Social Psychology

1. Social Psychology Fall 2011

2. Social Psychology • The study of how other people influence a person’s thoughts, feelings, and actions.

3. Attributions • Explanations for behaviors or events. • Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) • Saliency Bias • Self-Serving Bias

4. Attitudes • Learned predispositions to respond cognitively, affectively, and behaviorally to particular objects in a particular way. • Three components • Not permanent • Cognitive Dissonance

5. Prejudice • A learned, generally negative attitude directed toward specific people solely because of their membership in an identified group. • Three components • Prejudice is not discrimination • Attitude vs. action • Reasons: learning, mental shortcuts, economic and political competition, and displaced aggression.

6. Ingroup vs. Outgroup • Ingroup- category that people see themselves as belonging to. • Outgroup- any other category. • Ingroup Favoritism • Outgroup Homogeneity Effect

7. Prejudice • Competition for Limited Resources • Displaced Aggression • When the cause of frustration is too powerful and capable of retaliation or is ambiguous, people often redirect their aggression toward an alternative, innocent target, or a scapegoat. • Unknown prejudice • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYQVDik69Nw

8. What can be done to combat prejudice? • Cooperation and subordinate goals • Increased contact • Cognitive retraining • Cognitive dissonance

9. Interpersonal Attraction • Positive feelings toward another • Three components • Physical attractiveness • Proximity • Similarity

10. Conformity • Conformity • Solomon Asch’s Study of Conformity • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF6oiNU-POw&feature=related • Three Factors • Normative Social Influence • Informational Social Influence • Reference Groups

11. Obedience • The act of following a direct command, usually from an authority figure. • Conformity and obedience allow social life to proceed with safety, order, and predictability. • Milgram’sstudy: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpIzju84v24

12. Group Membership • Zimbardo Prison Experiment • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkmQZjZSjk4 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZwfNs1pqG0&feature=related • Deindividuation-feeling less self-conscious, less inhibited, and less personally responsible as a member of a group tan when you’re alone.

13. Group Decision Making • Risky-shift-groups support riskier decisions than decisions they make as individuals. • Group Polarization-a group’s movement toward either riskier or more conservative behavior, depending on the members’ initial dominant tendencies.

14. Groupthink • Faulty decision making that occurs when a highly cohesive group (a couple, a family, a panel of military advisers, an athletic team) strives for agreement and avoids inconsistent information.

15. Aggression • Any behavior intended to harm someone. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_qDfteRQ2g&feature=BFa&list=PL1C064DC94CAC421B&lf=results_main • Why do we act aggressively? • Instinct • Genes • Brain and nervous system • Substance abuse and mental disorders • Hormones and neurotransmitters • Aversive stimuli • Frustration-aggression hypothesis • Culture and learning • Media and Video Games

16. Altruism • Actions designed to help other with no obvious benefit to the helper. • Also known as prosocial behavior. • Egoist Model-we help other only because we hope for later reciprocation, because it makes us feel virtuous, or because it helps us avoid feeling guilty. • Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis-simply seeing or hearing of another person’s suffering can create empathy—a subjective grasp of that person’s feelings or experiences.

17. Diffusion of Responsibility • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=