chapter 16: social behavior

Psychology: A Modular Approach to Mind and Behavior, Tenth Edition, Dennis Coon Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Social Behavior


What is Social Psychology? Some Definitions

• Social Psychology: Scientific study of how individuals behave, think, and feel in social situations; how people act in the presence (actual or implied) of others

• Culture: Ongoing pattern of life that is passed from one generation to another


Affiliation

• Need to Affiliate: Desire to associate with other people; appears to be a basic human trait

• Social Comparison: Making judgments about ourselves by comparing us to others; e.g., comparing our feelings and abilities to those of other people


Interpersonal Attraction

• Social attraction to another person• Physical Proximity: Physical nearness to

another person in terms of housing, school, work, and so on

• Physical Attractiveness: Person’s degree of physical beauty as defined by his or her culture

• Halo Effect: Tendency to generalize a favorable impression to unrelated personal characteristics


Similarity

• Similarity: Extent to which two people are alike in terms of age, education, attitudes, and so on

• Similar people are attracted to each other• Homogamy: Tendency to marry someone

who is like us in almost every way


Figure 16.2


Self-Disclosure

• Process of revealing private thoughts, attitudes, feelings, and one’s personal history to others– Should be used cautiously and sparingly

when you are the therapist performing therapy

– May lead to countertransference in therapy (When the therapist makes an unhealthy connection to the client)


More on Self-Disclosure

• Reciprocity: Return in kind; reciprocal exchange

• Overdisclosure: Self-disclosure that exceeds what is appropriate for a relationship or social situation


Love and Attachment

• Romantic Love: Marked by high levels of interpersonal attraction, sexual desire, and heightened arousal

• Liking: Relationship based on intimacy and affection but lacking passion or deep commitment

• Mutual Absorption: When two lovers almost always attend only to each other

• Evolutionary Psychology: Study of the evolutionary origins of human behavior patterns


Social Roles

• Patterns of behavior expected of people in various social positions (e.g., daughter, mother, teacher, President)– Ascribed Role: Assigned to a person or not

under personal control– Achieved Role: Attained voluntarily or by

special effort: teacher, mayor, President• Role Conflict: When two or more roles make

conflicting demands on behavior and on people


Groups

• Group Structure: Network of roles, communication, pathways, and power in a group

• Group Cohesiveness: Degree of attraction among group members or their commitment to remaining in the group– Cohesive groups work better together– What kind of groups did you see on

“Survivor,” “Road Rules,” and “Real World”?


Group Concepts

• In-Group: A group with which one identifies• Out-Group: A group with which one does not

identify• Status: Level of social power and importance• Norm: Widely accepted but usually unspoken

standard of conduct for appropriate behavior


Figure 16.3


Attribution

• Process of making inferences about the causes of one’s own behavior, and that of others


Social Perception

• Attribution Theory: Making inferences about the causes of one’s own behavior and others’ behavior; can attribute behavior to:– External Causes: Ones that lie outside of a

person– Internal Causes: Ones that lie within a

person


Facial Analysis


More on Social Perception

• Fundamental Attribution Error: Tendency to attribute behavior of others to internal causes (personality, likes, and so on); we believe this even if they really have external causes!

• Actor-Observer Bias: Tendency to attribute behavior of others to internal causes, while attributing the behavior of ourselves to external causes (situations and circumstances)


Social Influence

• Changes in a person’s behavior induced by the presence or actions of another person – Someone else influences your decision:

husband, wife, mother, peer, etc.– Peer pressure: Rudy is swayed by Fanny

to go see “Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith” when he really wanted to see “War of the Worlds.”


Conformity

• Bringing one’s behavior into agreement with norms or the behavior of others in a group


Solomon Asch’s Experiment on Conformity

• You must select (from a group of three) the line that most closely matches the standard line; all lines are shown to a group of seven people (including you)

• Other six were accomplices and at times all would select the wrong line

• In 33% of the trials, the real subject conformed to group pressure even when the group’s answers were obviously incorrect!


Figure 16.4


Group Factors in Conformity

• Groupthink: Compulsion by decision makers to maintain each other’s approval, even at the cost of critical thinking

• Group Sanctions: Rewards and punishments administered by groups to enforce conformity

• Unanimity: Unanimous agreement


Obedience (Milgram)

• Conformity to the demands of an authority• Would you shock a man with a known heart

condition who is screaming and asking to be released?

• Milgram studied this; the man with a heart condition was an accomplice and the “teacher” was a real volunteer; the goal was to teach the learner word pairs


Milgram’s Shocking Results

• 65% obeyed by going all the way to 450 volts on the “shock machine” even though the learner eventually could not answer any more questions– The learner screamed and provided no

further answers once 300 volts (“Severe Shock”) was reached

• Group support can reduce destructive obedience


More on Obedience

• Distance between the teacher and the learner was important

• Distance from the authority also had an effect


Figure 16.6


Figure 16.7


Compliance

• Bending to the requests of one person who has little or no authority or other form of social power


Foot-in-the-Door Effect

• A person who has agreed to a small request is more likely later to agree to a larger demand– Once you get a foot in the door, then a sale

is almost a sure thing


Door-in-the-Face Technique

• A person who has refused a major request will be more likely later on to comply with a smaller request– After the door has been slammed in your

face (major request refused), person may be more likely to agree to a smaller request


Low-Ball Technique

• Commitment is gained first to reasonable or desirable terms, which are then made less reasonable or desirable– Henry accepts the price he states for a

new car; then later Tillie the saleswoman tells Henry, “The business would lose too much money on that price; can’t you take a bit less and add all these options?”

• Passive Compliance: Overtly bending to unreasonable demands or circumstances


Assertiveness Training

• Instruction in how to be self-assertive• Self-Assertion: Standing up for your rights by

speaking out on your behalf; direct, honest expression of feelings and desires


Aggression

• Hurting another person or achieving one’s goals at the expense of another person– Attempt to get one’s way no matter what– No regard for others’ feelings


Broken Record

• Self-assertion technique that involves repeating a request until it is acknowledged– Good way to be assertive without being

aggressive


Table 16.2


Attitudes and Beliefs

• Attitude: Mixture of belief and emotion that predisposes a person to respond to other people, objects, or institutions in a positive or negative way– Summarize your evaluation of objects


Attitude Components

• Belief Component: What a person believes about an object or issue

• Emotional Component: Feelings toward the attitudinal object

• Action Component: One’s actions toward various people, objects, or institutions


Figure 16.8


Figure 16.9


Attitude Formation

• Direct Contact: Effects of direct experience with the object of the attitude

• Interaction with Others: Influence of discussions with people holding a particular attitude

• Child Rearing: Effects of parental values, beliefs, and practices


More on Attitude Formation

• Group Membership: Social influences from belonging to certain groups

• Mass Media: All media that reach large audiences (magazines, television)

• Mean Worldview: Viewing the world and other people as dangerous and threatening


Attitude Measurement and Change

• Reference Group: Any group a person identifies with and uses as a standard for social comparison

• Persuasion: Deliberate attempt to change attitudes or beliefs with information and arguments– Communicator: Person presenting arguments

or information– Message: Content of communicator’s

arguments– Audience: Person or group to whom a

persuasive message is directed


Implicit Association


Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger)

• Contradicting or clashing thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, or perceptions that cause discomfort– We need to have consistency in our thoughts,

perceptions, and images of ourselves– Underlies attempts to convince ourselves we

did the right thing• Justification: Degree to which one’s actions are

explained by rewards or other circumstances


Brainwashing

• Brainwashing: Engineered or forced attitude change requiring a captive audience

• Generally three steps to brainwash someone:– Unfreezing: Loosening of former values

and convictions– Change: When the brainwashed person

abandons former beliefs– Refreezing: Rewarding and solidifying new

attitudes and beliefs


Cults

• Authoritarian group in which the leader’s personality is more important than the beliefs s/he preaches

• Group professes great devotion to a person or people and follows that person/people almost without question


More About Cults

• Cult members usually victimized by the leader(s)

• Will try to recruit potential converts at a time of need, especially when a sense of belonging is most attractive to potential converts


Some Final Words About Cults

• Look for college students and young adults• Some examples of cults: People’s Temple

and Jim Jones, Heaven’s Gate, Branch Davidians, Osama bin laden and Al Qaeda

• Where does “Scientology” fit?


Prejudice

• Negative emotional attitude held toward members of a specific social group

• Discrimination: Unequal treatment of people who should have the same rights as others

• Scapegoating: Blaming a person or group for the actions of others or for conditions not of their making


More on Prejudice

• Personal Prejudice: When members of another racial or ethnic group are perceived as a threat to one’s own interests

• Group Prejudice: Occurs when a person conforms to group norms


Prejudiced Personality and Intergroup Conflict

• Authoritarian Personality: Marked by rigidity, inhibition, prejudice, and oversimplification (“black and white” thinking)

• Ethnocentrism: Placing one’s group at the center, usually by rejecting all other groups

• Social Stereotypes: Oversimplified images of people who belong to a particular social group


Other Concepts Relating to Prejudice

• Symbolic Prejudice: Prejudice that’s expressed in disguised fashion

• Equal-status Contact: Social interaction that occurs on equal level, without obvious differences in power or status

• Superordinate Goal: Goal that exceeds or overrides all other goals, making other goals less important

• Mutual Interdependence: When two or more people must depend on each other to meet each person’s goals or needs


Some More Concepts Relating to Prejudice

• Jigsaw Classroom: Each student only gets a piece of information needed to complete a problem or prepare for a test; in order to succeed and get all pieces, students must all work together

• Summary: Prejudicial stereotypes tend to be very irrational


Aggression

• Any action carried out with the intention of harming another person


Ethologist

• Studies natural behavior patterns of animals• Ethologists believe that aggression is innate

in all animals, including humans• Appears to be a relationship between

aggression and hypoglycemia, allergy, and certain brain injuries and disorders– Certain brain areas can trigger or end

aggressive behavior


Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

• Frustration tends to lead to aggression• Aggression Cues: Signals that are associated

with aggression


Figure 16.11


Figure 16.12


Social Learning Theory (Bandura) and Television

• Social Learning Theory: Combines learning principles with cognitive processes, socialization and modeling to explain behavior– No instinctive (innate) desires for shooting

guns, knife fights, and so on– Aggression must be learned

• Weapons Effect: Observation that weapons serve as strong cues for aggressive behavior


Social Learning Theory (cont.)

• Disinhibition: Removal of inhibition; results in acting-out behavior that normally would be restrained

• Television seems to be able to cause desensitization to violence– Desensitization: Reduced emotional

sensitivity


Prosocial Behavior and Bystander Apathy

• Prosocial Behavior: Behavior toward others that is helpful, constructive, or altruistic

• Bystander Apathy: Unwillingness of bystanders to offer help during emergencies– Related to number of people present– More potential helpers present, lower the

chances that help will be given


Decision Points Reached Before Giving Help

• Noticing the person in trouble• Defining an Emergency: Until someone

declares the situation an emergency, no one acts

• Taking Responsibility: Assume responsibility to help

• Diffusion of Responsibility: Spreading responsibility to act among several people


Figure 16.14


Empathy Concepts

• Empathic Arousal: Emotional arousal that occurs when you feel some of the person’s pain, fear, or anguish

• Empathy-Helping Relationship: We are most likely to help person in need when we feel emotions such as empathy and compassion


Multiculturalism

• Gives equal status to different ethnic, racial and cultural groups

• To break stereotypes:– Seek individuating information

• Information that helps us see a person as an individual and not as a member of a group

– Don’t believe just-world beliefs• Belief that people generally get what

they deserve


More Ways to Break Stereotypes

• Note self-fulfilling prophecies– Expectation that prompts people to act in

ways that make expectation come true• Different does not mean inferior

– Social Competition: Rivalry among groups, each of which regard itself as superior to others


Some More Ways to Break Stereotypes

• Race is a Social Construction: Race is an illusion based on superficial physical differences and learned ethnic identities

• Look for commonalities• Set an example for others

chapter 16: social behavior

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