Social Psychology

1. Social Psychology • Studies the effect of social variables on individual behavior, attitudes, perceptions, and motives • Studies group and inter-group phenomena

2. Social Psychology • Social roles • A socially defined pattern of behavior that is expected of a person who is functioning in a given setting or group • Explicit • I.e. school rules • Implicit • What you learn in situation (I.e. what to call your teacher or boss)

3. Social Psychology • Stanford Prison Experiment • Guards – acted tough/mean even if they were not before • Social Norms • Expectation a group has for its members regarding acceptable and appropriate attitudes and behaviors

4. Social Psychology • Conformity • Tendency for people to adopt the behaviors, attitudes and values of other members of a reference group • Informational Influences • Wanting to be correct and to understand the right way to act in a given situation – look to others to show you the way

5. Stanford Prison • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmwSC5fS40w

6. Social Psychology • Autokinetic effect • Stationary light that looks like it moves • Groups agreed which way it moves • Salmon Asch 1956 • Asch effect • Visual activity w/ lines • People involved had to match lines • People matched wrong lines on purpose • 25% - held true • 50-80% - conformed to false

7. Asch • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIh4MkcfJA • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-t0OwWc0Qw

8. Social Psychology • Group polarization • Tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the decisions that would be made by the members acting alone • Groupthink • Tendency of a decision-making group to filter out undesirable input so that a consensus may be reached , especially if it is in line with the leader’s viewpoint

9. Social Psychology • Constructing social reality • Knowledge people bring into situations that represents how you see the situation • Social perception • Process by which a person comes to know or perceive the personal attributes of himself or herself and other people

10. Social Psychology • Attribute theory • Social cognitive approach to describing the ways the social perceiver uses information to generate causal explanation • Answer the “whys” • Fritz Heider (1958) • Found in the person (dispositional causality) • Found in situation (situational causality)

11. Social Psychology • Harold Kelly (1967) • Uncertainty • Covariation principle • People attribute a behavior to a causal factor if that factor was present whenever it did not occur • Distinctiveness • Consistency • Consensus – others behaviors

12. Social Psychology • Fundamental attribute error (FAE) • Dual tendency of observers to underestimate the impact of situational factors and to overestimate the influence of dispositional factors on a person’s behavior (blame/credit people) • People blame themselves

13. Social Psychology • Self serving biases • People tend to take credit for their successes and deny responsibility for their failures • Self-fulfilling prophecies • Prediction made about some future behavior or event that modifies interactions so as to produce what is expected. • Merton (1957) • Study with 9 month olds; ½ think boy and ½ think girl

14. Social Psychology • Behavioral confirmation • Mark Snyder (1984) • Process by which people behave in ways that elicit others specific expected reactions and then use those reactions to confirm their beliefs • Attitude • Learned, relatively stable tendency to respond to people, concepts and events in an evaluative way • Positive /negative • Based or cognitive, affective & behavioral • Accessibility • Property of an attitude that predicts behavior • More accessible when based on direct experience • Specificity – better predictor of behavior if more specific

15. Social Psychology • Persuasion • Deliberate efforts to change attitudes • Elaboration likelihood model • How likely it is that people will focus their cognitive processes to elaborate upon a message & therefore follow the central & peripheral routes to persuasion • Personal relevance – more likely to look at carefully • Type of attitude and argument • Emotion vs. cognitive based

16. Social Psychology • Cognitive dissonance • Leon Festinger (1957) • The tension producing effects of incongruous cognition motivate individuals to reduce such tension • I.e. lies – less paid students believed their own lie to be true

17. Social Psychology • Self perception theory • Daryl Bem (1972) • Idea that people observe themselves in order to figure out the reasons they act as they do • People infer what their internal states are by perceiving how they are acting in a given situation

18. Social Psychology • Compliance • Change in behavior consistent w/ a communication source’s direct request • Reciprocity norm • Expectation that favors will be returned – if someone does something for another person that person should do something in return • Door-in-the-face technique • Ask big to get small • Once foot in the door, small commitment can move up a larger one

19. Social Psychology • Social relationships • Proximity – near • Exposure – more you see • Physical attractiveness • Stereotype better looking = smarter • Beauty matters more than intelligence • Similarities • Beliefs, attitudes & values • Reciprocity • Like people that you believe like you

20. Social Psychology • Love • Passion – sexual passion and desire • Intimacy – honesty & understanding • Commitment – devotion & sacrifice • Difference between being “in love” and loving someone

21. Social Psychology • Adult attachment styles • Secure • Easy to get close to others • Depend on others • No worry about abandonment • Avoidant • Somewhat uncomfortable about being close • Difficulty trusting & depending • Anxious-ambivalent • Others will not get as close as I want them to get • Worry partner doesn’t really love them • Want to be close but scare people away • More jealousy

22. Social Psychology • Compassionate love • Start of relationship • Great intensity • Companionate love • Greater intimacy • Factors that allow relationship to last • “other” is included in their “self” • Dependence model • Degree to which needs are important (sex, intimacy,emotional & intellectual) • Degree to which above needs are met & of satisfaction by others • Are there others to meet these needs

23. Prosocial Behavior • Behaviors that are carried out with the goal of helping other people.

24. Altruism • Prosocial behaviors a person carries out with out consideration for his or her own safety • Strong with genetic overlap (family)

25. Reciprocal Altruism • People perform altruistic behaviors because they expect others to perform them.

26. Motives for Prosocial Behavior • Daniel Batson (1994) • Altruism • Egoism- one’s own self interest • Principilism- for moral principles

27. Situational Forces • Bibb Latane and John Darley (1970) • Bystander intervention • Willingness to assist a person in need of help • More people present, the less likely one is to act

28. Situational Forces • Diffusion of Responsibility • In emergency situations the larger the number of bystanders the less responsibility any one bystander has.

29. Situational Forces • Time and Help • More free time the more help • I.e.. If late usually did not help

30. Aggression • Behaviors that cause psychological or physical harm to another individual • Karl Lorenz (1966) • Humans could not kill each other until the artificial i.e.. (gun/bomb)

31. Differences in Aggression • Genetic/social • Twin studies link genetics • Adoption studies link social • Brain Chemistry • Inappropriate levels of activity in the amgydala lead to aggressive behaviors • Levels of serotonin • Muted stress response due to levels of hormone corisol

32. Impulsive Aggression • Emotion-driven aggression produced in reaction to situations in the “Heat of the Moment”

33. Instrumental Aggression • Cognitive-based and goal directed aggression carried out with premeditated thought, to achieve specific aims

34. Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis • Frustration occurs in situations in which people are prevented or blocked from attaining a goal • Rise in frustration leads to a greater probability of aggression

35. Temperature and Aggression • Warmer the temperature, more the aggressive behavior

36. Direct Provocation • When someone upsets you it leads to aggression • Escalation • Increased intensity leads to aggression

37. Cultural Constraints with Aggression • 7-10 times more likely to be murdered in US than in Europe • Individual culture vs. group culture • Dependent vs. interdependent constraints

38. Prejudice • Learned attitude toward a target or object • Involving negative effect (dislike/fear) • Involving negative beliefs(stereotypes) that justify the attitude and a behavior intention to avoid, control, dominate or eliminate the target object.

39. Prejudice • Social Categorization • Process by which people organize the social environment by categorizing themselves and others into groups • In-groups- people you identify with • Out-groups- people you do not identify with • In-group bias • Your group is better than other groups

40. Prejudice • Racism • Discrimination based on skin color or ethnic heritage

41. Prejudice • Sexism • Discrimination against people because of their sex

42. Prejudice • Stereotypes • Generalizations about a group in which the same characteristics are assigned to all members of a group • Expectations • Stereotype threat • Key aspect of stereotyping are present

43. Reversing Prejudice • Direct contact between hostile groups alone reduces prejudice • Jigsaw Classrooms • Each pupil is given part of the total material to master and then they share with other group members • Building Friendships

44. Obedience to Authority • Stanley Milgram (1965,1974), Milgram Experiment • In reaction to Nazi Germany • Series of what people were to think, were painful electric shocks • People thought it was a study on memory and learning • On each error, participant was to shock when a wrong answer was given • White coat authority figure present to make sure the teacher did their job • Started at 15 volts, went up to 450 volt

45. Milgram Experiment • Each shock caused pain • The learner was a man about 50, with a bad heart condition, strapped to an “electric chair” • He was in another room with an intercom for communication • The protest levels of the shocking rose with each power increase in shocking • 75 volts were grunts, 150 volts demanded release, 180 volts cried out, 300 volts yelled about his heart.

46. Milgram Experiment • The white coat would say, “The experiment requires that you continue, you have no choice, you must go on” if the teacher wanted to stop • Eventually with shocking reaching 450 volts there was no response • Results • No one quit before 300 volts • 65% made it to 450 volts

47. Milgram Experiment • Demand Characteristics • in an experimental setting that influence the participants’ perception of what is expected of them and that systematically influences their behavior within a setting.

48. Milgram • http://youtube.com/watch?v=y6GxIuljT3w

49. Why do people follow authority? • Normative influence • People want to be liked and fit in • Informational influences • People want to be right • Ingrained habit with children

50. Genocide and War • Systematic destruction of one group of people, often ethnic or racial, by another • Starting point usually has severe life conditions • Heighten in-group, out-group becomes scapegoat • Easy for group mentality to harm out-group • Violence justifies self, to stop would be admitting wrong • Dehumanization