Myers

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Myers PSYCHOLOGY (7th Ed)

• Chapter 18
• Social Psychology
• Social Thinking
• James A. McCubbin, PhD
• Clemson University
• Worth Publishers

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Fact vs. Falsehood

• 1. In order to change peoples racist behaviors,
  we first need to change their racist attitudes.
• 2. Most people would refuse to obey an authority
  figure who told them to hurt an innocent person.
• 3. Studies of college and professional athletic
  events indicate that the home teams win about 6
  in 10 games.
• 4. Individuals pull harder in a team tug-of-war
  than they pull in a one-on-one tug-of war.
• 5. The higher the moral and harmony of a social
  group, the more likely are its members to make a
  good decision.
• 6. Sex-selective neglect and abortions have
  resulted in China and India together having 76
  million fewer females than they should have.
• 7. Those who keep a gun in the house are more
  likely to be murdered.
• 8. From research on liking and loving, it is
  clear that opposites do attract.
• 9. We are less likely to offer help to a
  stranger if other bystanders are present.
• 10. Simply putting individuals from two
  prejudiced groups of people into close contact
  will defuse conflict.

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Social Thinking

• Social Psychology
• scientific study of how we think about,
  influence, and relate to one another

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Social Thinking

• Attribution Theory
• tendency to give a causal explanation for
  someones behavior, often by crediting either the
  situation or the persons disposition
• Internal dispositional
• External situational
• 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
• The effects of attribution
• Optimist tend to the situation
• Pessimist tend to the personal

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Attitudes and Actions

• Do our attitudes guide our actions?? Yes, if
• Outside influence on what we do and say is
  minimal
• The attitude is specific to the behavior (often
  we generalize, instead of referring to the
  specific act)
• We are keenly aware of our attitudes

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Social Thinking

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

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Social Thinking

• Our behavior is affected by our inner attitudes
  as well as by external social influences

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Social Thinking

• Attitudes follow behavior
• Cooperative actions feed mutual liking

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Do our actions affect our attitudes??

• Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon
• tendency for people who have first agreed to a
  small request to comply later with a larger
  request
• Saying becomes believing
• Evil acts shape the self. But so do acts of
  goodwill.
• Role
• set of expectations about a social position
• defines how those in the position ought to behave
• http//video.google.com/videosearch?qzimbardopri
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Attitudes/Actions Why?

• 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

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Social Thinking

• Cognitive dissonance

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Social Influence

• Conformity
• adjusting ones behavior or thinking to coincide
  with a group standard
• We are natural mimics
• The chameleon effect
• Helps us feel what others are feeling
• Normative Social Influence
• influence resulting from a persons desire to
  gain approval or avoid disapproval

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Social Influence

• The chameleon effect

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Social Influence

• Aschs conformity experiments

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Conditions that strengthen conformity

• Subject feels incompetent or insecure
• Group has 3 or more members
• Group is unanimous
• Groups status and attractiveness is admirable
• Subject has made no prior commitment to any
  response
• Others in the group are observing
• Culture strongly encourages respect for social
  standards

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Reasons for Conformity

• Normative social influence
• Avoid rejection and gain approval
• Informational Social Influence
• accept others opinions about reality

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Social Influence

• Participants judged which person in Slide 2 was
  the same as the person in Slide 1

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Obedience! Is highest when

• One giving the orders was close and thought to be
  legitimate authority figure
• Authority figure was supported by prestigious
  university/group
• Victim was depersonalized or at a distance
• There was no role model for defiance

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Social Influence

• Milgrams follow-up obedience experiment

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Lessons from the Conformity and Obedience Studies

• Milgram used foot-in-the-door
• Nazis found many were OK with paperwork
• Milgram found that more were OK if not actually
  turning dial

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Social Influence

• Some individuals resist social coercion

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Group Influence

• Social Facilitation
• improved performance of tasks in the presence of
  others
• occurs with simple or well-learned tasks but not
  with tasks that are difficult or not yet mastered
• Social Loafing
• tendency for people in a group to exert less
  effort when pooling their efforts toward
  attaining a common goal than when individually
  accountable

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Social Facilitation
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Social Influence

• Deindividuation
• loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in
  group situations that foster arousal and anonymity

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Effects of Group Interaction

• Group Polarization
• enhancement of a groups prevailing attitudes
  through discussion within the group
• Groupthink
• mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for
  harmony in a decision-making group overrides
  realistic appraisal of alternatives
• Can be prevented by a leader if he/she
• Welcomes various opinions
• Invites experts critics of developing plans
• Assigns people to identify possible problems

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Social Influence

• If a group is like-minded, discussion strengthens
  its prevailing opinions