Chapter 14: Social Psychology

1
Chapter 14 Social Psychology
2
Learning Outcomes

• Define attitude and discuss factors that shape
  attitudes.
• Discuss prejudice and discrimination.

3
Learning Outcomes

• Discuss factors that contribute to interpersonal
  attraction and love.
• Define social perception and describe factors
  that influence it.

4
Learning Outcomes

• Explain why people obey authority figures and
  conform to social norms.
• Discuss factors that contribute to aggression.

5
Learning Outcomes

• Describe differences between the ways in which
  people behave as individuals and as members of a
  group.

6
What is Social Psychology?

• Study of the nature and causes of peoples
  thoughts and behavior in social situations
• Situationist perspective
• Social influence goads people into doing things
  they would not usually do

7
Attitudes
8
What are Attitudes?

• Attitudes include
• cognitive evaluations
• feelings
• behavioral tendencies

9
The A-B Problem

• Factors that affect the link between Attitudes
  (A) and Behavior (B)
• Specificity
• Strength of attitudes
• Vested interest
• Accessibility

10
Truth or Fiction?

• People vote their consciences.

11
Truth or Fiction?

• People vote their consciences.
• FICTION!

12
Attitude Formation

• Conditioning and observational learning
• Learned attitudes
• Cognitive appraisal
• Form opinion after appraisal and evaluation of
  situation

13
Changing Attitudes

• Elaboration likelihood model
• Central route of persuasion
• Inspires thoughtful consideration of evidence and
  arguments
• Peripheral route of persuasion
• Associate with positive or negative cues

14
The Persuasive Message

• Repeated exposure to things and people enhances
  their appeal
• Fear appeal is more persuasive than facts

15
The Persuasive Communicator

• Persuasive communicator
• Shows expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness,
  or similarity to the audience
• Fan adoration

16
The Persuasive Communicator

• Confronted with information that counters ones
  attitude
• Selective avoidance
• Selective exposure
• Context of the message
• Environment and mood can be persuasive

17
The Persuaded Audience

• People with high self esteem and low social
  anxiety are more resistant to social pressure

18
Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• When attitudes are inconsistent, individuals are
  motivated to reduce that inconsistency
• Festinger Carlsmith (1959)
• People paid less rated the task more interesting
• Attitude-discrepant behavior
• Effort justification

19
Truth or Fiction?

• We appreciate things more when we have to work
  for them.

20
Truth or Fiction?

• We appreciate things more when we have to work
  for them.
• TRUE!

21
Prejudice and Discrimination
22
Prejudice and Discrimination

• Prejudice attitude
• Cognitive level expectation that members of
  target group will behave poorly
• Emotional level negative feeling
• Discrimination - behavior
• Stereotype fixed conventional attitudes
• May be positive or negative

23
Truth or Fiction?

• People have condemned billions of other people
  without ever meeting them or learning their names.

24
Truth or Fiction?

• People have condemned billions of other people
  without ever meeting them or learning their
  names.
• TRUE!

25
Stereotyping

• Prejudice involves stereotyping - Attitude
• May be positive or negative

26
Sources of Prejudice

• Dissimilarity
• Social conflict
• Social learning
• Information processing
• Social categorization

27
Attraction and Love
28
Physical Appearance

• Factors contributing to attraction
• Physical appearance
• Standards for beauty are cross-cultural

29
What Features Contribute to Facial Attractiveness?
30
Truth or Fiction?

• Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

31
Truth or Fiction?

• Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
• FICTION!

32
Gender Differences in Selection of Romantic
Partner

• Gender differences in preferences
• Females more emphasis on professional status
• Males more emphasis on physical appearance
• Parental investment model evolutionary forces

33
When It Comes to Sex, Red May Mean Go

• The color red is associated with attraction
• Reddening of skin by elevated estrogen levels
• Preference for color red in assessing
  attractiveness
• Red as a sign of good health

34
Attraction-Similarity Hypothesis

• Our partners tend to be like us
• Tend to be similar in terms of race, ethnicity,
  age, level of education, and religion
• Factors that influence our preferences
• Propinquity
• Reciprocity

35
Truth or Fiction?

• Opposites attract.

36
Truth or Fiction?

• Opposites attract.
• FICTION!

37
Love

• Triangular model of love
• Intimacy
• Passion
• Commitment
• Romantic love combines intimacy and passion
• Consummate love combines all three

38
The Triangular Model of Love
39
Social Perception
40
What is Social Perception?

• Examines the ways in which we form and modify our
  impressions of others

41
Primacy and Recency Effects

• First impressions matter a great deal
• Primacy effect
• Recency effect

42
Attribution Theory

• Process by which one draws conclusions about the
  influences on anothers behavior
• Dispositional attributions
• Internal factors
• Situational attributions
• External factors

43
Attribution Theory

• Fundamental attribution error
• Attribute too much of others behavior on
  dispositional
• Cultural bias individualistic cultures

44
Truth or Fiction?

• We tend to hold others responsible for their
  misdeeds but to see ourselves as victims of
  circumstances when we misbehave.

45
Truth or Fiction?

• We tend to hold others responsible for their
  misdeeds but to see ourselves as victims of
  circumstances when we misbehave.
• TRUE!

46
Attribution Theory

• Actor Observer effect
• attribute others behavior to dispositional
  factors and our own to situational factors
• Self-serving bias
• Ascribe successes to internal factors failures
  to external influences

47
Social Influence
48
What is Social Influence?

• Examines the ways people influence thoughts,
  feelings, and behavior of others

49
Obedience to Authority

• Milgram Studies
• Majority complied to demands of authority even
  when that required they inflict a harmful shock
  on innocent people
• Deception and Truth
• Learners were confederates

50
The Experimental Setup in the Milgram Studies
51
Truth or Fiction?

• Most people will torture an innocent person if
  they are ordered to do so.

52
Truth or Fiction?

• Most people will torture an innocent person if
  they are ordered to do so.
• TRUE!

53
Why Did People in the Milgram Studies Obey the
Experimenters?

• Socialization
• Lack of social comparison
• Perception of legitimacy of authority
• Foot-in-the-door technique
• Inaccessibility of values
• Buffers between perpetrator and victim

54
Conformity

• Conform when we change our behavior to adhere
  to social norms
• Social norms widely accepted expectations
  concerning social behaviors

55
Conformity

• Asch Study
• Most people will conform, even when they are wrong

56
Cards Used in the Asch Study on Conformity
57
Truth or Fiction?

• Seeing is believing.

58
Truth or Fiction?

• Seeing is believing.
• FICTION!

59
Factors that Contribute to Conformity

• Collectivist culture
• Desire to be liked by group members
• Low self-esteem
• Social shyness
• Lack of familiarity with task
• Group size
• Social support

60
Aggression
61
Biology, Chemistry, and Aggression

• Biology
• Other brain structures in humans moderate
  aggressive instincts evident in lower animals
• Chemistry
• Testosterone

62
Psychological Aspects of Aggression

• Psychodynamic theory
• Cognitive factors
• Behavioral perspective
• Social cognitive theory
• Situational influences

63
Group Behavior
64
Social Facilitation

• Presence of others facilitates performance
• Increased arousal or motivation
• Evaluation apprehension
• Presence of others impairs performance
• Social loafing
• Diffusion of responsibility

65
Group Decision Making

• Social decision schemes
• Majority-wins
• Truth-wins
• Two-thirds majority
• First-shift rule

66
Polarization and the Risky Shift

• Polarization effect taking an extreme position
• Risky shift
• Diffusion of responsibility allow groups to
  take greater risks

67
Groupthink

• Unrealistic group decision making in which
  external realities are ignored
• Influenced by
• Dynamic group leader
• External threat
• Cohesiveness of group

68
Contributors to Groupthink

• Feelings of invulnerability
• Groups belief in its rightness
• Discrediting of information contrary to decision
• Pressure for group conformity
• Stereotyping of members of out-group

69
Mob Behavior and Deindividuation

• Highly emotional crowds may induce mob behavior
• Deindividuation
• Reduced self-awareness and lower concern of
  social evaluation

70
Truth or Fiction?

• Nearly 40 people stood by and did nothing while a
  woman was being stabbed to death.

71
Truth or Fiction?

• Nearly 40 people stood by and did nothing while a
  woman was being stabbed to death.
• TRUE!

72
Altruism and the Bystander Effect

• Factors that influence decision to help
• Good mood
• Empathic
• Believe an emergency exists
• Assume responsibility to act
• Know what to do
• Know the people who need help
• Similarity to people who need help