social psychology

1. 10 social psychology

2. why study social psychology?If people lived in total isolation from other people, there would be no reason to study the effect that other people have on the behavior of individuals and groups. But human beings are social creatures—we live with others, work with others, and play with others. The people who surround us all of our lives have an impact on our beliefs and values, decisions and assumptions, and the way we think about other people in general. Why are some people prejudiced toward certain other people? Why do we obey some people but not others? What causes us to like, to love, or to hate others? The answers to all these questions and many more can be found in the study of social psychology.

3. Learning Objectives • LO 10.1 Factors affecting conformity • LO 10.2 Four ways to gain compliance • LO 10.3 Obedience • LO 10.4 Components, formation and change of an attitude • LO 10.5 When attitudes do not match actions • LO 10.6 Social categorization and implicit personality theories • LO 10.7 How people explain others’ actions • LO 10.8 Prejudice and discrimination • LO 10.9 Why people are prejudiced and how to stop it • LO 10.10 Factors that govern attraction and the different forms of love • LO 10.11 Biology and learning influences on aggression • LO 10.12 Altruism and deciding to help others • LO 10.13 Why people join cults

4. Three Factors of Social Psychology LO 10.1 Factors affecting conformity • Social psychology • Scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by others • Social influence • The ways behavior can be affected by other people

5. Three Factors of Social Psychology LO 10.1 Factors affecting conformity • Social psychology • Social cognition • The ways people think about other people • Social interaction • The positive and negative aspects of people relating to others

6. Social Influcence: Conformity LO 10.1 Factors affecting conformity • Conformity: • Changing one’s own behavior to more closely match the actions of others

7. Social Influcence: Conformity LO 10.1 Factors affecting conformity • Conformity: • Solomon Asch Study (1951) • Would participant change response in order to fit in with group response? • Participants conformed to group answer over one-third of time • Conformity decreased if there was just one confederate who gave the correct answer • Greater conformity in collectivist cultures

8. Figure 10.1 Stimuli Used in Asch’s StudyParticipants in Asch’s famous study on conformity were first shown the standard line. They were then shown the three comparison lines and asked to determine to which of the three was the standard line most similar. Which line would you pick? What if you were one of several people, and everyone who answered ahead of you chose line 3? How would that affect your answer? Source: Adapted from Asch (1956).

9. Hazards of Groupthink LO 10.1 Factors affecting conformity • Groupthink • Emphasis on maintaining group cohesiveness • Less focus on assessing facts of problem • Examples: decision to bomb Iraq, Titanic lifeboat numbers • Can minimize groupthink by seeking opinions outside of group

10. On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil flowed into the Gulf for three months, but the environmental impact will no doubt be felt for years. How might groupthink apply in this situation?

11. Table 10.1 Characteristics of Groupthink

12. Compliance LO 10.2 Four ways to gain compliance • Consumer psychology • Figuring out how to get people to buy items • Compliance • People change behavior as a result of another person or group asking or directing them to change • Person asking other to change has no authority over other

13. Four Ways to Gain Compliance LO 10.2 Four ways to gain compliance • Foot-in-the-door technique • Asking for a small commitment • After gaining compliance, asking for a bigger commitment • Door-in-the-face technique • Asking for a large commitment and being refused • Next ask for a smaller commitment

14. Four Ways to Gain Compliance LO 10.2 Four ways to gain compliance • Lowball technique • Getting a commitment from a person • Then raise the cost of that commitment

15. Four Ways to Gain Compliance LO 10.2 Four ways to gain compliance • That’s-not-all technique • Sales technique where persuader makes offer • Adds something extra to make offer look better • Done before the target person can make a decision

16. Four Ways to Gain Compliance LO 10.2 Four ways to gain compliance • That’s-not-all technique • Technique relies on Norm of reciprocity • Assumes if someone does something for a person, that person should do something for the other in return.

17. Obedience LO 10.3 Obedience • Obedience • Changing one’s behaviorat the command of an authority figure • Milgram study • “Teacher” administered shocks to “learner” • In first experiments, 65% of “teachers” went all the way to experiment’s 450-volt shock level

18. Milgram’s ExperimentIn Stanley Milgram’s classic study on obedience, the participants were presented with a control panel like this one. Each participant (“teacher”) was instructed to give electric shocks to another person (the “learner,” who only pretended to be shocked). At what point do you think you would have refused to continue the experiment?

19. Social Cognition: Attitudes LO 10.3 Obedience • Attitude • Tendency to respond positively or negatively toward person, object, idea, or situation

20. Social Cognition: Attitudes LO 10.3 Obedience • Three components of attitude: • Affective component • Emotional • Behavioral component • Action taken • Cognitive component • Thoughts about person, object or situation • Attitudes tend to be poor predictors of actual behavior

21. Figure 10.3 Three Components of an AttitudeAttitudes consist of the way a person feels and thinks about something, as well as the way the person chooses to behave. If you like country music, you are also likely to think that country music is good music. You are also more likely to listen to this style of music, buy this type of music, and even go to a performance. Each of the three components influences the other two.

22. Formation of Attitudes LO 10.4 Components formation and change of an attitude • Three ways to form attitudes: • Direct contact • With the person, situation, object, or idea • Direct instruction • From parents or others • Interaction with others • Around other people who hold a certain attitude

23. Formation of Attitudes LO 10.4 Components formation and change of an attitude • Vicarious Conditioning • Observation of others’ actions and reactions

24. Persuasion LO 10.4 Components formation and change of an attitude • Persuasion • Attempt to change the belief, opinion, position, or course of action of another person • Done through argument, pleading, or explanation

25. How the jurors in this courtroom interpret and process the information they are given will determine the outcome of the trial. Those who listen carefully to what is said by persons involved in the trial are using central-route processing. There may be some jurors, however, who are more affected by the appearance, dress, attractiveness, or tone of voice of the lawyers, defendant, and witnesses. When people are persuaded by factors other than the message itself, it is called peripheral-route processing.

26. Persuasion LO 10.4 Components formation and change of an attitude • Factors in persuasion: • Source of the message • Message itself • Target audience

27. Attitude Change: Persuasion LO 10.4 Components formation and change of an attitude • Elaboration likelihood model • People elaborate on the persuasive message or fail to elaborate on it • Future actions of those who do elaborate are more predictable than those who do not • Central-route processing • Attending to the content of the message itself

28. Attitude Change: Persuasion LO 10.4 Components formation and change of an attitude • Peripheral-route processing • Attending to factors not involved in the message • Such as: appearance of the source, length of the message, and other non-content factors

29. Cognitive Dissonance LO 10.5 When attitudes do not match actions • Discomfort or distress that occurs when one’s behavior does not correspond to one’s attitudes • Creates unpleasant tension and arousal

30. Cognitive Dissonance LO 10.5 When attitudes do not match actions • Three choices for reducing dissonance: • Change conflicting behavior to match attitude • Change current conflicting cognition to justify behavior • Form new cognitions to justify behavior

31. Figure 10.4 Cognitive Dissonance: Attitude Toward a TaskAfter completing a boring task, some participants were paid $1 and some $20 to convince others waiting to do the same task that the task was interesting and fun. Surprisingly, the participants who were paid only $1 seemed to change their own attitude toward the task, rating it as interesting, whereas those who were paid $20 rated the task no differently than a control group did. Source: Adapted from Festinger and Carlsmith (1959).

32. Social Cognition and Impressions LO 10.6 Social categorization and implicit personality theories • Impression formation • First knowledge a person has about another person • Primacy effect • First impression one has about a person • Tends to persist even in the face of evidence to the contrary

33. At this job fair in Shanghai, China, thousands of applicants wait hopefully in line for an opportunity to get a job interview. Making a good first impression is important in any job interview situation, but when the competition numbers in the thousands, the people who will most likely get interviews are those who are neatly dressed and well-groomed.

34. Social Cognition and Social Categorization LO 10.6 Social categorization and implicit personality theories • Social categorization • Automatic, occurs without conscious awareness • Is assignment of a person one has just met to a category • Based on characteristics person has in common with other people experienced in past

35. Social Cognition and Social Categorization LO 10.6 Social categorization and implicit personality theories • Stereotype • Set of characteristics believed to be shared by all members of a particular social category

36. Social Cognition and Social Categorization LO 10.6 Social categorization and implicit personality theories • Implicit personality theory • Assumptions about how different types of people, personality traits, and actions are related • Formed in childhood • Not necessarily true but form schemas • Patterns representing believes about types of people • Can become stereotypes

37. Attributions LO 10.7 How people explain others’ actions • Attribution • Explaining one’s own behavior and the behavior of others • Looks are why certain explanations are chosen

38. Attributions LO 10.7 How people explain others’ actions • Attribution theory • Situational cause • Behavior attributed to external factors • Such as: delays, the action of others • Dispositional cause • Behavior attributed to internal factors • Such as: personality or character

39. Attributions LO 10.7 How people explain others’ actions • Fundamental attribution error • actor-observer bias • Tendency to overestimate influence of internal factors in determining behavior of others • Explain behavior by “What kind of person he/she is” • Underestimate situational factors in determining behavior of others

40. Prejudice and Discrimination LO 10.8 Prejudice and discrimination • Prejudice • Negative, unsupported attitude • About members of a particular group • The attitude

41. Prejudice and Discrimination LO 10.8 Prejudice and discrimination • Discrimination • Treating people differently due to prejudice toward their social group • The behavior • Forms of prejudice include: • Ageism, sexism, racism

42. On September 6, 1957, this high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, became integrated, allowing African American students to attend school with white students. The practice of segregating black and white school children was discrimination, and the desegregation laws were aimed at stopping that discrimination. But the attitudes of prejudice persisted even after the legal discrimination was stopped and to some degree still exist today. The courts can make laws against discrimination, but changing prejudicial attitudes is much more difficult.

43. Types of Prejudice and Discrimination LO 10.8 Prejudice and discrimination • In-groups • Social groups a person identifies with • “Us” • Out-groups • Social groups a person does not identify with • “They”

44. Types of Prejudice and Discrimination LO 10.8 Prejudice and discrimination • Realistic conflict theory • Prejudice and discrimination increase between groups in conflict over a limited resource • Examples: land, jobs

45. These Korean demonstrators were protesting the riots that followed the 1992 not guilty verdict of the four police officers who were videotaped beating Rodney King. The riots lasted six days, killing 42 people and damaging 700 buildings in mainly Korean and other Asian American neighborhoods. As the most recent immigrants to the area, the Asian American population of Los Angeles, California, became the scapegoats for aggression.

46. How People Learn Prejudice LO 10.8 Prejudice and discrimination • Social cognitive theory • Prejudice is acquired through: • Direct instruction • Modeling • Social influences

47. How People Learn Prejudice LO 10.8 Prejudice and discrimination • Social identity theory • Formation of identity within social group is explained by: • Social categorization • Social identity • Social comparison

48. Social Identity Theory LO 10.9 Why people are prejudiced and how to stop it • Social categorization • Assign selves to social categories to help determine behavior • Social Identity • Self concept • View of self as a member of a social group within the social category

49. Social Identity Theory LO 10.9 Why people are prejudiced and how to stop it • Social comparison • Compare self favorably to others to improve own self-esteem

50. Stereotype Vulnerability LO 10.9 Why people are prejudiced and how to stop it • The effect that awareness of stereotypes associated with social group has on behavior • Often anxious that behavior might support the stereotype