Chapter Sixteen
-Defined

Social Psychology Defined: The psychological subfield that explores the effects of the social world on the behavior and mental processes of individuals, pairs and groups.

"…The social psychology of this century reveals a major lesson: often it is
not so much the kind of person a man is as the kind of situation in which
he finds himself that determines how he will act." (Stanley Milgram, 1974)


-How We View Others & Their Behavior

How we view others & their behavior

Impression Formation

Aspects of the perceiver

Stereotypes: An impression of an entire group of people that involves the false assumption that all members of the group share the same characteristics.

Japanese are sneaky
Athletes are dumb
Italians are emotional
Jews are materialistic
Californians are laid back
Accountants are dull
College professors are absent minded
Black people have rhythm
Used-car salespeople can't be trusted




Why We Use Stereotypes
To reduce "information overload", we put people into categories so we have fewer items of information to deal with.

Why They Persist

Confirmation Bias : The tendency to look for evidence that will confirm our beliefs and hypotheses, rather than seeking evidence to disconfirm them.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
The tendency to behave on the basis of our expectations in such a way that our impression of others or ourselves are confirmed.



Aspects of the actor

Physical Appearance
In general, people perceive physically attractive people to be more sociable, dominant, intelligent, kind, moral, successful, happy, mentally healthy, & socially skilled than average or less attractive people. In addition, they are thought to make better spouses & be more sexually responsive.

Style & Content of Speech
Content = importance of self-disclosure

Nonverbal Communication
Importance of people's mannerisms, i.e. avoiding eye contact

Prior Information
Kelly (1950), Guest lecturer: warm vs. cold

-Attribution

Attributions are causes that people use to explain events.

Classes of Attributions

1. Personal Attribution
Inference that a behavior is caused by a stable personality characteristic of the individual.

2. Situational Attribution
Inference that a behavior is caused by the situation to which the individual is exposed.

Person or Situation

1. Consistency
The degree to which a person reacts to an event in the same way on many different occasions.

2. Consensus
The degree to which other people react to an event in the same way as the person we are observing.

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Attributional Biases

Fundamental Attribution Error:
The tendency to attribute to another person's behavior to their internal characteristics (i.e. personality) and not to the environmental situation.

Actor-Observer Discrepancy:
The tendency to attribute one's own behavior to the environmental situation and not to internal causes. (i.e. when you drive slowly it is because you are looking for an address, not because you're a dim-witted loser like that jerk who crawled along in front of you yesterday).

Self-Serving Bias:
The tendency to attribute positive outcomes to personal factors and negative ones to situational factors.

-Attitudes

Attitudes Defined: Evaluative judgements about people & objects, etc., including affective, cognitive and behavioral components.

Components of Attitudes



Functions of Attitudes

Measuring Attitudes

1). Likert Scale

Indicate your level of agreement with the items below:

2). Behavioral Measures

How Attitudes Are Formed

1). Learning
2). Cognitive Dissonance


-Interpersonal Relations

Interpersonal Attraction

Interpersonal Attraction Defined: The extent to which we like or dislike other people.

Determinants of Attraction

Proximity

Festinger et. al., 1950

Ss lived in 2 story buildings with 5 apt. on each floor.
They reported that about 2/3 of their closest friends lived in the same building.
Of those friends, about 2/3 lived on the same floor.
41%of the next-door neighbors indicated they were close friends, 22% of those who lived two doors apart did so & only 10% of those who lived on opposite ends of the hall indicated they were
close friends

Affect & Emotions: We are attracted to people who arouse positive feelings

Reinforcement: We are attracted to people who reward us.

Similarity: Do "opposites attract" or do "birds of a feather flock together"?



Friendship

Friendship Defined: Form of interpersonal attraction that is governed by an implicit set of rules.

Friendship rules:

1. Show emotional support
2. Volunteer help in time of need
3. Strive to make a friend happy when in their company
4. Trust and confide in each other
5. Share news of success with a friend
6. Stand up for a friend in his or her absence
7. Don't nag a friend
8. Be tolerant of (other) friends
9. Repay debts and favors

"Friendship is the only thing in this world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed." ~ Cicero

Importance of self-disclosure


Love

Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love

TRIANGULAR MODEL OF LOVE:

1. PASSION Sexual desire & emotional feelings of need to be with beloved.
"I find ___________ very attractive physically"


2. INTIMACY Sense of closeness, mutual understanding and sharing
"I experience intimate communication with __________"


3. COMMITMENT Decision to promote & maintain the relationship.
"I would stay with ________ through the most difficult times."


Growth of Love

Sternberg's Typology of Love


WHAT WOULD BE AN EXAMPLE OF FATUOUS LOVE?

Lee's Six Styles of Love

Marital Satisfaction & Dissatisfaction

-Prosocial Behavior

Distinction Between Prosocial Behavior and Altruism

Prosocial Behavior: Any behavior that benefits others or has positive social consequences. Also called helping.
Altruism: Helping or doing something often at a cost or risk, for reasons other than the expectation of a material or social reward.

Unresponsive Bystander Effect:
The tendency for bystanders not to help the victim of an emergency if other bystanders are present.

Examples of Research

Factors Influencing Decisions to Help



-Aggression


Distinction Between Hostile & Instrumental Aggression

Hostile aggression: Aggressive behavior that is performed with the specific intent of harming another person.
Instrumental aggression: Aggression that causes harm in the process of achieving another goal.

Biological Views of Aggression

Environmental Conditions & Aggression

Frustration
Aggressive cues
Verbal & physical attacks
Adverse environmental conditions


Arousal level


-Social Influences on Behavior

Persuasion

Persuasion Defined: The use of social influence to cause people to change their attitudes or behavior.

Factors That Influence Persuasion:

Source factors
Expertise
Attractiveness
Trustworthiness



Message factors

Attention



Drawing conclusions
Dependent on audience involvement (if audience is not actively involved in processing message, then drawing conclusions is a good idea.) i.e., ads.

Message acceptance
Message should not differ drastically from attitudes of the audience.

Channel factors: Refers to the means by which a message is presented to the audience, i.e., printed words, in person, on television, etc.

Audience factors: Knowledge & past experiences of the receiver(s) of a persuasive message. Individual differences in need for cognition.


Obedience

Obedience Defined: Initiating or changing a behavior in response to a direct command.

Milgram Studies

GENERAL FORMAT OF MILGRAM STUDIES:
advertised as an experiment in "learning & memory"
subject instructed to shock "learner" whenever a mistake is made during recall of words, severity of shock increases 15 volts with each mistake (range 15-450 volts)
participants urged to continue shocking "learner" even after protests from "learner"
no shock actually administered; "learner" is actually a confederate of the experimenter
purpose was to determine % of Ss who would obey the experimenter



Milgram obedience studies

Milgram obedience studies II

"The disappearance of a sense of responsibiliity is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority" ~Stanley Milgram


Conformity

Defined: Initiating or changing a behavior in response to indirect social pressures.

Asch's Experiments

General format


Overall results


Why people conform

Information Influence
Group responses are taken as information to be considered in arriving at an answer


Normative Influence
People are motivated to behave consistently with group norms regardless of their private beliefs.

"conformity is a powerful force on our behavior & can at times make us do things that conflict with our attitudes, ethics, and morals" ~ Solomon Asch

Compliance

Compliance Defined: Initiating or changing a behavior in response to a request.

Tactics of Social Influence:

A). Foot-In-The-Door Technique

Get person to agree to a small request
Person more likely to agree to a larger request

-Individual As Part of a Social Group

Social Facilitation

Social Facilitation Defined: An increase in the performance of well-learned responses when other people are present.

a). Explanation

Presence of Others

Evaluation Apprehension

Increased Arousal

Improved Performance of Behaviors That Are Well Learned

Social Loafing

Social Loafing Defined:The tendency to exert less effort when working on a group task that does not involve evaluation of the individual participants.

Research Example:


Deindividuation

Deindividuation Defined:The loss of a sense of individual identity & a loosening of normal inhibitions against engaging in behavior that is inconsistent with internal standards.

Predisposing Conditions:

a. Anonymity
b. High level of arousal
c. Focus on external events
d. Close group unity

Research Example:

Groupthink

Groupthink Defined: A type of thinking in which group members share such strong motivation to achieve consensus that they lose the ability to evaluate alternative points of view critically.

a). Examples

*Bay of Pigs Invasion
*Watergate Break-In
*Challenger Launch
*Decision not to take special precautions to protect Pearl Harbor

b). Model of Groupthink

c). Avoiding Groupthink

Appoint a devil's advocate
Make diverse opinions anonymous

Prejudice & Discrimination

1. Prejudice
Judging a person on the basis of stereotypes about the group to which the person belongs.

2. Discrimination
Behaviors evolving out of prejudice that adversely affects members of a particular group.

3. Sources & Functions of Prejudice

Social function: allows us to maintain self-esteem by creating outgroups that are inferior to our ingroup in some way.

Emotional function: objects of prejudice & discrimination become the target of our hostile & aggressive emotions.

Ways to Reduce Prejudice

Social norms should promote contact among members of different groups. Such contact needs to be one-on-one in order to show that stereotypes are inaccurate (i.e. at lunch & after school).
Contact should occur in a context of equal status & the pursuit of common goals (i.e. integrated sports teams).


-Website References

(1) * The Sequential Two-Step
An interesting article on the Door-in-the Face & Foot-in-the-Door techniques.
www.as.wvu.edu/~sbb/comm221/chapters/twostep.htm

(2) *Cult Research Study Guides
Cult Recruitment: Influence, by Robert Cialdini, Ph.D.
www.csj.org/studyindex/studyrecruit/study_influence.htm

(3) * Social Psychology Network
http://www.socialpsychology.org/