Goals of Psych

1. Goals of Psych • DESCRIBE – The first goal is to observe behavior and describe, often in minute detail, what was observed as objectively as possible. • EXPLAIN – While descriptions come from observable data, psychologists must go beyond what is obvious and explain their observations. In other words, why did the subject do what he or she did? Based on the observable behavior, psychologists can infer mental processes from behavior. • PREDICT – Based on basic research, what is the science behind the factors? When, where, and why does the behavior or mental processes occur? • CONTROL – Based on applied research, use the principles and discoveries of psychology for practical purposes, such as controlling real-world problems

2. GBN Hazing

3. Attribution Attribution • the process by which people infer the causes of other people’s behavior • Example: Why did your boss yell at your co-worker? • co-worker was slacking off and deserved it? • boss is always a hothead? • boss is usually easygoing but is undergoing a divorce that has her stressed out? • boss really needed this particular job to be done right because her job is on the line External factors • people, events, situation, environment Internal Factors • traits, needs, intentions

4. Tolerant reaction (proceed cautiously, allow driver a wide berth) Situational attribution “Maybe that driver is ill.” Negative behavior Unfavorable reaction (speed up and race past the other driver, give a dirty look) Dispositional attribution “Crazy driver!” Attribution • How we explain someone’s behavior affects how we react to it

5. Fundamental Attribution Error • Tendency of observers, when analyzing another’s behavior, to underestimate the impact of a situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition. • Also called actor-observer discrepancy • e.g., “I did poorly on the exam because I had a heavy exam schedule and I’d been sick and I was really stressed out and my goldfish died that morning and…. He did poorly on the exam because he’s stupid and lazy.” • e.g., GBN Hazing - Girls are crazy, bad apples, have low self-esteem.

6. Why do we commit FAE? • Actor-observer discrepancy • we know our behavior changes from situation to situation, but we don’t know this about others • when we see others perform an action, we concentrate on actor, not situation -- when we perform an action, we see environment, not person • Mental representations of people (schemas) can effect our interpretation of them • William College students • Students had a guest speaker • Woman acted either aloof and critical or warm and friendly. • Beforehand, one group of students were told that the woman’s behavior would be spontaneous; while the other group was told the truth… that she had been instructed to act friendly or unfriendly • Truth had no effect… students disregarded info. Each group attributed her behavior to her internal disposition.

7. Why do we commit FAE? • Cross-cultural differences • Western culture • people are in charge of own destinies • more attributions to personality • Some Eastern cultures • fate in charge of destiny • more attributions to situation

8. Effects of Personal Appearance on Attribution • The attractiveness bias • physically attractive people are rated higher on intelligence, competence, sociability, morality • studies • teachers rate attractive children as smarter, and higher achieving • adults attribute cause of unattractive child’s misbehavior to personality, attractive child’s to situation • judges give longer prison sentences to unattractive people • The baby-face bias • people with rounder heads, large eyes, small jawbones, etc. rated as more naïve, honest, helpless, kind, and warm than mature-faced • generalize to animals, women, babies

9. Attitudes • Belief and feeling that predisposes one to respond in a particular way to objects, people and events • Attitudes can influence behavior through… • Central Route Persuasion = focus on arguments and scientific evidence • Peripheral Route Persuasion = influenced by incidental cues, such as speaker’s attractiveness • Attitudes guide our actions if… • Outside influences on what we say and do are minimal • We are keenly aware of our attitudes • e.g., Too Fat? Read your Email or put a mirror on your fridge • However, often times evidence confirms that attitudes follow behavior, such as seen by the… • Foot-in-the-door technique • Role-playing

10. Application Lab: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WkTteGdPwE • Watch The Above Link on The NBA: • Pacers Pistons Basketball Game • Using your e book and class notes as well as articles you read/skimmed, apply the following concepts to the what you viewed in the video: • Roles • Foot in the Door Phenomena • Conformity (Normative and Informative Social Influence) • Group Polarization • Group Think • Bystander Effect

11. Role set of expectations about a social position. Defines how those in the position ought to behave Role Playing Power of the role can take on a life of its own. People change attitude or behavior to fit role. BEHAVIOR  ATTITUDE e.g., Zimbardo Prison Study (1975) e.g., GBN - Seniors took on the behavior of an authority figure as the role of upper classman and juniors took on submissive role. Juniors did not fight back. Good natured, likeable seniors became vicious attackers. Role of seniors and role of juniors (superiority and grunt – have to take it even though they knew it probably was going to far). Roles and Role Playing

12. Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon • Tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request. Small request has paved the way to compliance with the larger request • cognitive dissonance results if person has already granted a request for one thing, then refuses to give the larger item • e.g., GBN - Getting seniors to do such extreme things. Go from yelling, to pushing, to hitting, to smearing fish guts, to throwing buckets, etc. Actions feeding attitudes feeding actions enables behavior to escalate.

14. Cognitive Dissonance • Tension we experience when attitudes are inconsistent with each other or inconsistent with behavior. If people cannot justify their behavior, they’re likely to change their beliefs about it in order to decrease discomfort

15. Cognitive Dissonance • Attitudes must be consistent with behavior… if they are not, people experience discomfort  must either change behavior or change attitude; usually it’s easier to change the attitude. Come to believe in what one stood up for – adjust beliefs to be consistent with public acts. • e.g., Stephan is a neurologist and knows that smoking is a serious health risk. Stephan smokes. Stephan must either: • stop smoking • change his attitudes • “The risks are exaggerated.” • “I’m going to die from something anyway.” • “Smoking reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.” • e.g., GBN - Reason for the lack of remorse by seniors. Understood that hitting and shoving is wrong but did it. Now they are experiencing discomfort, so they change their attitude and we hear statements like, “Nobody was killed.”

16. Case Study • Suppose you had volunteered to participate in a psychology experiment. Upon arrival, you were seated at a table and asked to undertake a series of dull, meaningless tasks for about an hour (such as counting pennies). Afterward, the experimenter convinced you to extol the virtues of the tasks you had performed by describing them to other potential participants as highly worthwhile, interesting and educational. You were paid either $1 or $20 to do this. Suppose you were then asked to privately rate your enjoyment of the tasks on a questionnaire. • After which amount do you believe your actual enjoyment rating of the tasks would be higher - $1 or 20$?

17. Cognitive Dissonance and Insufficient Justification Effect • If people cannot justify their behavior, they’re likely to change their beliefs about it • Experiment (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959) • gave subjects a boring task • asked subjects to lie to the next subject and say the experiment was exciting • paid ½ the subjects $1, other ½ $20 • then asked subjects to rate boringness of task • $1 group rated the task as far more fun than the $20 group • each group needed a justification for lying • $20 group had an external justification of money • since $1 isn’t very much money, $1 group said task was fun

18. Initiation Rites

19. Conformity • The adoption of attitudes and behaviors shared by a particular group of people. • 2 general reasons for conformity • Informational Influence • change attitudes and behavior to fit with the group because don’t know the rules or the correct answer; other people can provide useful and crucial info • e.g., Seniors learned how to haze when they went through it themselves or followed the example of other senior girls because they did not know how to haze. • Normative Influence • change attitudes and behavior to fit with the group because of the desire to belong • e.g., Powder puff group is the group to belong to. Seniors participated in the violent hazing because they did not want to become an outcast from the group.

20. Conditions that Strengthen Conformity • One is made to feel incompetent or insecure • The group has at least three people (further increases in group size yield not much more conformity) • The group is unanimous (the support of a single fellow dissident greatly increases social courage) • One admires the group’s status and attractiveness • One has made no prior commitment to any response • Others in the group observe one’s behavior • The particular culture strongly encourages respect for social standards

21. Conformity is not always bad • there would be anarchy without conformity • social acceptance often depends on conformity “The only thing a non-conformist hates more than a conformist is another non-conformist who won’t conform to the rules of non-conformity.”

22. Asch’s Line Judgment Experiment • Solomon Asch, 1955 • replicated by others in 1990 “Which comparison line is the same length as the standard?” 3 3 3 3 ??? 3

23. Asch’s Line Judgment Experiment • On average, subjects conformed on ~40% of trials • Conformity dropped to ¼ of its peak if one other person dissented (even • when the dissenter made an inaccurate judgment) • Conformity dropped dramatically when subjects recorded their responses • privately  indicating that they conformed due to normative social • influence; rather than informational social influence (doubting own • perceptual abilities)

24. Obedience • Change attitudes and behavior to follow the orders of an authority figure. • Request is perceived as a command • EX: Senior girls telling younger girls what to do or more powerful senior girls telling submissive senior girls what to do. “We do what we’re told. We do what we’re told. We do what we’re told. Told to do.” -- lyrics to “Milgram’s 37” by Peter Gabriel Stanley Milgram 1933-1984

25. Extreme forms of Obedience Nazi Holocaust Germany & Poland (Europe) 1941-1945 6,000,000 Rwanda (Africa) 1994 800,000 Cambodia (Asia) 1975-1979 4,000,000 An estimated 210 million people were killed by genocide in 20th century.

26. Milgram’s Obedience Experiment Milgram interested in unquestioning obedience to orders Psychologists’ predictions

27. Percentage of subjects administering the maximum shock (450 volts) Follow-Up Studies to Milgram • Original study • Different building • Teacher with learner • Put hand on shock • Orders by phone • Ordinary man orders • 2 teachers rebel • Teacher chooses shock level

28. Factors that affect obedience • Remoteness of the victim (actual distance or depersonalization) • teacher and learner in separate rooms: 65% obedience • teacher and learner in same room: 40% obedience • teacher and learner in physical contact (teacher had to put learners hand on apparatus): 30% obedience • Closeness and legitimacy of authority figure • “ordinary person” confederate instead of experimenter: 20% obedience. Authority of Yale and value of science. • Cog in a Wheel • “another subject” confederate does the dirty work and real subject assists: 93% obedience • “another subject” confederate disobeys: 10% obedience • subjects told they are responsible for learner’s welfare: 0% obedience • Personal characteristics • no significant differences based on sex (though women reported feeling more guilty), politics, religion, occupation, education, military service, or psychological characteristics

29. Group Polarization • The enhancement of a group’s prevailing attitudes through discussion within the group • e.g., racist attitudes; AA meetings • e.g., GBN - Hazing was pre-planned. Many senior girls must have met up to discuss what items they would bring for the hazing. They already had the similar attitude that they have a right to haze as a tradition. During discussion, girls probably came up with more and more ideas about how to haze and reasons to support their ideas, strengthening their attitude that it was okay to haze.

30. Groupthink • Mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives. Dissenting views suppressed to maintain good feeling of group. • e.g., Responsible for many stupid policy decisions, such as Bay of Pigs invasion by JFK or Space Shuttle Challenger launch in 1986 • e.g., GBN - Hazing was pre-planned. Many girls probably understood what they were planning to do was wrong but wanted to be part of the prestigious group. No one dissented.

31. Groupthink • Causes of Groupthink • Powerful group of people who think alike • Absence of objective and impartial leadership • High levels of stress regarding decision • Preventing Groupthink • Be impartial and objective • Leader should encourage dissent • Assign at least one “devil’s advocate” • Occasionally break group into subgroups • Seek opinions of external experts • Towards end of decision, have a “second chance” meeting to review lingering doubts • NASA under strong pressure to launch shuttle • first civilian in space • many delays had occurred • Engineers were opposed to the launch because of concerns that cold temperatures might make rubber seals too brittle • NASA executives made the decision to launch without input from engineers • final NASA decision-maker was never told of engineers’ concerns Space Shuttle Challenger January 28, 1986

32. Social Facilitation • An individual performs better in the presence of others when the task is easy or well-learned • Examples: • 1898: cyclists who competed against one another performed better than those who cycled alone or against the clock • cockroaches running toward a goal run faster in pairs • home team advantage • home teams win ~60% of games played Social Interference • an individual performs worse in the presence of others when the task is hard or your not good at it

33. Presence of others Increased drive or arousal Improved performance of dominant responses (social facilitation) Worsened performance of nondominant responses (social Interference) Zajonc’s Theory • Linked social interference and facilitation to arousal level • High arousal improves simple or well-learned tasks; strengthens most likely response • High arousal worsens complex or poorly-learned task

34. Social Loafing • As the number of people increases, the effort exerted by each individual declines • examples that are probably all-too-familiar to you: • group projects • roommates and housework • less common in collectivist cultures (e.g., China) than individualistic cultures (e.g., USA) • Chinese subjects work harder in groups than when alone (social compensation)

35. Preventing Social Loafing • Make each person accountable • Record who did what • Make the task challenging, appealing and involving • Keep the group small • If possible, put people of the same intelligence & competence together

36. What would you do? • Rip out a piece of notebook paper and tear it in half. • Do NOT put your name on the piece of paper. • Do NOT discuss your answers during or after the exercise. • Answer the following question… • If you could do anything humanly possible with complete assurance that you would not be detected or held responsible, what would you do? • When you are done answering the question, fold sheet of paper in half and sit quietly

37. If you could do anything… Research Results • 11 content categories seem to arise: aggression, charity, academic dishonesty, escapism, political activities, sexual behavior, social disruption, interpersonal spying, eavesdropping, travel, and a catchall category “other” • Answers were categorized as prosocial, antisocial, nonnormative (violating social norms but without helping or hurting others), and neutral (meeting none of the other three categories) • Most frequent responses were criminal acts (26%), sexual acts (11%), and spying behaviors (11%). Most common response was “rob a bank” that were 15% of all responses • 36% of the responses were antisocial, 19% nonnormative, 36% neutral, 9% prosocial

38. Deindividuation • Loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in group situations that foster pyhsical arousal and anonymity • Occurs in large groups and groups heighten physical arousal • e.g., looting, rioting • Physical anonymity • e.g., Would KKK members burn crosses if they weren’t wearing hoods? • e.g., Taunted to Jump • e.g., GBN - Mob of girls. All wearing exactly the same thing, can’t be detected. The presence of alcohol and the group cheering them heightened their arousal. Do things that you would normally not do. “Jump jump!!”

39. Prejudice & Discrimination

40. Prejudice & Discrimination • Prejudice = an unjustifiable and usually negative ATTITUDE toward a group and its members • Involves stereotypes = a generalized (often over-generalized) belief about a group of people that distinguishes those people from others • Public – what we say to others about a group • Private – what we consciously think about a group, but don’t say to others • Implicit – unconscious mental associations guiding our judgments and actions without our conscious awareness. • IAT Test • Public stereotypes have decreased in North America recently (“political correctness”). Does this mean people no longer carry stereotypes? • Stereotypes lead to self-fulfilling prophecy= one person’s belief about others leads one to act in ways that induce the others to appear to confirm the belief. • Discrimination = unjustified, negative BEHAVIORS toward a group and its members

41. Discrimination vs. Prejudice • Discrimination • unfair treatment of a group • Prejudice • negative attitudes toward or beliefs (stereotypes) about members of a group

42. Self-fulfilling prophecy The Pygmalion effect • In the myth, Pygmalion created a statue that he treated with such affection, it came to life • person A believes that person B has a particular characteristic • person B may begin to behave in accordance with that characteristic • 1968 experiment in a lower class San Francisco elementary school • gave students an IQ test • told teachers that the test had identified students who were “late bloomers” and would show a spurt in IQ growth • the experimenters randomly selected 20% of the pupils who were identified to the teachers as late bloomers (in reality, these students were no different in their IQs than the remaining 80%) • after one year those students showed significantly higher IQ scores (an increase of 12 points compared to 4 points in the other students) • works on rats too! Robert Rosenthal

43. Stereotype Threat • black students perform worse on a verbal test when it’s described as an “intelligence test” a (race prime) than when it’s described as a “laboratory test” (no race prime) • Asian American women did better on a math test when primed by “Asians are good at math” and worse when primed by “Women are bad at math.” Claude Steele

44. Implicit Stereotypes • Use of priming: subject doesn’t know stereotype is being activated, can’t work to suppress it • Bargh study • have subjects read word lists, some lists include words like “gray,” “Bingo,” and “Florida” • subjects with “old” word lists walked to elevators significantly more slowly • another study • flash pictures of Black vs. White faces subliminally • give incomplete words like “hos_____,” subjects seeing Black make “hostile,” seeing White make “hospital”

45. Implicit Stereotypes • Devine’s automaticity theory • stereotypes about African-Americans are so prevalent in our culture that we all hold them • these stereotypes are automatically activated whenever we come into contact with an African-American • we have to actively push them back down if we don’t wish to act in a prejudiced way. • Overcoming prejudice is possible, but takes work

46. Implicit Association Test