Social Psychology

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Social Psychology

• The study of how we think about, influence and
  relate to one another

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Social Thinking

• How do we think about one another?

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Attribution Theory

• The idea that we give a casual explanation for
  someone's behavior

• We credit that behavior either to the situation
  or.

• To the persons disposition

Was my friend a jerk because she had a bad day or
is just a bad person?
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Fundamental Attribution Error

• The tendency for observers, when analyzing
  anothers behavior, to underestimate the impact
  of a situation and overestimate the impact of
  personal disposition.

How do you view your teachers behavior? You
probably attribute it to their personality rather
than their profession.
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Attribution At Work
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The Effects of Attribution

• Social Effects
• Political Effects
• Workplace Effects

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Self-Serving Bias

• The tendency to attribute ones success to
  personal factors and ones failures to
  situational factors
• The tendency to take more credit for good
  outcomes and less for bad ones.

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Attitudes

• A belief or feeling that predisposes one to
  respond in a particular way to something.

How might different attitudes respond to this
picture?
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Do our attitudes guide our actions?

• Only if.
• External pressure is minimal.
• We are aware of our attitudes.
• The attitude is relevant to the behavior.

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Attitudes
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More often, our actions affect our attitudes.
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Foot-in-the-door phenomenon

• The tendency for people who have first agreed to
  a small request to comply later with a larger
  request.

If I give out an answer on a quiz, what happens
next?
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Door-in-face Phenomenon

• The tendency for people who say no to a huge
  request, to comply with a smaller one.

If you ask your parents for the 1952 Topps Mantle
card (15k) what would they say? NO
But they may buy you a new playstation game.
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Zimbardo Prison Study
Role playing affects attitudes. What do you
think happened when college students were made to
take on the roles of prison guards and inmates.
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What happens when we become aware that our
attitudes dont match or actions?
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Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• We do not like when we have either conflicting
  attitudes or when our attitudes do not match our
  actions.
• When this happens we experience tension called
  cognitive dissonance.
• When our awareness of our attitudes and of our
  actions clash, we can reduce the resulting
  dissonance by changing our attitudes.

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Cognitive Dissonance Theory
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Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• How does cognitive dissonance theory play a part
  in pledging a fraternity?

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Social Influences

• Group Influences Group Dynamics

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Conformity

• Adjusting ones behavior or thinking to coincide
  with a group standard.

How did you feel the first time someone asked you
to smoke?
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Solomon Aschs Study
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Conditions that Strengthen Conformity

• One is made to feel incompetent
• The group is at least three people
• The group is unanimous
• One admires the groups status
• One had made no prior commitment
• The person is observed

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Reasons for Conforming

• Normative Social Influence
• Influence resulting from a persons desire to
  gain approval or avoid disappointment

• Informational Social Influence
• Influence resulting from ones willingness to
  accept others opinions about reality

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Obedience

• Milgrams Experiments

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Milgrams Obedience Study
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Conditions that Strengthen Obedience

• The person giving the orders is close at hand and
  perceived to be a legitimate authority figure
• The authority figure is supported by a
  prestigious institution
• The victim is depersonalized or at a distance,
  even in another room
• There are no role models for defiance

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What did we learn from Asch Milgram?

• Ordinary people can do shocking things!
• Social influence in powerful!

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Group Influence on Behavior
Lets look at how groups effect our behavior.
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Social Facilitation

• Improved performance of tasks in the presence of
  others

• Occurs with simple or well learned tasks

• Does not occur with tasks that are difficult or
  not yet mastered

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Social Impairment

• When a task is very hard or one is not skilled
  (like my bowling), one performs worst in front of
  a group than if they were alone.

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Yerkes- Dodson Law

• There is an optimal level of arousal for the best
  performance of any task
•   easy tasks--relatively high
•   difficult tasks--low arousal
•   other tasks--moderate level

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Social Loafing

• The tendency for people in a group to exert less
  effort when pooling efforts toward a common goal
  than if they were individually accountable.

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Deindividuation

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

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Group Polarization

• The concept that a groups attitude is one of
  extremes and rarely moderate.

As a group, both the Black Panthers and the Ku
Klux Klan are more extreme than the average
individual in the group.
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Group Polarization
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Groupthink

• The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire
  for harmony in a decision-making group overrides
  common sense (realistic appraisal of
  alternatives).

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We also influence ourselves
The Power of the Individual can be stronger than
a group
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Social Relations
Attraction
Conflict and Prejudice
Altruism and Peacemaking
Aggression

• How do we relate to others?

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Prejudice

• An unjustifiable attitude towards a group of
  people
• Usually involves stereotyped beliefs (a
  generalized belief about a group of people)

Overt
Subtle
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Prejudice Over Time
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Which person would you want to have a long term
relationship with?
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Social Inequalities(A principle reason behind
prejudice)

• Ingroup us- people with whom one shares a
  common identity
• Outgroup them- those perceived as different
  than ones ingroup
• Ingroup bias the tendency to favor ones own
  group

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Scapegoat Theory

• The theory that prejudice provides an outlet for
  anger by providing someone to blame

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Why is there Prejudice?

• Categorization
• Vivid Cases (Availability heuristic)
• The Just-World Phenomenon

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Aggression

• Any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt
  or destroy
• In the U.S. we are MUCH more likely to be
  murdered compared to most other developed nations

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Two types of Aggression

• Instrumental Aggression when the aggressive act
  has a purpose
• Hostile Aggression Aggression that has no clear
  purpose

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The Biology of Aggression

• Genetics
• Neural Influences
• Biochemical

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The Psychology of Aggression

• Frustration-Aggressive Principle
• The blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal
• Creates anger which generates aggression

• Goals can be
• Sports or work
• Relationship
• Body Condition etc

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Hot Weather and Aggression
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Can we learn to be aggressive or gentle?

• They can be but.
• Once learned they are difficult
• to change

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Aggression and TV

Watches

• By the time you are 18, you spend more time in
  front of TV than in school
• 2/3 of all homes have 3 or more sets average 51
  hours a week.
• By the time a child finishes elementary school
  they have witnessed 8000 murders and 100,000
  other acts of violence on TV
• Over half of all deaths do NOT show the victim's
  pain
• As TV watching has grown exponentially, as does
  violent behavior- a strong positive correlation.
• How do you think TV has effected sexual
  aggression?

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Attraction
5 Factors of Attraction.
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Proximity

• Geographic nearness
• Mere exposure effect
• Repeated exposure to something breeds liking.
• Taiwanese Letters
• Mirror image concept

Stalking get it? Ha! Ha!
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Reciprocal Liking

• You are more likely to like someone who likes
  you.
• Why?
• Except in elementary school!!!!

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Similarity

• Paula Abdul was wrong- opposites do NOT attract
• Birds of the same feather do flock together
• Similarity breeds content

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Liking through Association

• Classical Conditioning can play a pert in
  attraction.

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Physical AttractivenessThe Hotty Factor

• Physically attractiveness predicts dating
  frequency (they date more)
• They are perceived as healthier, happier, more
  honest and successful than less attractive
  counterparts

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What is beauty?

• Some people say beauty is facial symmetry.

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Beauty and Culture
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LOVE

• Passionate Love an aroused state of INTENSE
  positive absorption of another.
• Compassionate Love the deep affectionate
  attachment we feel for those with whom our lives
  are intertwined.

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What makes compassionate love work?

• Equity
• Self-disclosure

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Altruism

• Unselfish regard for the welfare of others
• Kitty Genovese case
• Bystander Effect (bystanders less willing to help
  if there are other bystanders around)

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Social Exchange Theory

• The idea that our social behavior is an exchange
  process, the aim of which is to maximize
  benefits and minimize costs

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Peacemaking

• Give people superordinate (shared) goals that can
  only be achieved through cooperation
• Win Win situations through mediation
• GRIT (Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in
  Tension Reduction)