudes and Actions • Attitudes: beliefs and feelings that predisposes one to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events Although research states the opposite to be true in many situations…. Our attitudes will guide our actions if: 1. Outside influences on what we say and do are minimal 2. The attitude is specifically relevant to the behavior 3. We are keenly aware of our attitudes Explicit attitudes: attitudes we hold consciously & readily describe Implicit attitudes: covert attitudes that are expressed in subtle automatic responses that people have little conscious control over

Attitudes and Actions • Elaboration Likelihood Model: TWO main ways that are attitudes can be changed • Central route of persuasion: the speaker uses facts, figures, and other information so the listener can carefully consider the information and make an opinion….result in more stable opinions & decisions • Peripheral route: often advertisers use superficial information to distract the consumer to gain favorable approval & increase sales

Process of Persuasion • Source: • the person who sends a communication • Credibility is determined by trustworthiness & expertise • Receiver: • the person to whom the message is sent • Message: • The information transmitted by the source • Best when both sides of the argument are presented • Channel: • The medium through which the message is sent

Process of Persuasion Who What By what means To whom Message factors Channel factors Receiver factors Source factors Fear appeal versus logic One-sided versus two-sided argument Number of strong or weak arguments Repetition In person On television or radio Via audiotape Via Internet Via telephone Personality Expectations (e.g., forewarning) Initial attitude on issue Strength of preexisting attitudes Credibility Expertise Trustworthiness Likability Attractiveness Similarity

Attitudes and Actions • People also come to believe in what they have stood up for… adjusting our beliefs to match our public acts • Foot-in-the-door phenomenon: the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request • Ex. Korean War • Works for good as well as for bad actions…. • Evil shapes actions as well as acting like we like someone will lead us to actually like them • Reciprocity norm: obligatory feeling to maintain connections or follow through with additional requests after receiving a small gift or incentive from someone

Attitudes and Actions • Role-playing ‘s affect on attitudes: • Zimbardo’s experiment • Greece military

Ethics in Experimentation • American Psychological Association • Obtain INFORMED CONSENT • PROTECT from harm and discomfort • CONFIDENTIALITY of participant information • DEBRIEF: Fully explain research afterwards Additional concerns include beneficence: maximize potential benefits

Why do we do this? • Cognitive dissonance: the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent. For example, when our awareness of our attitudes and of our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes • We experience this most when we feel a great sense of responsibility for engaging in behaviors of which we personally disapprove Changing our behavior can change how we think and how we feel.

Social Influence • Suicides, bomb threats, airplane hijackings, school shootings, and UFO sightings all have a curious tendency to come in clusters. And these facts stem from the phenomenon that behavior is contagious • Chameleon effect- mimicking others’ expressions, postures, and voice tones helps us feel what they are feeling • Mood linkage or contagion

Group Pressure and Conformity • Conformity: adjusting one’s behavior of thinking to coincide with a group standard • Solomon Asch experiments (Ex. Line Experiment) • Asch Principles reveal that conformity increases when • One is made to feel incompetent or insecure • The group has at least three people • The group is unanimous • One admires the group’s status or attractiveness • One has made no prior commitment to any response • Others in the group observe one’s behavior • One’s culture strongly encourages respect for social standards

Normative Social Influence • Normative Social influence: influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval • This happens when we want to avoid social rejection or gain social approval Informational social influence: influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality • when we are unsure of what is right, and when being right matters, we become receptive to others’ opinions However, individualism feeds nonconformity!!!!

Obedience • Stanley Milgram- social psychology’s most famous and controversial experiment • 1000 participants in over 20 experiments • Teachers were more likely to deliver high levels of shock when the experimenter was perceived to be an ordinary college students like themselves • Most were surprised by his first experiments because the teachers were more obedient than most people would have expected • Showed the impact of the misuse or manipulative use of the foot-in-the door phenomenon • His use of deception and stress triggered a debate over his research ethics • Controversial because teachers were deceived and frequently subjected to severe stress

Group Influence • Social Facilitation: improved performance on tasks in the presence of others occurs with simple tasks (more quickly and accurately) but not with tasks that are difficult or not yet mastered (less quickly and accurately- social impairment)….this is on individual tasks • Home team advantage • Crowded performance

Group Influence • Social Loafing: the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable • This is especially true of men in individualistic cultures • “free riding” while still reaping the benefits • Diminished sense of responsibility

Group Influence • Deindividuation: the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity • Arouses people and diminishes their sense of responsibility • Increases feelings of anonymity • Whether in a mob, at a rock concert, ballgame, worship, we become more responsive to the group experience

Group Influence • Group Polarization: the enhancement of a group’s prevailing attitudes through discussion within a group • This is likely to occur in a groups in which individuals share a similar opinion • Gaps between groups widen as people who hold similar views interact with one another • Internet increases this through bereavement groups, teachers, or negative group affiliation

Group Influence • Groupthink: the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives • The major process that operates in groupthink is group polarization, but overconfidence, conformity, and self-justification also play a role • Harmonious but unrealistic because people suppress others’ thoughts or they self-censor • Can be deterred through leadership that welcomes various opinions, expert critiques of plans, and looks for various solutions to problems

Don’t Forget Individual Power • Social control: the power of the situation • Personal control: the power of the individual • Commitment of individuals influences the group • Minority influence: the power of one or two individuals to sway the majority • Key is commitment to the cause • A minority opinion will not make you popular, but it will make you influential

Social Relations • Person Perception: the process of forming impressions of others • Prejudice:an unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members. Prejudice generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action • Unjustifiable & usually negative attitude toward a group • It is a mixture of beliefs (often overgeneralized and called stereotypes), emotions (hostility, envy, or fear), and predispositions to action (to discriminate) • Discrimination: behaving differently, usually unfairly, toward the members of a group • Stereotypes: a generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people

How prejudiced are people? • To find this out must look at what people say and do. • Prejudice can be subtle and unconscious (p. 715): -(Anthony Greenwald et al., 1998) -(Kent Harber, 1998) -(Correll et al, 2002 & Greenwald et al., 2003) • Public

Social Roots of Prejudice • Social Inequalities: Justification of their status • Illusory correlation: occurs when people estimate that they have encountered more confirmations of an association between social traits than they have actually seen • Ethnocentrism:belief that own culture is better than another • Us & Them: Ingroup & Outgroup • Social identities cause us to align with certain groups • Ingroup: “Us”- people with whom one shares a common identity • Ingroup bias- the tendency to favor one’s own group • Outgroup: “Them”- those perceived as different or apart form one’s ingroup (out-group homogeneity)

Social Roots of Prejudice • Scapegoating • Scapegoating theory: The theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame • Not only allows people to justify their anger but also boosts ingroup self-esteem and self-worth

Cognitive Roots of Prejudice • Categorization • More sensitive to differences within our group than in other groups • Vivid Cases • Vivid violent cases are readily available to our memory and therefore influence our judgments of a group • The Just-World Phenomenon • Just-world phenomenon: the tendency of people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get…good is rewarded and evil is punished • Ex. Experiments were people receive shocks, viewers think less of them

Aggression • The most destructive force in our social relation is aggression • Aggression: any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy; whether actively or proactively • Vicious rumors, verbal assault, attacker mugs you • Within the US, there is more chance of being murder than outside of the US; thus aggression varies from culture to culture

Biology of Aggression • Genetic Influences • Animal breeding for aggression & the Y chromosome • Neural Influences • Electrodes in the amygdala • Damaged frontal lobes • Biochemical Influences • Hormones, alcohol, and other substances influence the control aggression • Aggressive behavior is most likely to be increased by injections of testosterone and increased by consumption of alcohol

Aggression • Instrumental Aggression: purpose behind these actions are to satisfy some goal or benefit in some way • Hostile Aggression: actions that result when a person feels pain, anger, or frustration

Psychology of Aggression • Frustration-aggression principle: the principle that frustration-the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal-creates anger, which can generate aggression • Other aversive stimuli- physical pain, personal insults, foul odors, hot temperatures, cigarette smoke, etc. can evoke hostility • Learning to Express and Inhibit • Sexual Aggression and the Media • TV violence, pornography, society

Psychology of Aggression • Learning to Express and Inhibit • Our reactions are more likely to be aggressive in situations where experience has taught us that aggression pays • Can be learned through direct rewards and observation • Children who are aggressive are disciplined with aggression & rewarded for tantrums • Different cultures model, reinforce, and evoke different tendencies • High violence rates are found in cultures and families that experience minimal father care

Psychology of Aggression • Sexual Aggression & the Media • Rise of home videos, ex. X-rated videos depict quick, casual sex btwn strangers, scenes of rape and sexual exploitation are also common • Over hundreds of thousands of for-profit pornography sites • “rape myth” • Watching X-rated films makes one’s own partner seem less attractive • Media that portrays sexual aggression as pleasurable for victim increases accepts of aggression in relationships

Psychology of Aggression • TV Violence, Pornography, and Society • Dominance motives • Disinhibition by alcohol • History of child abuse • Social scripts: cultural play-by-play of situations that we are unfamiliar • Ex. Teens watching multiple sexual innuendos and acts in primetime TV hours • Ex. Teen smoking increased after presented in movies again • Do video games teach or release violence? • Increases aggressive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors

Conflict • Conflict: a perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas • Social Traps: a situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior • Ex. Operating fuel-inefficient cars despite warnings of its negative impact on the environment Enemy Perceptions • When individuals demonize each other so similarly that it is known as mirror-image perceptions • Ex. Sally views her friend as angry because she is quiet but her friend doesn’t want to talk to her because she thinks she is angry, which feeds the quietness

Psychology of Attraction • Interpersonal Attraction: positive feelings towards another • Proximity • Proximity: geographic nearness, is the most powerful predictor of friendship • Breeds liking, because increased exposure to novel stimuli increasing liking which is known as mere exposure effect • Physical Attractiveness • Predicts their frequency of dating, their feelings of popularity, and others’ initial impressions of their personalities • Perceive attractive people to be healthier, happier, more sensitive, more successful, more socially skilled…..but not more honest or compassionate • not related to self-esteem and happiness, because most people don’t consider themselves unattractive • attractive people do not view praise as genuine

Psychology of Attraction • Cultural Perception of Beauty - Beauty is influenced by place and time - Americans spend more money on beauty supplies than education and social services combined yet since 1970 the number of women unhappy with their appearance has substantially increased - Across cultures- men want women with youthful look/ women want men who look healthy & seem mature, dominant and affluent - People everywhere prefer noses, legs, physique that are not unusually small or large….and average faces are more attractive - As you see someone again and again physical imperfections lessen and attractiveness grows

Psychology of Attraction • Similarity • We tend not to like dissimilar people • Matching hypothesis: proposes that males and females of approximately equal physical attractiveness are likely to select each other as partners • Similarity breeds content • We like people more who like us Overall, we are attracted to and have relationships with people who overall have less COST involved with the maintenance of the relationship

Psychology of Attraction • Romantic Love • Passionate Love: an aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship • TWO-FACTOR Theory of emotion: 1. emotions: physical arousal & cognitive appraisal 2. arousal from any source can enhance emotion Ex. Being aroused by fright, exercise, listening to humor, or exposure to erotic material makes us more attracted to someone

Psychology of Attraction • Companionate Love • Companionate love: the deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined Key factors to Gratifying and Enduring Relationships 1. Equity: a condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it 2. Self-disclosure: revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others self-disclosure breeds liking and liking breeds self-disclosure Given self-disclosure, intimacy ,plus mutually supportive equality, the odds favor enduring companionate love

Altruism • Altruism:unselfish regard for the welfare of others • Kitty Genovese • Bystander Intervention Bystander effect: the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present • In K. G. situation bystanders failed to assume personal responsibility for helping the victim • Also, people are less likely to help if they have been exposed to similar situations before

Altruism • The best odds of helping occur when: • We have just observed someone else being helpful • We are not in a hurry • The victim appear to need and deserve help • The victim is in some way similar to us • We are in a small town or rural area • We are feeling guilty • We are focused on others and not preoccupied • We are in a good mood

The Psychology of Helping • Social Exchange Theory: the theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs • Reciprocity norm:meeting the expectation that we should help someone who has helped us • Social responsibility norm: meeting the expectation that we should help those who need it even if it outweighs the costs People who attend religious services weekly given twice the amount of time in helping the poor and give away three times the amount of money

Peacemaking • Cooperation • Contact theory: equal status cooperative interaction bwtn antagonistic groups • Ex. Jigsaw classroom • Superordinate goals: shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation • Sherif experiment • Solidarity against external threat • Communication • Mediators are important especially in • Conciliation- GRIT G:graduated R:reciprocated I:Initiatives T: Tension-Reduction

Practice Test Stereotypes: • Are often automatic products of normal cognitive processes • Are widely held beliefs that people have certain characteristics because of their membership in a particular group • Are equivalent to prejudice • Both a and b

Practice Test You believe that short men have a tendency to be insecure. The concept of illusory correlation implies that you will • Overestimate how often short men are insecure • Underestimate how often short men are insecure • Overestimate the frequency of short men in the population • Falsely assume that shortness in men causes insecurity

Practice Test A father suggests that his son’s low marks in school are due to the child’s laziness. The father has made a(n) ___________ attribution. • External • Internal • Situational • High consensus

Practice Test Bob explains his failing grade on a term paper by saying that he really didn’t work very hard at it. According to Weiner’s model, Bob is making an ____________ attribution about his failure • internal-stable • Internal-unstable • External-stable • External-unstable

Practice Test The fundamental attribution error refers to the tendency of : • Observers to favor external attributions in explaining the behavior • Observers to favor internal attributions in explaining the behavior of others • Actors to favor external attributions in explaining the behavior of others • Actors to favor situational attributions in explaining their own behavior

Social Psychology