1

Social Psychology: Attributions,

Attitudes, Role Playing and Conformity

Agenda

1. Bell Ringer: How many waves?

2. Attributing Behavior/Attitudes and Actions Notes (20)

3. Zimbardo, Stanford Prison Experiment (30)

4. Attributing Behavior Scenarios (15)

5. Stereotypes? Who am I? (10)

2

3

Social Psychology: Unit Objectives

Define Social Thinking Attributing Behavior to

Persons or to Situations Attitudes and Actions

Analyze Social Influence Conformity and Obedience Group Influence The Power of Individuals

4

What is Social Psychology?

Social psychology scientifically studies how we think about, influence, and relate

to one another.

“We cannot live for ourselves alone.”

Herman Melville

5

Social Thinking

Social thinking involves thinking about others, especially when they engage in

doing things that are unexpected.

1. Does a person’s absenteeism signify illness, laziness, or a stressful work atmosphere?

2. Was the horror of 9/11 the work of crazed evil people or ordinary people corrupted by life events?

6

Attributing Behavior to Persons or to Situations

Attribution Theory: Fritz Heider (1958) suggested that we have a tendency to give causal explanations for someone’s behavior, often by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition.

http://ww

w.stedw

ards.edu

Fritz Heider

7

Attributing Behavior to Persons or to Situations

A teacher may wonder whether a child’s hostility reflects an aggressive personality

(dispositional attribution) or is a reaction to stress or abuse (a situational attribution).

http://ww

w.bootsnall.org

Dispositions are enduring personality traits. So, if Joe is a quiet, shy, and introverted child, he is likely to be like that in a number of situations.

8

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overestimate the impact of personal disposition and underestimate the impact of the situations in analyzing the behaviors of others leads to the fundamental attribution error.

Example: You’re teacher is strict and you assume she is mean. You see her at the mall one day and she’s laughing with friends – you are shocked.

9

Effects of Attribution

How we explain someone’s behavior affects how we react to it.

10

Attitudes & Actions: How they impact our behavior

A belief and feeling that predisposes a person to respond in a particular way to objects, other people, and events.

If we believe a person is mean, we may feel dislike for the person and

act in an unfriendly manner.

11

Outside influences on our behavior and attitudes

• External situations, influence behavior.• Not only do people stand for what they believe in (attitude), they start believing in what

they stand for.• Can be positive and negative

Ex:There’s a new student you’ve been told she’s a bad person and you believe it even though you’ve talked to her and she seems nice.

12

BrainwashingSituation: In the Korean War, Chinese communists were able to get U.S. Army poisoners to cooperate by asking them to carry out small errands. By complying to small errands they were likely to comply to larger ones.

Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon: The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small

request to comply later with a larger request.

13

Actions Can Affect Attitudes

Why do actions affect attitudes? One explanation is that when our attitudes and actions are opposed, we experience tension. This is called cognitive dissonance.

To relieve ourselves of this tension we bring our attitudes closer to our actions (Festinger, 1957).

14

Cognitive Dissonance

Create your own Example of Cognitive Dissonance

• Use the examples in your notes as a guide.

• Be ready to share

• 3 minutes

15

Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Study

• Use your video questions to discover what happened in the experpiment.

16

17

Role Playing Affects Attitudes

Zimbardo (1972) assigned the roles of guards and prisoners to random students and found that guards and prisoners developed role- appropriate attitudes.

Orig

inally p

ub

lished

in th

e N

ew

York

er

Ph

illip G

. Zim

bard

o, In

c.

Agenda

1. Bell Ringer: Attributing Behaviors Review (15)

2. Conformity and Obedience (15)

3. Asch and Conformity Video and Discussion (10)

4. Milgram and Violating Social Norms (article) (15)

5. Situations? What would violate social norms? (10) Project overview (5)

6. Milgram’s obedience trial. Examining the participants. (15-20)

18

19

Conformity & Obedience

• Behavior is contagious, modeled by one followed by another. We follow behavior of others to conform. Humans want to fit in.

• Other behaviors may be an expression of compliance (obedience) toward authority.

Conformity Obedience

20

Conformity: Adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard

1. One is made to feel incompetent or insecure.

2. The group has at least three people.3. The group is unanimous.4. One admires the group’s status and

attractiveness.5. One has no prior commitment to a

response.6. The group observes one’s behavior.7. One’s culture strongly encourages respect

for a social standard.

21

Group Pressure & Conformity

Asch Experiment:Watch the video and see how people conform.

Would you have spoken up?

22

Obedience

• Stanley Milgram designed a study that investigates the effects of authority on obedience.

• A third of the individuals in Milgram’s study resisted social coercion. Stanley Milgram

(1933-1984)

Cou

rtesy o

f CU

NY

Gra

du

ate

Sch

ool a

nd

Un

iversity C

en

ter

23

Milgram’s StudyB

oth

Ph

oto

s: ©

19

65

By

Sta

nle

y M

ilig

ram

, fr

om

th

e

film

Ob

ed

ien

ce,

dis

t. b

y P

en

n S

tate

, M

ed

ia S

ale

s

24

Milgram’s Study: Results

25

Lessons from the Conformity and Obedience Studies

• In both Asch's and Milgram's studies, participants were pressured to choose between following their standards and being responsive to others.

• In Milgram’s study, participants were torn between hearing the victims pleas and the experimenter’s orders.

Closure:

• What are five qualities that most clearly define who you are?

• What are the three skills you truly excel at?

• One of the best ways to avoid group pressure is having a strong self-concept

26