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Social Psychology
Chapter 16
PSY 12000.
Fall, 2010
Announcements
- This is the last week for experiments
- Monday 13th^ at 9am is deadline for alternative papers (contact Sue Phebus if you plan on doing this)
- For only those on the list with 3 or more exams on same day, you must contact Mary Ann Honors ([email protected]) by this Thursday to reschedule.
- Top Cumulative Score = 192
- Exam 5 Study Session:
- Thursday, Dec 16th, 5:00-6:00pm, PRCE 277
- Exam 5:
- Friday, Dec 17th, 10:20am – 12:20pm, CL50, Rm 224 (here) 2 3
Focuses in Social Psychology
Social psychology scientifically studies how we think about , influence , and relate to one another. “We cannot live for ourselves alone.” Herman Melville 4
Group Pressure &
Conformity
An influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=- qlJqR4GmKw William Vandivert/ (^) Scientific American 5
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 no prior commitment or response. The group observes one’s behavior. One’s culture strongly encourages respect for a social standard. 6
Reasons for Conformity
Normative Social Influence: Influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid rejection. A person may respect normative behavior because there may be a severe price to pay if not respected. Informative Social Influence: The group may provide valuable information, but stubborn people will never listen to others. Mindless conformity: Using others as cues to behavior without thinking or dealing with the dilemma of perception/ thoughts and others’ perceptions and thoughts.
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Informative Social Influence
Baron and colleagues (1996) made students do an eyewitness identification task. If the task was easy (lineup exposure 5 sec.), conformity was low in comparison to a difficult (1/2 sec. exposure) task. 8
Informative Social Influence
Baron et al., (1996) Obedience to Authority
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2PGnHHnRMk 9 10
Obedience
People comply to social pressures. How would they respond to outright command? Stanley Milgram designed a study that investigates the effects of authority on obedience. (^) Stanley Milgram (1933-1984) Courtesy of CUNY Graduate School and University Center 11
Milgram’s Study
Both Photos: © 1965 By Stanley Miligram, from the film^ Obedience, dist. by Penn State, Media Sales 12
Milgram’s Study: Results
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Group Pressure & Conformity
Suggestibility is a subtle type of conformity, adjusting our behavior or thinking toward some group standard. What Happens When We Don’t Conform? Reactions to a Deviate
pressures toward
uniformity
- Pressures to change deviate
- Pressure to reject/exclude deviate (^20) Bystander Intervention
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT192AkivC 21 Reasons for Bystander Effect
- Pluralistic Ignorance
- Others aren’t helping, so help is probably not needed (similar to conformity)
- Social Inhibition
- Fear of standing out, making a mistake, overblowing the situation, etc.
- Diffusion of Responsibility 22 Just six months ago… 23 24 Social Inhibition
- Social Inhibition (Petty, Williams, Harkins, & Latané, 1977: “Bystander Response to a Cheeseburger”
- How are Conformity and Social Inhibition Similar? Cheesebur^ Free ger
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Actions Can Affect Attitudes
Why do actions affect attitudes? One explanation is that when our attitudes and actions are opposed, we experience tension. This is called cognitive dissonance. To relieve ourselves of this tension we bring our attitudes closer to our actions (Festinger, 1957). 26
Cognitive Dissonance
- We don’t like to hold inconsistent thoughts, or have a thought that is inconsistent with our behavior.
- When faced with an inconsistency (for something relatively important), we experience “cognitive dissonance.”
- We are motivated to reduce this dissonance.
- We change the belief/attitude to come in line with the behavior. - 1$/$20 Study by Festinger & Carlsmith - Severity of initiation by Aronson & Mills 27 Attributing Behavior to Persons or to Situations Attribution Theory: Fritz Heider (1958) suggested that we have a tendency to give causal explanations for someone’s behavior, often by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition. http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=sZBKer6PMtM http://www.stedwards.edu Fritz Heider 28
Social Thinking
Social thinking involves thinking about others, especially when they engage in doing things that are unexpected.
- Does his absenteeism signify illness, laziness, or a stressful work atmosphere?
- Was the horror of 9/11 the work of crazed evil people or ordinary people corrupted by life events?
- Why was Derek Anderson smiling when his team was losing so badly? 29 Attributing Behavior to Persons or to Situations A teacher may wonder whether a child’s hostility reflects an aggressive personality ( dispositional attribution ) or is a reaction to stress or abuse ( a situational attribution ). http://www.bootsnall.org Dispositions are enduring personality traits. So, if Joe is a quiet, shy, and introverted child, he is likely to be like that in a number of situations. 30
Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency to overestimate the impact of personal disposition and underestimate the impact of the situations in analyzing the behaviors of others leads to the fundamental attribution error. We see Joe as quiet, shy, and introverted most of the time, but with friends he is very talkative, loud, and extroverted.
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Group Influence
How do groups affect our behavior? Social psychologists study various groups:
One person affecting another
Families
Teams
Committees
38 Individual Behavior in the Presence of Others Social facilitation: Refers to improved performance on tasks in the presence of others. Triplett (1898) noticed cyclists’ race times were faster when they competed against others than when they just raced against the clock. Michelle Agnis/ NYT Pictures 39
Social Loafing
The tendency of an individual in a group to exert less effort toward attaining a common goal than when tested individually (Latané, Williams, & Harkins, 1981). 40
Deindividuation
The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity. Mob behavior 41
Effects of Group Interaction
Group Polarization enhances a group’s prevailing attitudes through a discussion. If a group is like-minded, discussion strengthens its prevailing opinions and attitudes. 42
Groupthink
A mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides the realistic appraisal of alternatives.
- Attack on Pearl Harbor
- Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis
- Watergate Cover-up
- Chernobyl Reactor Accident
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Power of Individuals
The power of social influence is enormous, but so is the power of the individual. Non-violent fasts and appeals by Gandhi led to the independence of India from the British. (^) Gandhi Margaret Bourke-White/ (^) Life Magazine. © 1946 Time Warner, Inc. 44
Social Relations
Social psychology teaches us how we relate to one another through prejudice, aggression, and conflict to attraction, and altruism and peacemaking. 45
Prejudice
Simply called “prejudgment,” a prejudice is an unjustifiable (usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members. Prejudice is often directed towards different cultural, ethnic, or gender groups.
- Beliefs (stereotypes)
- Emotions (hostility, envy, fear)
- Predisposition to act (to discriminate) Components of Prejudice 46
Reign of Prejudice
Prejudice works at the conscious and [more at] the unconscious level. Therefore, prejudice is more like a knee-jerk response than a conscious decision. 47
How Prejudiced are People?
Over the duration of time many prejudices against interracial marriage, gender, homosexuality, and minorities have decreased. 48
Racial & Gender Prejudice
Americans today express much less racial and gender prejudice, but prejudices still exist.
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Emotional Roots of Prejudice
Prejudice provides an outlet for anger [emotion] by providing someone to blame. After 9/11 many people lashed out against innocent Arab- Americans. 56
Cognitive Roots of Prejudice
One way we simplify our world is to categorize. We categorize people into groups by stereotyping them. Foreign sunbathers may think Balinese look alike. Michael S. Yamashita/ Woodfin Camp Associates 57
Cognitive Roots of Prejudice
In vivid cases such as the 9/11 attacks, terrorists can feed stereotypes or prejudices (terrorism). Most terrorists are non-Muslims. 58
Cognitive Roots of Prejudice
The tendency of people to believe the world is just, and people get what they deserve and deserve what they get (the just-world phenomenon). © The New Yorker Collection, 1981, Robert Mankoff from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved. 59
Hindsight Bias
After learning an outcome, the tendency to believe that we could have predicted it beforehand may contribute to blaming the victim and forming a prejudice against them. 60
Aggression
Aggression can be any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy. It may be done reactively out of hostility or proactively as a calculated means to an end. Research shows that aggressive behavior emerges from the interaction of biology and experience.
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The Biology of Aggression
Three biological influences on aggressive behavior are:
- Genetic Influences
- Neural Influences
- Biochemical Influences 62
Influences
Genetic Influences: Animals have been bred for aggressiveness for sport and at times for research. Twin studies show aggression may be genetic. In men, aggression is possibly linked to the Y chromosome. Neural Influences: Some centers in the brain, especially the limbic system (amygdala) and the frontal lobe, are intimately involved with aggression. 63
Influences
Biochemical Influences: Animals with diminished amounts of testosterone (castration) become docile, and if injected with testosterone aggression increases. Prenatal exposure to testosterone also increases aggression in female hyenas. 64
The Psychology of Aggression
Four psychological factors that influence aggressive behavior are:
- Dealing with aversive events
- Learning aggression is rewarding
- Observing models of aggression
- Acquiring social scripts 65
Aversive Events
Studies in which animals and humans experience unpleasant events reveal that those made miserable often make others miserable. Ron Artest (Pacers) attack on Detroit Pistons fans. Jeff Kowalsky/ EPA/ Landov 66
Environment
Even environmental temperature can lead to aggressive acts. Murders and rapes increased with the temperature in Houston.
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Conflict
Conflict is perceived as an incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas. A Social Trap is a situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior. 74
A Game of Social Trap
By pursuing our self-interest and not trusting others, we can end up losers. 75
Enemy Perceptions
People in conflict form diabolical images of one another. George Bush “Wicked Pharaoh”^ Saddam Hussein^ “Evil” http://www.cnn.com^ http://www.aftonbladet.se 76
Psychology of Attraction
- Proximity: Geographic nearness is a powerful predictor of friendship. Repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases their attraction (mere exposure effect). A rare white penguin born in a zoo was accepted after 3 weeks by other penguins just due to proximity. Rex USA 77
Psychology of Attraction
- Physical Attractiveness: Once proximity affords contact, the next most important thing in attraction is physical appearance. Brooks Kraft/ Corbis Brooks Kraft/ Corbis (^78)
Psychology of Attraction
- Similarity: Similar views among individuals causes the bond of attraction to strengthen. Similarity breeds content!
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Romantic Love
Passionate Love: An aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship. Physical arousal plus cognitive appraisal Arousal from any source can enhance one emotion depending upon what we interpret or label the arousal Two-factor theory of emotion 80
Romantic Love
Companionate Love: A deep, affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined. Courtship and Matrimony (^) (from the collection of Werner Nekes) 81 An unselfish regard for the welfare of others.
Altruism
Equity: A condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give. Self-Disclosure: Revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others. 82
Bystander Effect
Tendency of any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present. 83
Bystander Intervention
The decision-making process for bystander intervention. Akos Szilvasi/ Stock, Boston 84
The Norms for Helping
Social Exchange Theory: Our social behavior is an exchange process. The aim is to maximize benefits and minimize costs. Reciprocity Norm: The expectation that we should return help and not harm those who have helped us. Social–Responsibility Norm: Largely learned, it is a norm that tells us to help others when they need us even though they may not repay us.
