Social Psychology

1. Social Psychology Cole Michael Edging Michael Todter

2. Group Dynamics • Group Structure: The network of roles, communication pathways, and power in a group • Ex: The army or an athletic team • Group Cohesiveness: The degree of attraction among group members or their commitment to remaining in the group • Ex: Those who stick together; therefore causing them to stand or sit close together, pay more attention to one another, and show more signs of mutual affection

3. Group Cohesiveness Group Structure

4. Attribution Processes • One attribution process is Fundamental Attribution Error. • Fundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to attribute the behavior of others to internal causes (personality, likes, and so forth) • Ex in book: kid thinks Macy likes parties, but really she only goes because she plays the tuba at them • Actor-Observer Bias: Making attributions of others behaviors through internal causes, while attributing one’s own behavior to external causes. • Ex: being late to something, and saying it was because you were held up from events beyond your control.

5. Interpersonal Attraction • Interpersonal Attraction: Social attraction to another person. • Ex: interested in someone because of their personality, who are kind and understanding, and who like us in return.

6. Conformity, Compliance, Obedience • Conformity: Bringing one’s behavior into agreement or harmony with norms or with the behavior of others in a group. • Ex: Jumping off a cliff because everyone else is doing it. • Compliance: Bending to the requests of a person who has little of no authority or other form of social power. • Ex: listening to a student, who is taking over the class for a teacher. • Obedience: Conformity to the demands of an authority. • Ex: Taking notes when teacher tells the class to do so.

7. Conformity Obedience Compliance

8. Attitudes • Definition of attitude: a learned tendency to respond to people, objects or institutions in a positive or negative way • Attitude formation-attitudes are acquired in several basic ways- • Direct contact- personal experience with object of attitude • Interaction with others- personal experience with people holding a particular attitude

9. Attitude Change • Persuasion-and deliberate attempt to change attitude or beliefs with info and arguments • Communicator-the person presenting argument/info • Message-the content of communicator’s arguments or presentation • Audience- the person or group toward whom a persuasive message is directed • Forced attitude change- • Brainwashing-engineered or forced attitude change involving a captive audience • Cults- group that professes great devotion to some person and follows that person almost without question; cult members are typically victimized by their leaders in carious ways

10. Organizational Behavior

11. Aggression • Aggression-any action carried out with the intention of harming another person • Instincts • Biological basis-low blood sugar, allergies, specific brain injuries, diseases, higher hormone levels • Frustration-leads to aggression. • Aversive stimuli-any stimulus that produces discomfort or displeasure • Aggression cues- stimuli or signals that are associated with aggression and that tend to elicit it • Social learning-combines learning principles with cognitive processes, socialization, and modeling to explain behavior

12. Antisocial Behavior • Antisocial personality- a person who lacks a conscience; is emotionally shallow, impulsive, selfish; and tends to manipulate others • Sometimes called • Sociopaths • Psychopaths • Seem to be incapable of having deep feelings such as guilt, shame, fear, loyalty, love