1. Chapter 16: Social Psychology
Definition: Sub-field of psychology that studies of how others influence our thoughts, feelings and actions
Focuses on… - How large social forces such as groups, social roles and norms bring out the best and worst in all of us
- Explaining why people act differently in the same situation, and why the same person may act differently in different situations.

2. Chapter 16: Social Psychology
TOPICS
Our Thoughts About Others
Attribution
Attitudes
Our Feelings about Others
- Prejudice & Discrimination
- Interpersonal Attraction
Our Actions Toward Others
- Social Influence
- Group Processes
- Aggression
- Altruism
Applying Social Psych. to Social Problems
- Reducing Prejudice & Discrimination

3. Asch - Line test Conformity - yielding to social pressure
Asch’s Line Conclusions (60%)
1) subjects often conform to a group, even when the group states clearly inaccurate conclusions
2) conformity to a group increases with the size of the group, up to five or six, but only when the group is unanimous in its beliefs

4. Milgram- Shock Test Obedience (60% finished)
Milgram’s Shock Conclusions
1) situational pressures can make people obey instructions that go against their belief systems

5. Obedience Experiment

6. Attribution Theory
Definition: Inferences that people draw about the causes
of events, others’ behavior, and their own behavior
Dispositional Attribution: we attribute a
person’s behavior to an internal state
(personality, abilities, etc.)
Situational Attribution: attributing a
person’s behavior to an external state
(stress, abuse, hardship, wealth, etc.)
Function: People like to explain and understand behavior and the events that impact their lives
Attributions are made when an event is unusual and personal

7. Covariation Model of Attribution

8. Attribution Example

9. Bias in Attribution
Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE): Observer’s bias in favor of internal attributions in explaining others’ behavior instead of external (Ex: Someone else drops out of college because “they couldn’t handle the pressure or work load” – internal. You may ignore that tuition went up and their family cannot afford it)
Defensive Attribution: Tendency to blame the victim for their misfortune, so that one feels less likely to be victimized in a similar way “JUST WORLD”
Self-Serving Bias: Tendency to attribute one’s successes to dispositional factors and one’s failures to situational factors
In-group bias- tendency to favor your own group over the out-group

10. Attitudes & Attitude Formation
Components of Attitudes
Cognitive: What you believe
Affective: How you feel about it
Behavioral: What you are willing to do about it
- When we observe & respond to the world around us, it is never without the influence of our attitudes (even if we don’t realize it).
- Advertisers spend millions because they know that
attitudes can be shaped & changed….to their benefit $$
Definition
Positive, negative, or mixed feelings, based on our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events (self-fulfilling prophecy)
Ex: A friend tells you that they believe Coach Stove is a mean teacher. You may feel dislike for Coach Stove, and act unfriendly.

11. Attitudes can Affect Action
Deindividuation- Losing your individuality in a group
Role-playing: people who behaved in certain ways in scripted scenarios have adopted attitudes in keeping with those roles-

12. Behavior in Groups
Bystander Effect: less likely to help others when in groups than when alone
Social Loafing: individuals produce less work (reduced efficiency & effort) when working in groups than by themselves
Diffusion of responsibility helps explain both.
Decision Making
Group Polarization - when group
discussion leads to a more “polarized”
point of view by the group
Groupthink - when feel pressure to conform to the group, stops critical thinking to avoid dissention in the group
Ex: Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs

13. Group Polarization

14. Percentage of Bystanders Helping Victims & Time Taken

15. Cognitive Dissonance & Social Facilitation
Cognitive Dissonance Theory: When we act in a way not consistent with our beliefs we feel tension. We then revise our beliefs to align with our behavior.
Social Facilitation
Being watched while doing task makes you do better
Example:
 Asked to do hour long boring task
 Offered $1 or $20 to say it’s fun
 Results: Larger payment led to less dissonance b/c high payment could account for ‘lying’. $1 was not enough to justify lying so those people changed their attitude to saying they enjoyed the task
Example:
After you go to all the trouble of buying a new house you start to like it more

16. Tolerant vs Intolerant
Is basic human nature tolerant or intolerant?
Write a couple points in your notes
It does not mean you are born one way or another, but what behavior is typically shown throughout history.
Tolerant Intolerant

18. Stereotype Cartoon

19. Articles Showing Bias

20. Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Stereotype: Thoughts and beliefs held about people strictly because of their membership in a group (race, gender, occupation…)
Prejudice: A negative attitude held toward members of a group
Discrimination: Negative actions towards a group

21. Explanations
These often arise from learning, personal experience, mental shortcuts,
economic & political competition, & displaced aggression
Outgroup Homogeneity: Judge members of outgroup as more alike
Scapegoat: Blame other groups without as much power
Social Identity (in-group bias): Favor own group
Learning Theory: Classical or operant conditioning
Cognitive: Easier to organize our world if we ‘categorize’

22. Person Perception
Definition: The process of forming impressions of others
Impressions are influenced by:
Physical appearance
good looking people are seen as intelligent, friendly, and confident
Schemas: Organized clusters of ideas about categories of social events and people
1st Impressions: self fulfilling prophecy, primacy

23. Social Influence
Chameleon Effect: our tendency to unconsciously mimic those around us
Yawning when others yawn
Picking up the mood of a happy or sad person
Dress like your friends
This automatic mimicry is an ingredient in our ability to empathize with others

24. Altruism
Altruism: Actions designed to help others with no obvious benefit to the helper
Why are we altruistic? Evolutionary Perspective: favors survival of genes
Egoistic Model: motivated by anticipated gain
Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis: sometimes for selfish gains, other times truly selfless & motivated by concern for others
Kitty Genovese Story…diffusion of responsibility…

25. Persuasion- changing someone’s attitude
Source: credible, trustworthy, likable, attractive, similarity
Message: Fear vs. logic, one or two sided, repetition
Channel: TV, radio, internet, or in person
Receiver: Personality, expectations, preexisting attitudes, intelligence, needs

26. Persuasion Techniques
Limited time offer
Everyone is buying!!!
DEAL!!!
Reciprocation
Foot in the door
Door in the face
Low-balling

27. Results of Attraction
Friendship: An attraction driven by a set of rules that must be followed for the relationship to continue
Examples of rules:
help when needed
trust and confide in each other
Romantic Love: Intense feeling of attraction to another within an erotic context with future expectations
Compassionate Love: Strong and lasting
attraction characterized by trust, caring,
tolerance, and friendship
Triangular Theory of Love: (see next slide)

28. Extra Credit I have 175 points to give to your class.
You will write your name on a paper with the number of points requested (10 pts max, 10 raises about 3% )
You are not allowed to show anyone how many points you asked for, or look to see how much a classmate is requesting. Only Mr. Reed will know.
If students ask for more than 175 points, no one will get any points.

29. Extra Credit You may ask for 5 or 10 points.
I will randomly pair your choice with another student in the class. No one will know who has been paired together besides me.
If both people ask for 5 points, both get 5 points
If one asks for 5 and the other 10, the 10 gets ten and the 5 gets nothing.
If both ask for 10, both get nothing.

30. Quickymart Robbery
Confess 1 year, maybe probation Don’t confess- 15 years

31. Social Traps
Definition- People do what is in their own self interest, even though it may hurt the group. Short term benefits instead of long term.
Examples- Overfishing, logging industry, health care (I have mine), union membership, interrogation of suspects), PHX area gas crisis, PED, NFL lawsuit, ball hog

32. Friends
Write down a list of your friends in your notes (try to limit to 10 or less)
Write down two of your strongest values/traits

33. Attraction Contributors to Attraction
Proximity: Physical closeness (mere exposure effect)
Similarity: Commonalities between two people
Reciprocity: The tendency to like those who like you
Physical Attractiveness: Pleasant physical appearance (often different depending on culture), signs of health such as symmetry (universal)
Matching Hypothesis: equally attractive people date

34. Triangular Conception of Love

35. Components of Attitudes