Social Psychology

1. Social Psychology

2. What is Social psychology? • The field of psych pertaining to how we think about other people, interact in relationships and groups, and are influenced by others • Scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior are impacted by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others • The study of social situations, with special attention to how we view and affect others

3. Topics in Social Psychology • Person Perception & Attribution • Stereotypes & Prejudice • Social Influence • Attraction/Love • Close Relationships (my area of research) • Behavior in Groups • Helping Behavior • Aggressions • Attitudes • The Self

4. Person Perception • Perception • Mental grasp of objects through the senses • Object of interest in social psych is the person • Impression Formation • What info do we use when making judgments? • Appearance • Age, gender, ethnicity • Attractiveness • Behavior • Information from others

5. Biases in Judgment • Implicit Personality Theory • People assume that certain aspects or traits go together • Halo effect: We assume people we like have good characteristics, even if we haven’t seen them • Self-concept bias • What we consider important in ourselves is often what we consider important in others • Primacy effects • People are influenced more by info they receive early in an interaction than by info that appears later • We will even re-interpret new information so that it fits our earlier impression of people

6. Attribution Processes • The process of asking “why” people do what they do • We do this for unexplained or unexpected events • Kelley’s covariation model • Consensus • Do other people react in the same way as the target? • Consistency • Does the target react in the same way to this stimulus on repeated exposures? • Distinctiveness • Does the target react the same way to similar stimuli?

7. Kelley’s Covariation Model

8. Attributional Errors • Fundamental Attribution Error • A tendency to overestimate the impact of personal causes of behavior and to overlook the role of situations • Actor-Observer Bias • More likely to make external attributions for our own negative behavior and internal attributions for others’ negative behavior • Vice versa for positive behavior (though this tendency isn’t as strong)

9. Stereotypes • If we use schemas to form overall impressions of others because we are cognitive misers… • Stereotypes: group schemas, containing a set of beliefs about people in a particular social category • Devine (1989) • Automatic activation of stereotypes • CAN be controlled, when our personal beliefs (either positive or negative) of a social group are not aligned with the automatic stereotypes

10. Origins of Prejudice • Socialization • We are not born with stereotypes, but we grow to imitate those who we respect • Realistic Group Conflict Theory • When groups are forced to compete for scarce resources (e.g., good jobs, nice homes, college educations), they threaten each other in a very negative manner • ‘Our group is better than yours’ becomes justification for greater access to these positive resources

11. Ways to Reduce Prejudice • Allport’s Contact Theory • Under certain conditions, direct contact between members of different groups will improve relations • Contact must involve: • Mutual interdependence • A common goal • Equal status of groups • Informal, interpersonal contact • Multiple contacts • Social norms of equality

12. Social Influence • Three types • Conformity • Compliance • Obedience • Conformity • The tendency for people to bring their behavior in line with group norms • Changing to match group’s standards

13. Conformity • Informational Social Influence • The need to be right • Sherif (1936) autokinetic effect • Initially, P’s show a lot of variety in their answers but each group will create its own range

14. Sherif (1936) autokinetic effect

15. Conformity • Informational Social Influence • The need to be right • Sherif (1936) autokinetic effect • Initially, P’s show a lot of variety in their answers but each group will create its own range • Normative Social Influence • The need to be liked • Asch (1955) line study • 76% of the time, P’s will conform and give the wrong answer as well

16. Compliance • Doing something because someone asked us to • Two types • Commitment-based techniques • By getting us to commit to a small item, we are more likely to commit to larger items • Norm of Reciprocity-based techniques • We should do for those who have done for us

17. Commitment-based Compliance • Foot in the Door • Small request (accepted) followed by larger (accepted due to initial commitment) • Low Ball • Once request is agreed to, the hidden costs of complying reveal themselves • Why do these work? • We like to think that our self-identity is consistent • Once we agree to this person on this topic, we like to maintain consistency and keep agreeing

18. Norm of Reciprocity-based Compliance • Unsolicited Gift • March of Dimes address labels, paying participants in advance • You are providing them with something in the hope that they will reciprocate • Door in the Face • Initial large request (rejected) followed by a smaller request (accepted) • The requester has lowered their demands so you feel the need to reciprocate by giving in a little

19. Obedience • Doing something because a legitimate authority figure asked us to • Stanley Milgram (1960’s) • The participant is the teacher, the confederate is the learner • If the learner makes an error, the teacher has to ‘shock’ him…with the level of shock increasing to dangerous and deadly levels • As the level of shock increases, the P can hear the learner is in obvious pain

20. Obedience • Factors that increased/decreased obedience • Making subject feel more responsible for their behavior reduced obedience • Emphasizing pain of other subject reduced obedience • Increasing physical presence of legitimate authority figure increased obedience • Having other subjects stop obeying reduced obedience

21. Attraction - Proximity • We like those we are close to both physically and functionally • Why does proximity work? • It increases familiarity • Often linked to similarity • It makes others more available • Cognitive consistency • It's easier to be around others who we like, therefore we feel a need to get along with people we see often

22. Attraction - Familiarity • Simply seeing a person more frequently can increase our liking of that person • This only works if our initial reaction is either neutral or positive • Seeing a negative stimulus repeatedly simply makes us not like it even more • Why does familiarity work? • Repeated exposure increases recognition • We assume that familiar others are similar to ourselves

23. Attraction - Similarity • Matching Principle • The tendency to choose similar partners • Friends • Social class, educational level, and religious backgrounds • Romantic partners • Age, social class, ethnicity, and religion • Why does the similarity effect occur? • Similar others are easier and more pleasant to be around • Expectancy-value Theory • Maybe we deliberately select people for their similarity to us • The reward for dating someone similar to us is high…but so is the probability that they will like us

24. What does being physically attractive mean? • Beauty is in the eye of the beholder…for the most part • Walster et al (1966) Computer Dance study • Used a computer service to match people for blind dates (but they were really randomly assigned) • Physical attractiveness was the only significant predictor of liking

25. What does being physically attractive mean? (cont.) • Halo effect of beauty • Attractive people are judged more favorably on other traits than are less attractive people • Pretty people are assumed to have better: • Social skills • Intellectual competence • Greater integrity and concern for others • Is it true? • Certainly not for intelligence or integrity but sort of for social skills

26. Close Relationships Rusbult’s Investment Model ( + ) Satisfaction ( + ) Investments Commitment ( - ) Alternatives

27. Violence • U.S. has highest murder rate in the world among developed countries • More than 15,000 murders every year • More than 92,000 reported rapes • More than 7 million reported violent acts overall • Every 5 minutes a child is arrested for a violent crime • More than 50% of 5th graders report being a victim of violence (70% of those have seen weapons used) • Guns kill an American child every 3 hours

28. Aggression • Aggression • Behavior intended to injure another who is motivated to avoid it • Assertiveness • Behavior intended to express dominance or confidence • Assertiveness is not aggression

29. Biological Theories • Aggressive impulses may be hereditary • Twin studies: • Correlations of aggression higher among monozygotic twins than dizygotic pairs • Aggression is associated with • Low levels of serotonin • High levels of testosterone • Activation of the amygdala can lead to aggressive behaviors (though it still depends on situational factors)

30. Gender Differences in Aggression • Men use more physical, direct forms of aggression • Men’s aggression is more likely to do physical harm, and thus gets more attention • Girls and women use more indirect forms of aggression (e.g., spreading rumors). • There is no clear sex difference in reporting feelings of anger

31. Gender Differences in Aggression • Provocation: The great equalizer? • Men are more likely to attack physically when unprovoked than women • What happens when people are irritated, frustrated, or threatened by another person? • Bettencourt & Miller (1996) • Conducted a meta-analysis of gender differences in aggression • Found that when provocation is involved, the typical gender difference in physical aggression is reduced or eliminated

32. Physical Discomfort & Aggression • Heat • Humidity • Pain • Noxious fumes • Poverty • Crowding

34. Media Violence • More TV sets in United States than toilets • Media consumption is #1 pass-time among Americans, particularly youth • 60%-70% of all TV programs contain violence • 70%-80% show no remorse, criticism, or penalty for the violence • By the time the average American child graduates from elementary school: • More than 8,000 murders • More than 100,000 other acts of violence (e.g., assaults, rape)

35. Media Violence • More recently, video games have become kids’ favorite form of media • 90% of kids age 2-17 play regularly • Majority of popular games are violent

36. Grand Theft Auto

37. Mortal Kombat

38. Media Violence • Since at least 1970, researchers have known of a link between violent media and aggression • Weakened inhibitions against violent behavior • Imitation of specific violent acts • Aggression primed as a response to anger • Desensitization to violence • Overestimation of prevalence of violence in real life

39. Common Responses 1. “That’s all boloney. I play those games and I’ve never killed anyone.” 2. “Maybe there is an effect, but it’s really small and meaningless.” 3. “Actually, my friends and I feel better after blowing off steam playing video games.”

40. Common Responses 1. “Not all who play violent games/watch violent media become killers.” • True. Not all smokers die of lung cancer, either. • The point is NOT whether exposure leads inevitably to criminal mayhem, but that the likelihood of aggression is increased

41. 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 -0.1 -0.2 -0.3 Aggression Helping Hostile Hostile Arousal Thoughts Affect Effects of VVGs(Bushman & Anderson, 2001) Findings from a meta-analysis Correlation with VVG Exposure

42. Common Responses 2. “Effects are trivially small” • False. Effects are larger than many that we take for granted

43. Common Responses 3. “Playing violent games/watching violence allows people to “vent” feelings of anger” • False. Watching violence or engaging in virtual violence increases aggression • Catharsis doesn’t work!

44. Media Industry Response 1. The media is simply “holding a mirror to society.” • False. Real world is far less violent than the TV/Movie world. • 0.2% of crimes are murders; 50% of crimes on TV are murders • Average of 7 characters are killed on TV each night • If applied in reality, this proportion of murder would wipe out U.S. population in 50 days

45. Media Industry Response 2. “We’re simply giving the public what they want.” • Maybe. But viewer interest is only one factor driving programming decisions • Societal violence can be considered a hazardous by-product • Also, most popular shows (Friends, Seinfeld, Bachelor) are not violent

46. Media Industry Response 3. “Violence sells!” • False. TV violence significantly decreases memory for commercial messages • Bushman, 1998 • 19% of viewers will be less likely to remember an ad if it is embedded in a violent or sexually explicit show

47. Prosocial Behavior (a.ka. Altruism) • Prosocial Behavior • Any act that helps or is meant to help others • It doesn’t matter what the helper’s motivation is

48. Evolutionary Theory • Kin selection • Gene survival is more important than the individual’s survival • By helping our relatives, we are giving our genes a greater chance of surviving, even if it harms our own life • Parents behave more altruistically to healthy offspring to unhealthy ones (Dovidio et al., 1991)

49. Social Exchange Theory • We want to maximize our benefits and minimize our costs • We examine the costs and rewards of helping and not helping • 3 rewards of helping • Reciprocity • They will owe us when we need help (or at least it eventually balances out) • Relieves distress • We don’t like to see others suffer • Social approval • Others like us more when we are viewed as helpful and increases our self-worth

50. Gender and Helping • Women are universally perceived as kinder, more soft-hearted, and more helpful (Williams & Best, 1990) • But over 90% of Carnegie Hero awards go to men (for saving, or attempting to save, the life of another) • Women • Help those they already know • Help in nurturing ways involving long-term commitment • Men • Help strangers in emergency situations • Help in chivalrous, heroic ways