1 / 34

Social Psychology

Social Psychology. Basic premise: Who we are is determined by our social interactions --Past: our social development --Present: social influence We’ll start with an area of overlap between cognition and social influence; attitudes, and the drive toward attitude consistency.

Download Presentation

Social Psychology

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Social Psychology • Basic premise: Who we are is determined by our social interactions • --Past: our social development • --Present: social influence We’ll start with an area of overlap between cognition and social influence; attitudes, and the drive toward attitude consistency

  2. Strong Generalization About Attitudes We like to maintain consistancy of attitudes: • selective exposure • selective interpretation • selective memory

  3. Stronger Theories of Attitude Consistency • Balance Theory (Heider) • Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger) • Self Perception Theory (Bem)

  4. Cognitive Dissonance Theory • Leon Festinger: Two cognitions that are in conflict or dissonant (one implies the opposite of the other) result in pressure to change one or both to bring them into consonance • In practice, the two are an attitude and a behavior and the attitude changes

  5. Three types of Dissonance Situations or Experiments • Justification of effort (Aronson & Mills) • Inadequate external justification --when prophecy fails (Ms. Keech) --counterattitudinal advocacy (Yale) • Consequences of a decision (Brehm)

  6. Knox & Inkster betting study (consequences of making a decision)

  7. Self Perception Theory- Bem • The theory and its relation to cog. diss. • Experimental evidence (Bem, Valins) • Can we know ourselves given all this? • (Back to Missouri!)

  8. Emotion and Self-Perception • Emotions involve both bodily activation (brain-endocrine) and precipitating stimuli • Naïve view: perception of p-stimuli causes us to feel a certain way-->activates body • James-Lange view: p-stim. causes physiological arousal--> perceived emotion • Cognitive theory: p-stim. + physiol. arousal --> perceived emotional state

  9. Social Influence (continued): some dangerous findings Bystandar Apathy Conformity Obedience

  10. Bystander Apathy & Intervention • Surprising work of Darley & Latane on the effect of the no. of bystanders

  11. Mechanisms That Produce Bystander Apathy Effects • moral diffusion • lack of clarity--ambiguity of interp. and of action. airport/subway crutch--fall 83 vs. 41 % helped, and they were people more familiar with the surround. 3. costs of intervention. sometimes they are raised bythe presence of others (surveillance) 4. rules for behaving: don't stare, unless you know what to do/day, keep your mouth shut etc. 5) mood: Isen dime in coin slot mailing letter 10-->90 %

  12. Solomon Asch: Conformity • Conformity: Good or bad? • Major findings: 1/3 & 2/3 conform! • What it takes to resist! • Conclusion

  13. Stanley Milgram: Obedience • Description of Experiment • Basic findings 2/3 • Field theory explanation (exper. vs. victim force fields)

  14. Underlying Explanation • Foot in the door • Other is responsible (diffusion of resp.) • Aloneness- lack of social support • Ambiguity about situation/what to do!!! • Other directedness (Reisman)

  15. Schein’s POW Work • Level of compliance and how it was obtained • The power of social isolation • Who resisted? • Solution: inner codes vs. external or situational control • Conclusion: balance?……

More Related