Social Psychology Greatest Hits

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Social Psychology Greatest Hits
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Stereotype Threat Chapter 9(Steele
Aronson,1995)

• The phenomena that individuals performance
  declines in response to their being aware of a
  negative stereotype that applies to them based on
  their group membership.
• A self-confirming apprehension that one will be
  evaluated based on a negative stereotype.
• Subtle, seemingly harmless activation of
  stereotypes may have profound consequence!!!!
• The findings for performance deficits are
  pervasive
• Race and verbal abilities (Whites gt Blacks)
  Steele Aronson (1995)
• Gender and math abilities (Men gt Women) Spencer,
  Steele, Quinn (1999)
• Race and athleticism for golf test Stone et al.,
  (1999)
• (Whites gt Blacks when testing sports
  intelligence)
• (Blacks gt Whites when testing natural athletic
  ability)

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Stereotype Threat Example
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Stereotype Threat

• Disidentification Effects can also result
• The correlation between self-esteem and school
  performance in African American students gets
  weaker as they transition from 8-10th grade
  (Osborne, 1997)
• Students led to believe they benefited from
  gender or race based preferences in gaining
  admission to a college tended to underperform
  those who are led to feel competent (Brown et
  al., 2000)

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Explanations for Stereotype Threat

• Cognitive Distraction
• Undermines working memory functioning
• Physiological Arousal from heightened anxiety
• undermine performance on difficult tests

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Prosocial Behavior- Chapter 12 Bystander
Intervention Effect (Darley Latané, 1968)

• The tragic story of Kitty Genovese.
• Why did no one help?
• Latané Darley Were social psychological
  processes at work that accounted for the
  nonintervention?
• Bystander Effect (Darley Latane, 1968) The
  presence of others inhibits helping.

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The Classic Diffusion of Responsibility Study
(Darley Latané, 1968)

• Based on a Diffusion of Responsibility they
  hypothesized that as the number of bystanders in
  an emergency increases, the greater is the belief
  that Someone else will help, so I dont need to
• A staged simulated emergency (a phony seizure)
  was created under different experimental
  conditions in which the number of perceived
  conversation partners was manipulated.
• The cover story
• The Studys Purpose- To examine students
  adjustment to university life and the personal
  problems they experience
• The Studys Procedure-
• A discussion would take place with other
  students.
• To maximize honesty and to avoid their feeling
  embarrassed they would be placed in separate
  rooms and would alternate speaking by intercom,
  one at a time, for 2 minute intervals
• Would willingness to quickly help during the
  seizure vary
• depending on the group size of the conversation
  partners?

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The Likelihood of Helping Quickly (During the
Duration of the Seizure) based on Group Size
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The Percentage of Participants Who Had Helped (at
any time) During the Total 4-Minute Period based
on Group Size
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The Length of Delay in Responding based on
Group Size
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The Study Conclusions

• The behavioral changes resulting from the group
  size demonstrate an example of social influence
• In the presence of others a diffusion of
  responsibility had occurred as well as
  pluralistic ignorance.
• To make sense of such phenomena, Latane Darley
  outlined a 5-step model of helping behavior.

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The Five Steps to Helping in an Emergency
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The Implicit Bystander Effect
Students imagined having dinner with either one
person, or a large group of friends, or they were
not asked to imagine a social situation, and were
then later asked if they would be willing to
volunteer their time to help in another study.
S.M.Garcia, K. Weaver, G.B. Moskowitz, and J.M.
Darley (2002) Crowded Minds The Implicit
Bystander Effect." Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 83, 843-853.
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Time Pressure

• Time pressure can conflict with ones good
  intentions of helping those in need.
• Darley Batsons (1973) Good Samaritan study

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Darley Batsons (1973) Results
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Location and Culture

• Do individuals have a worse chance of being
  helped in an emergency in a big city than in a
  small town?
• Greater population density is associated with
  less helping.

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Helping in the U.S.A.
From "Helpfulness Index How U.S. Cities Rank,"
The Boston Globe, July 7, 1994.
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Helping Around the World
Based on R.V. Levine, A. Norenzayan and K.
Philbrick (2001). "Cross-Cultural Differences in
Helping Strangers," Journal of Cross-Cultural
Psychology, 32, 543-560.
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Attachment- Chapter 11

• Attachment an emotional tie or bond to a
  specific person or persons that endures across
  time and space
• Building enduring emotional connections
• Proximity-seeking behaviors
• E.g., following a caregiver or climbing on to a
  caregivers lap, etc.
• Contact-maintaining behaviors
• E.g., clinging, resisting being put down, etc.

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The Roots of Attachment Research

• Harry Harlows experiments with infant monkeys
  showed that the critical ingredient in forming
  attachment is contact comfort
• Results counter to psychoanalytic and behavioral
  theories that predict that infants form
  attachments to parental figure associated with
  food
• Research by Ainsworth identified specific
  attachment styles

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Mary Ainsworth The Strange Situation
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Secure and Insecure Attachment

• Securerelationship of trust and confidence that
  provides comfort, assurance, and secure base
• Insecurerelationship that is unpredictable or
  unstable
• avoidant one person tries to avoid any
  connection with another
• resistant/ambivalent anxiety and uncertainly
  keep one person clinging to another

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Measuring Attachment

• Strange Situationlab procedure to measure
  attachment observed are
• exploration of the toys (caregiver present)
• reaction to caregivers departure
• reaction to caregivers return
• disorganized behaviorneither secure nor insecure
  attachmentmarked by inconsistent behavior of
  caregiver and infant toward each other

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Measuring Attachment Internal Working Models of
Self Others
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Attachment and Later Development

• Secure attachment related to positive outcomes
  in
• Preschool
• Middle childhood
• Continuity of caregiving may link infant
  attachment and later development.

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Romantic Love Attachment

• Hazen and Shaver (1987) draw a connection between
  attachment patterns early in life and the quality
  of romantic love relationships (see Figure).
• Warm, responsive parenting fosters secure
  attachment patterns and is associated with
  longer-lasting relationships and the fewest
  divorces.

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Figure 8.12
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Romantic Love Attachment

• Bartholomew and Horowitz (1991) developed a
  four-category model of adult attachment styles
  that result from the interaction of two factors
  (see figure 8.13)
• Perceptions of own self worth (positive or
  negative).
• Perceptions of others trustworthiness and
  reliability (positive or negative).

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Measuring Attachment Internal Working Models of
Self Others
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Figure 8.13
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Romantic Love and Attachment

• Conclusions
• Securely attached individuals have healthier,
  more satisfying relationships.
• People with a secure attachment style are more
  likely to have securely attached partners.
• Early bonding experiences produce relatively
  enduring relationship styles.