This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law: any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network; preparation of any derivative work, including extraction, in whole or in part, of any images; any rental, lease, or lending of the program. “ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Social Psychology: Meeting of the Minds

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 What is social psychology The study of individuals in groups, and the social factors that influence individuals Social Cognition and Social Behavior

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Social Cognition How we perceive our social worlds and how we attend to, store, remember, and use information about other people and the social world

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Objectives: Organizing the world around us How do we form impressions of others? How do we manage impressions of ourselves? Understanding attitudes: How do we evaluate different aspects of our world? Persuasion: How can we change attitudes Attitudes toward groups: stereotypes and prejudice

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Making an Impression Impression formation: The homeless of San Francisco… Social judgments in seconds! Judgment of Psych instructor: Hard – Easy? Nice – Mean? Funny – Serious? Organized – disorganized? How accurate were these perceptions?

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 How we form impressions External Cues Halo effect: One good attribute Primacy effect: First impressions Come First Internal Cues – Top-Down Expectancies – Schemas Waitress – drinks beer Librarian – likes to read

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Expectations can create outcomes Rosenthal & Jacobson “Test” predicted student academics Students performed as “predicted” Discovering Psychology: Constructing Social Reality 12:15 – 16:10 Discovering Psychology: Constructing Social Reality 12:15 – 16:10

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Appearance and Impression Snyder & colleagues Men believe they are speaking to attractive or unattractive women Treat women differently Judges’ ratings of women match men’s expectations

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Impression Management Being on your “best behavior” Rebound effect

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Attitudes Attitudes – an overall evaluation of some aspect of the world a favorable or unfavorable evaluative reaction toward something or someone, exhibited in one's beliefs, feelings, or intended behavior. A positive or negative evaluation of an object.

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Examples of attitudes How many are in favor of getting out of Iraq? How many opposed? Where did these beliefs come from?

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Components of attitudes Cognitive component  belief Affective component  feeling Behavioral component  action Sample attitude scales

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Attitudes and Behavior Implicit attitudes Social desirability bias Implicit association test (IAT)

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Attitudes and Behavior Predicting behavior from attitudes Behavior affects attitudes

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 (1) Strongly Disagree- (5) Strongly Agree World hunger is serious problem that needs attention Our country needs to address the growing number of homeless The right to vote is one of the most valuable rights of American Citizens Our government should spend less money on nuclear weapons and more on its citizens

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Turn your page over Yes or no…. Do you personally do anything to lessen world hunger? (e.g. Donate money or food or write your representative) Do you personally do anything to help the homeless? (e.g. Volunteer at homeless shelters or donate money) Did you vote in the last election you were eligible? Do you personally convey your opinions to the government? (e.g. by writing your representative or participating in protests or marches)

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 What happened? Attitudes often not in line with behaviors? How did this make you feel? Psychologically uncomfortable? Dissonance…

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Cognitive Dissonance Changing our attitudes to be line with our behavior When our behaviors and our attitudes do not match we experience dissonance One way to reduce that dissonance, is to change our attitude so that it is in line with our behavior…

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 What happens when attitude and behavior don’t match? Creating Cognitive Dissonance - Festinger and Carlsmith Boring task “Did you enjoy the task?” $1 $20 “No” “Yes” Receive Reducing mismatch between behaviors and feelings

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Cognitive Dissonance Dissonance theory Reducing mismatch between behaviors and feelings Self-perception theory Make inferences from our behaviors Cognitive dissonance in the real world Rationalizing illegal behavior Direct and indirect strategies

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Persuasion: Trying to change attitudes Elaboration likelihood model: What causes attitude change? Central route – High Content Elaboration – Deep Processing Peripheral route – Low Content Elaboration – Shallow processing: source, number of arguments, conformity, exposure, Persuasive people

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Analyzing Advertisements Discovering Psychology Judgment and decision making 20:53 – 25:30

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Persuasion: Trying to change attitudes Fast speaker Scarcity Authority – Tiger Woods? Dr. Kildare Foot in the door Messenger honest Arouses strong positive emotion - reciprocity Does not appear to be trying to persuade

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Thwarting Persuasion Obstacles to persuasion Strong attitude Reactance Forewarning Selective avoidance

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Stereotypes A belief (or set of beliefs) about people in a particular category

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Attitudes toward groups and stereotypes Ingroup Outgroup Blue-eyed Brown-eyed Study – Jane Elliott Discovering Psychology - Minute 5.56 – 12:15 Discovering Psychology Illusory correlation Illusion of outgroup homogeneity Ingroup differentiation Discrimination

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Stereotypes and prejudice Prejudice is a negative or hostile attitude toward a social group Discrimination is unfair treatment of a group or member of a group based on prejudice “I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally.” W.C. Fields

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination Stereotypes: Cognitive Component Prejudice: Affective component Discrimination: Behavioral component

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

Understanding Prejudice Realistic conflict theory Competition for scarce resources Social categorization theory: us v them Self-fulfilling prophecy Social learning theory

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Combating Prejudice Contact hypothesis Increase awareness of similarities Information inconsistent with stereotypes Challenge outgroup homogeneity view Recategorization “Jigsaw classroom” Discovering Psychology 16:53 – 20:00

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Reducing Prejudice Contact Hypothesis: Stereotypes and prejudice will be weakened by bringing groups into direct contact with one another We like people we know more than strangers Stereotypes will be disconfirmed Perceptions of dissimilarity will be reduced See others as individuals and not just members of a group But the conditions have to be right… Equality of status, working toward common goal, supportive social norms

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Attribution: forming ideas about the causes of behavior An explanation for the cause of an event or behavior What caused that behavior? Internal attributions Dispositional attributions External attributions Situational attributions

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Attribution: Causes of Behavior Suppose you get a nasty from a friend – what would you think? Suppose you heard that Michael Jackson spent a few hours with a 14-year old boy – what would you think? Suppose you heard that your high-school English teacher spent a few hours with a 14- year old boy – what would you think?

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Attributions: Causes of Behavior Theory of causal attribution Consensus – if others agree - external attribution if others don’t agree - internal attribution Consistency – Behavior occurs previously – internal Behavior does not occur previously - external Distinctiveness Behavior unusual – external Behavior similar - internal

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Attributional Biases Fundamental attribution error: Student answers question incorrectly – internal attribution Actor-Observer Bias Why are you driving slowly? Why is car in front of you driving slowly? Self Serving Bias Ace a test Flunk a test Blaming the victim Belief in a just world

“ Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 Tuesday’s Class Behavior and Emotion in the social context