X. Social Psychology

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X. Social Psychology
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A. SP approach to behavior..

• 1. Definition
• The scientific study of how people think about,
  influence, and relate to one another.
• Social psych. approach to human behavior
• Social psychologists focus on causes of behavior
  in the environment (including other people).
• Stress impact of the situation, presence of
  others.
• vs.......
• Lewin B D S

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B. Why this approach?

• 1. Attribution
• How people infer the cause of an event or
  explain behavior.
• a. Heider internal vs. external attributions
• b. Fundamental Attribution Error
• When judging other peoples behavior, people
  tend to overestimate the dispositional or
  internal influences on behavior, and
  underestimate situational or external influences
  on behavior
• Ross et al. (1977) Quiz Show Study

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B. Why this approach?

• 2. Attitudes
• - An evaluation, either positive, negative, or
  neutral, of a person, object, event, etc., that
  is exhibited in thoughts, feelings, and
  behaviors.

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B. Why this approach?

• b. Do attitudes cause or predict behavior?
• LaPiere (1934)
• B D S
• Better question (according to soc. psych.) -
  when?
• Attitude is more likely to predict behavior when
• - Attitude formed from active experience (Fazio
  et al., 1977)
• - Self-Awareness
• More self-aware, more attitudes behavior.
• (Diener Wallbom, 1979 mirror study)
• attitudes ? behavior.....

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B. Why this approach?

• Behavior ? attitudes
• 3. Does behavior influence or create attitudes?
• Doing/saying is believing (particularly with
  less formed attitudes)
• a. Role Playing
• Zimbardo (Standford) Prison Study (1972)
• Freedman Fraser (1966) ugly sign study
• b. Foot-in-the-Door Effect
• Tendency for people who have complied with a
  small request to be more willing to comply with a
  larger request later.
• Low-Ball Technique

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B. Why this approach?

• c. Why does behavior influence attitudes?
• - Stems from the need to be consistent.
• Cognitive dissonance
• An aversive state of arousal or tension that
  develops when we have two inconsistent thoughts
  or behaviors.
• Festinger Carlsmith (1959) knob turning

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B. Why this approach?

• State occurs when
• c. Insufficient justification
• There is no external reason for behavior.
• ?to reduce or eliminate aversive feeling, find
  internal reason to justify behavior, which often
  means changing ones attitude.
• (bring attitude in line with behavior)
• vs. Overjustification?

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• Why do we care?
• Empathy
• Tolerance

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C. Social perception and thinking

• Place our social world into a context...
• 1. Review Confirmation Bias, Self-Fulfilling
  Prophecy, Memory, etc.
• Power of expectations
• 2. Applying these ideas to stereotyping and
  prejudice

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2. Stereotyping and Prejudice

• Powerful tendency to categorize, see patterns.
• In social perception dominant category
• us vs. them or in-groups/out-groups
• Sometimes accompanied by negative characteristics
  (stereotypes)
• Apply other concepts..
• Stereotype threat documented impact on
  performance

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• Current theory
• PC
• Unconscious stereotypes/prejudices
• https//implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/measure
  yourattitudes.html

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C. Social Influence

• 1. Persuasion
• Purposely attempting to change attitudes or
  behavior.
• Compliance Techniques
• Sometimes based on peoples need for information.
• Social Proofs determine what is correct behavior
  by looking at others.

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C. Social Influence

• 1. Persuasion
• Informational influence change in behavior that
  results from accepting evidence about reality
  provided by other people.
• Why people use experts to persuade others.
• Typically leads to acceptance.

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C. Social Influence

• Is that always why we go along with others or are
  influenced by others?
• 2. Conformity
• A change in behavior as a result of real or
  imagined group pressure.
• - Asch (1955) Line Study

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C. Social Influence

• Another type of influence
• Normative Influence
• Changing behavior to gain approval or avoid
  disapproval.
• Typically leads to compliance.
• a. Normative vs. Informational Influence
• b. Factors that influence conformity
• unanimity vs. power of the dissenter
• status, cohesion

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C. Social Influence

• Up the ante.
• 3. Obedience Milgram (1965)
• Yielding to a direct request from a person in a
  position of authority.
• How far would you go?
• 65 of participants went to 450 volts.

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Influences on obedience

• Less obedience
• Move learner close to teacher.
• Teacher must touch learner.
• Experimenter moves away from teacher.
• Another participant is the experimenter.
• Two other participants refuse to obey.
• More obedience
• Two other participants unquestionably obey
• Concerns or other interoperations?

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C. Social Influence

• 4. Existing in Groups
• a. Work
• Social Loafing The tendency for people to exert
  less effort when they pool their efforts toward a
  common goal than when they are individually
  accountable.
• Free riders vs. Suckers
• How to eliminate social loafing?

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C. Social Influence

• 4. Existing in groups.
• b. Play
• - Being in a group fosters anonymity and draws
  attention away from individual (reduces
  self-awareness).
• Feel like not identifiable and not responsible.
• Yet people can become more aroused in groups.
• Deindividuation
• When in groups, people often abandon normal
  restraint.
• - Diener et al., (1976) Trick or Treaters Study

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D. Social Relations

• 2. Is there true altruism?
• empathy
• Helping Others
• Kitty Genovese
• What about THE SITUATION influences helping.
• Latane and Darley
• Several step process must complete all steps
  for helping to occur.

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D. Social Relations

• Must notice the event.
• After noticing the event, must interpret it as an
  emergency.
• Latane Darley (1970) -Smoke-filled Room study
• b. Pluralistic Ignorance In an ambiguous
  situation, we assume that when other people
  appear unconcerned, that the situation is not an
  emergency.

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D. Social Relations

• Must assume responsibility.
• Latane Darley (1974) - Seizure Study
• Diffusion of responsibility or bystander effect
• When you know there is an emergency, and you do
  not help because you think other people will.
• Must know how to give help.
• Must decide to help.

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D. Social Relations

• Hurting others - Aggression
• Any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt
  someone or something.
• - MULTIPLE CAUSES
• a. Review social learning theory
• b. Frustration-Aggression Theory
• Importance of Frustration
• Blocking of a goal-directed behavior causes
  people to
• become angry - that anger can lead to
  aggression.
• More we desire or expect to achieve goal, the
  more frustration experienced, more aggression
  expressed.
• Example Ulricht Flavell (1970) tower
  building study

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D. Social Relations

• a. Physical attractiveness
• What is beautiful is good - halo effect
• Evidence Hatfield et al. (1966)
• Welcome Week Dance Study
• What is considered attractive?
• Average, symmetrical
• women baby-faced
• men mature dominant

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D. Social Relations

• b. Proximity
• Geographical or functional nearness.
• Evidence? Festinger et al., (1950)
• Mere exposure
• The tendency for novel stimuli to be liked more
  or rated more positively after repeated exposure
  to stimuli.
• - mirror vs. picture image of self

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Conclusions

• Social psychology
• Study how normal people, in everyday life, often
  behavior similarly, due to the situation.
• Do social psychologists disregard the internal
  part?
• No.
• Personality...

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