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Social Psychology

Social Psychology. Social Cognition Explaining our behaviour : Attribution theory (Heider, 1958; Kelley, 1967) Justifying our behaviour : Cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957) Social Influence one-on-one interactions: blind obedience to authority (Milgram, 1963)

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Social Psychology

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  1. Social Psychology Social Cognition Explaining our behaviour: Attribution theory (Heider, 1958; Kelley, 1967) Justifying our behaviour: Cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957) Social Influence one-on-one interactions: blind obedience to authority (Milgram, 1963) attractiveness (Smith & Engel, 1968) many-on-one interactions: obedience revisited (understanding atrocities) effects of audiences and conformity (Asch, 1952/6) many-on-many interactions: understanding crowd behaviour

  2. What is Social Psychology? In a general sense, Social Psychology addresses the interaction between individuals and the society they live in. For example, it addresses issues like: > How do we form representations of ourselves and others? > How do our attitudes arise? What role does prejudice play and how can it be understood? > How is our behaviour molded and affected by the social context we are in?

  3. Social cognition: • Stanford Prison Experiment by Philip Zimbardo • Attribution Theory: Fundamental Attribution Error Self-serving Bias • Cognitive Dissonance Festinger and Carlsmith www.prisonexp.org

  4. Festinger and Carlsmith’s ‘Forced’ Compliance Experiment: Participant’s rating Reward for coaxing other participants

  5. Social Influence: • The manner in which groups or individuals bias us to behave in certain ways. • Two ways of looking at this: • aspects of certain individuals that may make them have more or less of an effect on our behaviour • the effects that being part of a group may have on our individual behaviour ~ one-on-one,many-on-one, and many-on-many interactions

  6. Social Influence: • one-on-one interactions: Social psychologists have found that 1) we can be strongly influenced by people we perceive as authority figures, and 2) we are more strongly influenced by people we view as being physically attractive. Milgram’s Blind obedience studies Smith and Engel (/68), wanna buy a car?

  7. Social Influence: • many-on-one interactions: ~ obedience revisited: • usually delivered on a one-to-one basis, but authority figures usually speak with authority of society • legitimate domain of authority using Milgram’s study to understand greater atrocities: • 1) agent of someone else’s will: psychological distance (e.g., Hitler) • 2) cognitive reinterpretation: dehumanization (e.g., Nazi, Vietnam, and Bosnian war terms) • 3) slippery slope: instilling obedience gradually (e.g., Military training)

  8. Social Influence: • many-on-many interactions: ~ understanding crowd behaviour: • deindividuation • anonymity • Diener’s Halloween study (1976)

  9. Social Impact Theory: Latane (1979 & 1981) • social influence can be understood by thinking of the individual as exposed to a field of social forces that converge upon a target (the individual) • impact decreases with more targets • e.g. of stage fright • e.g. of diffusion of responsibility • e.g. of social loafing

  10. Social Psychology continued... Altruism social influence revisited: ~ bystander apathy ambiguity, pluralistic ignorance, diffusion of responsibility ~ the cost of helping the Good Samaritan (Darley & Batson, 1973) ~ stimulus overload hypothesis (Milgram, 1970) environmental noise level as a determinant of helping behaviour (Mathews and Canon, 1975)

  11. ~ bystander apathy • ambiguity • of situation • not being sure of what’s going on • pluralistic ignorance • other witnesses unsure of what’s going on • each witness looks to the others to decide if there is an emergency • diffusion of responsibility • somebody else will do (or has already done) something

  12. ~ bystander apathy • indicates that people sometimes don’t recognize that a need for help exists and that even when they do, they might not help because they think others will. • What if situation is not ambiguous and responsibility is not diffused because there is no one else around? …would we now see altruistic behaviour? ~ the costs of helping the Good Samaritan (Darley & Batson, 1973) ~ stimulus overload hypothesis (Milgram, 1970) environmental noise level as a determinant of helping behaviour (Mathews and Canon, 1975)

  13. Environmental noise level as a determinant of helping behaviour (Mathews and Canon, 1975) % of passersby helping

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