Chapter 12
Social Psychology
Objectives
Discuss how we influence one another
Conformity
Obedience
Group Behavior
Discuss how we think about one another
Fundamental Attribution Error
Attitudes
Discuss how we relate to one another
Prejudice
The Power of the Situation
https ://learner.org/series/discovering-psychology/the-power-of-the-situation/
Social Influence
Conformity – adjusting behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard
Solomon Asch’s line experiment
Looking up
https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfGSGuczX4Y&t=102s
DISCUSSION: Why do we conform?
Need to belong, be accepted (normative influence)
avoid rejection; gain social approval
We want to be accurate, right (informational influence)
Conformity
Stanley Milgram’s Shock Experiments / Obedience Studies
DISCUSSION
Obedience was highest when
the person giving the orders was close at hand and was perceived to be a legitimate authority figure
the authority figure was supported by a prestigious institution
the victim was depersonalized or at a distance, even another room
there were no role models for defiance
Obedience
Lessons to learn
Using the foot-in-the-door approach, you can get someone to obey larger and larger demands
great evils sometimes grow out of people’s compliance with lesser evils
After the first acts of compliance or resistance, attitudes began to follow and justify behavior.
These are just ordinary people in an evil situation
Those who resist do so early.
Obedience
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When you are the minority, you are far more likely to sway the majority if you hold firmly to your position and don’t waver
This is especially influential if your self-confidence stimulates others to consider why you react as you do.
Obedience
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
How to stop it:
accountability
group members should see their individual contributions as needed/useful
be more motivated
identify strongly with group (cohesion)
benefits based off contributions
Group Behavior
Deindividuation – loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity
Good can come when we want to serve anonymously
But this is generally bad
Group Behavior
Social Thinking
Attribution theory – we explain someone’s behavior by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition (traits)
Fundamental attribution error – underestimate the impact of the situation and overestimate the impact of personal disposition
“Our attributions—to a person’s disposition or to the situation—have real consequences.” Myers, p.443
Fundamental Attribution Error
Attitude – feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events; expression of favor or disfavor; an evaluation.
Components
Evaluative response (positive or negative)
Attitude object
Strength/magnitude
Implicit/explicit
Attitudes and Actions
Implicit – automatic; gut feeling
Explicit – conscious, acknowledges, though about
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Attitudes Affect Actions
Meta-analysis showed relationship between attitude and behavior is r=.3
Petty and Briñol (2010): “The most common target of persuasion is a person’s attitudes” (p. 117).
Central route processing – thoughtful persuasion
Peripheral route processing – low-thought persuasion
Use heuristics to think about argument
Attitudes and Actions
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Actions Affect Attitudes
facial feedback effect
foot-in-the-door phenomenon – tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply with a larger request
Role Playing
Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment
DISCUSSION
Attitudes and Actions
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“The point to remember: Cruel acts shape the self. But so do acts of good will. Act as though you like someone, and you soon may. Changing our behavior can change how we think about others and how we feel about ourselves.” Myers p.447
Attitudes and Actions
Social Relations
Prejudice – prejudgment; an unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members.
stereotype – a generalized belief about a group of people
this can be accurate but is often overgeneralized
we stereotype because we cognitively simplify the world—we categorize
we recognize how we differ from other individuals in our group but we overestimate the homogeneity of other groups
“They” seem to look and act alike while “we” are more diverse
Prejudice
discrimination – unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members
“Prejudice is a negative attitude…Discrimination is a negative behavior.” Myers p.462
Much of our prejudice is implicit and goes unrecognized by us
Prejudice
Us and Them: Ingroup and Outgroup
ingroup- “Us”; people with whom we share a common identity
outgroup – “Them”; those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup
ingroup bias – tendency to favor our own group
Beware of Us vs Them thinking both in social situations and in regard to mental disorders
Prejudice
Attraction
3 Ingredients of our liking for one another
Proximity
mere exposure effect – repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them
Attractiveness
Similarity
Attraction
Altruism – unselfish regard for the welfare of others
bystander effect – tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present
situational ambiguity – don’t know if we can interpret it as an emergency
diffusion of responsibility – the more people there are around, the less responsible we feel to help
Altruism
Best odds of helping someone
person appears to need and deserve help
person is in some way similar to us
person is a woman
we have just observed someone else being helpful
we are not in a hurry
we are in a small town or rural area
we are feeling guilty
we are focused on others and not preoccupied
we are in a good mood
Altruism
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