Chapter 9 Social Psychology

Social Psychology Social Psychology: Scientific study of how we influence one another’s behavior and thinking.

Topics to Explore How others influence our behavior How others influence our thinking

Part 1 How Others Influence Our Behavior

Social Influence Social Influence: Changes in a person’s behavior induced by the actions of another person. (Someone else influences your decision) Conformity: A change in behavior and/or belief to conform to a group norm as a result of real or imagined group pressure

The Sherif Study Participants in dark room asked to estimate how far a point of light moved. The light actually did not move, but due to the autokinetic effect, it appeared to. When participants were alone, the estimates differed greatly. However, when participants were in a group, the estimates came to agree. Informational social influence: Influence stemming from the need for information in situations in which the correct action or judgment is uncertain.

The Asch Study People were tested in groups, one test participant and several confederates. Each was asked to judge which of three comparison lines was the same length as the standard line. The test participant was asked last, after the confederates had answered.

The Asch Study, continued 75% of participants conformed to confederates’ judgments at least some of the time. Overall, 37% of judgments conformed. Normative social influence: influence stemming from our desire to gain the approval and to avoid the disapproval of others.

Situational Factors in Conformity Unanimity of the group: It was easier for participants not to conform if just one other person disagreed with the group. Mode of responding: More participants disagreed when judgments were given by secret ballot than given out loud. Status: greater conformity was shown by participants of lower status than the other group members or participants who wants to be part of the group.

Why We Comply Compliance: acting in accordance with a direct request from another person or group. Foot-in-the-door technique: compliance to a large request is gained by preceding it with a very small request. Door-in-the-face technique: compliance is gained by starting with a large, unreasonable request that is turned down, and then following it with a smaller, more reasonable request.

More Compliance Techniques The low-ball technique: compliance to a costly request is gained by first getting compliance to an attractive, less costly request but then reneging on it (introductory offers) The that’s-not-all technique: compliance to a planned second request with additional benefits is gained by presenting this request before a response can be made to a first request (Ron Popeil)

Obedience to Authority Obedience: Following the commands of a person in authority. Classic Milgram study: Volunteer told to teach another person (actually an accomplice in the experiment) word pairs by applying an electric shock each time the learner was wrong. The learner also told the volunteer that he had a heart condition. 65% obeyed by going all the way to 450 volts on the “shock machine” even though the learner eventually could not answer any more questions.

Results of Milgram’s Study

Situational Factors in Obedience Obedience to authority was lowered by: increased personal contact with victim social support of others (e.g., two volunteers working together) “Authority figure” appearing more disreputable Disagreement between 2 authority figures

Group Influence Social Facilitation: the presence of others leads to heightened arousal, in which our performance of simpler, familiar tasks is improved and our performance of more difficult, unfamiliar tasks is adversely affected. Social loafing: tendency to exert less effort when working in a group toward a common goal than when individually working toward the same goal. Diffusion of responsibility: the lessening of a sense of individual responsibility for a task when responsibility is shared among members of a group.

Group Influence, continued Deindividuation: the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in a group situation that fosters arousal and anonymity Group polarization: the strengthening of a group’s prevailing opinion about a topic following group discussion about the topic. Groupthink: a mode of group thinking that impairs decision making because the desire for group harmony overrides a realistic appraisal of the possible decision alternatives. Bystander effect: the probability of a person’s helping in an emergency is greater when there are no other bystanders than when there are bystanders.

Offering Help: Decision Tree

Number of Bystanders & Offers of Help

Part 2 How Others Influence Our Thinking

Attribution Theory Attribution: the process by which we explain our own behavior and that of others. We can attribute behavior to: External Causes (situational): Ones that lie outside of a person Internal Causes (dispositional): Ones that lie within a person

Attributions We Make About Ourselves Actor-observer bias: the tendency to overestimate situational influences on our own behavior, but to overestimate dispositional influences on the behavior of others Self-serving bias: the tendency to make attributions so that one can perceive oneself favorably False-consensus effect: tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions and unsuccessful behaviors (but not successful behaviors) False uniqueness effect: tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and successful behaviors

Attributions We Make About Others Fundamental attribution error: the tendency as an observer to overestimate dispositional influences (internal causes) and underestimate situational influences (external causes) upon others’ behavior Just world hypothesis: the assumption that the world is just and that people get what they deserve Primacy effect: information gathered early is weighted more heavily than information gathered later in forming an impression of another person (I.e., first impressions count!) Self-fulfilling prophecy: our behavior leads a person to act in accordance with our expectations for that person

Cognitive Dissonance Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger): discomfort caused by inconsistencies between attitudes and behavior We need to have consistency in our thoughts, perceptions, and images of ourselves Underlies attempts to convince ourselves we did the right thing Justification: Degree to which one’s actions are justified by rewards or other circumstances

Example of Cognitive Dissonance

Bem’s Self-Perception Theory Self-Perception Theory: a theory which assumes that when we are unsure of our attitudes, we infer them by examining our behavior and the context in which it occurs According to Bem, people don’t change their attitude because of their behavior (Festinger’s position), but rather use their behavior to infer their attitude.

Social Roles Social Role: Patterns of behavior expected of people in various social positions (e.g. daughter, mother, teacher, President (!)). Ascribed Role: Assigned to a person or not under personal control Achieved Role: Attained voluntarily or by special effort: teacher, mayor, President Role Conflict: When two or more roles make conflicting demands on behavior Role-playing: When taking on a role, we tend to take on the attitudes and behaviors associated with that role. (Zimbardo’s prisoner study)