Module 53

1

• Module 53
• Social Thinking
• Worth Publishers

2
Social Thinking

• Social Psychology
• scientific study of how we think about,
  influence, and relate to one another
• Attribution Theory
• tendency to give a causal explanation for
  someones behavior, often by crediting either the
  situation or the persons disposition

3
Social Thinking

• How we explain someones behavior affects how we
  react to it

4
Social Thinking

• Fundamental Attribution Error
• tendency for observers, when analyzing anothers
  behavior, to underestimate the impact of the
  situation and to overestimate the impact of
  personal disposition
• ex. You may notice that a co-worker is very quiet
  at work, while another talks all the time. You
  identify one as having a shy personality and the
  other as being very outgoing. Run into these
  co-workers at a party and they may act very
  different.

5
Social Thinking

• Attitude
• belief and feeling that predisposes one to
  respond in a particular way to objects, people
  and events
• Our behavior is affected by our inner attitudes
  as well as by external social influences

6
Social Thinking

• Attitudes follow behavior
• Cooperative actions feed mutual liking

7
Social Thinking

• Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon
• tendency for people who have first agreed to a
  small request to comply later with a larger
  request
• ex. Korean War POWs
• Sign experiment Large Drive Carefully vs.
  small 3-inch Be a Safe Driver sign
• At first only 17 said yes to large sign, nearly
  all of the others said yes to small sign
• When asked to move from large to small sign 76
  said yes.

8
Social Thinking

• Role
• set of expectations about a social position
• defines how those in the position ought to behave
• The Stanford Prison Experiment A Simulation
  Study of the Psychology of Imprisonment
• www.prisonexp.org

9
Social Thinking

• Cognitive Dissonance Theory
• we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we
  feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are
  inconsistent
• example- when we become aware that our attitudes
  and our actions clash, we can reduce the
  resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes

10
Social Thinking

• Cognitive dissonance