CHAPTER 16 Social Psychology

Transcription

1 CHAPTER 16 Social Psychology

2 INTRODUCTION Please watch this short clip: How do you describe the driver s behavior? What if the adjacent white car or red car belonged to you?

3 INTRODUCTION Social psychology is the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another. When considering acts of terrorism, genocide, and war, there are some important issues that can be addressed: What drives some individuals to destroy the lives of thousands of people? What motivates the heroic acts of other individuals to risk death to save others? Or to generously reach out with time, money, food, resources, for those coping with loss?

4 INTRODUCTION Our social behavior arises from our social cognition: The way we think about social situations. 1. Social Thinking 2. Social Influence 3. Social Relations

5 SOCIAL THINKING How do we understand and explain the behavior of other people? Attribution theory is the idea that we explain someone s behavior by crediting either to the situation or the person s disposition. E.g. A teacher may wonder whether a student s hostility reflects an aggressive personality (dispositional attribution) or a reaction to stress in their life (situational attribution).

6 SOCIAL THINKING CONTINUED Fundamental attribution error: the tendency for observers, when analyzing another s behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition. E.g. Napolitan & Goethals (1979)

7 FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR When explaining others behavior, particularly the behavior of strangers we have only observed in one type of situation, we often commit the fundamental attribution error: we disregard the situation and leap to unwarranted conclusions about their personality traits.

8 FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR Attribution and relationships How do you explain poverty or unemployment? Researchers in Britain, India, Australia and the U.S. find that political conservatives tend to attribute such problems to the dispositions of the poor and unemployed themselves. Political liberals are more likely to blame past and present situations. Attributions and consequences

9 ATTITUDES AND ACTIONS Does what we think affect what we do? Or does what we do affect what we think? Attitudes are feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events If we believe someone is mean, we may feel dislike for the person and act unfriendly The influence of attitudes on behavior helps us to understand persuasion.

10 ATTITUDES INFLUENCE ACTIONS Central route to persuasion: Occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond favorably. Occurs mostly when people are naturally analytical or involved in the issue. Durable and lasting influence on behavior. Peripheral route to persuasion: Occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker s attractiveness. This is the route of snap judgments.

11 ACTIONS AFFECT ATTITUDES Not only do attitudes influence behavior, but in some instances, attitudes follow behavior The foot-in-the-door phenomenon is the tendency for people who have first agreed with a small request to comply later with a larger request. Examples: U.S. soldiers imprisoned by Chinese communists during the Korean War Freedman & Fraser (1966): Be a Safe Driver signs, read about this study, page 677

12 ROLE-PLAYING AFFECT ATTITUDES A role is a set of explanations or norms about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave. Role-playing affects attitudes as well: when you adopt a new role, you strive to follow the social prescriptions.

13 ACTIONS AFFECT ATTITUDES Zimbardo s Prison Guard experiment (1972) Abu Ghraib, page 678. Zimbardo s Ted Talk: The Psychology of Evil philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil.html Warning: This video contains graphic images of violence.

14 COGNITIVE DISSONANCE Why do our attitudes and actions interact so strongly? When they do not align, we experience tension. Cognitive dissonance theory: the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent.

15 COGNITIVE DISSONANCE Cognitive dissonance theory For example, when our awareness of our attitudes and actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes. Examples of cognitive dissonance. Changing our behavior can change how we think about others and how we feel about ourselves.

16 RECAP Our social behavior arises from our social cognition Attribution theory and fundamental attribution error Attitudes Central route to persuasion Peripheral route to persuasion Actions affect attitudes Foot-in-the-door Role-playing affects attitudes Cognitive dissonance

17 IMAGINE YOURSELF AS A RESEARCH PARTICIPANT You volunteer to participate in a study examining memory. 1. Enter the research setting, speak with a man in a white coat regarding the study and sign your paperwork. 2. You meet another participant in the study you will be the teacher and the other participant the learner 3. Both participants get a sample 45 volt shock from this apparatus:

18 EXPERIMENT BEGINS: As the teacher, you will read some phrases to the learner in the other room, and they will repeat them back to you. When the learner makes a mistake, you administer a shock from the apparatus. With each mistake, stronger shock. How far would you go? What if the man in the lab coat told you to go on?

19 SOCIAL INFLUENCE Conformity and Obedience Group Influence The Power of Individuals

20 SOCIAL INFLUENCE What do experiments on conformity and compliance reveal about the power of social influence? Behavior is contagious. Examples page 532 Chameleon effect unconsciously mimicking others Automatic mimicry assists in empathy Suggestibility and violence. Group pressure and conformity.

21 GROUP PRESSURE AND CONFORMITY Conformity: adjusting one s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard Asch (1955) conformity experiment Read about this study, page 681

22 GROUP PRESSURE AND CONFORMITY Conditions that strengthen conformity: One is made to feel incompetent of insecure The group has at least three people The group is unanimous One admires the group s status and attractiveness One has made no prior commitment to any response Others in the group observe one s behavior One s culture strongly encourages respect for social standards

23 GROUP PRESSURE AND CONFORMITY Reasons for conforming: Normative social influence: influence resulting from a person s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval Informative social influence: influence resulting from one s willingness to accept others opinions about reality

24 OBEDIENCE Stanley Milgram, a student of Asch, completed nearly 20 experiments examining obedience. Milgram s studies examined a participants willingness to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their conscience.

25 MILGRAM S OBEDIENCE STUDIES Factors that increased obedience. Person giving the orders was nearby and perceived as a legitimate authority. Authority figure was supported by a prestigious institution. Victim was depersonalized or at a distance. There were no role models for defiance. By manipulating these factors, repetitions of the original study gained compliance up to 93%. Examples of obedience in the holocaust, page 685.

26 LESSONS FROM CONFORMITY AND OBEDIENCE STUDIES The most fundamental lesson of our study is that ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process Milgram, 1974 Ordinary people can be corrupted by an evil situation. How does the information on conformity and obedience tie in with the work of Dan Ariely?? Watch this Ted Talk dan_ariely_on_our_buggy_moral_code.html

27 GROUP INFLUENCE Does the presence of others improve performance? Social facilitation Simple versus difficult tasks How is performance affected when tasks are completed as a group? Social loafing Abandoning normal restraints to the power of a group: Deindividuation mob rule

28 EFFECTS OF GROUP INTERACTION Interacting with others can have good and bad effects. Groups prevailing tendencies are enhanced over time. Group polarization is the enhancement of a group s prevailing inclinations, presumably through discussion within the group. This effect can have benefits and consequences Ideological separation + deliberation = polarization between groups. E.g. political attitudes in college E.g. gender development E.g. internet communication

29 EFFECTS OF GROUP INTERACTION Janis (1982) studied the decision-making procedures that lead to Kennedy s Bay of Pigs fiasco. Groupthink: Occurs when the desire for harmony in a decisionmaking group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Groupthink can also contribute to collective good decisions.

30 RECAP Conformity and Asch s study Obedience and Milgram s study Group influence Individual tasks: social facilitation Group tasks: social loafing, deindividuation Group interaction: Group polarization Group Think

31 RECAP What did we learn from the work of Asch, Milgram, and Zimbardo? Match the term with the definition: 1. Social Loafing 2. Deindividuation 3. Attitudes 4. Cognitive dissonance theory 5. Roles 6. Foot-in-the-door phenomenon 7. Fundamental Attribution Error A. Tendency for people who have first agreed with a small request to comply later with a larger request. B. Set of explanations or norms about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave. C. tendency for people in a group to exert less effort toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable D. Feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events E. Loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster anonymity F. Tendency for observers, when analyzing another s behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition. G. Theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent.

32 SOCIAL RELATIONS How do we relate to one another? 1. Prejudice 2. Aggression 3. Attraction 4. Altruism 5. Peacemaking

33 PREJUDICE Prejudice: an unjustifiable, and usually negative, attitude toward a group and its members Generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory actions Stereotypes: generalized belief about a group of people Discrimination: unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members Close-up on automatic prejudice, page 543. The roots of prejudice: social, emotional, cognitive.

34 SOCIAL ROOTS OF PREJUDICE Social inequalities: People blame-the-victims, such as in poverty, rather than seeking to understand the social situation. These inequalities are used to justify continued discrimination. Ingroup and Outgroup: we reserve our most intense dislike for outgroup rivals most like us. Examples include the Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, the Iraqi Sunni and Shia, the Rwandan Hutu and Tutsi, and the fans for our rival sports team. Ingroup bias: the tendency to favor our own group

35 EMOTIONAL ROOTS OF PREJUDICE Prejudice is exceptionally dangerous and angry in times of emotional trauma, such as post 9/11. Scapegoat theory: the theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame. Prejudice levels are high in economically frustrated people. Negative stereotypes blossom when people are scared or outraged.

36 COGNITIVE ROOTS OF PREJUDICE Categorization is used to simplify the world. Often overestimate the similarity within other groups. Other-race effect: the tendency to recall faces of one s own race more accurately than faces of other races (outgroup homogeneity effect) Just world phenomenon Vivid cases: vivid and violent cases are readily available to our memory and therefore influence our judgments of a group. E.g. Post 9/11, many people stereotyped Muslims as terror prone

37 AGGRESSION Aggression is any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy In the field of psychology, the term is more precise. Aggression emerges from biology and experience.

38 BIOLOGICAL FACTORS Amygdala Prefrontal cortex Death row inmates and undiagnosed head trauma Underactive PFC in violent criminals Biochemical influences: Testosterone and female hyenas Low serotonin and high levels testosterone Alcohol Genetic influences: animals can be bred for aggressiveness. Neural influences:

39 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL-CULTURAL FACTORS IN AGGRESSION Aversive events influence aggression Frustration-aggression principle: frustration, the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal, creates anger, which can generate aggression Major league baseball pitchers are most likely to hit batters when frustrated by the previous batter hitting a home run

40 SOCIAL AND CULTURAL INFLUENCES ON AGGRESSION Learning: rewards and punishment shape behavior. Rejection intensifies aggression. Rejection-induced aggression and bullying Ostracism Economic disparity influences crime rates: relative deprivation

41 SOCIAL AND CULTURAL INFLUENCES ON AGGRESSION Observing models of aggression: Models for children today?

42 THE PSYCHOLOGY ATTRACTION What factors predict friendship, attraction, chemistry? 1. Proximity 2. Physical attractiveness 3. Similarity

43 THE PSYCHOLOGY ATTRACTION Physical attractiveness has been repeatedly confirmed as the determination of first impressions. In movies, the morally superior character is most often attractive. However, people s attractiveness is surprisingly unrelated to self-esteem and happiness Averaged faces are rated more attractive in research settings. Similarity: we like people who are like us and who like us (reward theory of attraction)

44 ROMANTIC LOVE Elaine Hatfield distinguishes temporary passionate love from more enduring companionate love Passionate love is an aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of the relationship Emotions are influenced by physical arousal plus cognitive appraisal Companionate love is the deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined Equity Self-disclosure

45 ALTRUISM Altruism is unselfish regard for the welfare of others Altruistic individuals make this world a better place. However, it is important to consider circumstances when we do not help others: Kitty Genovese Bystander effect, sometimes called diffusion of social responsibility, is the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if others are present Bystander effect on King County Metro Bus

46 ALTRUISM Factors influencing altruism? Person appears to need and deserve help, person is similar to us, we have just observed someone being helpful, we are not in a hurry, we are in a small town or rural area, we feel guilty, we are not preoccupied, we are in a good mood. Norms for helping: why do we help? Social exchange theory Reciprocity norm Social responsibility norm

47 CONFLICT AND PEACEMAKING What in the human mind causes destructive conflict? How might the perceived threats of social diversity be replaced by a spirit of cooperation? Conflict is the perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas Social trap: a situation in which conflicted parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior

48 PROMOTING PEACE How can we transform feelings of prejudice, aggression, and conflict into attitudes that promote peace? Contact, cooperation, communication, conciliation

49 CHAPTER 16 RECAP Social Thinking: Describe attribution theory and the fundamental attribution error. Distinguish the central and peripheral routes to persuasion. How do attitudes influence behavior? Describe foot-in-the-door and roles. Describe the ways roles affect attitudes. Take-home message from Philip Zimbardo Ted Talk OR his famous Stanford Prison Experiment. Social Influence Describe cognitive dissonance and give an example. Be able to describe conformity and obedience, including the work of Asch and Milgram, as well as the lessons from these studies. Describe the effects of group interaction, including performance when being observed and performance as a group. Social Relations Define prejudice, as well as the cognitive, emotional and social roots for prejudice. Define aggression and attraction, including the factors contributing to each. What is altruism? Why do we choose to help or not help in a situation? Define conflict and the ways we can promote peace.