Social Psychology

1. Social Psychology • Study social influences that help explain why people behave the way they do in various situations • How do we explain other people’s behavior? • How come we conform? • How do people get us to do things?

2. How do we explain behavior? • Internal (dispositional) vs external (situational) explanation • Stable vs unstable explanations • Fundamental Attribution Error = focusing on dispositional characteristics and disregarding situational characteristics when we explain others behavior

3. Do attributions matter? • Does this effect how we explain mental illness? Poverty? Success? • How do we explain high performance? • Gender bias

4. What comes first our attitude or our behavior? • Attitudes = beliefs and feelings that predispose our reactions to people, objects and events • Sometimes behavior predicts our attitudes • Example: parents and allowing kids to watch tv • Foot in the door-once someone agrees to something small will more likely comply with a bigger request! • First ask someone to donate a small amount and then follow it up with a larger request

5. Why do we sometimes change our attitude to match our behavior? • We may feel motivated to justify our actions! • Cognitive dissonance theory says • we want to relieve the tension that we feel • bring attitudes in line with actions • Research indicates that if you get someone to do something (with little external justification) they will tell you they like it more)

6. Asch’s Conformity Experiments

7. Social Influence • Behavior is contagious- we have a tendency to follow norms, copy others, and change our behavior • Asch’s classic study on conformity • Had to identify correct line (from 3 other lines) • Less than 1% were wrong when alone • About 1/3 conformed when in group situation

8. Why do we conform? • Normative reasons: sensitivity to social norms; we want to be accepted • Informational social influences: we look to others for the correct answer when we are not sure

10. Obedience • Classic Milgram studies on obedience • Confederate and participant told they were participating in a learning experiment • Participant had to “shock” the learner every time a wrong answer was given • If they resisted, were told they had to go on • Complaints from “learner” • At 120, shouts were heard • at 150 learner shouted, “get me out of here” • At 330, learner refused to answer • How long would you keep going?

11. Milgram’s Obedience Experiment

12. What did we learn from obedience studies? • People are more likely to conform when • Authority figure is close by • Victim was depersonalized • No other dissenters were present • Authority figure was “prestigious” • People who do undesirable (even “evil”) things are not necessarily evil! • Situations are extremely influential

13. Altruistic Behavior • Altruism = unselfish regard for the welfare of others • Bystander intervention effects • Research demonstrates, we are more likely to help: • Notice the incident • Interpret it as emergency • Assume responsibility

14. Responses to a Simulated Physical Emergency

15. Social Psychology has taught us… • Sometimes our behavior influences our attitudes! • People do conform! • Social situations are powerful- we are influenced by norms and expectations • We can transform situations-enemies can become friends, etc.