1. Chapter 18 Social Behavior

2. Quiz
Social roles are the expected behavior patterns associated with particular social positions (student, daughter, worker, etc)
Fundamental Attribution Error is the tendency to attribute the behavior of others to internal causes (personality, likes, etc)
A Secure attachment base is when someone avoids people they care about
‘Groupthink’ is a compulsion by members to maintain their independence, even at the detriment of group consensus
Social influence is when we act differently around people we don’t know well, such as police officers or distant neighbors

3. What is Social Psychology? Some Definitions
Social Psychology: Scientific study of how individuals behave, think, and feel in social situations; how people act in the presence (actual or implied) of others
Culture: Ongoing pattern of life that is passed from one generation to another

4. Social Roles
Social Role: Patterns of behavior expected of people in various social positions (e.g. daughter, mother, teacher, President
Ascribed Role: Assigned to a person or not under personal control
Achieved Role: Attained voluntarily by special effort: Teacher, mayor, President
Role Conflict: When two or more roles make conflicting demands on behavior
What are some examples of role conflicts?
How could this look for recent immigrants?

5. Groups
Group Structure: Network of roles, communication, pathways, and power in a group
Group Cohesiveness: Degree of attraction among group members or their commitment to remaining in the group
Cohesive groups work better together
Status: Level of social power and importance
Norm: Accepted, but usually unspoken, standard of appropriate behavior

6. Typical spatial zones (in feet) for face-to-face interactions in North America. Often, we must stand within intimate distance of others in crowds, buses, subways, elevators, and other public places. At such times, privacy is maintained by avoiding eye contact, by standing shoulder to shoulder or back to back, and by positioning a purse, bag, package, or coat as a barrier to spatial intrusions.
Write down the name of two people you didn’t know when class began, but you know now. Then swap papers with someone
Fig. 18-2, p. 609

7. Social Perception
Attribution: Making inferences about the causes of one’s own behavior and others’ behavior
Consistency: Person’s behavior changes very little in many different circumstances
Distinctiveness: Noticing that a behavior only occurs under certain circumstances

8. More Attribution Concepts
Fundamental Attribution Error: Tendency to attribute behavior of others to internal causes (personality, likes, and so on). We believe this even if they really have external causes!
Actor-Observer Bias: Tendency to attribute behavior of others to internal causes, while attributing the behavior of ourselves to external causes (situations and circumstances)

9. Affiliation
Need to Affiliate: Desire to associate with other people; appears to be a basic human trait
Social Comparison: Making judgments about ourselves by comparing ourselves to others. E.g. comparing our feelings and abilities to those of other people
Write down whether you are below average, average, or above average in the following ways: physical attractiveness, friendliness, creativity, athleticism, sense of humor, height, weight.

10. More on Affiliation
Downward Comparison: Comparing yourself with someone who ranks lower than you on some area (e.g. money, attractiveness)
Upward Comparison: Comparing ourselves to someone who ranks higher than we do on some area; may be used for self-improvement (something we strive for)

11. Interpersonal Attraction
Social attraction to another person
Physical Proximity: Physical nearness to another person in terms of housing, school, work, and so on
Physical Attractiveness: Person’s degree of physical beauty as defined by his or her culture
Halo Effect: Tendency to generalize a favorable impression to unrelated personal characteristics

12. Interpersonal Attraction Continued
Similarity: Extent to which two people are alike in terms of age, education, attitudes, and so on
Similar people are attracted to each other
Homogamy: Tendency to marry someone who is like us in almost every way
Groups by gender: in same sex group, come up with a list of 10 things you find attractive in the opposite sex

13. Self-Disclosure
Process of revealing private thoughts, attitudes, feelings and one’s history to others
Should be used cautiously and sparingly when you are the therapist performing therapy
May lead to countertransference in therapy
In pairs, the younger person will decide level of self disclosure, the older person has to respond at the same level of self-disclosure

14. Attachment Secure Attachment: A stable and positive emotional bond
Avoidant Attachment: Fear of intimacy and a tendency to resist commitment to others
Ambivalent Attachment: Mixed emotions about relationships; conflicting feelings of affection, anger and emotional turmoil

15. Social Influence
Changes in a person’s behavior induced by the presence or actions of another person
Someone else influences your decision: husband, wife, mother, peer, etc.
Peer pressure: Rudy is swayed by Fanny to go see “MI3” when he really wanted to see “X-Men 3”
Social reinforcement:
Turn to the person closest to you and give them two compliments, the person is only allowed to say thank you
How does social reinforcement work?

16. Conformity
Bringing one’s behavior into agreement with norms or the behavior of others

17. Solomon Asch’s Experiment
You must select (from a group of three) the line that most closely matches the standard line. All lines are shown to a group of six people (including you)
Other five were accomplices and at times all would select the wrong line
In 33% of the trials, the real subject conformed to group pressure even when the group’s answers were obviously incorrect!

18. Figure 18.5: Stimuli used in Solomon Asch’s conformity experiments.
Fig. 18-5, p. 619

19. Group Factors in Conformity
Groupthink: Compulsion by decision makers to maintain each other’s approval, even at the cost of critical thinking
Group Sanctions: Rewards and punishments administered by groups to enforce conformity among members

20. Power
Social Power: Capacity to control, alter or influence the behavior of another person
Reward Power: Rewarding a person for complying with desired behavior
Coercive Power: Based on ability to punish a person for failure to comply

21. More Power Concepts
Legitimate Power: Accepting a person as an agent of an established social order
Referent Power: Respect for, or identification with, a person or a group
Expert Power: Based on possession of knowledge or expertise

22. Obedience (Milgram) Conformity to the demands of an authority
Would you shock a man with a known heart condition who is screaming and asking to be released?
Milgram studied this; the man with a heart condition was an accomplice and the “teacher” was a real volunteer. The goal was to teach the learner word pairs.

23. Figure 18.6: Scenes from Stanley Milgram’s study of obedience: the “shock generator,” strapping a “learner” into his chair, and a “teacher” being told to administer a severe shock to the learner.
Fig. 18-6a, p. 622

24. Figure 18.6: Scenes from Stanley Milgram’s study of obedience: the “shock generator,” strapping a “learner” into his chair, and a “teacher” being told to administer a severe shock to the learner.
Fig. 18-6b, p. 622

25. Figure 18.6: Scenes from Stanley Milgram’s study of obedience: the “shock generator,” strapping a “learner” into his chair, and a “teacher” being told to administer a severe shock to the learner.
Fig. 18-6c, p. 622

26. Milgram’s Results
The learner screamed and provided no further answers once 300 volts (“Severe Shock”) was reached
65% obeyed by going all the way to 450 volts on the “shock machine” even though the learner eventually could not answer any more questions
Group support can reduce destructive obedience

27. Figure 18. 7: Results of Milgram’s obedience experiment
Figure 18.7: Results of Milgram’s obedience experiment. Only a minority of subjects refused to provide shocks, even at the most extreme intensities. The first substantial drop in obedience occurred at the 300-volt level (Milgram, 1963).
Fig. 18-7, p. 622

28. Figure 18.8: Physical distance from the “learner” had a significant effect on the percentage of subjects obeying orders.
Fig. 18-8, p. 623

29. Foot-in-the-Door Effect
A person who has agreed to a small request is more likely later to agree to a larger demand.
Once you get a foot in the door, then a sale is almost a sure thing

30. Door-in-the-Face Technique
A person who has refused a major request will be more likely later on to comply with a smaller request
After the door has been slammed in your face (major request refused), person may be more likely to agree to a smaller request

31. Low-Ball Technique
Commitment is gained first to reasonable or desirable terms, which are then made less reasonable or desirable
Henry accepts the price he states for a new car. Then, later, Tillie the saleswoman tells Henry “How about adding all these options?”, thus increasing the price

32. Make up quizzes
For each quiz you missed, write one handwritten page explaining why you weren’t in class. It needs to be based on something from the textbook. It does not have to be true.
For example: I had these overwhelming feelings that something bad would happen on the day of the quiz, I could have been diagnosed with ‘agoraphobia’ that day