Chapter 18

1. Chapter 18 Social Psychology

2. Chapter 18 Reading Map • Frid, April 20 2 essays in class • Mon, April 23 695 – 702 • Tues, April 24 AP Exam • Wed, April 25 702 – 709 • Thur, April 26 709 – 713 • Frid, April 27 714 – end • Mon, April 28 Quiz/Cards/Study Guide

3. Social Psychology (695) Social Psychology --- studies how we think about, influence and relate to one and other.

4. Attributing Behavior (696) • Fritz Heider (1958) - proposed the Attribution Theory which says that people attribute other's behavior to • their internal dispositions, or • their external situations

5. Fundamental Attribution Error (696) • when explaining our own behavior, we attribute it to the situation • when explaining other's behavior, we attribute it to his disposition • with people we know well and see in various situations, we are less likely to commit the fundamental attribution error • Napolitan and Goethals (1979) - 1/2 told the women would act aloof and 1/2 were not told anything. Despite this nearly all attributed her behavior to her disposition (even though 1/2 had been told she was acting)

6. Effects of Attribution (697) • happy spouses attribute snipes as situational. • unhappy spouse attribute snipes as dispositional • conservatives attribute poverty as dispositional • liberals attribute poverty as situational

7. Do Attitudes Guide Actions? (698) YES, if • outside influences on what we say and do are minimal • the attitude is specifically relevant to the behavior - (ie your attitude to fast food guides your restaurant choices) • we are keenly aware of our attitudes

8. Do Actions Guide Attitudes? (699) People come to believe in what they have stood up for.

9. Foot in the Door Phenomenon (699) • the tendency for people who agree to a small action to comply later on with a larger one. (good or bad) • Phenomenon came out of the Korean war. 21 US prisoners chose to stay with their captors after the war ended. Others returned home convinced that communism was a good thing. The prisoners were first asked to do trivial tasks and then this escalated up. Eventually they adjusted their beliefs to be consistent with their public acts.

10. Role Playing Affects Attitudes (700) • We "play" wife, but eventually it feels natural. • Executives turn into aggressive and confident people.

11. Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment of 1972 • Philip Zimbardo simulated a prison at the university of Stanford and asked for volunteers who were randomly assigned to play guards or prisoners. After a few days the simulation became too real - the guards too brutal - the prisoners began to break down. After 6 days Zimbardo had to stop the experiment because of ethical problems. • Interview clip with Zimbardo (9 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAjJoorEaic

12. Zimbardo in Regina (2009)

13. Why Do Our Actions Affect Our Attitudes? (701) • we feel motivated to justify our actions • cognitive dissonance - when we are aware that our actions and attitudes don't coincide

14. Cognitive Dissonance Theory (701) • Leon Festinger’s theory that to relieve cognitive dissonance we often change our attitudes to match our actions (we rationalize). • The less coerced and more responsible we feel for a troubling act, the more cognitive dissonance we feel - and - the more dissonance we feel, the more we are motivated to change our attitudes to match our actions.

15. Conformity & Obedience (702) • Chartrund an Bargh (1999) - the chameleon effect - we are natural mimics - the face rubbing/foot shaking experiment - the subjects copied the actions of the confederates. • Totterdell (1998) - mood linkage - we share up and down moods • Neumann and Strack (2000) - mood contagion - a neutral text read in a happy or sad tone will convey happy or sad

16. Copycat Crime/Suicide • do people act the same because they are copying or because they are simultaneously exposed to the same events and conditions of the first shooter? • 8 days following the Columbine shooting, every State except Vermont experienced threats of copycat violence.

17. Group Pressure and Conformity (704) Conformity - adjusting your behavior or thinking toward a group standard

18. What Does This Have to Do With Conformity?????

19. Asch Experiment (1955) • the line experiment • the confederates give the right answer the first 2 times and then give the wrong answer • more than 1/3 of the time people go with the group even though they admit later that they thought the group was wrong • 4 minute clip of experiment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sno1TpCLj6A

20. Asch (continued) • Asch found people more likely to conform when: • one is made to feel incompetent or insecure • the group is at least 3 people • the group is unanimous (a single dissident or ally will greatly increase social courage) • one admires the group • one has made no prior commitment to any response • others in the group observe one's behavior • one's culture strongly encourages respect for social standards

21. Reasons for Conforming (705) • Normative Social Influence - influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval - because we respect norms • Informational Social Influence - is when we accept other's opinions about reality • Western society values individualism over conformity and the conformity rates are therefore lower.

22. Baron (1996) • show subjects a slide of a single person and then a slide of 4 people - ask them to pick out the single person - some subjects told that this is just an experiment - others are told it relates to a police line up. • when subjects believed that the task was important people rarely conform when the task was easy but conformed 1/2 the time when the task is difficult. • When subjects believed the task was unimportant people conformed about 1/3 of the time. • When we are unsure of what is right, and being right matters, we tend to conform

23. Obedience (706) • Milgram clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHuI2JIPylk

24. Stanley Milgram Experiment (1963) at Yale University • subjects thought experiment was about punishment's effect on learning. • subject becomes the "teacher" and learner is strapped to an electric chair in other room • teacher is told to go up in voltage with each wrong answer • experimenter prods teacher to keep shocking • 63% of Milgram's teachers complied to the last voltage switch - men and women complied similarly

25. Debate Over Milgram’s Research Ethics (707) • none of his subjects appeared to suffer emotional after effects (they were interviewed by psychiatrists after the experiment). BUT ……. Remember our Research Ethics: 1. Cause no harm 2. Subjects can withdraw 3. Subjects must consent 4. Subjects must be debriefed 5. Confidentiality

26. Obedience Highest When • Milgram varied his experiment Obedience was HIGHEST when: • the person giving the orders was close at hand and was perceived to be a legitimate authority figure • the authority figure was supported by a prestigious institution (Yale v. Crappola College) • the victim was depersonalized or at a distance • there were no role models for defiance - no other subjects were seen to disobey the experimenter

27. Real Life Obedience In history we have both examples of obedience • Nazi soldiers • French Resisters

28. Individual Behavior in the Presence of Others (709) • Social Facilitation - fishing reel experiment (Norman Triplett (1898) - the phenomenon of stronger performance in other's presence • However, on difficult tasks people perform worse when others are working on the same task • Why? - other people arouse us - arousal strengthens the most likely response which is the correct response on easy tasks but the incorrect response on difficult tasks • Therefore - expert pool players do better when watched but amateurs will do worse.

29. Individual Behavior in the Presence of Others (709) • Crowding - social facilitation makes people laugh louder at comediens when they are in a crowd • Social Loafing- the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward a common goal than when they are individually accountable

30. Social Loafing (710) • Inham (1974) - tug-of-war experiment - people blind folded - when people thought others were on the rope with them they pulled using 82% of the strength that they used when they thought they were alone on the rope • Social Loafing is most marked among men in individualistic cultures

31. Deindividuation (710) • abandoning normal restraints to the power of the group • the group arouses you and diminishes your sense of responsibility • less self-conscious and less restrained in a group

32. Zimbardo (1970) • His experiment found that people dressed alike in Klan wear delivered twice the shock to victims • the group makes people feel aroused and anonymous

33. Effects of Group Interaction (711) Group Polarization • the strengthening of a group's attitudes through discussion within the group • can be negative or positive attitudes - racism gets worse - tolerance gets more tolerant • over time, the initial difference between groups tends to grow

34. Group Think (712) • is harmonious but unrealistic group thinking • The tendency of people to go along with a group decision even if they don’t agree with it --- harmony is more important

35. Group Think • coined by Irving Janis after the Cuban Missile Crisis - when President Kennedy and his advisers blundered into a plan to invade Cuba with 1400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles. When the invaders were easily caught and linked to the US government, Kennedy wondered in hindsight how they could have been so stupid.

36. Group Think Janis discovered that Group Think is fed by: 1. Unduly high confidence 2. High group morale 3. dissidents are either self-censored or suppressed by the group 4. conformity and assumed support for the idea 5. group polarization

37. Group Think Group Think is avoided when leaders - • welcome opinions • invite expert criticism • assign people to identify possible problems

38. Power of the Individual (712) • Social Control - power of the situation • Personal Control - power of the individual • Committed individuals influence groups. • Minority Influence - the power of 1 or 2 to sway majorities • An unswerving minority is more powerful than a waffling minority.

39. Prejudice (714) • means to pre-judge • an unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group • a mixture of beliefs (stereotypes), emotions and predispositions to action (to discriminate). • are schemas that influence how we notice and perceive and interpret events

40. How Prejudiced Are We? (714) • in the last 50 years we are becoming less prejudiced • blatant prejudice is waning but subtle prejudice lingers - ie in social intimacy settings many still admit they would feel uncomfortable with someone of another race • Prejudice can be unconscious - ex. people in simulations more quickly "shoot" black people • Racial Profiling • male v. female • sex-selective abortions

41. Social Roots of Prejudice (716) • Social Inequalities - the "haves" develop attitudes to justify things as they are - ie the slaves had "traits" that justified them being enslaved. • prejudices rationalize inequalities • discrimination increases prejudice through the reactions it provokes in its victims (an example of the self-fulfilling prophecy) • Blame-the-victim phenomemon • Brown eye/blue eye experiment clip (9 Minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAv8JA_9uKI&feature=related

42. Us v. ThemIngroup v. Outgroup (716) • we have an ancestral need to belong and so we are a group-bound species • social identities - we associate with certain groups and contrast ourselves with other groups • When we define "us" we also (by default) define "them"

43. Ingroup Bias (716) • favouring your own group • We have an urge for the ingroup to dominate and this predisposes us to a prejudice against strangers • Even chimpanzees have been seen to wipe clean the spot where they were touched by a chimp from another group (Goodall, 1986)

44. Scapegoating (717) • finding someone to blame when things go wrong • gives us an emotional outlet • a despised outgroup boosts the morale of the ingroup • the lower your self-esteem, the more likely you will scapegoat

45. Cognitive Roots of Prejudice (718) stereotypes are a by-product of how we cognitively simplify the world

46. Cognitive Roots of PrejudiceCategorization (718) • we simplify our world by categorizing it ---- but ---- in grouping people we often stereotype them • stereotypes bias our perceptions - we perceive a black basketball player as a better player • stereotypes bias our perceptions of diversity • “we" are diverse but "they" are all the same

47. Cognitive Roots of PrejudiceVivid Cases (718) Availability Heuristic - we judge the frequency of events by instances that readily come to mind --- we overgeneralize from vivid, memorable cases

48. Cognitive Roots of PrejudiceJust-World Phenomenon (718) • by-standers blame victims by assuming the world is just and therefore people get what they deserve • ·we learn that "good" is reworded and "evil" is punished - so - if you are being "punished" (by a tsunami?) that must mean that you are "evil" • we use hindsight bias and say that the victim should have known better

49. Aggression (718) • physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy whether done reactively out of hostility or proactively as a means to an end • behavior emerges from the interaction of biology and experience • Therefore there is Biology of Aggression and Psychology of Aggression

50. Biology of Aggression (719) • Freud says that aggression is a biological instinct • But, others say that aggression varies too much from culture to culture and individual to individual for it to just be biological. • Yet, biology does influence aggression: • genetic • neural • biochemical