Social Psychology

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Social Psychology

• The scientific study of how people think about,
  influence, and relate to one another.
• In other words, how does being in a group change
  how we behave?

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Key Question

• If an authority figure ordered you to hurt
  another person, would you do it?
• Can you think of an authority figure in history
  who ordered people to hurt others?

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Today, you will read an article about this
experiment and watch a clip of ordinary people
asked to cause pain to others by an authority
figure
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Would an ordinary person hurt others if an
authority figure said to do so?

• Stanley Milgram wanted to find out.
• In 1961 he carried out the famous Milgram
  experiment.
• The results were truly shocking.

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Wrap-up Question

• Describe a situation, not discussed in class
  today, in which someone might defy his/her moral
  beliefs because an authority figure told them to
  do so.

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Warm-Up

• Describe a time that you were part of a loud,
  possibly rowdy crowd.
• How did this crowd seem affect your behavior?

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• Social Facilitation Improved performance of
  tasks because of the presence of others.
• Most common example, Can you guess it?
• SPORTS!
• Track runners run faster when competing against
  others, for example.

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Another Example?

• Traffic Lights!

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Cars Take off Faster from a Traffic Light when
there are other cars present
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• Social Loafing The tendency for people to exert
  less effort toward completing a task when they
  are apart of a group than when they are
  performing a task alone.
• The famous experiment that dealt with social
  loafing was the tug-of-war experiment.

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University of Massachusetts students put forth
82 as much effort when they were blindfolded and
believed three others were pulling behind them.
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What would you do if you knew beyond a shadow of
a doubt that you would never get caught?
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• We lose moral inhibitions when we feel anonymous
  (hey, nobody focusing on me as an
  individual) and excited.
• This phenomenon is called deindividuation.
• We deindividuate when in a large crowd. This is
  also known as mob mentality and explains riots.

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Other examples of deindividuation are

• Road Rage, because we feel excited and anonymous
  when we are angered while driving.

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• It is the car that makes us feel anonymous. That
  is also why people in the car do this

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A final example of Deindivuduation

• Wearing War Paint to feel anonymous during war.
• Obviously the battle adds the excitement.

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• Group Polarization The strengthening of a
  groups shared attitudes over time.
• Examples
• Fraternities and Sororities
• Political groups
• Religious groups

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• Group Think The mode of thinking that occurs
  when the desire for harmony in a decision-making
  group overrides a realistic appraisal of
  alternatives.
• Groupthink tends to happen in new groups such as
  new Presidential administrations.
• People jump on the bandwagon of a bad idea
  because they think that everyone else likes the
  idea and dont want to rock the boat. In reality
  nobody likes this idea.

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• In fact it is a terrible idea.
• Nobody is asked to list pros and cons
• No outside experts are called in to give an
  objective opinion.
• A bad decision gets made.
• Historical examples
• Bay of Pigs
• Watergate

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• Self-fulfilling prophecy act in a way that
  unintentionally makes a belief come true.
• Ex. A teacher is told her students are all
  geniuses. She challenges them more and the are
  very successful that year.
• Ex. I think Jane is mad at me (shes not). I
  give Jane the cold shoulder. Jane is mad at me.

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Thought Question

• Do you believe that believing you are going to
  have a great day in the morning is likely to make
  that happen?

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• Normative social influence Influence resulting
  from a persons desire to gain approval or avoid
  disapproval.

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• Informational social influence Influence
  resulting from ones willingness to accept
  others opinions about reality.
• Ex. Believing a statistic without researching it
• Ex. Believing what others say about a person
  that you have never met.

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Wrap-up Question

• Explain how at least 3 of the terms covered today
  might apply to a high school football game.