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Social Psychology

Social Psychology

Social Psychology is the attempt to understand and explain how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals are influenced by actual, implied, and imagined presence of others -Gordon Allport

Both personal and situational

factors contribute to behavior:

B = f ( P + E)

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The Two Fundamental Axioms of Social Psychology

Constructivism

The Power of the Situation

People create much of what they perceive and remember

Each persons view of reality is a construction, shaped both by:

cognitive processes

social processes

Constructivism

16 seconds leftAFC Divisional Championship game

The Buffalo Bills are leading 16-15

Titans returned the kickoff 75 yards

Wycheck throws a 30-yard lateral pass to Dyson

Titans win 22-16

Constructivism

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social processesenable us to influence and to be influenced by the views of other

Constructivism

Influence of Others Reactions

Constructivism

a persons view of the world is at least in part a reflection seen in the eyes of others

Constructivism

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perceptionnot a passive process in which people objectively take in information about the world

people construct their experiences based on: recent experiences

past learning

current motives

Constructivism

The Power of the Situation

The primary determinant of behavior is the nature of the social situation in which that behavior occurs

The Stanford Prison Study (1971)

Why prisons tend to become abusive, degrading, violent environments?

24 participantsstudy of prison life (newspaper ad)

The Power of the Situation

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social situations are characterized by the operation of social roles

The Power of the Situation

a socially defined pattern of behavior that is expected of a person when functioning in a given setting or group

social role

The Power of the Situation

social situations are characterized by the operation of rules

The Power of the Situation

behavioral guidelines for specific settings rules

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usually not aware of effects of social roles and rules

The Power of the Situation

The Power of the Situation

specific expectations for socially appropriate attitudes and behaviors that are embodied in the stated or implicit rules of a group

social norms

Continuum of Social Influence

Yielding to Influence Resisting Influence

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Obedience

Compliance

Conformity Independence

Assertiveness

Defiance

The Power of the Situation

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social influence

The Power of the Situation

the tendency to change our perception, opinions, or behaviors in ways that are consistent with group norms

conformity

social influence

The Power of the Situation

yielding to a direct request from a person of equal or lower status

compliance

social influence

The Power of the Situation

yielding to a direct request from a person in a position of authority (high social status)

obedience

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Conformity

Asch (1951) lines study

The Power of the Situation

Conformity

Why do people conform?

The Power of the Situation

influence that produces conformity when a person believes others are correct in their judgments.

informational influence

influence that produces conformity when a person fears the negative social consequences of appearing deviant.

normative influence

Conformity

Why do people conform?

The Power of the Situation

the change of beliefs that occurs when a person privately accepts the position taken by others.

private acceptance

a superficial change in overt behavior, without a corresponding change of opinion, produced by real or imagined group pressure.

public compliance

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Obedience

The Milgram Experiment (1963)

The Power of the Situation

Factors influencing Milgrams results

Authority

legitimate setting (Yale University)

authority figure

Victim

proximity

Procedure

lack of responsibility

shocks gradual escalation

The Milgram Experiment

How do social situations obtain significance?

selective encoding

we expect to see what we want to see

Constructivism

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causal attributionsjudgments about forces influencing other peoples behaviors

expectations and self-fulfilling prophecies

the process by which people come to understand and categorize the behaviors of others

Social Perception

Social Perception

what caused an eventWHY?

a general approach to describing the ways the social perceiver uses information to generate causal explanations

attribution theory

Social Perception

Fritz Heider (1958)people are nave scientists

take into account behavior and situation

Social Perception

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internal or dispositional attributionsthe cause of the behavior is found in the person

external or situational attributionsthe cause of the behavior is found in the situation

Social Perception

represents the dual tendency for people to overestimate dispositional factors (blame or credit people) and to underestimate situational factors (blame or credit the environment) when searching for the cause of some behavior or outcome

fundamental attribution

error

Social Perception

Social Perception

the tendency for people to make more dispositional attributions for other peoples behavior than they make for their own behavior

actor-observer bias

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Social Perception

the tendency to attribute ones success to personal factors and ones failures to situational factors

self-serving bias

Social Perception

predictions made about some future behavior or event that modify behavioral interactions so as to produce what is expected

self-fulfilling prophecies

What are consequences of the predictions or expectations we hold of others

Social Perception

self-fulfilling prophecy

Climate Warmer climate for students whom teachers have favorable expectations Input Teachers teach more material to students they think are brighter Opportunity To ask questions Feedback Reinforcement for positive answers and differentiated feedback for wrong answers

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Attitudes

feelings and beliefs about an object that presumably influence how we behave toward that object.

Attitudes

What determines when attitudes are more likely to predict behavior?

accessibility

based on direct experience

rehearsed more often

Attitudes

Attitudes

What determines when attitudes are more likely to predict behavior?

specificity

attitudes and behaviors measured at the same level of specificity

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Attitudes

What determines when attitudes are more likely to predict behavior?

specificity

attitudes and behaviors measured at the same level of specificity

Attitudes

What determines when attitudes are more likely to predict behavior?

specificity

exemplars you call to mind

Attitudes an unpleasant state that arises when a person recognizes the inconsistency between his or her actions and his or her attitudes, or beliefs

cognitive dissonance

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Attitudes

you infer what your internal states (beliefs, attitudes, motives, and feelings) are or should be by perceiving how you are acting now and recalling how you have acted in the past in a given situation

self-perception