Social Behavior

1. Social Behavior Learning Goal Two: Describe altruism and aggression.

2. Altruism • Being altruistic means having unselfish interest in helping someone else. • 1. Psychological and Sociocultural Foundations of Altruism • Reciprocityoccurs when individuals do to others as they have had done to them. Reciprocity can bring about negative feelings, such as guilt if you do not return a favor or anger if someone else does not return a favor. • Egoisminvolves giving to another individual to ensure reciprocity, gain self-esteem, present oneself as powerful, competent, or caring, and avoid social and self-censure for failing to live up to society’s expectations. • --We may view Egoism as a chance to do some good so one day they will return the favor.

3. Evolutionary Views of Altruism • a. How can a behavior that rewards others and not one’s self be adaptive? Altruism is not exclusive to humans. • b. Helping behavior is most likely to occur among family members, thus promoting the family genes to survive. • c. Altruism may be an expression of true human nature, that humans are not necessarily self-centered as natural responses.

4. Psychological Factors in Altruism • Happy people are more likely to help others. People that are in a bad mood may also help if they think it might boost their mood. • Empathyoccurs when an individual feels a oneness with the emotional state of another. They truly feel what the other person is feeling and going through because they have been there.

5. Sociocultural Factors in Altruism • Altruism and Gender Women are more likely to help than men, but this usually occurs in situations of nurturing. Men are more likely to help when there is perceived danger present and when they feel competent to help.

6. Prosocial Behavior HBE 2 @ 8:45 HBE 3 • Altruism -- unselfish regard for the welfare of others • ReciprocityvsSocial Responsibility Norm • Kitty Genovese case • Bystander Effect: In general…the more people around…the less chance of help….because of… • Diffusion of Responsibility Pluralistic Ignorance • People decide what to do by looking to others.

7. Media Influences • Media influences have been listed as contributing to aggression, but now researchers are also seeing media influences in prosocial behaviors. • Music, videos games, and television shows with prosocial content have been shown to promote prosocial behaviors in people engaging with these media forms.

8. Aggression • Biological Influences in Aggression Evolutionary Views Some researchers believe there are certain stimuli that release innate aggression. A basic theme of theory is survival of the fittest; therefore, the survivors are probably aggressive.

9. Neurobiological Factors • The limbic system and amygdala, both associated with emotions, have caused aggression when electrically stimulated. • The neurotransmitter serotonin has also been associated with aggressive behavior. • Individuals under the influence of alcohol are more easily provoked than when they are sober. • Testosteronehas been linked to aggressive behavior in rats and other animals, but the research has been less consistent in humans.Acting aggressively can also increase testosterone levels.

10. Psychological Influences in Aggression • Frustrating and Aversive Circumstances • The frustration-aggression hypothesisstates that frustration always leads to aggression, though some individuals that experience frustration become passive and non-aggressive. • Research has shown that physical pain, personal insults, and unpleasant events also cause aggression.

11. Cognitive Determinants • Research has shown that just the presence of a weapon can prime hostile thoughts and produce aggression.

12. Observational Learning • Some psychologists believe that aggression is learned through reinforcement and observational learning.

13. Sociocultural Influences in Aggression • Cultural Variations and the Culture of Honor • The risk of being murdered is higher in the United States than in many other countries. However, South America, Mexico, and the Philippines have a higher homicide rate than the United States. • Insults to a man’s honor are seen as diminishing to his reputation, and violence is often viewed as an acceptable way of compensating for that loss. • Some cultures have been known to slay a female family member that has been raped so the family is not plagued by the rape.

14. Media Violence • Research has shown that children who watch violent television shows, even cartoons, are more likely to kick, choke, and push their playmates than children that are not exposed to these television shows. • Television violence is not the only cause of violence in children. The link between television violence and aggression in children is influenced by a child’s aggressive tendencies, attitudes toward violence, and the monitoring of the child’s exposure to it. • Violent pornography is another type of media violence. Violent pornography refers to films, videos, and magazines that portray the degradation of women in a sexual context. • Violent video games are yet another form of media that may influence aggressive behavior.

15. Reducing Aggression • One strategy to reduce aggression is to decrease rewards for aggression and allow people to observe fewer incidences of aggression. • Parents should encourage empathy toward others and closely monitor adolescent’s activities.

16. SOCIAL INFLUENCE Learning Goal Three: Identify how people are influenced in social settings.

17. Conformity Studies Adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard. Chameleon Effect

18. Conformity • Conformity is when a person’s behavior coincides more closely with a group standard. • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIh4MkcfJA • Discussion: Have you ever conformed? • Why would people conform when they know it is not right? • How powerful is a group in conformity?

19. Conformity • Solomon Asch (1955) • Group Pressure = Conformity (willingness to accept others’ opinions) • 1/3 conformed fully / 70% conformed at least once. To strengthen conformity: • The group is unanimous • The group is at least three people. • One admires the group’s status • One had made no prior commitment

20. Going Along to be Right and Going Along to be Liked • The informational social influencerefers to the influence that other people have on individuals because the individual wants to be right. • The normative social influencerefers to the influence that others have on an individual because the individual wants others to like them or approve of them.

21. Obedience • Obedience is a behavior that complies with explicit demands of the individual in authority. • Stanley Milgrim’s classic experiment • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTX42lVDwA4 • Discussion: What lessons did we learn about people and obedience?

22. Obedience HBE 1 @ 3M & HBE 2 Stanley Milgram (1963) investigates the effects of authority on obedience Ordinary people can do shocking things. 2/3 Complied Fully! Ethical?

23. Group Influence • Deindividuation occurs when being part of a group reduces personal identity and erodes the sense of personal responsibility. • One explanation for deindividuation is that groups give individuals anonymity. An individual may do something in a group that they would never do when alone.

24. Stanford Prison Experimenthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpDVFp3FM_4 Philip Zimbardo Showed how we deindividuate AND become the roles we are given. Has students at Stanford U play the roles of prisoner and prison guards in the basement of psychology building (August 1971). Power of the Situation = Lucifer Effect Good People do Bad Things because of the Situation Hbe 5

25. Social Contagion • Social contagion is imitative behavior that involves the spreading of behavior, emotions, and ideas.

26. Group Performance • Research has shown that performance is better when there is more than one individual. • Social facilitationoccurs when an individual’s performance improves because of the presence of others. The presence of others arouses individuals and that arousal produces energy.

27. Social Facilitation Theory • If you are really good at something….or it is an easy task…you will perform BETTER in front of a group. • Social Impairment = If it is a difficult task or you are not very good at it…you will perform WORSE in front of a group

28. Social Loafing The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling efforts toward a common goal than if they were individually accountable.

29. Group Polarization Groups tend to make more extreme decisions than the individual. If a group is like-minded, discussion strengthens its prevailing opinions and attitudes

31. Groupthink Group members suppress their reservations about the ideas supported by the group. They are more concerned with group harmony. Worse in highly cohesive groups.

32. Deindividuation People get swept up in a group and lose sense of self. Feel anonymous and aroused. Explains rioting behaviors.

33. Fundamental Attribution Error How do you view your teachers’ behaviors? You probably attribute it to their personalities rather than their profession. But do you really know? When you start a romance, you assume that they agree with your world views….honeymoon period. If you win it is because you are awesome…if you lose, it must have been the coach or weather or…. • We tend to overestimate the role of dispositional factors. Individualistic V. Collectivistic Cultures False Consensus Effect Self-Serving Bias

34. Stereotypes, Prejudice and Discrimination unconscious level Stereotype: • Overgeneralized idea about a group of people. Prejudice: • Undeserved (usually negative) attitude towards a group of people (sometimes seems unconscious).Ethnocentrism is an example of a prejudice. Discrimination: • An action based on a prejudice.

35. Perception & Race? Racism – Belief 1 race is superior to another (Racial Discrimination)

36. Is it just race? NO • Religions • Urban vs Rural • Sexual Orientation • Men and Women

37. Which person would you want to have a long term relationship with?

38. Gender Although prejudice prevails against women, more people feel positively toward women than men. Women rated picture b [feminized] higher (66%) for Marriage

39. How does prejudice occur? Brown vs Blue Eyes Just world Phenomenon • In one popular study female and male subjects were told two versions of a story about an interaction between a woman and a man. Both variations were exactly the same, except at the very end the man raped the woman in one and in the other he proposed marriage. • In both conditions, both female and male subjects viewed the woman's (identical) actions as inevitably leading to the (very different) results. In-Group versus Out-Groups. • In-Group Bias Scapegoat Theory

40. How does prejudice occur? Brown vs Blue Eyes Cognition • Schemata • Availability & Representative Heuristics & Prototypes = vivid cases Social Inequalities • Have vs Have Nots

41. Prejudices can often lead to a…. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy • A prediction that causes itself to be true. • Rosenthal and Jacobson’s “Pygmalion Effect” • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTghEXKNj7g • Expectations are real!

42. Combating Prejudice Brown vs Blue Eyes Contact Theory • Contact between hostile groups will reduce animosity if they are made to work towards a superordinate goal. • Robbers Cave Experiment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QGNxRGgBwM • Election of Obama?