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Social Psychology. The scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another. Attribution Theory ck to add title. Theory that we tend to explain the behavior of others as an aspect of either an internal disposition (an inner trait) or the situation
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Social Psychology The scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another
Attribution Theoryck to add title • Theory that we tend to explain the behavior of others as an aspect of either an internal disposition (an inner trait) or the situation • How we EXPLAIN behavior
conformity Adopting attitudes or behaviors of others because of pressure to do so; the pressure can be real or imagined 2 general reasons for conformity • Informational social influence • Normative social influence
1 3 2 Standard lines Comparison lines Asch’s Experiments on Conformity • All but 1 in group was confederate • Seating was rigged • Asked to rate which line matched a “standard” line • Confederates were instructed to pick the wrong line 12/18 times Confederate: someone who is “in on” the experiment, but those participating in the experiment do not know that
Asch’s Experiments on Conformity • Results • Asch found that 75% participants conformed to at least one wrong choice • subjects gave wrong answer (conformed) on 37% of the critical trials • Why did they conform to clearly wrong choices? • informational influence? • subjects reported having doubted their own perceptual abilities which led to their conformance – didn’t report seeing the lines the way the confederates had
Obedience Conformity to the demands of an authority
Stanley Milgram’s Studies Basic study procedure • teacher and learner (learner always confederate) • watch learner being strapped into chair • learner expresses concern over his “heart condition”
Factors that INCREASE the likelihood you will obey • Person giving orders is an authority figure. Because of “socialization” we obey them. • Person giving orders is associated with a prestigious (an important) institution like a university, the gov’t, or a business • The authority figure was present in the room with the subject • The “learner” was in a different room. This helps to “depersonalize” the learner. • There was no role model for defiance. No one spoke up against the authority figure.
