Social Psychology

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Social Psychology
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How does society affect our thinking and actions?
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How do people explain behavior?

• Fundamental attribution error
• Overestimating the influence of personality
• Underestimating the influence of situation

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How do our actions affect our attitudes?

• The foot-in-the-door phenomenon
• People who agree to a small action, will comply
  with a larger one later.

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How does the role we play affect our attitudes
and actions?

• Philip Zimbardos prison study
• Students randomly assigned to be guards or
  prisoners
• Guards acted like guards
• Prisoners acted like prisoners
• Study called off after only six days because
  participants were endangered by their role
  playing.
• Result Roles call for certain behavior if we
  play that role long enough we may become that
  type of person.

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How do our actions affect our attitudes?

• Cognitive dissonance theory
• Leon Festenger
• Cognitive thinking
• Dissonance Unresolved differences
• When we act differently than we believe, we
  experience cognitive dissonance.

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Cognitive dissonance (cont.)

• To reduce dissonance, we will change our
  attitudes (or behavior) to produce agreement.
• We change our attitudes to justify past behavior.

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Cognitive dissonance (cont.)
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How do we influence each other?

• Will you conform to group pressure?

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Solomon Asch conformity study

• Comparing lengths of lines
• People rejected what they could see, to conform
  with the group

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Obedience - Will you do what you are told even
if it would hurt someone?
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Stanley Milgrams shock experiments

• Teachers - gave shock (15 - 450 volts)
• Learners - received shock
• Results The majority of teachers ordered to
  shock the learners complied fully, and gave the
  highest level of shock.

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Stanley Milgrams shock experiments (Cont.)
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What causes prejudice?

• Scapegoat Theory
• Frustration feeling disadvantaged creates
  prejudice
• They caused my problems.
• The Cultural Theory of prejudice
• Emery Borgardus
• People well adjusted to a culture of prejudice
  become prejudiced.

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What causes aggression?

• Frustration - aggression hypothesis
• Frustration - anger - aggression
• E.g. Hurting someone that frustrated you (not
  always physical)

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Situations that increase aggression

• Hot days, pain, humiliation

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How can social perception create reality?

• The Self fulfilling prophesy
• 1. You believe something is true (even if it is
  not)
• 2. You act as if it is true
• 3. The other person (or country) reacts by
  becoming the way you thought they were.
• E.g. Bill thinks Sally is rejecting him
• E.g. The cold war - Russia v.s. U.S.

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Have you ever been In love?

• Passionate love
• Fully absorbed with the other
• Walking on clouds
• Companionate love
• A deep affectionate attachment to the other
• Based on equity and self disclosure

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Sternbergs theory of love

• Intimacy
• Passion
• Commitment

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Will you help someone in an emergency?

• The bystander effect
• Kitty Genovese
• Before helping, people must
• Notice the situation
• Interpret it as an emergency
• Assume responsibility

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Bystander effect (cont.)

• The more people are available to help, the less
  chance any one person will help.

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Why do we help?

• Self interest
• The Social Exchange theory
• Cost - benefit analysis
• Will the cost (money, time, discomfort) be less
  than the benefit (reduced guilt, social approval,
  good feelings).