SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

MODULE 74: ATTRIBUTION, ATTITUDES, AND ACTIONS MODULE 75: CONFORMITY AND OBEDIENCE

MODULE 76: GROUP BEHAVIOR

What do attitudes allow us, as humans, to do? In this baby’s situation, how does a positive attitude help him get through a tough day?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V67-7HONQh4

TRUE OR FALSE?1. In order to change people’s racist behaviors, we first need to change their

racist attitudes. 2. Most people would refuse to obey an authority figure who told them to hurt

an innocent person. 3. Studies of college and professional athletic events indicate that home

teams win about 6 in 10 games. 4. Individuals pull harder in a team tug-of-war than when they pull in a one-on-

one tug-of war. 5. The higher the morale and harmony of a social group, the more likely are its

members to make a good decision. 6. Sex-selective neglect and abortions have resulted in China and India

together having 76 million fewer females than they should have. 7. Those who keep a gun in the house are more likely to be murdered. 8. From research on liking and loving, it is clear that opposites do attract. 9. We are less likely to offer help to a stranger if other bystanders are present. 10. Simply putting individuals from two prejudiced groups of people into a close contact will defuse conflict.

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Social Psychology:

• scientifically studies how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.

1.  Does'his'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?;

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Social Thinking:

• involves thinking about others, especially when they engage in doing things that are unexpected.

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QUESTION:

• Q1: If a very good friend gets angry with you, how would you explain his/her behavior? If that same friend does something nice for you, how would you explain the behavior?

• Q2: Are your thoughts about your good friend’s behavior different than your thoughts about someone you’re only acquainted with? Why or Why not?

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• 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.

Was my friend a jerk because she had a bad day? Or is she just a bad person?

ATTRIBUTION THEORY

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• 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

Example: Someone trips you and you think they did it on purpose because they are mean.

Example: You making an assumption that your teachers are outgoing and sociable. You know us in the classroom setting, a situation that demands we talk to our students. Catch us at a faculty meeting. Now what do you think?

FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Fundamental Attribution Error (continued)

Example: You are out to dinner and your server brings you the wrong food. If you were committing the fundamental attribution error, you might assume that this happened because….

FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

What attributions did people give for their own behavior? Do you “buy” these explanations?

Big Brother

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6F1yTBwLjc

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THE EFFECTS OF ATTRIBUTION

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Social Effects: Happy couples chalk up an argument to other person having a bad day. Divorced couple could attribute it to the other person just being mean.

• Political Effects: How do we explain poverty? EX: Conservatives tend to attribute social problems to the poor and unemployed. Liberals blame past and present situations.

• Workplace Effects: Managers could attribute poor performance to personal factors.

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QUESTION:

• Q3: Does what we think, predict what we do? Or does what we do, affect what we think?

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Attitude:

• 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.

ATTITUDES & ACTIONS

*Mere Exposure Effect: the more one is exposed to something, the more one will come to like it.

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Our behaviors can be affected by our attitudes

• Richard Petty and John Cacioppo

• Dual process theory of understanding how persuasion works

• 1. Central Route of Persuasion:

• involves being persuaded by the arguments or the content of the message.

• E.G. After hearing a political debate you may decide to vote for a candidate because you found the candidates views and arguments to be very convincing.

http://regispoliticalpersuasion.blogspot.com/2012/10/political-blog.html

PEOPLE CAN BE PERSUADED IN DIFFERENT WAYS!

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• 2. Peripheral Route of Persuasion:

• involves being persuaded in a manner that is not based on the arguments or the message content.

• E.G. After hearing a political debate you may decide to vote for a candidate because you like the sound of the person’s voice, or the person when to the same University as you did, or they’re attractive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OTVcByOTzo

PEOPLE CAN BE PERSUADED IN DIFFERENT WAYS!

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGYACTIONS CAN AFFECT ATTITUDES!

• Our attitudes can be affected by our behaviors.

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

• Foot-in-the-door phenomenon:

• tendency for people who agree to a small action to comply later with a larger one.

• small actions go on to become big ones, transforming your attitude.

• E.G. Anakin to Darth VaderHow have you used this technique before?

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGYACTIONS CAN AFFECT ATTITUDES!

• Door-in-the-face phenomenon:

• large request is made knowing it will probably be refused so that the person will agree to a much smaller request.

• E.G. pay raise

• Norms of reciprocity:

• “If I scratch your back, I expect you to scratch mine.”

How have you used these compliance strategies? Have you ever refused to comply in actions or behaviors you didn’t believe in?

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGYROLE PLAYING CAN AFFECT ATTITUDES!

• Role:

• a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave.

• At first may seem phony, but after some time your attitudes adjust to fit your roles.

• E.G. Newly weds (playing house) New soldiers (playing war games)

• Philip Zimbardo and the Stanford Prison Study.

• Roles: guard or prisoner

• Findings: simulation became too real, study was called off after six days due to the changing attitudes and behaviors.

www.prisonexp.org

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• We do not like when we have either conflicting attitudes or when our attitudes do not match our actions.

• When they clash- we will change our attitude to create balance.

• Leon Festinger’s Theory

• Cognitive Dissonance Theory:

• We experience discomfort, or dissonance, when our thoughts, beliefs, or behaviors, are inconsistent with one another.

• E.G. You are normally a rational, peaceful person. You slug your best friend in the face one day. You relieve this tension by modifying your beliefs to match your actions. “I guess, I’m not that peaceful.” or “I had a really bad day”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDX6wjcCCLs

RELIEF FROM TENSION, WE DON’T LIKE TO BE CONFUSED!

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Cognitive Dissonance Theory:

• Mismatch between what we do and who we think we are.

• We experience tension. *Cognitive Dissonance

• We want to resolve that tension.

RELIEF FROM TENSION, WE DON’T LIKE TO BE CONFUSED!

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGYMODULE 75

CONFORMITY AND OBEDIENCE

CONFORMITY

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Conformity at our school:

Are the majority of students conformists? Or nonconformists?

Is there pressure among students at our school to dress a certain way or like certain types of music? Why or why not?

Was there more pressure to conform in middle school as compared to high school? Why or why not?

Where is the line between conformity and nonconformity? is a group of nonconformists conforming to each other or nonconforming against society?

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CONFORMITY

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGYMODULE 75

• Conformity:

• adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.

• Reasons for Conforming:

• Automatic mimicry (subtle type of conformity):

• behavior is contagious (mood contagion)

• Chameleon effect

CONFORMITY

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGYMODULE 75

• Reasons for Conforming (continued):

• Normative Social Influence:

• to avoid rejection or gain social approval.

• “we need to belong, so we go along.”

• Informational Social Influence:

• when we accept others opinions about reality.

• “we go along, because we want to be accurate.”

Conformity Study: Soloman Asch (1955) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyDDyT1lDhA

ASCH’S STUDY OF CONFORMITY

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Asch’s Results:

• About 1/3 of the participants conformed.

• 70% conformed at least once.

• To strengthen conformity:

• The group must be unanimous

• The group is at least three people

• one admires the groups status

• know that others in the group will be observing their behavior

• are from a culture that strongly encourages respect for social standards.

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SHORT CONFORMITY EXPERIMENTS FOR YOU TO TRY!

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Stand outside somewhere on campus, and stare up in a tree, or up at the top of a building. Have a partner or observer stand from a far, and take observations. Are other students stopping to stare too?

• Go to a public place, or another class, and start yawning. Every 5 min or so, fake a yawn. Have a partner or observer count the number of people who they yawn too.

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OBEDIENCE AND STANLEY MILGRAM

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• People often give in to social pressures.

• Would you deliver a “moderate shock?”

• Stanley Milgram (Asch’s student)

• conducted one of psychology’s most famous, controversial, and influential experiments.

• Milgram experiment:

• Study concerns the effects of punishment on learning.

• Originally Milgram thought only sadistic people would go with the full amount of shock.

• One person draws out the role of teacher, the other one student. Every wrong answer, teacher zaps the learner. Each wrong answer, severity of shock increases.

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OBEDIENCE AND STANLEY MILGRAM

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Factors in obedience:

• Close to 2/3 of the people complied to the last shock which consisted of 450 volts.

• Situations powerfully influence people.

• Obedience highest when:

• person giving the orders were perceived to be a legitimate authority figure

• when authority figure was supported by prestigious institution

• when victim was at a distance

• no role models were present for defiance.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvSNg0HZwk

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGYMODULE 76

GROUP BEHAVIOR

SOCIAL FACILITATION

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• How do groups influence and affect our behavior?

• Social Facilitation:

• when you are good at something you do it even better when people are watching

• social facilitation strengthens our most likely response- the correct one on an easy task, and incorrect one on a difficult task.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT-BpKlHMps\

SOCIAL LOAFING

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• How do groups influence and affect our behavior?

• What happens to performance when people perform the task as a group?

• Social Loafing:

• the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable.

• working hard? or hardly working?

• sounds like we see this a lot of times with group work!

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT-BpKlHMps

SOCIAL LOAFING

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• How do groups influence and affect our behavior?

• What causes social loafing?

• feel less accountable, therefore worry less about what others think

• view their individual contributions as dispensable

• when group members share equally the benefits, some may slack off, and free load.

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DEINDIVIDUATION

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• How do groups influence and affect our behavior?

• Sometimes the presence of others arouses our behavior AND also diminishes feelings of responsibility.

• Deindividuation:

• the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity.

• occurs when group participation makes people both aroused and anonymous.

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EFFECTS OF GROUP POLARIZATION AND GROUPTHINK

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• How much power do we have as individuals?

• Group Polarization:

• when individuals in a group have similar, though not identical views, their opinions become more extreme.

• E.G. Talking trash about teachers, putting in money to start a business.

• may have good and bad consequences. examples?

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JONESTOWN EXAMPLE

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• The life and death of People’s Temple

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7IxGGfpSWk

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EFFECTS OF GROUP POLARIZATION AND GROUPTHINK

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Group interaction can influence our personal decisions.

• Groupthink (Irving Janis):

• members of the group attempt to conform their opinions to what each believes to be the consensus of the group.

• E.G. Bay of Pigs invasion, Challenger explosion, Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident.

• harmonious, and very unrealistic

• fed by: overconfidence, conformity, self-justification, and group polarization.

• How can we prevent groupthink?

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“Truth springs from argument among friends.” -Philosopher David Hume

• What is the difference between GROUPTHINK and CONFORMITY?

CULTURAL INFLUENCES

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• How do cultural norms affect our behavior?

• Culture:

• the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

• Is culture defined as nationalities or ethnic groups?

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CULTURAL INFLUENCES

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• How do cultural norms affect our behavior?

• Norms:

• rules for accepted and expected behavior.

• When cultures collide, we find ourselves with differing norms.

• This confusion could lead to culture shock.

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PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• What is prejudice? What are its social and emotional roots?

• Prejudice:

• unjustifiable, undeserved (usually negative) attitude towards a group of people.

• 3 part mixture of…….

• a. beliefs or Stereotypes:

• overgeneralized idea about a group of people.

• b. emotions (e.g. hostility or fear)

• c. predispositions to action or Discrimination:

• an action based on a prejudice.

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PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Examples:

• in most places around the world, gays and lesbians cannot comfortably acknowledge who they are.

• people perceived their fathers as more intelligent than their mothers.

• Saudi Arabia: women not allowed to drive

• 95% of the children in Chinese orphanages are girls.

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Read “close up” on p.782

SOCIAL ROOTS OF PREJUDICE

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Why does prejudice exist???

• Social Inequalities

• Just-world phenomenon

• tendency for people to believe that the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

• E.G. those who succeed must be GOOD, and those who suffer must be BAD.

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SOCIAL ROOTS OF PREJUDICE

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Why does prejudice exist???

• Social Inequalities

• Us and Them: Ingroup and Outgroup

• Ingroup:

• people with whom one shares a common identity.

• “US”

• Outgroup:

• those perceived as different from one’s in-group.

• “THEM”

• Ingroup bias:

• the tendency to favor our own group.

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EMOTIONAL ROOTS OF PREJUDICE

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Why does prejudice exist???

• Emotional Roots of Prejudice

• Prejudice provides an outlet for anger (emotion) by providing someone to blame. The Germans before WWII would blame the Jews for their poor economy. According to the scapegoat theory of prejudice, finding someone to blame when things go wrong can provide a target for one’s anger.

• Scapegoat theory:

• the theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame.

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COGNITIVE ROOTS OF PREJUDICE

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Why does prejudice exist???

• Cognitive Roots of Prejudice

• Other-race effect or own-race bias:

• tendency to recall faces of one’s own race more accurately than the faces of other races.

In vivid cases such as the 9/11 attacks, terrorists can feed stereotypes or prejudices (terrorism). However, most terrorists are non-Muslims.

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COMBATING PREJUDICE

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Contact Theory or Superordinate Goal:

• contact between hostile groups will reduce animosity if they are made to work towards a superordinate goal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QGNxRGgBwM

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AGGRESSION

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGYMODULE 78

Appropriate Aggression vs. Inappropriate Aggression

AGGRESSION

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Aggression:

• any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy.

• may be done reactively out of hostility or proactively as a calculated means to an end.

• Research shows that aggressive behavior emerges from the interaction of biology and experience.

• 1. Genetic influences: animals have been bred for aggressiveness for sport and at times for research.

• 2. Neural influences: some centers in the brain, especially the limbic system and the frontal lobe, are intimately involved with aggression.

• 3. Biochemical influences: diminished or large amounts of testosterone affects aggression.

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AGGRESSION

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Four psychological factors that influence aggressive behavior are:

• 1. Dealing with aversive events: studies reveal that those who feel miserable, often make others miserable. E.G. Pitchers

• 2. Learning aggression is rewarding: operant conditioning

• 3. Observing models of aggression: observational learning

• 4. Acquiring social scripts: media

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AGGRESSION

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Do video games teach or release violence?

• The general consensus on violent video games is that, to some extent, they breed violence. Adolescents view the world as hostile when they get into arguments and receive bad grades after playing such games.

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ATTRACTION

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Why do we befriend or fall in love with some people but not others?

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ATTRACTION

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Which person would you want to have a long term relationship with?

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ATTRACTION

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Five factors of attraction

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ATTRACTION

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Five factors of attraction:

• 1. Proximity: geographic nearness

• 2. Reciprocal Liking: you are more likely to like someone who likes you.

• 3. Similarity: Opposites do NOT attract.

• 4. Liking through association: classical conditioning sometimes plays a role. E.G. Favorite restaurant

• 5. Physical attractiveness: no explanation needed.

• affects how often people date, and they are perceived as healthier, happier, more honest, and successful than less attractive counterparts.

MODULE 79

ATTRACTION

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Assignment: Your job is to use the following concepts from social psychology to make some recommendations that will help with the following romantic dilemma.

• Dear Abby, I have been dating a young woman for about 8 months. I fear she is losing interest in me. We attend different schools, so I can’t spend as much time with her as I would like. I am afraid she may have fallen for someone else. Can you give me some advice about how to win her back?

Signed,

worried, weary, and desperate

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ATTRACTION

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Concepts:

• Proximity

• Physical attractiveness

• Reciprocal liking

• Liking through association

• What role should self-disclosure play in securing the relationship?

• FYI: Self-disclosure: the conscious and subconscious act of revealing intimate aspects about oneself to others

MODULE 79

ALTRUISM, CONFLICT, AND PEACEMAKING

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• When are people most and least likely to help?

• Altruism:

• unselfish regard for the welfare of others.

• What sparked social psychologists to study altruism?

• Kitty Genovese.

MODULE 80

ALTRUISM, CONFLICT, AND PEACEMAKING

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Kitty Genovese and Bystander Intervention

• Altruism became an important part of this case.

• Genovese was stabbed to death with a knife while being watched by 38 people over a 30 minute span.

• Latane and Darley did research on the bystander intervention problem and what they found out in their study was that group size was the biggest determinant in bystander intervention.

• Diffusion of responsibility (Bystander Effect):

• Dilution or weakening of each group member’s obligation to act when responsibility is perceived to be shared with all group members.

MODULE 80

ALTRUISM, CONFLICT, AND PEACEMAKING

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Kitty Genovese and Bystander Intervention

• The Death of Kitty Genovese

MODULE 80

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4S1LLrSzVE&feature=related

See Figure 80.1 p.808

ALTRUISM, CONFLICT, AND PEACEMAKING

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• In one experiment, a student was led to believe that he or she was taking part in an experiment with between one and five other students (over an intercom)

• The student then heard what sounded like another student having a seizure and gasping for help.

• The researchers timed how long it would take the students to ask for help.

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ALTRUISM, CONFLICT, AND PEACEMAKING

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• The best odds of helping someone occur when:

• the person appears to need and deserve help

• the person is in some way similar to us

• the person is a woman

• we are not in a hurry

• we are feeling guilty

• we are in a good mood

• we have just observed someone else being helpful

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What does the bystander effect, social loafing, and deindividuation all have in common? Answer?

ALTRUISM, CONFLICT, AND PEACEMAKING

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• How do social exchange theory and social norms explain helping behavior?

• Social exchange theory:

• our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs.

• Reciprocity norm:

• an expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them.

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OTHER TERMS!!!

• Social-responsibility norm: an expectation that people will help those needing help.

• Conflict: a perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas.

• Social trap: situation in which conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self interest rather than the good of the group, become caught in mutually destructive behavior.

• Mirror image perceptions: mutual views often held by conflicting people, as when each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive.

• Self-fulfilling prophecy: a belief that leads to its own fulfillment.

• Grit: graduated and reciprocated initiatives in tension- a strategy designed to decrease international tensions.