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Social Psychology I

Social Psychology I. Social Psychology. Defining Social Psychology. Studies social influences on behavior  Often interested in individual behavior in groups First area that looks at GROUPS rather than just individuals. Social Psych is interesting for several reasons:. Social behavior is

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Social Psychology I

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  1. Social Psychology I

  2. Social Psychology

  3. Defining Social Psychology • Studies social influences on behavior •  Often interested in individual behavior in groups • First area that looks at GROUPS rather than just individuals

  4. Social Psych is interesting for several reasons: • Social behavior is • homogeneous within groups • heterogeneous across/between groups •   Three possible reasons why: • Chance • Disposition plus affiliation: those who are alike all sought each other out and live together • Social influence: the actions of the group have influence on the individual

  5. Personal Perception • How do we perceive the attributes/characteristics of others? • Attractive people assume to have more positive characteristics • This is a cross cultural and across all ages

  6. Social Perception • Way we perceive, evaluate, categorize or form judgments about  another's behavior •  First impressions very critical: • Initial impression or judgment you make about a person • primacy effect: what you heard first has most effect • Asch study: read list of characteristics •    some got good first, then bad •    others got bad first, then good •    changed opinion of "individual"

  7. Schemas: • General mental representation or framework used to categorize • Your personal schema may influence way you think about a   person • Use it as a filter for new information

  8. Stereotyping: Judging of groups, not individuals • Stereotypes = set of believes about the characteristics, attributes and behaviors of members of a particular group or category • Highly influence first impressions • Tells you what to expect • Look for these characteristics, rather than being open minded • Not limited to race/gender- but can occur with ANYTHING! • Horse people vs. non horse people • Student vs faculty

  9. Self-fulfilling prophecies • Self-fulfilling prophecy: • Expectation of what should happen • You only act in this way • Becomes reinforced • Thus it reinforces stereotype • “I am going to fail the test” • You study less • Try less • Fail • Confirm that you were going to fail

  10. Attributions Forming personal explanations of and for the world

  11. Attributions • Way put causes on individual's behavior • 2 basic attributes or causes: •   dispositional •   situational • Several important factors on how we decide reasons: •   social desireability •   nonnormative effects •   noncommon effects •   free choice

  12. When attributing a cause to behavior, the Covariance principle states that we examine the •  Distinctiveness of the behavior •  Consistency in your behavior •  Consensus in your behavior

  13. Fundamental attribution error: •   Your good behaviors = dispositional •   Your bad behaviors = situational •   Other's good behaviors = situational •   Other's bad behaviors = dispositional

  14. More errors: • False consensus bias: •   Assume everybody else feels the same way •   Often, not really know how other's feel •    Illusion of control •   After a bad experience, feel that should have prevented   it from happening •   We tend to attribute a higher degree of control to ourselves   than we actually have •   E.g., if I only would have left 5 minutes earlier, then the   accident would not have happened •   Can lead to some weird superstitious behaviors

  15. Actor–Observer effect • How attribute causes of behavior depends on information you have • Observer: depends on the external behavior • Actor: knows potential history and internal attributions, thoughts/experiences of the individual • Observer more likely to make dispositional attributions • Actor more likely to make situational attributions

  16. Attitudes

  17. Attitudes are: • Learned via direct experience or modeling • Relatively enduring • Predispositions to respond in consistently favorable/unfavorable  ways to certain people, groups, ideas or situations

  18. Important for several reasons: • Increase understanding of situation • Social identification • Social adjustment: gain acceptance or approval • Impression management: select which info we reveal • Value expression • Ego-defensive

  19. Attitudes have several effects on behavior: •    Attitudes can alter our behavior: •   May act without thinking •   May behave due to social expectations •   Relevance of attitude to behavior can alter degree to which   affects behavior • May use attitude as excuse for our behavior •   Way to explain why we did what we did •   Uncomfortable if attitude and behavior not agree

  20. Changing Attitudes:Elaboration Likelihood Model: • Proposes two routes to attitude change • Central route • Peripheral route • Central route: • Operates when people are motivated, • Focus on message • Peripheral route • Operates when people are unmotivated • Unable to process or focus on message • Characteristics such as attractiveness are more important for this route • Advertisers, etc., usually use peripheral route

  21. Cognitive Dissonance • Like our behavior to be in balance or cognitively congruent with  our behavior • If not: either the attitude or behavior must change • One way to get you to change behavior or attitude is to impose  cognitive dissonance: •   if force you to behavior in manner dissonant from attitude-   your attitude may change • if force you to state an attitude that is different from   your behavior, may result in change in your behavior •   cults, self-help groups use this

  22. Self-Perception Theory • Alternative to dissonance theory • People use observations of own behavior as basis for inferring their own beliefs • e.g.: IF I told people a job was interesting, that must mean I like the job

  23. Variables influencing persuasion: • Source variables: features of the communicator who presents the message • Message variables: features of the message • Presenting both sides of argument typically better • Messages that run counter to perceived interests of presenter judged as more important • More often is better • Recipient variables: • Low intelligence, low self confidence = easier • More receptive to change = easier

  24. Attractiveness • Liking and loving • Evolutionary perspective: • Attractiveness = how healthy a person is • Reproductive strategy for men vs. women • Prototypical: how average the face is • Cultural preferences

  25. What determines liking vs. loving? • Proximity: likelihood of becoming friends increases with proximity • Similarity • Reciprocity: tendency to return kind feelings

  26. Romantic love? • Complex physiological emotion with strong cultural variations • Two kinds of romantic love • passionate • compassionate

  27. Sternberg (1989; 1996) describes triangular view of love • Three major dimensions: • Intimacy • Passion • Commitment • All three forms can be defined in terms of all three dimensions • E.g.., passionate love high on intimacy and passion, low on commitment • Dimensions develop differently with time/age

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