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Module 37: Social Thinking

Module 37: Social Thinking. Social Thinking. Our social behavior arises from our social cognition – our attitudes and explanations of people's sometimes unexpected actions.

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Module 37: Social Thinking

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  1. Module 37: Social Thinking

  2. Social Thinking • Our social behavior arises from our social cognition – our attitudes and explanations of people's sometimes unexpected actions. • Just as Personality Psychologists study the enduring inner determinants of behavior that help explain why different people act differently in a given situation, Social Psychologists study the social influences that explain why the same person acts differently in different situations.

  3. Attributing Behavior to Persons or Situations? • Attribution Theory- The idea that we spontaneously attribute another’s behavior either to their internal disposition or to their external situation. • Fundamental Attribution Error- The tendency for observers, when analyzing another’s behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition.

  4. The Effects of Attribution • Our attributions of motivation, either to a person or a situation regarding the cause of other’s actions, have a significant influence on our responses. - Example: Did George Bush Jr. go to war with Iraq to prove to the American public / World that America was not weak, to eradicate WMD’s, to create democracy in the middle east, to secure oil reserves for future American use, or did he go in order to prove his father that he could accomplish something that his father had been unable to accomplish?

  5. Attitudes Affect Actions • Central Route Persuasion- A change of attitude / belief based on arguments and respond with favorable thoughts. - Example: Being convinced of Global Warming due to the evidence that supports its occurrence. • Peripheral Route Persuasion- A change of attitude / belief based on incidental cues, such as a speakers attractiveness. - Example: Being convinced of Global Warming because of Al Gore's striking good Looks.

  6. Actions Affect Attitudes • Foot-in-the-door Phenomenon- The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to agree to comply later with a large request. • Role- A set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave.

  7. Cognitive Dissonance Theory • The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognition) are inconsistent.

  8. Module 38: Social Influence

  9. Conformity and Obedience • Behavior is contagious: - Bar tenders and street musicians who “seed” their tip jars with their own money to suggest others gave it. - One person laughs, coughs, or yawns and others in the group do the same. Chimpanzees are also likely to yawn after observing another chimp yawn. This tendency to mimic is know as the chameleon effect. -Example: Two students work alongside in the room, however one is actually working for the experimenter. The first student who was not working for the experimenter tended to copy the behaviors of the other student (rub his face, shake his foot). Unconsciously mimicking other’s expressions, postures, and voice tones help us feel what they are feeling.

  10. Group Pressure and Conformity • Conformity- Adjusting our behavior or thinking toward some group standard, real or imagined. • Example: Solomon Asch (1955) Experiment With Conformity and Visual Perception

  11. Conditions That Strengthen Conformity • One is made to feel incompetent or insecure • The group has at least three people • The group is unanimous • One admires the group’s status and attractiveness • One has made no prior comittment to any response • Others in the group observe one’s behavior • One’s culture strongy encourages respect for social standards

  12. Reasons for Conforming - Normative Social Influence- Influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or disapproval. - Informational Social Influence - One’s willingness to accept other’s opinions about reality.

  13. Obedience • Stanley Milgram’s (1963) Authority Experiment - 63 Percent of men fully complied with the experiment. - 65 Percent complied in a later, more brutal experiment. • Philip Zimbardo’s (1973) Stanford Prison Experiment.

  14. Lessons From The Conformity and Obedience Studies - These experiments demonstrate that strong social influences can make people conform to falsehoods or capitulate to cruelty. - “The most fundamental lesson of our study, Milgram noted, is that “ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terribly destructive process.”

  15. Group Influence Social Facilitation – When you do well, you are likely to do even better in front of an audience, especially a friendly audience ; what you normally find difficult may be all but impossible when you are being watched. Social Loafing – The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal that when individually accountable.

  16. Group Influence Deindividuation – The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity.

  17. Effects of Group Interaction Group Polarization – The enhancement of a groups prevailing inclinations throug discussion within the group. The polarizing effect of interaction among like-minded individuals applies to suicide terrorists. Analyses of terrorist organizations around the world reveal that the terrorist mentality does not erupt suddenly

  18. Effects of Group Interaction Rather, it usually arises among a group of people who get together because of a grievance and then become more and more extreme as they interact in isolation from moderating influences.

  19. Groupthink Groupthink – The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.

  20. The Power of Individuals In affirming social influence, we must not overlook our power as individuals. Social control (the power of the situation) and personal control (the power of the individual) interact. Committed individuals can sway the majority and make social history. Were this not so, communism would have remained an obscure theory, Christianity would be a small Middle Eastern sect, and Rosa Parks' refusal to sit at the back of the bus would not have ignited the U.S. Civil rights movement

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