Social Psychology Social Psychology - Studying the way people think about, influence and relate to others. Attitude Attraction Aggression Group Behavior

Thinking about ourselves and others Attribution Theory - theory of how we explain someone’s behavior by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition Situational Attribution – External Dispositional Attribution – Internal – Example:

Fundamental Attribution Error Fundamental attribution error - tendency to overestimate the role of dispositional factors and underestimate situational factors – More common in Individualistic cultures – Self-serving bias – consider the situation How do you view your teacher’s behavior? When you start a romance, you assume that they agree with your world views….honeymoon period. If you win it is because you are awesome…if you lose, it must have been the coach or weather or….

Attitudes Attitudes - Feelings, based on beliefs, that guide our behavior Advertising is ALL based on attitude formation. Easier to change actions than attitudes

Attitude Change Central Route of Persuasion - opinion change from thoughtful focus on scientific evidence and the content of arguments – Example:. Peripheral Route Persuasion –opinion change through incidental cues (Speakers attractiveness, endorsement of famous person, emotion evoking music or images) Example:

Compliance Strategies Foot-in-the-door phenomenon – persuasion technique to get someone to agree first to a small request to get them to comply later with a larger request – Example: Door-in-the-face phenomenon – persuasion technique to get someone to comply by first making an extremely large request, then requesting something smaller – Example: Norms of reciprocity – social expectation that people will respond to each other in kind – Example:”

Role-Playing Affects Attitudes – Role– set of behaviors for a specific social position – Zimbardo - Stanford Prison Study – Abu Ghraib

Cognitive Dissonance Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger) - Discomfort we feel when your thoughts are behaviors are inconsistent – People want to have consistent attitudes and behaviors….when they are not they experience dissonance (unpleasant tension). – Usually they will change their attitude. You have a belief that cheating on tests is bad. But you cheat on a test!!! The teacher was really bad so in that class it is OK.

Conformity and Obedience Chameleon effect- unconsciously mimicking others’ expressions, postures and voice tones – Example: Mood linkage – sharing up and down moods of others – Example

Conformity Conformity - Adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard. – Example:

Asch’s Study of Conformity

Asch’s Results About 1/3 of the participants conformed. 70% conformed at least once. Conditions that Strengthen Conformity : The group is unanimous One is insecure within the group or made to feel incompetent The group is at least three people. One admires the group’s status One had made no prior commitment

Reasons for Conforming Normative social influence - d esire to gain approval/avoid rejection – Example: Informational social influence - Accepting other peoples opinions about reality – Example -

Milgram’s Study Of Obedience

Results of the Milgram Study

What did we learn from Milgram? Ordinary people can do shocking things. Ethical issues…. Would not have received approval from today’s IRB (Internal Review Board).

Social Facilitation Theory Social Facilitation – stronger performance in the presence of others If you are really good at something (well learned tasks)….or it is an easy task…you will perform BETTER in front of a group. If it is a difficult task or you are not very good at it…you will perform WORSE in front of a group (aka - social impairment). Comedians are funnier in a crowded room than an uncrowded room

Social Loafing Social Loafing - the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling efforts toward a common goal than if they were individually accountable. – Example –

Deindividuation Deindividuation – presence of others arouses people and diminishes their responsibility. – Feel anonymous and aroused. – Example

Group Polarization Group polarization - If a group is like-minded, discussion strengthens its prevailing opinion. – Groups tend to make more extreme decisions than the individual. – Example:

Groupthink Groupthink - Group members suppress reservations about the ideas supported by the group. – More concerned with group harmony. – Worse in highly cohesive groups. – Example:

Cultural Influence Culture – behaviors, attitudes, ideas, values shared by a group Example: – Culture within animals – Culture in humans

Variations Across Cultures Norm – rules for accepted and expected behavior – Example: Personal space – the buffer zone we like to maintain around our bodies – North Americans prefer more than Latin Americans Pace of life – More fast paced in U.S. than Mexico - manana

Variation Over Time Changes over the generations

The Power of Individuals Social control – the power of the situation personal control – the power of the individual – Example – Minority influence – the power of one or two individuals to sway majorities – Holding consistently to minority opinion

Social Relations – how we relate to one another: prejudice, aggression, attraction, altruism, peacemaking

Stereotypes, Prejudice and Discrimination Stereotype: Overgeneralized beliefs about a group of people. 3 components: beliefs, emotions and predisposition to action Example: obese people are gluttonous Prejudice: An unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members Example: “I dislike fat people” Discrimination: An action based on a prejudice (behavior). Example: to not hire an obese person

Prejudice How Prejudiced Are People?

Automatic Prejudice

Implicit racial associations: harboring unconscious racial associations Unconscious patronization: evaluate performance based on racial stereotypes – low expectations result in inflated praise and insufficient criticism hindering minority student’s academic achievement Racial influenced perceptions - people more often mistakenly shot targets who were black. Seeing black – the more a person’s facial features are perceived as typical of their racial category, the more likely they are to elicit race-based responding. Reflexive boldly responses – studies have detected implicit prejudice in facial responses and activation of amygdala– demonstrates implicit prejudice.

Is it just race? NO Palestinians and Jews Homosexual and Heterosexual Men and Women But women have some things going for them like……

Which person would you want to have a long term relationship with?

Social Roots of Prejudice In-Group – people with whom we share a common identity – Example: Out-group – People with whom we don’t share a common identity – Example In Group Bias – tendency to favor our own group – Example: Girls rule, boys drool Solon vs. Twinsburg

Emotional Roots of Prejudice Scapegoat Theory – theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame – Example:

Cognitive Roots of Prejudice Categorization – Out-group homogeneity – overestimating the similarity within other groups – Other-race effect (aka own-race bias, or cross-race effect) – the tendency to recall faces of ones own group more accurately than faces of other races Example: Vivid cases – tend to remember vivid cases more easily Just-world phenomenon – tendency to believe that people get what they deserve – Hindsight bias

Psychology of Aggression Aggression – any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy 2 Types 1.Instrumental Aggression 2.Hostile Aggression

The Biology of Aggression Genetic Influences Neural Influences Biochemical Influences

Aggression Theories Aversive Events – Frustration-aggression principle – blocking an attempt to achieve a goal creates anger Fight or flight reaction to stress – Adverse stimuli – physical pain, insults, high temperatures etc. can create anger Social and cultural influences – Reinforcement – experience has taught that aggression pays – Aggression higher when: Ostracized, high disparity between rich and poor, minimal father care, Aggression-replacement program – communication skills, anger control, moral reasoning

Aggression Theories - Observing models of aggression – Rape myth – some women enjoy or invite rape -Social scripts – mental tapes for how to act provided by our cultural i.e. media -video games and violence – Catharsis hypothesis

Attraction 5 Factors of Attraction 1.Proximity 2.Physical Attractiveness 3.Similarity 4.Reciprocal Liking 5.Reward theory of attraction

Proximity Mere exposure effect- Increased attraction to novel stimuli that become more familiar – The more we are exposed to something, the more we like it

Attraction The power of physical attractiveness

The Hotty Factor Physically attractiveness predicts dating frequency (they date more). They are perceived as healthier, happier, more honest and successful than less attractive counterparts.

Similarity Paula Abdul was wrong- opposites do NOT attract. Birds of the same feather do flock together. Similarity breeds content.

Reciprocal Liking You are more likely to like someone who likes you. Why? Except in elementary school!!!!

Reward theory of Conditioning We continue relationships that offer more rewards than costs – Associating with people that are attractive is socially rewarding – When someone works with us, it costs less time and effort to develop a friendship and enjoy the benefits

Beauty and Culture Obesity is so revered among Mauritania's white Moor Arab population that the young girls are sometimes force-fed to obtain a weight the government has described as "life-threatening".

Are these cultures really that different?

Romantic Love Love – Passionate Love – intense positive absorption of another Two Factor Theory of Emotion ( Schachter/Singer) – Companionate Love – deep affectionate attachment Equity – both partners receive in proportion to what they give Self-disclosure – revealing of intimate details

Altruism Altruism - unselfish regard for the welfare of others

Prosocial Behavior Bystander Effect - Tendency for a bystander to be less likely to help if other people are present – Example: Diffusion of Responsibility – When many people share the responsibility we think someone else will help Pluralistic Ignorance - People decide what to do by looking to others – a lack of reaction is interpreted as a non-emergency situation

Altruism

Norms for Helping Social exchange theory – we want to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs Social Norms that Influence Altruism – Reciprocity norm – we help someone who has helped us – Social-responsibility norm – we help people who need our help

Conflict and Peacemaking Conflict – a perceived incompatibility of goals actions and ideas Destructive Social Processes – Social trap we harm our collective well being by following our personal interests Non-zero sum game – Distorted Perception

Enemy Perceptions Mirror-image perceptions – mutual views seen by conflicting people – We are ethical and peaceful – they are evil and aggressive and visa-versa Self-fulfilling prophecy – perceptions that can lead to their own fulfillment

Conflict and Peacemaking Contact Cooperation – Superordinate goals – shared goals achieved through cooperation Communication Conciliation – GRIT – strategy designed to decrease international tension