Social Psychology. Studying the way people relate to others. Group Behavior. Attitude Attraction Aggression

Transcription

1 Social Psychology Attitude Attraction Aggression Group Behavior Studying the way people relate to others.

2 Attribution Theory Tries to explain how people determine the cause of the behavior they observe. It is either a. Situational Attribution Dispositional Attribution And Stable Attribution Unstable Attribution

3 Fundamental Attribution Error How do you view your teacher s behavior? You probably attribute it to his/her personality rather than the profession. When people overestimate the role of dispositional factors. But do you really know? When you start a romance, you assume that your mate agrees with your world views.honeym oon period. False Consensus Effect When people assume that most people think like them, sharing preferences, beliefs, opinions,

4 Sample Exam Question The Fundamental Attribution Error phenomenon can best be seen in the following example: a. John blames his failure to get a job on his lack of appropriate skills and ill-preparedness. b. Phyllis doesn t get the lead in the school play and blames her drama teacher for this failure. c. Jane blames herself for forgetting that she has a term paper due in two days. d. Bill doesn t hire John because John was 30 minutes late for the interview and Bill believes that John s lateness is a result of his laziness and lack of respect for the job. In reality, John was late because he got a flat tire on the way to the interview. e. Karen understands that her friend is late because she was caught in rush-hour traffic.

5 #39. Self-Serving Bias The common human tendency to attribute one s successes to personal characteristics, and one s failures to factors beyond one s control. (Jim Mora) If you win it is because you are awesome if you lose, it must have been the coach or weather or.

6 Attitude = A set of feelings based on beliefs. Advertising is ALL based on attitude formation. #59 Mere Exposure Effect (We prefer things that are familiar.) Central Route to Persuasion (you choose to take part in conversation about a topic) vs. Peripheral Route to Persuasion (you see your favorite celebrity endorse it, so Attitudes

7 Your Own Behaviors Can Lead to a Change in Your Attitudes. So you use compliance strategies to change people s behaviors and, therefore, their attitudes.

8 Compliance Strategies Foot-in-the-door phenomenon Door-in-the-face phenomenon Norms of reciprocity

9 Cognitive Dissonance Theory You have a belief that cheating on tests is bad. But you cheat on a test!!! The teacher was really bad so in that class it is OK. Festinger s Cognitive Dissonance Theory People want to have consistent attitudes and behaviors.when they are not they experience dissonance (unpleasant tension). Usually they will change their attitude so get some peace.

10 Leon Festinger s Experiment The Experiment: Sit at a table and work on dull, meaningless tasks for about an hour. Then brag about it. You are paid either $1 or $20 to do this. Suppose you were then asked to privately rate your enjoyment of the tasks on a questionnaire. After which amount do you believe your actual enjoyment rating of the tasks would be higher $1 or $20?

11 The people who earned $20 enjoyed the task LESS. (Festinger and Carlsmith) Cognitive Dissonance can explain the findings. Those who received only $1 presumably had insufficient justification for their behavior, which led to dissonance, which, in turn, produced a change in attitude about the tasks. All that work wasn t worth $1. This stinks I feel yucky inside wait if I enjoyed that activity, it was worth it. Okay, it was worth it because I actually enjoyed it.

12 Conformity Studies Adjusting one s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard. Mimicking -> prosocial behavior

13 Asch s Study of Conformity

14 Asch s Results About 1/3 of the participants conformed. 70% conformed at least once. To strengthen conformity: The group is unanimous The group contains at least three people. One admires the group s status One had made no prior commitment

15 Milgram s Study Of Obedience 2009 Retest in England (part 1 & part 3) Began in Milgram posed the question, "Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?"

16 Results of the Milgram Study

17 What did we learn from Milgram? Ordinary people can do shocking things when prompted by an authority figure. Ethical issues. Would not have received approval from today s IRB (Internal Review Board).

18 Zimbardo s Prison Study Showed how we deindividuate AND become the roles that we are given. Philip Zimbardo has students at Stanford U play the roles of prisoner and prison guards in the basement of psychology building. They were given uniforms and numbers for each prisoner. What do you think happened?

19 Culture! Culture: behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values & traditions shared by a group of ppl & transmitted to the next generation.! Primates have primitive culture (local tool use, grooming rituals, & courtship)! According to David Matsumoto, culture nationalities or ethic groups! Matsumoto says a culture is made of people with! Relative Affluence! Population Density! Technology Access! Climate

20 Social Control and Sanctions! Sanctions are positive or negative reactions to the ways that people follow or disobey norms, including rewards for conformity and punishments for norm violators.! Sanctions help to establish social control, the formal and informal mechanisms used to increase conformity to values and norms and thus increase social cohesion.

21 Variations in Culture! The dominant culture refers to the values, norms, and practices of the group within society that is most powerful in terms of wealth, prestige, status, and influence.! A subculture is a group within society that is differentiated by its distinctive values, norms, and lifestyle. 26

22 Culture! Norms = rules for accepted & expected behavior! (Asians use only right hand for eating. British people stand in line.)! Pace of Life Japanese walk quickly & pay constant attention to time. Indonesians are much less concerned with time.! Personal Space Scandinavians, Brits, and North Americans like more space than Latin Americans, Arabs, and French. (standoffish vs. intrusive)

23 32 Ways of looking at Cultures! Ethnocentrism - the principle of using one s own culture as a standard by which to evaluate another group or individual, leading to the view that cultures other than ones own are abnormal. Who wants a snack? Cicadas, grasshoppers, and other insects on skewers for sale in Donghaumen Night Market in Beijing, China. Introduction to Sociology: Culture

24 33 Ways of looking at Cultures! Cultural relativism - the principle of understanding other cultures on their own terms, rather than judging according to one s own culture.! When studying any group, it is important to try to employ cultural relativism because it helps sociologists see others more objectively.

25 Big Ideas! Culture is a lens through which we view the world around us.! It is also a filter that we are (mostly) unaware modifies our perception of reality.! Culture is bequeathed to us from our ancestors and we recreate it through interaction with other people.

26 Individualism and Collectivism! Definitions! Individualist culture is a culture in which the goals of the individual take precedence over the goals of the group.! Collectivist culture is a culture in which the goals of the group take precedence over the goals of the individual.! In other words! In an individualist culture, members are responsible for themselves and, perhaps, their immediate families.! In a collectivist culture, members are responsible for the group as a whole.

27 Individualism and Collectivism! In other words! In an individualist culture, success is measured by how far one stands out from the crowd.! EX: self-made millionaires, employees of the month, standing out! In a collectivist culture, success is measured by one s contributions to the group as a whole.! EX: loyalty to company or country, specialized skills, fitting in

28 Social Psychology! Risky shift phenomenon: you will risk as a group what you won t risk as an individual! Minority influence: a minority of people holding firmly to a conviction is more likely to sway a group than a minority that waffles.

29 Social Facilitation Theory If you are really good at something.or it is an easy task you will perform BETTER in front of a group. (pool players 71% -> 80% and 36% - > 25%) 60% of games are won by home team Comedians are funnier in a packed house If it is a difficult task or you are not very good at it you will perform WORSE in front of a group (#26 social impairment).

30 #27 Social Loafing The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling efforts toward a common goal than if they are individually accountable. 82% of max pull on tug-of-war 67% of max noise on clapping & shouting Reasons In a group you: Feel less accountable Feel dispensable

31 #28 Deindividuation People get swept up in a group and lose sense of self. Feel anonymous and aroused. Explains rioting behaviors. The Candy Lady

32 #29 Group Polarization Enhancement of a group s prevailing tendencies Groups tend to make more extreme decisions than the individual.

33 #29 Group Polarization Can be good: self-help groups, spiritual awareness, low prejudice Can be bad: high prejudice, suicide bombers

34 #30 Groupthink Group members suppress their reservations about the ideas supported by the group so they can maintain group harmony. More intense in highly cohesive groups. Fed by overconfidence, conformity, self-justification, and group polarization. Historical Cases: anticipating Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, escalation of Vietnam War, Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident, Challenger explosion.

35 Groupthink Conformity Groupthink when people suppress their opinions (aka selfcensor) to maintain group harmony. Often happens when there s a charismatic leader, everyone seems to be going along with the leader, and it becomes difficult to speak out Conformity when people don t want to be different. They aren t necessarily self-censoring. They re going along due to normative or informational social influence.

36 Stereotypes, Prejudice and Discrimination Prejudice: Undeserved (usually negative) attitude towards a group of people. Ethnocentrism is an example of a prejudice. Stereotype: Overgeneralized idea about a group of people. Discrimination: An action based on a prejudice.

37 Implicit prejudice - unconscious stereotypic attitudes (see Harvard website) Patronize - to behave in an offensively condescending manner toward Outgroup Homogeneity Bias We perceive that members outside our group are all alike and the ones in our group are more diverse.

38 Is it just race? NO Palestinians and Jews Northerners and Southerners Men and Women

39 With which person would you want to have a long term relationship?

40 Prejudices can often lead to a. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy A prediction that causes itself to be true. Rosenthal and Jacobson s " Pygmalion in the Classroom experiment.

41 How does prejudice occur? Just world Phenomenon Same story, different ending With both endings, both female and male listeners viewed the woman's (identical) actions as inevitably leading to the (very different) results. In-Group versus Out-Groups. In-Group Bias Scapegoat Theory

42 Combating Prejudice #79 Contact Theory Contact between hostile groups reduces animosity if they are made to work towards a superordinate goal. Serif camp study formation, conflict, resolution

43 Psychology of Aggression Two types of aggression 1. Instrumental Aggression 2. Hostile Aggression Theories of Aggression: Bandura s Modeling Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

44 Influences on Aggression Genetic Influences: Animals have been bred for aggressiveness for sport and at times for research. Twin studies show aggression may be genetic. In men, aggression is possibly linked to the Y chromosome. Neural Influences: Some centers in the brain, especially the limbic system (amygdala) and the frontal lobe, are intimately involved with aggression. Biochemical Influences: Animals with low amounts of testosterone (castration) become docile, but when injected with testosterone aggression increases. Prenatal exposure to testosterone increases aggression in female 55

45 Acquiring Social Scripts Movies and tv shows give us social scripts (mental images of how situations should play out). When confronted with new situations, individuals rely on social scripts. If social scripts are violent in nature, people may act them out. Examples: Dating, Marriage, Insults, XXX

46 Do Video Games Teach or Release Violence? Violent video games breed violence. Adolescents who play violent video games: view the world as hostile get into more arguments receive bad grades after playing such games. 57

47 Attraction 3 Factors of Attraction

48 Geographic nearness Proximity Mere exposure effect: Repeated exposure to something breeds liking. Taiwanese Letters

49 Similarity Opposites do NOT attract. Birds of the same feather do flock together. Similarity breeds contentment.

50 Physical Attractiveness

51 The Hotty Factor Physically attractiveness predicts dating frequency (they date more). They are perceived as healthier, happier, more honest and successful than less attractive counterparts. Luckily, attractiveness is NOT an indicator of self-confidence and happiness. Shew!

52 What is beauty? Youthful affluent - averageness/symmetry - mature, dominant,

53 Beauty and Culture Obesity is so revered among Mauritania's white Moor Arab population that the young girls are sometimes force-fed to obtain a weight the government has described as "life-threatening".

54 Reciprocal Liking You are more likely to like someone who likes you. (Except in elementary school)

55 Are these cultures really that different?

56 Reward theory of attraction We will: Like people whose behavior is rewarding to us Continue relationships that offer more rewards than costs Proximity easier to be together Attractive socially rewarding & aesthetically pleasing Similarity validates our own opinions & values

57 Aroused men were more attracted to an attractive woman (and more likely to call her later) Two-factor theory of love = physical arousal + cognitive appraisal (arousal from any source can enhance any emotion, depending on how we interpret the arousal)

58 What s Love Got to Do with It? passionate love temporary romantic thrill compassionate love enduring, deep, affectionate attachment equity theory of relationships when it exists freely, marriage is more likely to last (#3 on a list of what s important in marriage) self-disclosure breeds liking and liking breed self-disclosure deepens

59 Prosocial Behavior Kitty Genovese case in Kew Gardens NY led to studies in altruism. Bystander Effect: Conditions in which people are more or less likely to help one another. In general, the more people around, the less chance of help because of Diffusion of Responsibility Pluralistic Ignorance People decide what to do by looking to others.

60 Bystander Intervention The decision-making process for bystander intervention. 72

61 The Norms for Helping Social Exchange Theory: Our social behavior is an exchange process. The aim is to maximize benefits and minimize costs.! Reciprocity Norm: The expectation that we should return help and not harm those who have helped us.! Social Responsibility Norm: Largely learned, it is a norm that tells us to help others when they need us even though they may not repay us. 73

62 Peacemaking Graduated & Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction (GRIT): This is a strategy designed to decrease international tensions. One side recognizes mutual interests and initiates a small conciliatory act that opens the door for reciprocation by the other party. Proven to increase trust and cooperation. 74

63 Prisoners Dilemma

64 Conflict Conflict is perceived as an incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas. A Social Trap is a situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior. 76

65 A Game of Social Trap By pursuing our self-interest and not trusting others, we can end up losers. Win-Win Orientation Vs. Win-Lose Orientation 77

66 Halo Effect Without realizing it, we let one characteristic affect our judgment of a whole person/ object. The attractive person is seen as kinder, healthier, etc. The warm professor was seen as more attractive, with more likeable mannerisms and an appealing accent but the respondents could not explain why they rated him that way, even when asked if their liking of him affected their judgment of him.