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Explore the dimensions, formation, and change of attitudes in social psychology. Dive into persuasion, cognitive dissonance, social cognition, nonverbal communication, attribution, prejudice, conformity, and obedience.
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Social psychology: Social Psychology
ATTITUDES Dimensions Formation Change Consistency
Dimensions of Attitudes • Cognitive Dimension: • Emotional Dimension: 3. Behavioural Dimension:
How are Attitudes Formed? Learning • Operant conditioning • Observational learning
How are Attitudes Formed? • Does behaviour shape attitudes? • “Stanford Prison Experiment”: college students asked to act and dress as prisoners or guards quickly developed attitudes consistent with their assigned role.
Persuasion: Changing Attitudes 4 Key Components (Carl Hovland): • Communicator • Communication • Medium • Audience
The Elaboration Likelihood Model • Adaptive: • attitude change can be accomplished via two routes:
The Elaboration Likelihood Model • Central Route: • Peripheral Route:
Attitude Consistency: Cognitive dissonance (Festinger):
Social Cognition Mental Shortcuts Nonverbal Communication Attribution Prejudice
Social cognition: Impression formation: Social Cognition
Mental Shortcuts • pragmatic rules of the thumb
Representativeness: • Availability: Mental Shortcuts
False Consensus Effect: Framing: Mental Shortcuts
Nonverbal Communication • nonverbal communication • Often plays a greater role in impression formation than oral communication.
Facial Expressions Six basic emotions are distinguished in facial expressions cross culturally:
Body Language Body Language: Body positions, gestures, and movements that convey information about moods and attitudes.
Eye Contact • People tend to judge others based on eye contact. • Eye contact is a powerful form of nonverbal communication in all cultures. • The meaning of eye contact is culturally defined
Attribution Inferring the Causes of Behavior
Attribution Attribution
Kelly’s Attributional Model Criteria used to determine whether the causes of behavior are internal or external: 1) Consensus 2)Consistency 3)Distinctiveness
Errors in attribution • Fundamental attribution error • Napolitan & Goethals (1979) classic study demonstrating fundamental attribution error
Errors in attribution • Actor-Observer Effect
Errors in Attribution • Self-serving bias • .
Prejudice Definitions: • Prejudice = • Stereotypes =
Prejudice • Discrimination
What causes prejudice? • Social Learning Theory • Motivational theory • Cognitive Theory • Personality Theory
Motivational Theory • Based on the idea that people compete for scarce resources • Asserts that people tend to dislike individuals who are viewed as competitors • This dislike is generalized to entire groups
Cognitive Theory • Mental shortcuts can lead to: • Illusory correlations: • Social categorization
Classic Study of Stereotyping & Prejudice • Bodenhausen & Wyer (1985) • Subjects read vignettes about people who had committed crimes and were asked to make parole recommendations. • Name of criminal = ‘John T.’, ‘Carlos Ramirez’ or ‘Ashley Chamberlain’ • Crime = embezzling company funds by forging signatures, or brutally attacking a man in a bar after an argument. • Sometimes an explanation of the crime was provided • Subjects likely to recommend parole of ‘John T.’ regardless of crime (no stereotype) • Less likely to recommend parole if crime fit stereotype i.e. Chamberlain embezzled, Ramirez attacked)
SOCIAL INFLUENCE Conformity Obedience
Social influence Social Influence
CONFORMITY • Conformity – • Asch (1951) conducted the following experiment:: • Seven to nine people were asked to judge which of three lines matched a standard line • Only one group member, the “naïve” participant, was really unaware of the purpose of the study • The other “participants” deliberately gave false answers • Asch found some naïve participants would go along with the group, even when the answer they gave was obviously wrong
Amount of information – Relative competence of the group – Position within a group – Public nature of behaviour - Factors influencing conformity:
Why Do People Conform? • Social conformity approach – • Attribution - • Independence - • Expediency -
OBEDIENCE • Obedience
Obedience: The Milgram Studies • Classic studies of obedience were performed by Stanley Milgram • Milgram told participants they would be participating in a study of the effects of punishment on learning • Their task was to administer electric shock to a “learner,” but in reality, the “learner” was a confederate
Results • No participant stopped before 300v • 65% administered all 30 levels of shock • Teacher did display distress • Concluded obedience to authority common • What about female participants?
Psychological Distance – Cognitive Reinterpretations – Slippery slope - Explaining Milgram’s Results
Ethical Issues • Milgram’s study raised ethical issues • To ensure that there are no long-lasting ill effects from participating in a study, participants are debriefed • Debriefing
PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR Altruism - helping Bystander Apathy – Not helping