Social Psychology

1. Social Psychology

2. Social Psychology is a broad field devoted to studying:

3. how people relate to each other the development and expression of attitudes people’s attributions about their own behavior and that of others the reasons why people engage in both prosocial and antisocial behavior how the presence and actions of others influences the way people behave

4. An attitude is a set of beliefs and feelings One reason that attitudes are difficult to change is due to the Cognitive Dissonance Theory. People are motivated to have consistent attitudes and behaviors, and when they do not, they experience unpleasant mental tension (dissonance).

5. Social Thinking • Attribution Theory • tendency to give a causal explanation for someone’s behavior, often by crediting either • the situation or… • the person’s disposition

6. Social Thinking • Fundamental Attribution Error • when explaining another’s behavior, we tend to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition

7. Tolerant reaction (proceed cautiously, allow driver a wide berth) Situational attribution “Maybe that driver is ill.” Negative behavior Unfavorable reaction (Speed up and race past the other driver, craning to give them a dirty look) Dispositional attribution “Crazy driver!” Social Thinking • How we explain someone’s behavior affects how we react to it

8. Attribution Interestingly, people do more the opposite when attributing successes or failures to themselves (we blame the situation more than ourselves).

9. Internal attitudes External influences Behavior Social Thinking • Our behavior is affected by our inner attitudes as well as by external social influences

10. Jesse tells you that he got a perfect score on his psychology test …… Because Jesse is very good at psychology Because the psychology test was easy Jesse has always been good at psychology Jesse just studied a lot for this particular psychology test Mr. Baker is an easy psychology teacher Mr. Baker is a tough psychology teacher who just happened to give one easy test

11. Social Thinking – Some Concepts • Our Attitudes often direct our behavior but sometimes behavior shapes our attitudes • Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon • tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request • “Doing Becomes Believing”

12. Group Pressure • Social Influence..

13. Social Influence • Normative Social Influence • influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval • Leads to……Conformity • adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard

14. Social Influence - concepts • Informational Social Influence • influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality • …Leads To Norms • an understood rule for accepted and expected behavior • prescribes “proper” behavior

15. 3 1 2 Standard lines Comparison lines Social Influence Asch Conformity Experiment click above for a clip!

16. 50 40 30 20 10 0 Percentage of conformity to confederates’ wrong answers Difficult judgments Easy judgments High Low Importance Slide 1 Slide 2 Social Influence • Participants judged which person in Slide 2 was the same as the person in Slide 1

17. Obedience • Stanley Milgram: People conform, but will they simply obey others? 65% of Milgram’s “teachers” did!

18. A “Shocking Experiment” • Over 400 volts!!

20. That’s Almost 70%! 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Percentage of subjects who obeyed experimenter The majority of subjects continued to obey to the end Slight (15-60) Moderate (75-120) Strong (135-180) Very strong (195-240) Intense (255-300) Extreme intensity (315-360) Danger severe (375-420) XXX (435-450) Shock levels in volts Social Influence • Milgram’s experiment

21. Obedience is higher when… • Person giving the orders is perceived as a legit Authority figure. (prof., cop, etc) • “orderer” supported by a prestigious institute (Yale, Government, etc) • Victim is “depersonalized” or distant (no name, in another room, etc) • No role models for defiance

22. Group Interaction

23. Social Influence:somebody’s watching me… • Social Impairment • People tend to perform WORSE on difficult or new tasks in the presence of others • Social Facilitation • People tend to perform simple/well-learned tasks BETTER in the presence of others

24. Home Advantage in Major Team Sports Sport Games Home Team Studied Winning Percentage Baseball 23,034 53.5% Football 2,592 57.3 Ice hockey 4,322 61.1 Basketball 13,596 64.4 Soccer 37,202 69.0 Social Facilitation

25. Social Influence:somebody’s helping me… • Social Loafing • tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable

26. Deindividuation • The loss of self awareness and self restrain occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity

27. 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Percentage attempting to help 1 2 3 4 Number of others presumed available to help Social Relations • Bystander Effect • tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present

28. Social Influence Group Polarization enhancement of a group’s prevailing attitudes through discussion within the group (like AA or KKK) – Yeah! I Agree!

29. +4 +3 +2 +1 0 -1 -2 -3 -4 High High-prejudice groups Prejudice Low-prejudice groups Low Before discussion After discussion Social Influence • If a group is like-minded, discussion strengthens its prevailing opinions

30. Groupthink • the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives (like shuttle disaster or bay of pigs) – Who am I to “rock the boat”? I just want to get out of this meeting…

31. The tendency for people to overestimate the number of people who agree with them is called the false consensus effect.I thought everyone was against the death penalty…

32. IE. If Brianna hates Psychology, she assumes that most people also find it boring, tedious, and utterly useless as well. If Shavanna likes pizza, she assumes that because it’s so good that everyone must like it too. She’s shocked to find people who don’t like it as much as she does.

33. Social Influence Percentage agreeing “The activities of married women are best confined to home and family” • Gender Role • a set of expected behaviors for males and for females 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Percentage Men Women 1967 ‘71 ‘75 ‘79 ‘83 ‘87 ‘91 ‘95 Year

34. Social Relations – why do we treat each other differently? • Prejudice • an unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members • involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action • Stereotype • a generalized (often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people

35. Social Influences • Culture • enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of people • transmitted from one generation to the next • Personal Space • buffer zone we like to maintain around our bodies

36. Social Relations – why prejudice & social bias? • Ingroup Bias • tendency to favor one’s own group • Scapegoat Theory • theory that prejudice provides an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame • Just-World Phenomenon • tendency of people to believe the world is just • people get what they deserve and deserve what they get

37. 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Would you vote for a woman president? Do whites have a right to keep minorities out of their neighborhoods? 1936 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 Year Social Relations • Americans today express much less racial and gender prejudice Percentage answering yes

38. Preconceived ideas can affect the way someone acts towards another person. • Our expectations of behavior can be influenced as well. This is called the self-fulfilling prophecy.

39. Social Relations • Aggression • any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy • Frustration-Aggression Principle • principle that frustration – the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal – creates anger, which can generate aggression

40. Why are we aggressive? • Genetics – Some people are born to be aggresive • Neural and Biological – Your neural system facilitates aggression – chemicals in your blood stream can change aggression.. • What happens if the frontal lobes get damaged?

41. 8.0 7.5 7.0 6.5 6.0 Murders and rapes per day in Houston, Texas 40-68 69-78 79-85 86-91 92-99 Temperature in degrees Fahrenheit Social Relations • Is there a CORRELATION BETWEEN WEATHER AND AGGRESSION?

42. Social Relations • Conflict • perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas • Social Trap • a situation in which the conflicting parties, pursuing their self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior • (overfishing, near destruction of the buffalo, rainforest logging)

43. Social Relations – conflict reduction • Social Exchange Theory • the theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs • Superordinate Goals • shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation

44. Social Relations – conflict reduction among nations • Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-reduction (GRIT) • a strategy designed to decrease international tensions • one side announces recognition of mutual interests and initiates a small conciliatory act • opens door for reciprocation by other party

45. Social Relations- What attracts us to others? • Proximity • mere exposure effect- repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them • Physical Attractiveness • youthfulness may be associated with health and fertility • Similarity • friends share common attitudes, beliefs, interests

46. Attractiveness • Worldwide, men prefer youth and health, women prefer resources and social status

47. Social Relations • Passionate Love • an aroused state of intense positive absorption in another • usually present at the beginning of a love relationship • Companionate Love • deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined

48. The key to lasting and satisfying relationships • Equity • a condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it • Self-disclosure • revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others • Altruism • unselfish regard for the welfare of others