Social Psychology

Social Psychology

Social Cognition: the way people gather, use, and interpret information about the social aspects of the world around them • Attribution Theory: how we explain someone’s behavior either by: • dispositional attributes (personality & intelligence) • situational attributes (environmental factors) • When evaluating our own behavior, we tend to show a self-serving bias , attributing our successes to dispositional attributes and our failures to situational attributes • When evaluating the behavior of others, we often commit the fundamental attribution error: • we underestimate the impact of the situation & overestimate the power of personal disposition. Attribution processes

Actor-Observer Bias: tendency to attribute our own behavior to situational causes and the behavior of others to personal causes. • Just-World Phenomenon: people get what they deserve. Attribution Processes (cont’d)

Attitudes: feelings, based on our beliefs that predispose our reactions to objects, people and events. • Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon: the tendency for people who have agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request. Attitudes & Actions

Reciprocity: often used by groups soliciting contributions. • group member gives you a small gift (pamphlet, flower) so you listen to his/her pitch • When they follow up with a request for a donation for their worthy cause, you may feel inclined to make a donation due to the initial gift. • Low-ball technique: a person offers an initial cut-rate price but later increases the price with additional costs you assumed were included. • Door-in-the-face technique: a person makes a very large request that you are most certain to refuse, then follows this up with a smaller one. Out of guilt, you may comply with the smaller request. Attitudes & Actions (Cont’d)

When a person adopts a new role, he/she strives to follow social roles. At first, such behaviors may feel uncomfortable or phony. • However, before long, the role-play becomes WHO YOU ARE. • Cognitive Dissonance Theory: we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) resulting from conflicting beliefs, attitudes, opinions or values (cognitions) or when our behaviors do not coincide with our mental processes. Role-Playing Affects Attitudes

Culture: the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes and traditions shared by a large group of people which are transmitted from one generation to the next. • Cultural Norms: all cultural groups have rules for accepted and expected behavior. • Personal Space: buffer zone we maintain around our bodies. Scandinavians, Americans, and British tend to prefer more personal space than Latin American, Arabs, and French. culture

Social Group: two or more individuals sharing common goals and interests, interacting, and influencing each other’s behavior. • Norms:implicit or explicit rules that apply to all members of the group and govern acceptable behavior and attitudes. • allow for smooth social interactions because they prescribe how individuals should behave when in the group. • Violation of norms can be grounds for exclusion from the group • As a result, some members may act very differently when in the group than when alone. Group Dynamics

Self-fulfilling Prophecy: tendency to allow our preconceived expectations of others influence how we treat them, bringing about the very behavior we expected to come true. Influencing Behavior

Social Facilitation: a person has stronger responses on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others. • What you well, you are more likely to do even better in front of an audience. • What you find difficult to do, you will find near impossible when being watched. (social impairment) Social Roles

Social Loafing: the tendency of people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward an attainable goal than when they are individually accountable. Social Roles (cont’d)

Deindividuation: loss of self-awareness & self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity. Social Roles (cont’d) • When in a group, individuals often focus external events which can lead to the display of more impulsive behavior. • When people feel that responsibility has been divided throughout a group, they do not feel entirely to blame for their actions.

Study tested the hypothesis that the situation often determines how you behave more strongly than who you are. • With the help of an ex-convict , the basement of the Stanford University psychology building was converted into a mock prison. • Participants were recruited through advertisements offering $ 15 each day to participate in a study about prison life. • 24 college age males were carefully selected from nearly a hundred volunteers. • Written informed consent was obtained; a flip of a coin divided group into prisoners and guards. Zimbardo Prison Study (1972)

Prisoners • Prisoners were arrested at their homes without warning and taken to the local police station, fingerprinted, photographed, booked. • They were then blindfolded and driven to the mock prison, which was outfitted with barred doors and windows, bare walls and small cells. • On arrival, prisoners were stripped naked, deloused and were each given a dress like smock with unique ID number monikers, rubber sandals, a tight nylon cap, no undergarments, and a chain padlocked around one ankle. • Prisoners were assigned 3 to a cell. Beds were cots with thin mattresses and one blanket per inmate. Zimbardo Prison Study (1972) (cont’d)

Guards • Guards were issued khaki uniforms, whistles, handcuffs, nightsticks, and dark glasses. • There were 3 guards to the 9 prisoners, taking shifts of eight hours each (the other guards remained on call) • No special training • No physical violence was permitted. • The behaviors of prisoners and guards was monitored at all times. Zimbardo Prison Study (1972) (cont’d)

Findings: • Within a day, the lines between role play and real life became disturbingly blurred. • Guards harassed and dehumanized prisoners. Some guards were tyrannical and appeared to enjoy their new roles. • The prisoners quickly became despondent and within a few days, many were asked to be paroled. • Within the first few days, 5 prisoners had to be released from the experiment due to emotional breakdown and stress reactions. Zimbardo Prison Study (1972) (cont’d)

Findings (cont’d) • Although the study was planned to lasted 2 weeks, Zimbardo stopped the study after 6 days. • Conclusion: The roles people play within a given situation can shape their behavior and attitudes. • Ethical Issues: Is the pain and discomfort the participants experienced worth the knowledge gained by this experimentation? Zimbardo Prison Study (1972) (cont’d) Prison Study

Group Polarization • Group Polarization:discussion in a group of like minded people tends to strengthen pre-existing attitudes. • The decisions a polarized group makes may be more extreme than those made by any individual within the group. • Why does the Internet provide an excellent medium for group polarization?

GROUPTHINK Groupthink: mode of thinking that occurs when a decision-making group attempts to maintain harmony which overrides realistic appraisals of alternatives Suppression of dissenting opinions can lead the group to make bad decisions. Historic Examples: Attack on Pearl Harbor Bay of Pigs Invasion Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor Accident US Space Shuttle Challenge Disaster Groupthink

Minority Influence Minority Influence: the power of one or two dissenters are able to sway the majority Characteristics of minority influence: committed to cause dissenter unwaveringly holds to his/her position. self-confident about his/her stance Mahatma Gandhi: through nonviolent appeals and hunger strikes, his consistent and persistent attitudes and behaviors were instrumental in winning India’s independence from England in 1941.

Unconsciously mimicking others’ expressions, postures, and voice tones helps experience their feelings. Automatic mimicry is an ingredient in the ability to empathize with others (and are genuinely liked the most) Chameleon Effect www.spring.org.uk - June 9, 3:47 AM

Conformity

Conformity: adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard. • Conformity increases when: • a person is made to feel incompetent or insecure • The group has at least 3 members • The group is unanimous • The individual admires the group’s status and attractiveness • The person has made no prior commitment to any response • Others in the group observe the person’s behavior • The person’s culture strongly encourages respect for social standards Conformity (cont’d)

Normative Social Influence: influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain social approval or avoid disapproval • we are sensitive to social norms because the price we may pay for ignoring such standards can be severe. • Informational Social Influence: influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality • groups provide valuable information and only an uncommonly stubborn person will never listen to others. Reasons for Conforming

This study illustrates how everyday people can be pressured into unusual behavior by the consensus of group opinion. Asch’s conformity Experiment conformity experiment

Example of card used in Asche’s Study

Results For each participant who too part in the experimental situation several times, approximately 75% agreed with the group’s incorrect consensus at least once. For all trials combined, participants agreed with the group on the incorrect responses about 1/3 of the time. Conclusions Clearly demonstrated the real power of social pressure on others to conform. Asche’s Study (cont’d)

Social Support: (Ashe) When 1 confederate out of the 7 gave the correct answer, only 5% the participants changed their answers to agreed with the rest of the group. • Apparently, only a single ally provides enough support to keep from being pressured by the rest of the group. • Attraction and Commitment to the Group: Later research found that the more attracted and committed to a group, the greater the chance you will conform to the behavior and attitudes of the group. • Size of the Group: conformity increases with the size of the group up to 6 or 7 members. After that, conformity levels off and may even decrease. As the group becomes larger, individuals may suspect complicity of other members to affect their behavior and become resistant to the obvious pressure. Related Conformity Research

Stanley Milgram, Yale University (1974) Motivated by the atrocities committed during WWII. Believed that humans have tendency to obey other people who are in a powerful position of authority, even if it violates their personal code of moral and ethical behavior "The social psychology of this century reveals a major lesson: often it is not so much the kind of person a man is as the kind of situation in which he finds himself that determines how he will act." –Stanley Milgram, 1974 Obedience

“Shock” Generator Electronic device with 30 toggle switches labeled with voltage levels marked in 15 volt increments from 30 to 450 volts. Switches were labeled indicating the shock level such as such as slight, moderate and strong shocks. 375-420 volt switched were marked danger: severe shock. The two highest levels 435-450, were marked ‘XXX’. Note: the generator was merely a prop and would only produce sound when the switches were pressed. Migram’s Obedience Study

Participants 40 males, ages 20-50, were recruited through newspaper and mail ads. Participants believed they would be in an experiment about ‘memory and learning’. They were paid for their participation and were told they could keep this money “no matter what happens after they arrived”. Each participant met experimenter and the “confederate”, a 47 year old male accountant, who played the role of another participant. Milgram’sObedience Study (Cont’d)

Milgram’sObedience Study (Cont’d) • Although the participant and the confederate drew slips of paper to indicate who was the teacher and who was the learner, the participant was always assigned the role of teacher. • The participant ‘teacher’ saw that the learner was strapped to a chair and wired with electrodes. The teacher was then seated in another room in front of the shock generator, unable to see the learner.

The Experiment Theteacher was instructed to teach word-pairs to the learner. When the learner made a mistake, the teacher was instructed to punish the learner by giving him a shock, 15 volts higher for each mistake. The learner never received the shocks, but pre-taped audio was triggered when a shock-switch was pressed that indicated the learner was in distress. At some point, the teacher participant would turn to the experimenter looking for guidance in continuing with the experiment. Milgram’s Obedience Study (Cont’d)

Experiment (cont’d) • The experimenter responded with a preset series of commands which increased in intensity. • Command 1 – please continue • Command 2 – the experiment requires that you continue • Command 3 – It is absolutely essential that you continue • Command 4 – You have no other choice: You much go on. • Defiant participants: broke off experiment at lower point of shock scale • Obedient participants: went al the way to the top of the shock scale. Milgram’s Obedience Study (Cont’d) Milgram's Experiment

Results The level of shock the participant delivered was used as the measure of obedience. 65% of the participants delivered the maximum shocks. Some participants became extremely agitated, upset and angry at the experimenter. Yet they continued to follow orders. Participants were debriefed at the end of the experiments due to concern about their levels of post experimental anxiety Critics have argued that many participants were still confused about the exact nature of the experiment. Milgramlater surveyed participants and found that 84% were glad to have participated, while only 1% regretted their involvement. Milgram’s Obedience Study (Cont’d)

Discussion • While Milgram’s research raised serious ethical questions about the use of human subjects in psychology experiments, his results have also been consistently replicated in further experiments. • Situational factors that facilitate obedience. • The physical presence of an authority figure • Person giving orders is supported by a prestigious institution • Victim was depersonalized or at a distance • No other person modeled defiance by disobeying Milgram’s Obedience Study (Cont’d)

Prejudice = Prejudgment • Unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members • Stereotype: a generalized belief about a group of people. • most people are unaware of how stereotype images can lead to both negative attitudes and treatment of others (self-fulfilling prophecy) • Discrimination: unjustifiable negative behavior toward a groups or its members • Ethnocentrism: basic belief that a person’s culture is superior to all other cultures Prejudice

Roots of Prejudice Social: • In-group: “US” – people with whom one shares a common identity • Out-group: “THEM” – those perceived as different or apart from one’s in-group • In-group Bias: tendency to favor one’s own group • Out-group Homogeneity: tendency to believe that all members of another group are similar that is true.

Emotional: • Scapegoat Theory: when our self-worth is in doubt or in jeopardy, we become frustrated and tend to find others to blame. • Prejudice can arise from passions of the heart and as a way to express anger, particularly when things go wrong. Cognitive: • Categorization: by categorizing people into groups, we often stereotype them, biasing our perceptions of their diversity. Roots of Prejudice (cont’d) blue eyed, brown eyed children

Vivid Cases: we often judge the frequency of events by the instances that readily come to mind, which then influence our judgments of a group. • Vivid cases feed stereotypes (9/11 Muslim terrorists created for many an exaggerated stereotype of Muslims being terrorist prone) • Just-World Phenomenon: “people get what they deserve” • Hindsight bias also has an impact on cognitive prejudice. Ex: when learning of a date rape victim, people may respond “She should have known better. • Blaming the victim also helps to reassure people that such horrible events could not happen to them. Roots of Prejudice (cont’d)

Biological Influences • Any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy another person • Genes influence aggression (temperament – the inherited part of personality) • The brain has neural systems that facilitate or inhibit aggression • Biochemical influences also can contribute to aggression. • Hormones, such as testosterone can increase aggression • Alcohol, which decrease inhibition, can also facilitate aggression. Aggression

Psychology of Aggression • Frustration: the blocking of an attempt to achieve a goal • Aversive events such as environmental conditions or social rejection can create frustration, • Frustration-aggression principle: frustration creates anger which can generate aggression. • Reinforcement for aggressive behavior can establish learned patterns of aggression that are difficult to change • Observing models acting aggressively in person or in the media (watching violence or sexual aggression on TV or in movies). Aggression (cont’d)

Acquiring Social Scripts, culturally sanctioned ways of acting in a given situation, through media can also trigger aggression. • Violent video games can also heighten aggressive behavior by providing social scripts and opportunities to observe modeled aggression and role-play aggression. • Can increase arousal and feelings of hostility • Prime aggressive thoughts and increase aggression • In adolescents, lead to increased participation in arguments and fights and decreases in academic grades • Virtual reality games may heighten these effects Aggression (cont’d)

Instrumental Aggression: its purpose is to satisfy some goal or behavior. • Ex: stealing shoes from a gym locker • Hostile Aggression: results when a person feels pain, anger, or frustration. Aggression (cont’d)

Perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas. • Social Traps: a situation in which the conflicting parties, by purposively pursing their self-interests, become caught in mutually destructive behaviors. • In such cases, we harm our collective well-being by pursuing our own interests. • social psychologists look for ways to encourage people to cooperate for their mutual benefit through: --agreed upon regulations --better communication --increasing awareness of our responsibilities toward, nation, and humanity. conflict

Mirror-Image Perceptions: When in conflict, enemies often “demonize” each other by forming images that are quite similar. • These perceptions often become self-fulfilling prophecies, triggering reactions that confirm these images. • These perceptions can also change with the situation. -- During WWII, the Japanese, in the minds of Americans, were perceived to be “bloodthirsty, cruel, and treacherous”. Later, they became our “intellectual, hardworking, self-disciplined, resourceful allies” (Gallup, 1972). Enemy Perceptions

Proximity: geographic nearness is a powerful predictor of friendships. • Mere-exposure effect: repeated exposure to an individual increases your familiarity and liking of that person. • Physical Attractiveness: people’s physical attractiveness can predict the frequency of dating, popularity, and others’ initial impressions of their personalities. • Physical attractiveness is relative and varies by culture • Mere-exposure effect also plays into who a person may find attractive • Similarity : attraction increases with greater similarity in attitudes and interests between two people. Psychology of Attraction

Passionate Love: an aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship. • Companionate Love: the deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined. • Key Ingredients to gratifying and enduring relationships: • Self-Disclosure: sharing intimate aspects of oneself to others • Equity: a condition in which people receive in proportion what the give to a relationship. Romantic Love

Unselfish regard for the welfare of others The debate among theorists still exists whether altruism is an inborn trait or a result of experiential learning. Involves self-sacrifice to help others without the expectation of personal reward Altruism Florida biologist saves a drowning 375 pound black bear that jumped into the water after being sedated. The bear had wandered into a residential area.

Bystander Effect: tendency for any given observer to be less likely to help if other people are present. • Helping others in emergencies occurs when: • The victim appears to need and deserve help • The victim is in some way similar to us • we have just observed someone else being helpful • We are not in a hurry • We are in a small town or rural area • We are feeling guilty • We are focused on others and not preoccupied • We are in a good mood Bystander Intervention

Social Psychology