Chapter 13 Social Psychology
Social Psychology Person perception Attribution processes Interpersonal attraction Attitudes Conformity and obedience Behavior in groups
Person Perception: Forming Impressions of Others Effects of physical appearance Cognitive/social schemas Stereotypes Prejudice and discrimination Subjectivity in person perception Illusory correlation Evolutionary perspectives Ingroup - outgroup
Attribution Processes: Explaining Behavior Attributions Internal vs. External Kelley’s covariation model Attributions in success and failure Biases in attributions Fundamental attribution error Defensive attribution Self-serving bias – credit self for success, blame situation for failure Cultural influences Individualism – collectivism Hokotede’s rankings
Figure 16.1 Causes of Success and Failure: Attribution
Close Relationships: Liking and Loving Key factors in attraction Physical attractiveness http://www.faceresearch.org/demos/average Matching hypothesis Similarity, Reciprocity Romantic Ideals Perspectives on love Hatfield & Berscheid – Passionate vs. Companionate love Sternberg – Intimacy, commitment, & passion Hazen & Shaver – love as attachment Attachment styles – attachment anxiety/avoidance Evolutionary perspectives Mating priorities Mate poaching – Buss Internet and close relationships
Facial Averaging and Physical Attractiveness Instructions and Background This is a little demonstration in which you generate several examples of average faces from the several that are given at this web address: http://www.faceresearch.org/demos/average 1. Click on any four female or male faces, and form your impression of the attractiveness of the composite (average) face. 2. Press "reset." Now click on any ten female or male faces, and form your impressions now. 3. Do it one more time; this time using a very large number of faces to make your composite. 4. You should observe increasing attractiveness the more faces are used to form your composite face. 5. I hope you had fun with this.
Attitudes and Attitude Change 3 components cognitive, affective, and behavioral Factors in changing attitudes persuasion source, message, channel, and receiver Theories of attitude change Learning theory Classical conditioning and advertising Dissonance theory – Festinger & Carlsmith (1959) Self-perception theory Elaboration likelihood model
Yielding to Others: Conformity Conformity – Solomon Asch (1950s) Group norm behavior Classic experiment Group size – increased conformity until 4 in incorrect group then level Group unanimity Compliance Conforming to requested behavior Foot-in-door Door-in-the-face
Yielding to Others: Obedience Obedience – Stanley Milgram (1960s) Controversial landmark experiment – Figure 16.16 65% gave highest shock level Many variations of basic experiment “I was just following orders” presence of a dissenter
Behavior in Groups: The Power of the Situation Social Roles Stanford Prison Study – p. 692-693 http://www.prisonexp.org/
Behavior in Groups: The Influence of Other People The bystander effect - Darley and Latane (1968) Diffusion of responsibility Group productivity and social loafing Decision making in groups Group Polarization Groupthink Bay of Pigs NASA Shuttle disaster
Understanding Prejudice Prejudice as an attitude Prejudice and discrimination Bias attribution of success and failure Group competition – Sherif et al. (1961) study – field experiment Ingroups and outgroups Threats to social identity