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Social Psychology Why does the same person act differently in different situations?. Social Psychology. The branch of psychology that studies how people think, feel, and behave in social situations. Two Basic Areas of Social Psychology:
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Social PsychologyWhy does the same person act differently in different situations?
Social Psychology The branch of psychology that studies how people think, feel, and behave in social situations • Two Basic Areas of Social Psychology: • Social cognition- study of the mental processes people use to make sense of other people • Social influence- study of the effect of situational factors and other people on an individual’s behavior
Themes of Social Psychology • We construct our social reality • Our social intuitions can be wrong • Our behavior is shaped by social influences, our attitudes, our personality, and our biology • Social psychology is practical
Attribution Theory • People tend to give a causal explanation for someone’s behavior, often by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition
Fundamental Attribution Error • Explains how we view behaviors of OTHERS • The tendency for observers, when analyzing another’s behavior, to give too much weight to personality and not enough to situational variables • People tend to blame or credit the person more than the situation. • It is common in individualistic cultures
Actor-Observer Bias • Explains how we view our OWN behavior • Attribute personality causes of behavior when observing someone else’s behavior • Attribute situational causes when evaluating our own behavior (when we’re the actor) • We tend to judge a person on their actions we see whether these are a true reflections of that person or not (When we’re the observer) • Why? • hypothesis 1: • we know our behavior changes from situation to situation, but we don’t know this about others • hypothesis 2: • when we see others perform an action, we concentrate on actor, not situation -- when we perform an action, we see environment, not person • See the Active Psych Demo for more info on this.
Using Attitudes as Ways to “Justify” Injustice • Just-world bias • a tendency to believe that life is fair, people get what they deserve and deserve what they get • it would seem horrible to think that you can be a really good person and bad things could happen to you anyway • Just-world bias leads to “blaming the victim” • we explain others’ misfortunes as being their fault, • e.g., she deserved to be mugged, what was she doing in that neighborhood anyway?
Self-Serving Bias • Tendency to attribute successful outcomes of one’s own behavior to internal causes and unsuccessful outcomes to external, situational causes • Individualistic Cultures do this. • Self-handicapping – person creates a preliminary excuse they can fall back on if they do poorly • Scared you won’t do well on test so stay up late and tell everyone you didn’t study so you have an excuse if you don’t do as well as you hope.
Self-Effacing Bias • Modesty bias - involves blaming failure on internal, personal factors, while attributing success to external, situational factors • Collectivist cultures do this. • Less likely to commit the fundamental attribution error • More likely to attribute the causes of another person’s behavior to external, situational factors rather than to internal, personal
0.70 0.60 0.50 0.40 0.30 0.20 0 United States India 8 11 15 Adult Cross-Cultural Differences • Western culture • people are in charge of own destinies • more attributions to personality • Some Eastern cultures • fate in charge of destiny • more attributions to situation Attributions to internal disposition Age (years)
Attitudes What is an attitude? • predisposition to evaluate some people, groups, or issues in a particular way • can be negative or positive • Has three components • Cognitive—thoughts about given topic or situation • Affective—feelings or emotions about topic • Behavioral—your actions regarding the topic or situation
Components of Attitudes • An attitude is a positive or negative evaluation of an object, person, or idea
Attitudes Affecting Actions • Many studies suggest a person’s attitudes do NOT match their actions HOWEVER… • Attitudes canpredictbehavior if: • Outside influences are minimal • People are aware of their attitudes • Attitude is relevant to behavior
Actions Affecting Attitudes • Can our actions change our attitudes? YES • Persuasion Techniques: • Foot-in-the-door phenomenon • Peripheral route • Central route • Role playing • Cognitive dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance • Unpleasant state of psychological tension or arousal (discomfort) that occurs when our attitudes & behaviors are inconsistent • When Attitudes and Behaviors are in conflict • It is uncomfortable for us • We seek ways to decrease discomfort caused by the inconsistency • Easiest way to do this is change our views/attitudes to match our actions
1919-1989 Cognitive Dissonance(Leon Festinger) • The theory that people act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) they feel when their thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent with their actions • When our attitudes are inconsistent with our behaviors, we change our attitudes to reduce the tension/dissonance.
Insufficient-justification effect • Festinger & Carlsmith (1959) • gave subjects a boring task, then asked subjects to lie to the next subject and say the experiment was exciting • paid ½ the subjects $1, other ½ $20 • then asked subjects to rate boringness of task • $1 group rated the task as far more fun than the $20 group • each group needed a justification for lying • $20 group had an external justification of money • since $1 isn’t very much money, $1 group said task was fun • The less coerced and more responsible we feel for a troubling act, the more dissonance/tension we feel & the more pressure we feel to change our attitudes to justify the act.
How Cognitive Dissonance Leads to Attitude Change When your behavior conflicts with your attitudes, an uncomfortable state of tension is produced. However, if you can rationalize or explain your behavior, the conflict (and the tension) is eliminated or avoided. If you can’t explain your behavior, you may change your attitude so that it is in harmony with your behavior. Who will feel Cognitive Dissonance?
Cognitive Dissonance(Insufficient Justification Effect) Who will feel Cognitive Dissonance?
Cognitive Dissonance(Insufficient Justification Effect) • When you have a good excuse, you don’t have dissonance & can keep your attitude. • When you do not have a good excuse, you feel dissonance & change your attitude to match your behavior.
Dissonance-Reducing Mechanisms • Firming up an attitude to be consistent with an action (Festinger’s Studies) – once we’ve made a choice to do something, lingering doubts about our actions would cause dissonance, so we are motivated to set them aside • “People come to believe and love the things they have to suffer for.” • Avoiding dissonant information – we attend to information in support of our existing views, rather than information that doesn’t support them • Create an extraordinary excuse
Cognitive Dissonance: A Review • If you have a good excuse for a behavior that does not go with your attitude then you avoiddissonance. • If you do nothave a good excuse for a behavior that is against your attitude you must change your attitudeto fit your behavior.
“Fake it ‘til you make it” • What we do we become. • If your attitude is poor, act positive and before long your attitude will match your actions.
Role PlayingWhat we do, we gradually become.The Situation can gradually overtake our Personality. • Playing a role can influence or change one’s attitude • Zimbardo’s Prison Study • College students played the role of guard or prisoner in a simulated prison. • The study was ended after just 6 days when the guards became too aggressive and cruel. • Want to learn more about this famous study? See the Stanford Prison Experiment Online Slide Show or watch Stanford Prison Experiment video (8 minutes) • Modern issues of Prison Abuse – see CNN Report on Juvenile Jails and Abuse – 3 min. Dr. Phillip Zimbardo
Applying What We Know • How did the guards & prisoners deal with their cognitive dissonance? • Told themselves, “I’m just playing a role,” or “The researchers will stop it if they think it’s wrong.” – Excuses • Guards thought, “The prisoners are dangerous and deserve this treatment.” Prisoners thought, “I deserve this treatment for the way I treated the guards.” - Changed Their Attitude • People who see this think, “Those guards are sadistic people,” or “Those prisoners are weak people.” What common error are the making? • Fundamental Attributional Error • Why did the other guards join in the mistreatment of prisoners? Why did the other prisoners go along? • Wanted to be accepted and liked by the group. - Conformity (Normative Social Influence)
Exit Slip • On a half sheet of paper: • 1. Give an example of a time you committed the fundamental attribution error. • 2. Give an example of a time you felt cognitive dissonance and changed your actions or attitudes to compensate.
