Social Psychology

scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to

one another

Note to self: add reciprocity norm and social exchange theory to pp.

Social Thinking

Attribution theoryFundamental attribution error

Effects of AttributionRelationship btw. Attitudes and action

Cognitive dissonance theory

SOCIAL THINKING

• ATTRIBUTION THEORY tendency to give a causal

explanation for someone’s behavior, often by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition

“So! If it’s good, it’s Mr. Coffee, If it’s bad, it’s me.”

•http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Discourse/Narrative/heider-simmel-demo.swf

•http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Discourse/Narrative/michotte-demo.swf

SOCIAL THINKING

• FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR tendency for observers,

when analyzing another’s behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition

• Unfortunately, our new apartment is not completely sound-proof. My husband and I can easily hear the person above us. We have never met the person but we already have preconceived ideas about who she is, what she does, and what her attitudes are. Last night, she came home very late and right away Bruce starts going on about what a tramp she must be for staying out so late. Since we have never met her, we cannot possibly take her actual perspective of things. However, we could give her the benefit of the doubt. Who knows, maybe her car broke down or she was on vacation and her plane came in late. Although we don't know her and we probably shouldn't think things about her without even meeting her, it's common to believe it is a person’s personal character rather than their external circumstances that determine behavior.

• I used to drive into a gas station and get upset at another driver whose car was sitting at the second pump in an aisle while there was no car at the first pump. "What an idiot. Why didn't he/she just pull up to the first pump?" Of course, it usually hit me that perhaps there had been a car at the first pump when this driver pulled in. I no longer jump to the conclusion that the driver is an idiot

• So, I'm in a fast food restaurant when I decide I need to use the bathroom. The door to the single-user bathroom is closed. Is anybody in there? I try the doorknob to find out. It is unlocked, so I proceed to enter. A man, with his back to me, fortunately, is at the urinal. I exit and close the door. Enter the FAE. Why wouldn't he lock the door? What kind of guy is he? I am not just led to negative attributions; I also consider that he is comfortable enough with himself that he is not embarrassed.

You probably know where this is going. As I take my turn in the bathroom I notice that the lock is broken on the door. And as I continue to use the bathroom, another person opens the door only to find it occupied. I wonder what he was thinking? And why didn't I or the previous occupant tell the next person that the lock was broken?

Sometimes referred to as:

• “The actor-observer bias”

– I attribute the things YOU do to your personal characteristics, but the things I do are strongly influenced by the situation

SOCIAL THINKING

• Effects of attribution

– How we explain someone’s behavior affects how we react to it

Negative behavior

Situational attribution“Maybe that driver is ill.”

Dispositional attribution“Crazy driver!”

Tolerant reaction(proceed cautiously, allowdriver a wide berth)

Unfavorable reaction(speed up and race past theother driver, give a dirty look)

SOCIAL THINKING

• ATTITUDES belief and feeling that predisposes one to

respond in a particular way to objects, people and events

everybody likes you.avi

Prior attitudes shape current ones

• 65% - Views of “Watchdog” Press Change with President• The belief that the press should keep political leaders from doing things

that should not be done often depends on who those political leaders are, or more specifically, which party controls the White House. Currently, in the midst of the Obama administration, two-thirds of Republicans (65%) support the so-called "watchdog role" for the press, compared with 55% of Democrats. But last year, while Bush was still in office, only 44% of Republicans felt it was good that press criticism keeps political leaders honest, and Democrats were much more pro watchdog (71% supported press criticism). This partisan pattern has existed since the question was first asked by Pew Research in 1985. Throughout the Bush administration, Democrats were more likely than Republicans to support the press's watchdog role. During the Clinton years, Republicans were the strongest proponents of press criticism, and during Reagan and Bush Sr., it was again the Democrats. Political independents express far less change in opinion. Two-thirds of independents currently favor the watchdog role for the press, little changed from 1985 or any time in between. Read more

•

SOCIAL THINKING

• Do attitudes guide action? • When?

– Looking glass effect (anagram task) 71% v. 7% cheating

DeterminismV

Free will

Cheating possible

Behavior

• Cooperative actions feed mutual liking

• Low ball technique

•Attitudes follow behavior

SOCIAL THINKINGDo actions affect attitudes

• Foot in the door tendency for people

who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request

• Role /Role Playing set of expectations

about a social position defines how those in

the position ought to behave

• Why?

SOCIAL THINKING

• Cognitive Dissonance theory we act to reduce the

discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent

example- when we become aware that our attitudes and our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-september-3-2008/sarah-palin-gender-card

Cognitive dissonance

Cognitive dissonance

• Working hard to achieve a goal makes the goal more attractive than the same goal achieved with no effort

Social Influence

Conformity and obedience

Group influence

SOCIAL INFLUENCE Group pressure and conformity

• Conformity– adjusting

one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard

•conformity candid camera.avi

• Conditions that strengthen conformity

SOCIAL INFLUENCE Participants judged which person in Slide 2

was the same as the person in Slide 1

Difficult judgments

Easy judgments

Conformity higheston important

judgments

Low HighImportance

50%

40

30

20

10

0

Percentage ofconformity toconfederates’

wrong answers

SOCIAL INFLUENCE Reasons for Conforming

• Normative social influence influence

resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval

–

• Informational social influence– influence

resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality

SOCIAL INFLUENCE

• OBEDIENCE--Milgram studies

• Video-Basic instinct: Touch of Evil

SOCIAL INFLUENCE

SOCIAL INFLUENCE

• Lessons from conformity and obedience studies

SOCIAL INFLUENCE Group Influence

• Individual behavior in the presence of others– Social facilitation– improved performance of

tasks in the presence of others

occurs with simple or well-learned tasks but not with tasks that are difficult or not yet mastered

SOCIAL INFLUENCE Group Influence

• Social loafing tendency for people

in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable

SOCIAL INFLUENCE Group Influence

DEINDIVIDUATION loss of self-

awareness and self-restraint in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity

to kill a mockingbird deindividuation.avi

SOCIAL INFLUENCE Group Influence

• EFFECTS OF GROUP INTERACTION– Group polarization enhancement of a group’s

prevailing attitudes through discussion within the group. If a group is like-minded, discussion strengthens its prevailing opinions

Group influencePolarization

Lowest probability of positive outcome that is acceptable

Before

Group discussion

After

Group discussion

HENRY-to write novel

(risky shift)

5.066 4.2

ROGER-to make investment

(conservative shift)

6.43 7.166

SOCIAL INFLUENCE Group Influence

• EFFECTS OF GROUP INTERACTION– Groupthink mode of thinking that

occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives

Social Relations

Prejudice

Aggression

Attraction

Altruism

Peacemaking

Social Relations

Prejudice an unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its

members involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition

to discriminatory action black doll white doll.avi

Stereotype a generalized (sometimes accurate, but often over generalized) belief

about a group of people Bob Novak-Stereotype obama.avi

Social Relations

Does perception change with race?

Social Relations

Does perception change with race?

• http://morph.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Transformer/

Social Relations

Ingroup “Us”- people with

whom one shares a common identity

Outgroup “Them”- those

perceived as different or apart from one’s ingroup

• Ingroup bias tendency to favor

one’s own group

Social roots of prejudice

Social Relations

Scapegoat theory theory that

prejudice provides an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame

Social roots of prejudice

“Apparently “executive assistant” is just a fancy name for scapegoat.”

Racism

Intentional/institutional Intentional personal

Unintentional institutional Unintentional personal

Social Relations

– Categorization – Vivid cases

Cognitive roots of prejudice

• Just-World Phenomenon tendency of people to believe the

world is just people get what they deserve

and deserve what they get

Social RelationsAggression

–Biology of Aggression

•Genetic influences

•Neural influences

• Biochemical influences

Social RelationsPsychology of Aggression

• Aversive events Frustration-Aggression

Principle principle that frustration

– the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal – creates anger, which can generate aggression

Social relations

• Do video games teach aggression?

– This is a ‘two-fer’. It addresses research on video game violence, but it is also demonstrates how psychological research is designed and conducted.

Social Relations

Conflict perceived

incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas

Social Trap a situation in which the

conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior

Optimaloutcome

Probableoutcome

Person 1Choose A Choose B

Per

son

2C

ho

ose

B

Ch

oo

se A

Social trapby pursuing our self-interest and not trusting others, we can end up losers

Social relations

• Bystander Effecttendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present

BHS video linked here

Social relations

• The decision-making process for bystander intervention

Social Relations

• Social exchange theory:– Weight costs/benefits to helping or being

generous

• Reciprocity Norm

• Social responsibility norm.– r with attending religious services

Social relationsAttractiveness

Proximity

Mere Exposure repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases

liking of them A mysterious student has been attending a

class at Oregon State University for the past two months enveloped in a big, black bag. Only his bare feet show. Each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 11 o’clock in the morning, the black bag sits on a small table near the back of the classroom. The class is Speech 113-basic persuasion…Charles Goetzinger, professor of the class, knows the identity of the person inside. None of the twenty students in the class do. Goetzinger said the students’ attitudes changed from hostility toward the black bag to curiosity and finally to friendship.

• In a small coastal town in Ecuador was confronted with the question of how to deal with their new mayor, Pulvapies. Pulvapies was fairly elected, beating his nearest opponent by a comfortable margin. There was one problem, however. Pulvapies was a foot deodorant! During the municipal election, the manufacturer thought it would be clever to post billboards and distribute flyers simply saying: “For mayor: Honorable Pulvapies.” Little did he realize that his honorable deodorant would actually be elected!

Social relations

triarchic theory of love

Passionate Love an aroused state of intense

positive absorption in another usually present at the

beginning of a love relationship

Companionate Love deep affectionate attachment

we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined