Chapter 15

1. Chapter 15 Social Behavior

2. Module 15.1: Learning Objectives Affiliation, Friendship, and Love • Define social psychology • Discuss our need to affiliate, including a description of Schachter’s classic experiment on affiliation • Describe the social comparison theory, including how meaningful evaluations take place • Define interpersonal attraction • Describe how the following factors influence interpersonal attraction: physical proximity; physical attractiveness, including the halo effect; competence; and similarity, including homogamy

3. Module 15.1: Learning Objectives Affiliation, Friendship, and Love (Continued) • Discuss the effects of varying degrees of self-disclosure on interpersonal relationships • Discuss Rubin’s studies of romantic love, including the differences between loving and liking, the differences between male and female friendships, and the concept of mutual absorption • Describe the field of evolutionary psychology and how this field of study explains the different mate selection preferences of males and females

4. Clock Buddies?.... • 1) Why do we need to be around people? • 2) How does peer pressure affect society? (high school kids) • 3) How do you get people to do what you want them to do? • 4) What is evil? Are people born evil? • 5) How does the media influence adolescents? How can this be good and bad? • 6) Do we care about what people think? Why or why not? • 7) Do we ever give people the benefit of the doubt because they “appear” to be nice or good looking people? Why or why not?

5. What Is Social Psychology? • Social Psychology: • Scientific study of how individuals behave, think, and feel in social situations • How people act in the presence (actual or implied) of others • Need to Affiliate: • Desire to associate with other people • Appears to be a basic human trait • Social Comparison: • Making judgments about ourselves by comparing us to others • Example: comparing our feelings and abilities to those of other people

6. Schachter Experiment • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3imjiyLpBaU • Label the Dependent Variable, Independent Variable and Hypothesis for this experiment. • What was the purpose? • What do you think were the results? • Did it make a difference that he used only women in his study? Predict how the experiment would be different if only males were used.

7. Interpersonal Attraction • Social attraction to another person • Physical Proximity: • Physical nearness to another person in terms of housing, school, work, and so on • Physical Attractiveness: • Person’s degree of physical beauty as defined by his or her culture • Halo Effect: • Tendency to generalize a favorable impression to unrelated personal characteristics

8. Looking Glass Self Theory • Our own self-image is a combination of opinions from other people close to us. (other people tell us who we really are) • We reflect their opinions/idea

9. Examples of Halo Effect

10. Competence • People who are competent have knowledge, ability, or proficiency • We are more attracted to people who are talented or competent • When all else is equal * How can the appearance of competency affect relationships and/or behavior?

11. Similarity • Similarity: • Extent to which two people are alike in terms of age, education, attitudes, and so on • Similar people are attracted to each other • Homogamy: • Tendency to marry someone who is like us in almost every way

12. Self-Disclosure • Process of revealing private thoughts, attitudes, feelings, and one’s personal history to others • Reciprocity: • Return in kind; reciprocal exchange • Overdisclosure: • Self-disclosure that exceeds what is appropriate for a relationship or social situation

13. Love and Attachment • Romantic Love: • Marked by high levels of interpersonal attraction, sexual desire, and heightened arousal • Liking: • Relationship based on intimacy and affection but lacking passion or deep commitment • Mutual Absorption: • When two lovers almost always attend only to each other • Evolutionary Psychology: • Study of the evolutionary origins of human behavior patterns

15. Evolutionary Psychology • Influences sexual attraction and mate selection • Buss (2004; 2007) found that men prefer younger, more attractive partners • And women prefer older, higher status, more successful partners • Preferences may have evolved because of specific reproductive challenges faced by men and women

17. Module 15.2: Learning Objectives Groups, Social Influence, and Conformity • Discuss the following dimensions of being in a social group: social roles, including ascribed roles, achieved roles, and role conflict; group structure; group cohesiveness; in-groups and out-groups; status; and group norms • Discuss the process of attribution, including the difference between external and internal causes • Explain the fundamental attribution error and the actor-observer bias • Describe gender differences in attributing success

18. Module 15.2: Learning Objectives Groups, Social Influence, and Conformity (Continued) • Define social influence • Explain the three major forms of social influence • Describe Asch’s experiment on conformity and the personal characteristics that make some people more susceptible to group pressures • Explain how groupthink may contribute to poor decision-making and list ways to prevent it • Describe how the following factors affect conformity: group sanctions, the importance of the group, the number of group members, the unanimity of the group, and the power of an ally

19. Social Roles • Patterns of behavior expected of people in various social positions (e.g., daughter, mother, teacher, president) • Ascribed Role: • Assigned to a person or not under personal control • Achieved Role: • Attained voluntarily or by special effort: teacher, mayor, president • Role Conflict: • When two or more roles make conflicting demands on behavior and on people

20. Groups • Group Structure: • Network of roles, communication, pathways, and power in a group • Group Cohesiveness: • Degree of attraction among group members or their commitment to remaining in the group • Cohesive groups work better together • What kind of groups did you see on “Survivor,” “Road Rules,” and “Real World”?

21. Group Concepts • In-Group: • A group with which one identifies • Out-Group: • A group with which one does not identify • Status: • Level of social power and importance • Norm: • Widely accepted but usually unspoken standard of conduct for appropriate behavior

23. Social Perception • Attribution Theory: • Making inferences about the causes of one’s own behavior and others’ behavior • Can attribute behavior to: • External Causes: • Ones that lie outside of a person • Internal Causes: • Ones that lie within a person

24. More on Social Perception • Fundamental Attribution Error: • Tendency to attribute behavior of others to internal causes (personality, likes, and so on) • We believe this even if behavior really has external causes! • Actor-Observer Bias: • Tendency to attribute behavior of others to internal causes, while attributing the behavior of ourselves to external causes (situations and circumstances) • Double Standard

25. Social Influence • Changes in a person’s behavior induced by the presence or actions of another person • Someone else influences your decision: • husband, wife, mother, peer, etc. • Conform: • Bringing one’s behavior into agreement with norms or the behavior of others in a group • Comply: • Changing our behavior in response to another person who has little or no authority • Obey: • Changing our behavior in direct response to the demands of an authority figure

26. Solomon Asch’s Experiment on Conformity • You must select (from a group of three) the line that most closely matches the standard line • All lines are shown to a group of seven people (including you) • Other six were accomplices and at times all would select the wrong line • In 37 percent of the trials, the real subject conformed to group pressure even when the group’s answers were obviously incorrect!

28. Group Factors in Conformity • Groupthink: • Compulsion by decision makers to maintain each other’s approval, even at the cost of critical thinking • Group Sanctions: • Rewards and punishments administered by groups to enforce conformity • Unanimity: • Unanimous agreement

29. Module 15.3: Learning Objectives Compliance, Obedience, and Self-Assertion • Explain how compliance differs from conformity • Discuss the following methods of gaining compliance: foot-in-the-door, door-in-the-face, and low-ball technique • Describe how knowing these strategies can protect a person from being manipulated. • Describe Milgram’s study of obedience • Discuss how each of the following factors affected the degree of obedience in Milgram’s follow-up experiments: prestige of the authority, distance between the teacher and the learner, distance from the authority, and group support

30. Module 15.3: Learning Objectives Compliance, Obedience, and Self-Assertion (Continued) • Give examples of “crimes of obedience” in world events and everyday life • Discuss the following aspects of assertiveness training: the three basic rights, including the concept of self-assertion; a comparison of assertive, non-assertive, and aggressive behaviors; and assertiveness training, including the importance of practice, using rehearsal and role-playing, the principle of overlearning, and the broken record technique

31. Compliance • Bending to the requests of one person who has little or no authority or other form of social power • Three factors that determine whether a person will comply with a request: • The Foot-in-the-Door Effect • The Door-in-the-Face Effect • The Low-Ball Technique

32. Foot-in-the-Door Effect • A person who has agreed to a small request is more likely later to agree to a larger demand • Once you get a foot in the door, then a sale is almost a sure thing

33. Door-in-the-Face Technique • A person who has refused a major request will be more likely later on to comply with a smaller request • After the door has been slammed in your face (major request refused), person may be more likely to agree to a smaller request

34. Low-Ball Technique • Commitment is gained first to reasonable or desirable terms, which are then made less reasonable or desirable • Henry accepts the price he states for a new car; then later Tillie the saleswoman tells Henry, “The business would lose too much money on that price; can’t you take a bit less and add all these options?”

35. Obedience (Milgram) • A type of conformity to the demands of an authority figure • Would you shock a man with a known heart condition who is screaming and asking to be released? • Milgram studied obedience • The man with a heart condition was an accomplice and the “teacher” was a real volunteer • The goal was to teach the learner word pairs • The learner was “attached” to a shock machine • The teacher believes he/she is administering shocks to learner • The researcher is telling the teacher to administer shocks to the learner

36. Milgram’s Shocking Results • 65 percent obeyed by going all the way to 450 volts on the “shock machine” even though the learner eventually could not answer any more questions • The learner screamed and provided no further answers once 300 volts (“severe shock”) was reached • Group support can reduce destructive obedience

37. More on Obedience • Distance between the teacher and the learner was important • Distance from authority also had an effect

41. Assertiveness Training • Instruction in how to be self-assertive • Self-Assertion: • Standing up for your rights by speaking out on your behalf • Direct, honest expression of feelings and desires

42. Practicing Assertiveness • Rehearsing: • Repeat dialogue, posture, and gestures that you would use to confront someone • Role-play: • Act out the confrontation scene with a friend • Overlearning: • Practice that continues after initial mastery of a skill • Broken Record: • Repeating a request until it is acknowledged

43. Module 15.4: Learning Objectives Attitudes and Persuasion • Define attitude • Describe the belief, emotional, and action components of an attitude • List and give examples of six ways in which attitudes are acquired • Explain three reasons why people may exhibit discrepancies between attitudes and behavior and how conviction affects attitudes • Explain the difference between membership groups and reference groups, including how one’s point of reference affects attitude change • Define persuasion and explain how the characteristics of the communicator, audience, and message affect attitude change

44. Module 15.4: Learning Objectives Attitudes and Persuasion (Continued) • Explain cognitive dissonance theory • List five strategies for reducing dissonance • Describe how the amount of justification affects the amount of dissonance felt and why people are especially likely to experience dissonance after causing an event that they wish hadn’t happened • Differentiate between brainwashing and other persuasive techniques • Describe the techniques used in brainwashing • Indicate how permanent the attitude changes brought about by brainwashing are • Describe how cults are able to recruit, convert, and retain their members and how cult leaders differ from true spiritual leaders

45. Attitudes and Beliefs • Attitude: • Mixture of belief and emotion that predisposes a person to respond to other people, objects, or institutions in a positive or negative way • Summarizes your evaluation of objects

46. Attitude Components • Belief Component: • What a person believes about an object or issue • Emotional Component: • Feelings toward the attitudinal object • Action Component: • One’s actions toward various people, objects, or institutions

49. Attitude Formation • Direct Contact: • Effects of direct experience with the object of the attitude • Interaction with Others: • Influence of discussions with people holding a particular attitude • Child Rearing: • Effects of parental values, beliefs, and practices

50. More on Attitude Formation • Group Membership: • Social influences from belonging to certain groups • Mass Media: • All media that reach large audiences (magazines, television) • Mean Worldview: • Viewing the world and other people as dangerous and threatening