Psy 352AB Social Psychology

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• our evaluation of virtually any aspect of our
  social world
• favorable/unfavorable reactions to objects,
  people, events, ideas, .....anything/everything

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Attitude Structure
Affect
how we feel about people or social objects
Behaviors
behavior directed at people and social
objects
Cognitions
generalized beliefs about people and social
objects
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Attitude Formation

• Social Learning
• Social Comparison
• Genetic Factors

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Functions

• Knowledge function
• Identity function
• Self-esteem function
• Behavioral guide function

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Fundamental Issue of this area
as typically stated
attitudes
behaviors
?
attitude-behavior consistency
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Do attitudes lead to behavior?
research results
Attitudes
Behaviors
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Do attitudes lead to behavior?
Attitudes
Behaviors
Moderators

• constraints
• choice

• Situational factors

• origins
• strength
• specificity

• Attitudinal factors

Simple answer NO, not as expected Real answer
Depends what you look at
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Effect of attitudinal moderator
Attitudes
Behaviors
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Theory of Planned Behavior
How do attitudes lead to behavior I?
Attitude towards tattoos

• Fishbein Ajzen, 1975 Ajzen Fishbein, 1980
  Ajzen, 1991

Subjective Norm
TATTOO
Intentions
Perceived Behavioral Control
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Attitude to Behavior Process Model
How do attitudes lead to behavior II?
Attitude towards tattoos

• Fazio, 1989

Behavior
Defines Event/Object
Event Object
Social Norms
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Prototype/Willingness Model
How do attitudes lead to behavior III?

• Gibbons et al, 1998

Subjective Norms
Behavioral Intention
Behavior
Prior Behavior
Attitude
Prototype
Behavioral Willingness
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traditional attitude-behavior approach review
Do attitudes lead to behavior?
Attitudes
Behaviors
Expressed Attitude

• Situational characteristics

• Attitudinal characteristics

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fundamental Issue of this area
as I see it
affect
behaviors
cognition
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research results my view
affect
behavior
cognition
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attitudinal factors my view

• origins
• strength
• specificity

affect
behavior
cognition
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contextualizing the concept of self
philosophically speaking

• historical context
• soul versus self
• myself and I
• descriptive expressions reflect moral/spiritual
  values
• focus on self crucial in our culture
• control self-control
• exploration self-exploration

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contextualizing the concept of self
control
exploration

• Plato self-mastery
• outward focus
• Augustine
• approach God inwardly
• Descartes instrumental focus
• todayself-enclosed capacity for self-control

• Augustine self-examination souls/lives
• today find own self
• own particular original way of being human
• self-expression

common source focus on human being in
self-enclosed way with the above two capacities
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composition of the self

• differentiates us from other objects
• understand control and volitional functions
• sense of continuity
• self as actor

• influences information processing/interpretation
• guides immediate behaviors
• motivation
• self as object

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composition of the self
Jamess taxonomy of selves
empirical self
material self
social self
spiritual self
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composition of the self
making Jamess selves work?
empirical self
material self
social self
spiritual self
pack rats
social life
happiness

• How do these aspects of self factor into your
  everyday lives -- what do they explain?
• How do these classifications fit your lists?

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composition of the self
self beyond James?
your self
material self
spiritual self
?? self
social self
?? self
?? self

• implicit categorizations in your lists?
• number of dimensions?

self evaluations
interests
social identity
ideological beliefs
other
ambitions
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defining the self
multidimensional selves
our intuitive theory of how we relate,
experience, function within a vast range of
significant experiences contexts (Epstein, 1973)
self concept
self representations
working self concept
mental representations characteristic of ones
self with regard to various contexts or
experiences
self representations that we are aware of at any
given moment in time
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defining the self
self concept versus self esteem
our intuitive theory of how we relate,
experience, function within a vast range of
significant experiences contexts
self representations working self concept
self evaluation
how you feel about yourself valenced evaluation
mental representations characteristic of ones
self with regard to various contexts or
experiences
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defining the self
self-esteem models
I feel good because I look good
I look good because I feel good
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defining the self
what to make of all this..?
Think about your self-representations
What self representations do you have? How do
you define these selves? How do these change in
different environments? Where/how do they
develop? How do they affect/influence your life?
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developing the self
what factors influence who we become/are?
reflected appraisal
self perception
self
culture
others/ surroundings
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developing the self
cultural influences
Do We reflect what our culture is?
culture
self
Does our culture reflect who We are?
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developing the self
cultural differences in self development
interdependent self
independent self
defined by relationships with others eastern/colle
ctivist
contained in/defined by the individual western/ind
ividualistic
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developing the self
reflected appraisals
reflected appraisal
self
Looking-glass self reality versus
perception perception is reality
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developing the self
influence of others
others, surroundings
self
you are who you are not! social identity and
social roles
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developing the self
influence of self - an open book?
self perception
self
self perception theory infer own
beliefs/attitudes by observing behavior intended
to address attitude change limited to ambiguous
situations generalizing it to the self what
does it mean?
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role of self in action (in general)

• Self-concept many self representations
• Possible selves
• specific future oriented self-representations
• reflecting specific hopes, aspirations, fears,
  dreams
• can have many possible selves
• each has valence attached to it
• the content of ones self-concept can lead to
  specific goal-directed behaviors
• different theories of how it works

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theory of self-motivated behavior

• Self-discrepancy theory
• affective states that motivate behavior due to
• differences between current and possible selves
  (Higgins, 1987, 1996)
• ideal selves -- what you want to be
• discrepancy leads to depression, anger
• people focus on reaching positive goals
• ought selves -- what you should be
• discrepancy leads to anxiety, guilt
• people focus on avoiding negative occurrences

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self-discrepancy theory
IDEAL Self
OUGHT Self
life is good
ACTUAL Self
Positive motivation
Negative motivation
if discrepant
if discrepant
OUGHT Self
IDEAL Self
Increased depression anger
Increased anxiety guilt
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theory of self-motivated behavior
Carver, Lawrence, Scheier, 1999 similar idea
to Self-Discrepancy Theory somewhat analogous
to magnets
Actual Self
Ideal Self
Feared Self
Avoid
Approach
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A Social Cognitive look

• Social Cognition
• process of thinking about ourselves, others,
  and our world
• how we attend to, interpret, and utilize current
  past events in our lives
• Social reality is constructed.
• People are motivated tacticians
  (Fiske Taylor, 1991)
• to MANAGE SELF-IMAGE
• to CONSERVE EFFORT
• to BE ACCURATE

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A Purgatory Poll (1997)How likely are these
people to enter Heaven?

• Mother Teresa
• Princess Diana
• Oprah Winfrey
• Bill Clinton
• Michael Jordan
• Dennis Rodman
• O.J. Simpson
• Yourself

• Very Likely

Data from US News World Report March 31, 1997
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self research results
whose reality is real?

• Dartmouth vs Princeton (Hastorf Cantril, 1951)
• Pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups
• Basking in reflected glory (Cialdini et al ,
  1976) we won, but they lost!!!
• Actor-observer attributions Im unlucky,
  you must be stupid!!!!
• the fundamental attribution error

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what does this mean?

• Perception is related to perspective
• We like to identify with positive others
• Attributions are based on what we see
• Attributions are affected by our social roles
• Self-awareness influences our behaviors
• We compare ourselves to others for different
  reasons
• look to LESSERS to self-enhance
• look to GREATERS to self-improve

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where does this lead us?

• Self is implicated in many different behaviors.
  related by underlying goals
• To establish social ties
• To understand ourselves and others
• To gain and maintain social status
• To defend ourselves and those we value
• To attract and retain mates
• Try to find patterns between behaviors goals.

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Self-serving Biases

• Self-serving bias -- tendency to view oneself
  favorably
• seen (to an extent) in most people
• seen in a variety of situations
• Seen when judgments are more subjective (rather
  than objective)
• Seen more when judgments are private (rather than
  public)
• Seen more when topic is of importance (rather
  than non-schematic)

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Faces of self-serving bias

• Social comparison -- better than average
• Unrealistic optimism -- will beat the odds
• increases with importance of dimension
• Affirmation of rightness/goodness
• false-consensus -- believe that others think like
  you do, others support your views
• false-uniqueness -- believe you have unique
  skills, talents, positive traits
• Self-serving attributions -- we do no wrong

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Attributing the world our way

• 3 demonstrations of self-serving attributions
• Self-enhancing -- take credit for positive
  events, self cause
• Self-effacing (self-defensive) -- shun blame for
  negative events, self victim
• Counter-defensive -- take blame for negative
  events (or shun credit for events) to attain
  greater standing later, self martyr

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Why do we have Self-serving biases?

• See ourselves positively to
• Avoid depression
• easy to overestimate if hear/see no faults
• Avoid anxiety
• Motivates toward achievable goals
• Maintain self-esteem
• compare selves to others, positively view self
• But could lead to unhappiness, aggression,
  bad-image, unrealistic expectations

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Self-in-Action relating to others

• Self-presentation -- the process by which we try
  to control the impressions that others form of
  us
• Impression management an active conscious
  process
• Refers to
• What you do and dont reveal.
• How and when you reveal it to people.

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WHY SELF-PRESENT?

• To obtain resources
• to attract retain social support/mates
• to gain material goods
• to gain status (which enables other resources)
• Smooth interactions
• people know what to expect from one another
• all the world is a stage
• To manage self-image
• how others see you how you see yourself

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Instances of Self-presentation

• Goal
• Why
• How

• To appear/to be likable
• to belong (gain goods/status)
• to manage self-image
• express liking for others
• create similarity
• make ourselves physically attractive
• project modesty

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Instances of Self-presentation

• Goal
• Why
• How

• To appear competent
• to gain goods/status
• to attract others (form ties/gain mates)
• stage performances
• claim competence
• use the trappings of competence
• self-handicap -- creating obstacles to hinder
  ones own future successes

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Instances of Self-presentation

• Goal
• Why
• How

• To convey power
• to gain goods/status
• to manage self-image
• to belong to groups
• display success
• consume conspicuously
• associate with others of high status
• intimidation
• nonverbal communication

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When you screw it up
good self-presentation bad impression

• Ingratiation
• Project modesty
• Claiming competence
• Stage performance
• Self-handicap
• Display success
• Intimidation

• kissing-up
• appear incompetent or appear insincere
• cockiness
• show-off or failure
• failure
• show-off
• unlikable

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After your failure

• Account giving
• claim innocence (deny, deny, deny)
• reinterpret events/status
• justify/excuse your position
• apologize
• Identity repair inflate other strengths

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Motive To manage the Self- imageFeeling Control
Motivated Social Cognition I
...influences how we subsequently perceive events

• Illusory correlation --
• People find evidence of control when there is
  none!
• Gamblers fallacy
• Find correlations in independent events

• Overconfidence --
• tendency to be more confident than correct
• What implications does this have for legal
  systems?

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Motive To manage the Self- image Seeing what we
want to see
Motivated Social Cognition II

• Confirmation bias -
• we actively seek information consistent with
  views
• We look to assure ourselves of our initial views
• related to development of Self (self-verification)
  
• Belief Perseverance
• initial beliefs persist despite later
  disconfirming info
• Based on the explanations initially generated
  when using the initial information
• Negated by actively considering specific
  alternatives

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Motive To manage the Self-image Remembering our
Way
Motivated Social Cognition III

• Memory is process of backward reasoning
  reconstruction of events as you see them
• Memory of past (attitudes actions) is
  influenced by present
• We revise the past to suit the present
• Can include info that has happened since the
  event of interest
• EX relationships seen as negative post-break-up
• EX belief that past actions consistent with
  current

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Motive Conserve effortto be just good enough
Motivated Social Cognition III

• adaptive for an information-rich world
• Intuitions
• making judgments without reasoning or analysis
• information is accessed almost immediately
• debate Preferences need no Inferences
• Cognitive heuristics
• mental shortcuts used to make judgments (Tversky
  Kahneman, 1973)

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Exercise
Motive Conserve effortto be just good enough

• 1. How are you more likely to die? (per 100
  mill)
• Homicide..Diabetes
• Flood...Infectious hepatitis
• Strokes . All accidents
• Heart Disease Cancer (all)
• Lightning..Appendicitis
• Cancer of digestive system car accident
• Drowning ....Leukemia
• Asthma .. Tornadoes

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Exercise 2
Motive Conserve effortto be just good enough
2. David Andrews works at a new medical clinic
that employs 5 doctors, 3 physicians assistants,
and 12 nurses. David finished his education at
the top of his class. He has received a lot of
praise for his work at the clinic. He is 42,
married, 2 children, and plays hockey. What are
the chances that he is a doctor? 0 10 20
30 40 50 60 70 80 90
100
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Cognitive Heuristicstypically discussed in terms
of short-comings
Motive Conserve effortto be just good enough

• Availability
• likelihood of events judged by availability in
  memory

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Cognitive Heuristicstypically discussed in terms
of short-comings
Motive Conserve effortto be just good enough

• Representativeness
• judgments based on how well event matches
  prototype

• A die with 4 green sides and 2 red sides is
  rolled - you win if your chosen pattern is
  rolled. Which of these two do you choose?
• RGRRR GRGRRR

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Cognitive Heuristicstypically discussed in terms
of short-comings
Motive Conserve effortto be just good enough

• Ignoring Base-rate Information
• tendency to ignore base-rate information

If a test is used to detect a disease with a
prevalence of 1in 1000 people has a false
positive rate of 5 (false positive rate is a
of times the test mistakenly indicates that the
disease is present), what is the chance that a
person found to have a positive result actually
has the disease, assuming you know nothing else
about the person.
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Cognitive Heuristicstypically discussed in terms
of short-comings
Motive Conserve effortto be just good enough

• Anchoring Adjustment
• judgments are made by adjusting from a rough
  estimate

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Motive To be accurate

• People CAN be accurate social thinkers
• interpret use information systematically
• Attribution theory -- how people explain events
  in their worlds
• Heart of attribution is me vs. not me
• internal attributions
• about the actor (dispositional factors) me
• external attributions
• about the environment (situational) not me

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Motive To be accurate

• Commonsense Psychology (Heider, 1958)
• 1. people attempt to understand events
• 2. people believe that environmental personal
  factors are inversely related in causing events
• 3. the need for a predictable world leads to more
  attributions to stable personality dispositions
• dispositions determined by intentionality
• 4. covariation of cause effect is fundamental

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Motive To be accurate

• Covariation model (Kelley, 1967 1972)
• when making attributions we use an orderly
  process 3 types of information
• Results Situational or Dispositional attribution
• Distinctiveness
• does person act this way in other situations?
• Consistency
• does person act this way at other times?
• Consensus
• do others act this way in this situation?

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Kelleys Attribution model
Internal attribution
Consensus
Distinctiveness
Consistency
all else equal, would this happen elsewhere
all else equal, would this happen again
all else equal, would others act like this
External attribution
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Adding information to the model

• Isnt always so clear cut but still systematic
• When are you confident that Jack married for love?

Jack loves Jill Jacks friends like Jill
Jack loves Jill Jacks friends like Jill Jill is
wealthy Jill tolerates Jacks bad habits
Discounting principle --
We are less confident if any particular cause as
the number of possible causes increases
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Adding information to the model
When are you confident Jack married for love?
Jack loves Jill Jacks friends like Jill Jill is
dirt poor Jill wants to change Jacks habits
Jack loves Jill Jacks friends like Jill Jill is
wealthy Jill tolerates Jacks bad habits

• Augmenting principle --

We are more confident if any particular cause if
the event occurs despite opposing forces
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How accurate can we really be?

• Are our goals mutually-exclusive?
• managing self-image
• conserving effort
• accuracy
• Even given the intent to be accurate, people are
  not always objective
• Fundamental Attribution Error
• Self-Other (actor-observer) Divergence

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Self-other Divergence /aka the Actor-Observer
Effect

• Ones attributions are related to ones
  perspective (Jones Nisbett, 1971)

• FIGURE v. GROUND
• figure seen by observer
• ground seen by actor
• actors and observers fundamentally have
  different perspectives

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Functioning in our Worlds

• Multiple goals (not independent)...
• Manage Self-image
• how we see ourselves, how we view others
  information we receive, how we remember
• Conserve Energy
• reliance on cognitive heuristics cues
• To be Accurate
• attribution models describe process by which
  people make judgments about events

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what to make of these facts?

• Is the concept of Self necessary to study
  understand humankind?
• (Based on these findings) ...
• How reliable is anyones view of the world?
• What do you think the Self does?