Social Psychology Chapters 20 & 21

Social Cognition How we think and act in social situations

Attitudes  Our beliefs and feelings  About objects, people, and events  Shape our behavior in certain situations

Developing Attitudes  Conditioning: we’re trained (sharing toys with our friends is a good thing to do)  Observational Learning: through watching others (a good work ethic pays off)  Cognitive Evaluation: draw conclusions from our experiences and multiple sources (we decide buckling up is the best choice)  Cognitive Anchors: our conclusions are based on what we learned as children (homosexuality is wrong)

Persuasion  An attempt to change someone’s current attitudes  Central Route: uses evidence and logic  Peripheral Route: appeals to feelings  In sending your message, you have options:  One-Sided Argument: shares your evidence or emotional appeal  Two-Sided Argument: explains your view, but also explains why the opposition is wrong

Find an advertisement and identify the following:  The Messenger: where is the argument coming from and who is addressing it?  The Situation: what setting has the advertisement established?  The Audience: who is the message for?  Do you think this ad is effective? Explain your view!

Prejudices: generalized attitude towards a specific group  Stereotypes: unchanging, oversimplified, and distorted beliefs  Discrimination: negative behaviors; unfair treatment of a person because he/she belongs to a certain group  Causes  Exaggerating Differences: instead of how alike people are to us  Justifying Economic Status: when they’re in a different class from us  Social Learning: copy our parents and role models  Victimization: as a defense for personal prejudices  Scapegoating: someone has to be blamed

Social Interaction How we behave around other people

Conformity  Changing our attitudes and behaviors to match someone else’s  To fit in with a group  To match society’s expectations (norms)  Because that’s what our culture demands  Remember Solomon Asch’s conformity study? People picked the wrong line simply because everyone else did

Obedience  Following the directive of authority figures  Stanley Milgram’s experiment shocked people because it found most were willing to harm others because they were told to  Why do we blindly obey?  To fit in  Fight larger battles  No strong personal beliefs  If we aren’t aware of the negative consequences

Social Perception  We judge based on first impressions (primacy effect) and most recent interaction (recency effect)  We judge based on what we are like or what we would have done  We judge based on the current situation and what we can tell from our experience  We judge to make ourselves look better (self-serving bias), whether we deserve credit or should take the blame

Interpersonal Relationships: why do we like certain people?  Physical Appearance: duh…we are drawn to “pretty” people  Similarity: if they’re like us in appearance, beliefs, opinions, or attitudes  Reciprocity: do they like us too?

Aggression: words or actions meant to hurt other people  Where does aggression come from?  Instinct: we’re born with this defense mechanism  Freud: it’s an unavoidable result of living (and when we have this release of aggression, it’s called catharsis)  Choice: we choose to respond to our thoughts and feelings based on past experiences  Learning: threating has been reinforced as the way to go  Cultural: some groups are more aggressive than others

Body Language

Why is this important?  Up to 93% of our communication is non- verbal (gestures, facial expressions, eye movement)  It’s often more honest— people are unaware of the cues they’re giving

It’s Our Universal Language  There are six universal facial expressions  Happiness  Sadness  Fear  Disgust  Surprise  Anger

The Eyes  Communicate more than any other body part  Winning staring contests shows dominance  Long eye contact shows sincerity  Too much blinking can mean deception  We look to the left when remembering (being honest) and to the right when creating (lying)

The Mouth  There are 50+ human smiles due to the more than 80 facial muscles  To tell if a smile is true, look for a crinkle in the middle, outside corner of the eye  Lips tell a lot too  Biting: anxiousness  Pouty lower lip: sadness  Grinding teeth is a sign of hiding real feelings

Body Language Depends On…  Context: where are you?  Culture: where are you from?  Age: are you young or old?  Gender: male or female?