Social Psychology

Social Psychology

the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another

Attitudes and Actions

• A set of beliefs and feelings.
• Advertising is ALL based on attitude formation.
• Mere Exposure Effect

• Do attitudes tell us about someone’s behavior?
• LaPiere’s Study

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• People want to have consistent attitudes and behaviors….when they are not they experience dissonance (unpleasant tension).
• Usually they will change their attitude.

Some interesting RESEARCH

Spoilers are bad. As in knowing the end of a movie before you watch it.

"females are more tolerant of same-sex peers."

Mean people (especially men) make less money.

Wait. . .

I think I got that wrong

Spoilers are good. As in knowing the end of a movie before you watch it.

"males are more tolerant of same-sex peers."

Nice people (especially men) make less money.

• Is this suprising or reasonable?
• Explain why it is true.

Hindsight Bias

the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it

aka, I-knew-it-all-along-phenomenon

Implicit personality theory- quick and automatic assumptions or beliefs that we form about other people and situations that are developed through schemas- mental organization of information

Social Thinking

1. Does his absenteeism signify illness, laziness, skipping or a stressful school atmosphere?

2. Was the horror of 9/11 the work of crazed evil people or ordinary people corrupted by life events?

Attribution Theory

Tries to explain how people determine the

cause of the behavior they observe.

It is either a....

• Situational Attribution

• Dispositional Attribution

How do you guys view me?

Why do you believe that?

You probably attribute it to my personality rather than my profession.

Fundamental Attribution Error

We tend to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal dispositions when analyzing another's behavior

Actor-observer discrepancy is the tendency to attribute, or justify, one’s own behavior to situational factors, while attributing the same exact type of behavior that happens to others to a dispositional attribution, for example their own fault, or that they deserved the outcome

Self-serving bias is the tendency to attribute successful outcomes to internal reasons, and unsuccessful outcomes to situational factors

Self-efficacy (modesty) bias is the tendency to blame ourselves for our failures and credit our successes to external factors, or other people

Elaboration likelihood model- a model suggesting that attitudes can change through evaluation of the content of a persuasive message (central route) or by irrelevant persuasion cues (peripheral routes)

Central route of persuasion- the listener focuses on the content of the product

Peripheral route of persuasion- the listener focuses on the tone of person’s voice, their excitement- focuses on the salesperson’s pitch instead of the product

What are ways in which we see conformity in our lives?

What are some groups that people conform to?

Conforming Conditions

• person feels incompetent or insecure
• the group has at least three people
• the group is unanimous
• one admires the group's status and attractiveness

Normative social influence -- gain approval or avoid dissapproval

What are ways we search for approval or avoid dissapproval?

informational social influence -- accept others' opinions about reality

Can you think of any examples?

Hawthorne effect- workers at a factory worked harder when their boss was present

Ok now, everyone listen up for some instructions:

Why did you follow my instructions?

Obedience -- tendency to follow a person's orders or requests because he or she is seen as an authority figure

http://www.schooltube.com/video/237e7769aa970bcec446/

Social Loafing -- contributing less effort when working others than when working alone

This is due to the feeling of less responsibility

Examples??

Now what happens when we are both aroused and anonymous because of a group?

Deindividuation

having no self awareness or restraint in a group

On a piece of paper:

-- Do NOT put your name on it

-- Answer this question:

"If you could be totally invisible for 24 hours and were completely assured that you would not be detected or held responsible for your actions, what would you do?"

-- fold your paper and hand it to me

Groupthink -- occurs when the desire to keep social harmony among the group becomes more important than personal opinion

Group Polarization -- an attitude or thought becomes stronger in the presence of a group of people

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy -- occurs when a person listens to the opinions of other people and then accepts these people's opinions resulting in that person now living up to the beliefs and expectations of other people

altruism

the unselfish regard, or caring welfare of others

bystander effect

aka diffusion of responsibility

the tendency for a bystander to be less likely to help if there are other people present

People of MORE likely to help another person:

• If they are not in a hurry
• In a good mood
• Believe the victim has a similar background to them
• Feeling guilty about something they did wrong earlier in teh day
• See someone else helping

John Darley and Bibb Latane were interested in Kitty Genovese's murder and why no one helped.

Social Relations

Prejudice

an unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members. Prejudice generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action.

Stereotypes

a generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people.

Discrimination

unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members.

group that you are a member of

In Group/Out Group

group you do not belong to

Ingroup Bias--tendency to favor one's group through the belief that this group is always correct

out-group homogeneity effect -- the tendency to see members of other groups as similar in terms of their thoughts and actions

Example: if one member of group smokes, the rest of the group is perceived as smokers

Other-race Effect

the tendency to recall faces of one’s own race more accurately than faces of other races. Also called the cross-race effect and the own-race bias.

Ethnocentrism -- belief that one's own culture or ethnic group is superior to others

scapegoat theory -- theory that prejudiced behavior provides an outlet of anger and blame

just world phenomenon

social trap

Attraction and Love

Adaptation Level Phenomenon

1. In affluent societies, people with more money are only somewhat happier than people who struggle for their basic needs.

2. People in rich countries are only a bit happier than people in poor countries.

3. A sudden rise in financial conditions makes people happy for only a temporary time.

However, people who live in poverty or in slums are also satisfied with their life.

Do you agree?

Like the adaptation to brightness, volume, and touch, people adapt to income levels.

Many people in the West believe that if they were wealthier, they would be happier. However, data suggests that they would only be happy temporarily.

Relative Deprivation

Wealth is like health: Its utter absence can breed misery, yet having it is no guarantee of happiness.

Wealth and Well Being

With this knowledge,

what do you think a good predictor of happiness is for you or those that you know?

is the perception that we are relatively worse off than those we compare ourselves with.

What makes you happy?

NOW. . .

Attitudes

Attitude and Behavior

You have a belief that cheating on tests is bad.

The teacher was really bad so in that class it is OK.

But you cheat on a test!!!

Compliance Strategies

• Foot-in-the-door phenomenon

• Door-in-the-face phenomenon

• Norms of reciprocity

Conformity Studies

• Adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.

Conformity: How groups affect our behavior?

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.
• If it is a difficult task or you are not very good at it…you will perform WORSE in front of a group (social impairment).

Love

Love

Romantic love: consists of intimacy and passion

Companionate love: consists of intimacy and commitment

Consummate love: ideal love, in which all three components are present

Love

• Love: a strong affection for another person due to kinship, personal ties, sexual attraction, admiration, or common interests
• Sternberg’s three components of love:
• intimacy
• passion
• commitment

Attraction

• Interpersonal attraction: liking or having the desire for a relationship with another person physical attractiveness
• proximity: physical or geographical nearness people like people who are similar to themselves OR who are different from themselves (complementary)
• reciprocity of liking: tendency of people to like other people who like them in return