1. Unit 14 Social Psychology pt. 1 Attribution, Attitudes, and Actions
What do attitudes allow us, as humans, to do? In this baby’s situation, how does a positive attitude help him get through a tough day?

2. Definition of Social Psychology:
Social psychology scientifically studies how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.
Definition of Social Psychology:
The study of human thoughts, feelings & behaviors in regards to other people, situations, places & perceptions

3. Social Thinking
Social thinking involves thinking about others, especially when they engage in doing things that are unexpected.

4. Stereotypes
Widely held beliefs hat people have certain characteristics because of their membership to a particular group
Can have a dramatic effect on the process of person perception!
Most common: Gender, age, ethnic
Stereotypes save energy by simplifying our world- but it does cost us accuracy

5. Perception is subjective! People see what they expect to see!
Stereotypes
Tend to be broad overgeneralizations, ignoring the diversity within social groups & fostering inaccurate perceptions of people
Most people who subscribe to stereotypes realize that not all members of a group are identical
Perception is subjective! People see what they expect to see!

7. Attributions
Inferences that people draw about the causes of events, others’ behavior, and their own behavior
There are different types:
Internal vs. External attributions
Attibutions for success & failure
Biased based
Defensive based
Why do people make attributions?
Because we have a strong need to understand our experiences- we want to make sense of our behavior, others’ behavior, and actions

8. Attributing Behavior to Persons or to Situations1.
Attributing Behavior to Persons or to Situations
Fritz Heider
Attribution Theory:
Fritz Heider (1958) suggested that we have a tendency to give causal explanations for someone’s behavior, often by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition.
Preview Question 1: How do we tend to explain others’ behavior and our own?
Was my friend a jerk because she had a bad day or is just a bad person?

9. Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency to overestimate the impact of personal disposition and underestimate the impact of the situations in analyzing the behaviors of others leads to the fundamental attribution error.
Example: Someone trips you and you think they did it on purpose because they are mean.
Judging Mrs. Davis you might say I am outgoing you have inferred that I have and outgoing personality. You know me only in the classroom, a situation that demands outgoing behavior. Catch me when I am in a faculty meeting.

10. Fundamental Attribution Error1.
Fundamental Attribution Error
1.  You are out to dinner and your server brings you the wrong food.  If you were committing the fundamental attribution error, you might assume that this happened because…

11. Attributing Behavior to Persons or to Situations1.
Attributing Behavior to Persons or to Situations
situational attribution).
Internal Attributions: Ascribe the causes of behavior to personal dispositions, traits, abilities, & feelings
External Attributions: Ascribe the causes of behavior to situational demands & environmental constraints

12. Examples:
Your friend’s business fails:
You might attribute it to his or her lack of business sense (an internal factor) or to negative trends in the nation’s economic climate (an external explanation.
Parents find out that teenage son has just wrecked the car:
May blame it on his carelessness (personal disposition) or on slippery road conditions (situational factor

13. Self-Serving Bias
We attribute causes of behavior to EXTERNAL causes if we fail & INTERNAL causes if we succeed!

14. The Effects of Attribution1.
The Effects of Attribution
Social Effects: Happy Couples chalk up an argument to other person having a bad day. Divorced couple could attribute it to the other person just being mean.
Political Effects: how do we explain poverty? Ex. Conservatives tend to attribute social problems to the poor and unemployed. Liberals blame past and present situations.
Workplace Effects managers could attribute poor performance of personal factors.

15. 2.
Preview Question:
Does what we think predict what we do, or does what we do affect what we think?

16. Attitude: positive or negative evaluations of objects of thought.
Attitudes & Actions
Attitude: positive or negative evaluations of objects of thought.
Object of Thought: social issues, groups, institutions, consumer products, and people.
A belief and feeling that predisposes a person to respond in a particular way to objects, other people, and events.
If we believe a person is mean, we may feel dislike for the person and act in an unfriendly manner.

17. Attitudes … Explicit Attitudes Implicit Attitudes
Attitudes that one holds consciously and can readily describe
Implicit Attitudes
Covert attitudes that are expressed in subtle automatic responses over which one has little conscious control
Implicit attitudes are central to the study of prejudice- in modern society we have been taught that prejudicial attitudes are wrong, but negative stereotypes about certain groups are still widely spread.
We may WANT to be unbiased- but these negative ideas seep into our subconscious.
Our explicit attitude may be to condemn prejudice, but we unknowingly harbor implicit attitudes that reflect prejudice

18. Trying to change attitudes: Factors in persuasion
We are constantly bombarded by efforts to alter our attitudes- what determines if the persuasion works?
The source
The message
The Mere Exposure Effect- repeated exposure to a stimulus promotes greater liking of the stimulus (think of how many times you see a political ad during voting season!)
The strength of your attitude

19. People can be persuaded in different ways:
The central route to persuasion involves being persuaded by the arguments or the content of the message. 
For example, after hearing a political debate you may decide to vote for a candidate because you found the candidates views and arguments very convincing.
The peripheral route to persuasion involves being persuaded in a manner that is not based on the arguments or the message content. 

20. Social Pressures and Attitudes
Strong social pressure can weaken the attitude –behavior connection, such as when Democratic leaders supported Bush’s attack on Iraq under public pressure. However, they had their private reservations.

21. Actions Can Affect Attitudes…
Not only do people stand for what they believe in (attitude), they start believing in what they stand for.
Cooperative actions can lead to mutual liking (beliefs).
Discussion: The Low-Ball Effect

22. Would you like to take a survey?
Please complete the following…

23. Cognitive Dissonance Theory: Relief from Tension
We do not like when we have either conflicting attitudes or when our attitudes do not match our actions.
When they clash, we will change our attitude or our behavior to create balance.
Let’s look at that survey again… s

25. Compliance Strategies Brainstorm how you have used these strategies.
Foot-in-the-door phenomenon tendency for people who agree to a small action to comply later with a larger one.
Door-in-the-face phenomenon large request is made knowing it will probably be refused so that the person will agree to a much smaller request
Norms of reciprocity
“hey if I scratch your back I expect you to scratch mine”