Social PsychologyChapter 18

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?”

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– Situational attribution: behaviors reflect the

environmentOften 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

– People tend to be more happy when they attribute their partner’s behaviors by the situation rather than his/her personality

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 minimal2. The attitude is specifically relevant to the behavior3. We are keenly aware of our attitudes

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

Attitudes and Actions

• Role-playing ‘s affect on attitudes:– Zimbardo’s experiment

– Greece military

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 stems 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– Asch Principles reveal that conformity increases when

1. One is made to feel incompetent or unsecure2. The group has at least three people3. The group is unanimous4. One admires the group’s status or attractiveness5. One has made no prior commitment to any response6. Others in the group observe one’s behavior7. 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 approvalInformational 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’ opinionsHowever, 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 that 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)….this is on individual tasks– Home team advantage– Crowded perrformance

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• 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)

• 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

• 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

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

boots 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

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-efficient 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• 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 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 unusually small or large….and average faces are more attractive- As you see someone again and again physical perfections lessen and attractiveness grows

Psychology of Attraction

• Similarity– We tend not to like dissimilar people– Similarity breeds content– We like people more who like us

Overall, we are attracted to and have relationships withpeople who overall have less COST involved with themaintenance 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 appraisal2. arousal from any source can enhance emotionEx. 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 Relationships1. Equity: a condition in which people receive from a relationship

in proportion to what they give to it2. Self-disclosure: revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others

self-disclosure breeds liking and liking breeds self-disclosure

Given self-disclosure intimacy plus mutually supportiveequality, the odds favor enduring companionate love

Altruism• Altruism: unselfish regard for the welfare of others– Kitty Genovese

– Bystander InterventionBystander 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– Cooperative contact– Superordinate goals: shared goals that override

differences among people and require their cooperation– Solidarity against external threat

• Communication– Mediators are important especially in

• Conciliation- GRITG:graduate R:reciprocated I:Initiatives T: Tension-

Reduction