Social Psychology

Social Psychology

What Is Social Psychology? • The scientific study of the ways in which the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of an individual are influenced by the real or imagined behavior of others. • Main areas • Social cognition • Attitudes • Social influence • Social action

SOCIAL COGNITION • Knowledge and understanding concerning the social world and the people in it (including oneself) • Building blocks • Impression formation • Attribution • Interpersonal attraction

SOCIAL COGNITION continued……..Impression Formation • Schema • A set of beliefs or expectations about something that is based on past experience • Primacy effect • The fact that early information about someone weighs more heavily than later information in influencing one’s impression of that person. • Self-fulfilling prophecies • The process in which a person’s expectation about another elicits behavior from the second person that confirms the expectation. • Pygmalion effect • Stereotypes • A special type of schema about members of a social category

SOCIAL COGNITION continued…….. Attribution Theory • The theory that addresses the question of how people make judgments about the causes of behavior. • Behavior is typically explained as being the result of either internal or external factors. • Biases in Attributions • Fundamental attribution error/actor-observer bias • The tendency of people to overemphasize internal causes for other people’s failures and overemphasize external causes for other people’s successes. • Defensive attribution / self-serving bias • The tendency to attribute our successes to internal factors and our failures to external factors. • Attribution across cultures

SOCIAL COGNITION continued…….. Interpersonal Attraction • Major determinants • Proximity • Physical attractiveness • Similarity • Exchange • Equity • Intimacy • Self-disclosure

ATTITUDES • A relatively stable organization of beliefs, feelings, and behavior tendencies directed toward something or someone—the attitude object. • Components of an Attitude • Evaluative beliefs • Feelings • Behavioral tendencies • Attitude & behavior • Self-Monitoring • The tendency for one to observe a situation for cues about how to react. • Acquiring Attitudes

Attitude continued…………….. • Prejudice - an attitude • An unfair, intolerant, or unfavorable view of a group of people. • Discrimination - behavior • An unfair act or series of acts taken toward an entire group of people or individual members of that group. • Interplay of prejudice and discrimination • Sources of Prejudice • Frustration aggression/displaced aggression • Authoritarian personality • Racism • Prejudice and discrimination directed at a particular racial group

Attitude continued……………..Changing attitude • The Process of Persuasion • Must attend to the message, • Comprehend the message • The source • The message • The medium of communication • Characteristics of the audience • Accept it as convincing • Cognitive Dissonance • Perceived inconsistency between two cognitions • Ways to Reduce Cognitive Dissonance • Increase the number of thoughts that support one of the beliefs. • Reduce the importance of one of the cognitions.

SOCIAL INFLUENCE • The process by which others individually or collectively affect one’s perceptions, attitudes, and actions. • Social Influence and Culture • Cultural norms learned through formal & informal way • Perception about other’s culture

Social Influence continued…... • Conformity • Voluntarily yielding to social norms, even at the expense of one’s own preferences • factors influencing conformity • Characteristics of the situation • Size of the group, Degree of unanimity, Nature of task • Characteristics of the individual • Attraction of group, Expected future interaction, member’s low status in the group, lack of member’s complete acceptance • Conformity across cultures

Social Influence continued…... • Compliance • A change of behavior in response to an explicit request from another person or group. • Obedience • A change of behavior in response to an explicit command from another person, typically an authority figure. • Milgram’s Obedience Studies • Classic work by Stanley Milgram showed that many people were willing to obey orders to administer harmful shocks to other people. • situational factors • Power of authority • Surveillance • Responsibility of act is shared

SOCIAL ACTION • Change of behavior which depends on presence of others • Deindividuation: • Loss of personal sense of responsibility in a group • Mob behavior • A snowball effect, Protection • Helping behavior

SOCIAL ACTION CONTINUE…. • Linked with self interest • Not linked with self-interest/Altruistic behavior • Factors Influencing Helping • Situational variables • Presence of other people/ Bystander effect, • Ambiguity of situation • Personal characteristics • Amount of personal responsibility felt • Amount of empathy felt • One’s present mood • No fear of embarrassment • High need for approval • Helping behavior across cultures

Social Action continued……. • Group Dynamics • Group polarization in decision making: • The tendency for people to become more extreme in their attitudes, especially in risk taking (risky shift), as a result of group discussion. • Factors Affecting Group Effectiveness • Nature of the task & Skills of group members • Interaction among members • Group size & Social loafing • Cohesiveness & Group think

Social Action continued……. • Group Leadership • Great person theory: • Leadership is a result of personal qualities and traits that qualify one to lead others. Concept of born leaders • ignores social and economic factors. • Right person at right time at right place • Transactional View of Leadership • A number of factors interact to determine who becomes a leader: • Traits of the potential leader • Aspects of the situation in which the group finds itself • Response of the group and the leader to each other • Fiedler’s Contingency Model • Task-oriented; Mainly focuses on doing the task well • Relationship-oriented; Focuses on maintaining group harmony and cohesiveness • Leadership across cultures

Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology • I/O psychology is concerned with the application of psychological principles to the problems of human organizations. • Decision making, job motivation, productivity, job satisfaction, team work, job stress, leadership etc

Social Psychology