Social Psychology

Unit 14

Social Psychology

• Social psychology - study of how we think about, influence, and relate to others

Situational Behavior

• Fritz Heider - attribution theory • people measure others’ behavior by either their

internal disposition or the external situation that they’re in

• fundamental attribution error• we tend to overestimate a person’s natural

personality and underestimate the position that they’re in

Attitudes and actions

• Attitudes• feelings that drive us to respond to a situation,

person, or event in a certain way

Persuasion

•  central route persuasion• a change-of-attitude where people evaluate

arguments and respond with favorable thoughts

• peripheral route persuasion• a change-of-attitude where people are influenced

by quick cues and make quick judgments

Persuasion

• foot-in-the-door phenomenon - if a person goes along with a small requests, he or she will go along with bigger requests• Example - Korean War POWS

Role playing

• People tend to behave in a manner that they think is appropriate for whatever role they are in• “Zimbardo Prison Experiment” - Philip Zimbardo

at Stanford in 1972.

Attitudes matching Actions

•  cognitive dissonance theory • We try to bring our attitudes and our actions

together to relieve tension• we rationalize/make excuses • Or we change action or attitudes

Conformity and obedience

• “chameleon effect”

• “mood linkage”

• Conformity - changing behavior or thinking to the group’s norm

Conformity and obedience

• Solomon Asch – Study

• Observations• Insecurity.• Group must have 3+ people.• The group is unanimous.• Someone in the group is admired.• No commitment has been made yet.• Others watch one another.• Your culture values social standards.

Conformity and Obedience

• reasons we conform are…• To avoid being ostracized, which can be a serious

punishment. • normative social influence -adjust our

behavior to that of the group’s.• informational social influence - go along with

the group lest we be “left out of the loop.”

• Culture – East more than West

Conformity and Obedience

• Obedience  - obeying the directions of an authority figure 

•  Milgram Experiment or the “Obedience to Authority Experiment.”• most people (63%) went all the way to 450 volts

Group influence

• Social facilitation -  better performance while someone is watching• Physical Stimulus

• Social loafing - people put forth less effort while in a group as compared to being on their own.• Less accountable and rely on group

Group Influence

• Deindividuation - giving up normal restraints and giving in to the crowd.• “herd poisoning”

Group Influences

• Group polarization -  differences between two groups will widen as time passes.• Ex. - Political views

• “Groupthink” - everyone in the group quietly goes along with the others to keep harmony, even though the idea may be unrealistic

Cultural influence

• Culture impacts behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions.

• Different cultures have their own variations.• Personal space • Punctuality • Culture’s change over time 

Prejudice

• Prejudice - “prejudge”—to draw a conclusion prior to analyzing a situation.• stereotypes 

• Discriminate - to draw a distinction between two things

Prejudice

• “blame-the-other-guy” mentality • Ex. Rich v poor – Victims or poor decisions

• “ingroup” vs “outgroup”

• scapegoat theory• Ex. Nazi Germany

• Simplified - “us-them” mentality

• Other race effect – Seeing differences in own group but not another group

Prejudice

• just-world phenomenon -  good behavior is rewarded and bad behavior is punished• Hindsight bias

Aggression

• Aggression - any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy

• Aggression biological factors • Genetics  - ex. Male more than women• Neural influences - ex. amygdala• Biochemical influences – ex. hormones, drugs,

etc.

Aggression

•  frustration-aggression principle - when things go badly, we’re more inclined to get aggressive• revenge• More aggressive when cranky

Aggression

• Aggression being modeled• Parents - yelling and beating their children• TV and movies - aggressive and violent

Aggression

• Social scripts - “screenplays”, conveyed by the media and our culture, that show us how to act in situations.• Example - video games• “cartharsis hypothesis”- outlet to release

emotions•  NOT supported by research

Attraction

• Factors for Attraction• Proximity

• Mere exposure effect – longer we are exposed the more we like it

• Physical appearance• Similarity – people like us

• Reward Theory of attraction – we like those that give us rewarding experience

Romantic Love

• Passionate love - usually brought on by arousal.• fright, aerobic exercise, eroticism, funny or crude

talk.

• Companionate love- steady, deep affection

Altruism

• Altruism put others ahead of ourselves• 1964 rape and murder of Kitty Genovese 

• if there are several people present during an emergency, we’re less likely to take action

Altruism

•Helping others• The person seems to need help.• The person seems similar to us.• We’ve just observed someone else being helpful.• We’re not in a hurry.• We’re in a small town or rural area.• We’re feeling guilty.• We’re not preoccupied.• We’re in a good mood. This is one of the most

consistent findings. When people are happy, they’re more inclined to help.

Altruism

• “Why do people help others anyway?’• exchange theory - “cost-benefit analysis” or

“utilitarianism”• intrinsic rewards• reciprocity norm - should give help (not harm) to

those who’ve helped us• social-responsibility norm - should help those

who are in need.

Conflict and peacemaking

• Conflict  - perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas

• Social traps - our self-interest leads us into lose-lose situations• Jean Jacques Rousseau - Prisoners’ Dilemma

Conflict and peacemaking

• mirror-image perception concept - tend to view others as evil and untrustworthy and they see us the same way• Self Fulfilling prophecy

Conflict and peacemaking

• Cooperation 

•  superordinate goals—shared goals that cancel out differences

• Communication is critical• mediators needed

Conflict and peacemaking

• Conciliation - overcoming disagreements and giving in to, or appeasing, another person

• Charles Osgood • “ GRIT” (Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives

in Tension-Reduction)

Conflict and peacemaking

• Announce mutual interests and plans to lessen tensions

• Make a small conciliatory act - opens the door to reciprocity

• If the enemy responds with reconciliation, that gets another conciliatory response. If the enemy responds with aggression, appropriate action is taken.

• In laboratories - GRIT works

• In real-life – GRIT doesn’t• Hitler – Chamberlain• Hussein• Iran