Psychology Stephen F. Davis Emporia State University Joseph J. Palladino University of Southern Indiana PowerPoint Presentation by H. Lynn Bradman Metropolitan Community College-Omaha Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Social Psychology: The Individual in Society Chapter 15 Social Psychology: The Individual in Society Prepared by Michael J. Renner, Ph.D. These slides ©1999 Prentice Hall Psychology Publishing. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall Social Psychology Social psychology examines the causes, types, and consequences of human interaction. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Social Psychology and Culture Cultural differences, such as individualism (in which the individual's goals are most important) versus collectivism (in which group goals are most important), can influence the results of social psychological research. Researchers need to avoid ethnocentrism (viewing other cultures as inferior extensions of their own). Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall How We View Others Impression formation requires an actor and a perceiver. The views of the perceiver, as well as the appearance and behaviors of the actor, influence the impression of the actor that is formed by the perceiver. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall How We View Others Stereotypes are negative or positive sets of beliefs about members of particular groups. Stereotypes reduce the amount of information that must be processed. Stereotypes are very resistant to change because we tend selectively to notice behaviors that confirm our stereotypes. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall How We View Others Our treatment of other people is prompted by our stereotypes Prompting often brings forth the very behaviors that we associate with our stereotypes of those people. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall How We View Others Some self-disclosure fosters a positive impression, but excessive self-disclosure early in a relationship may result in a negative first impression. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall How We View Others The process of attribution involves deciding why certain events occurred and why certain people behaved as they did. With internal attributions, behavior is seen as being caused by factors that reside within a person. With external attributions, the causes of behavior are viewed as residing outside an individual. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall How We View Others We are more confident in our attributions when behaviors are consistent and have also been witnessed by others. The fundamental attribution error occurs when internal factors are emphasized to the exclusion of external or situational factors. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall How We View Others Perceivers' attributions may be biased toward internal attributions. Actors are biased toward external attributions, especially when failure is involved. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall How We View Others Attitudes are evaluative judgments (negative, positive, or neutral) that are formed about people, places, and things. Affect, cognition, and behavior are the three components of an attitude. Discrimination consists of behaviors directed at members of a particular group that affect them adversely. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall How We View Others Attitudes can serve ego-defensive, adjustment, and knowledge functions. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall How We View Others Attitudes can be measured by Likert scales and evaluation of observed behaviors. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall How We View Others Learning (classical and operant conditioning) and reduction of cognitive dissonance lead to the formation of attitudes. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Interpersonal Relationships Attraction is the extent to which we like or dislike other people. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Interpersonal Relationships Attraction is determined by proximity, affect and emotions, reinforcement and similarity. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Interpersonal Relationships Friendship is a form of interpersonal attraction that involves a set of unwritten rules. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Interpersonal Relationships Passionate love is characterized by strong emotional reactions, sexual desire, and fantasies. Companionate love is characterized by a long-term relationship and commitment. Several other types of love have been proposed. Sex roles can influence the love relationship. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Interpersonal Relationships Interdependence theory takes into account the costs and rewards in a relationship. Each person develops a comparison level (CL), or expected outcome, for the relationship. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Interpersonal Relationships Dissatisfaction occurs when the outcomes of the relationship fall below the CL People leave a relationship when the outcomes fall below their CLs for other relationships. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Interpersonal Relationships Prosocial behavior benefits society or helps others. Altruism occurs when a person helps others with no thought of reward. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Interpersonal Relationships Because it is difficult to prove that no reward is present when a person behaves altruistically, the genuineness of this behavior has been questioned. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Interpersonal Relationships The bystander effect refers to the fact that people are less likely to provide assistance in an emergency when others are present than when they are alone. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Interpersonal Relationships The bystander effect is attributable to potential embarrassment, fear of failure, and diffusion of responsibility. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Interpersonal Relationships Aggression is any behavior that is performed with the intent of doing harm. Hostile aggression occurs when the goal is specifically to harm another individual. Instrumental aggression occurs when someone hurts another person in the pursuit of another goal-for example, during a robbery. Biological views stress the inherited nature of aggressive behaviors. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Interpersonal Relationships The frustration-aggression hypothesis predicts that frustration, or being blocked from attaining a goal, results in aggression. In addition to frustration, the presence of anger and certain cues may be necessary for aggression to occur. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Interpersonal Relationships Physical and verbal attacks, as well as adverse environmental conditions, may also elicit aggressive behavior. A high level of general arousal can facilitate aggressive responding. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Interpersonal Relationships Current statistics underestimate the prevalence of sexual aggression directed toward women. Viewing of pornography is positively related to sexual aggression. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Interpersonal Relationships Many incidents of rape can be classified as date or acquaintance rape. Date rape appears to result from misperceptions, especially on the part of men, about the acceptability of sexual relations in certain situations. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Social Influences on Behavior The use of social influence to cause other people to change their attitudes and behaviors defines persuasion. The expertise, attractiveness, and trustworthiness of the source of a message are important determinants of persuasion. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Social Influences on Behavior The most persuasive messages are those that; attract attention, draw conclusions (If the audience is passively involved), differ only moderately from the attitudes of the audience, are the last message heard (if action is required immediately), are presented on a one-to-one basis. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Social Influences on Behavior Naive audiences that are unaware of the intent of persuasive messages are more likely to be influenced by these messages. If the audience has previously been exposed to a mild form of the persuasive message, persuasion will be more difficult. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Social Influences on Behavior The cognitive approach to persuasion seeks to determine the thought processes that occur during persuasion. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Social Influences on Behavior Obedience is the initiating or changing of behavior in response to a direct command. In cases in which obedience will result in harm to another person, obedience increases with proximity to the source of the commands but decreases with proximity to the victim. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Social Influences on Behavior If the source of the commands takes responsibility for any harm resulting from obedience to those commands, the likelihood of obedience is high. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Social Influences on Behavior Conformity results from indirect pressure on an individual to change his or her behaviors and thoughts. The authority behind these pressures is less obvious than in cases of obedience. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Social Influences on Behavior Selecting the matching line seems simple! However, one-third of Asch’s participants chose incorrectly to conform with the group. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Social Influences on Behavior The decisions of a group may be riskier than those of individuals. The risky-shift phenomenon is attributable to the group polarization effect, in which the original attitudes of the group's members are enhanced during group discussions. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

Social Influences on Behavior Compliance refers to behavior that is initiated or changed as a result of a request. The compliance technique known as reciprocity involves doing something for someone else to make that person feel obligated to do something in return. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

The Individual and The Social Group The presence of other people increases arousal, which may result in enhanced ability to perform a desired response. This effect is known as social facilitation. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

The Individual and The Social Group Social loafing occurs when people working on a group task that lacks individual evaluation perform at a lower level than they would if they worked alone. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

The Individual and The Social Group When there is no audience and only coactors are present, deindividuation may occur. Deindividuation is the feeling of being lost in a crowd; it may lead to uninhibited behavior that is often unauthorized and destructive. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

The Individual and The Social Group Two types of leaders emerge in a group. One leader is concerned with the tasks confronting the group; the other is concerned with the interpersonal needs of the group's members. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

The Individual and The Social Group Brainstorming, or free expression of ideas by the members of a group, is often not as effective in solving problems as the generation of ideas by individuals. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

The Individual and The Social Group The process of making group decisions that promote group harmony is known as groupthink. Groupthink may hinder effective solution of problems. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

The Individual and The Social Group Prejudice is judging others solely on the basis of their group membership. Stereotypes about the members of certain groups are an integral part of prejudice. Prejudice may be reduced through contact among members of different groups. Such contact is most effective where status is equal and common goals are being pursued Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall

The Individual and The Social Group Discrimination consists of behaviors directed at members of a particular group that affect them adversely. Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall