Social Psychology



|Social psychology? |Study of how we act differently in groups than we do alone. |

|Mere exposure effect? |The more we are exposed to something (a person or a product) the more we like it. |

|Cognitive dissonance theory? |When our attitude and behavior doesn’t match, we feel uncomfortable. So we change one so they match each |

| |other. |

|Cognitive dissonance? |The uncomfortable feeling we get when our attitudes don’t match our behavior. |

|Compliance strategies? |Foot in the door: get people to agree to a small request then ask them for a larger favor. |

| |Door in the face: ask for something big (a car) then ask for something small (a cell phone). |

| |Reciprocity: give them something small, then ask for a favor (charities giving you self-addressed return |

| |labels) |

|In-group vs out-group? |Your in-group is who you hang with. Out-groups are classes of people you don’t hang with (freshmen). |

|Out-group homogeneity? |Our tendency to think all members of an out group are the same. (All Asians are the same) |

|In-group bias? |We view our in-group in terms of positive stereotypes. Out-groups – negative stereotypes. |

|Social schemas? |Schemas we have about people. We expect mechanics to act differently than college professors. Stereotypes |

| |are an example of social schemas. |

|Attribution theory? |Fritz Heider’s theory about what we think causes people to do things. |

| |Situational or external disposition – we attribute our’s or other people’s behavior to the particular |

| |situation of that time. (He’s having an emergency). |

| |Personal or internal disposition - cause of behavior is WHO the person is (He’s a jerk. He’s a LOSER) |

|Fundamental attribution error? |We mistakenly attribute someone’s bad behavior to internal dispositions instead of situational dispositions.|

|Self-serving bias? |We take credit for our successes but blame others for our failures. I aced the test because I’m smart. I |

| |failed it because that teacher’s a jerk. |

|Defensive attribution? |Blame victim so you don’t feel it will happen to you. Helps you believe that the world is a just place. |

|False consensus effect? |Our tendency to think more people agree with us than really do. (Everyone loves the Dallas Cowboys!) |

|Kitty Genovese story? |Famous case how 38 New Yorkers witnessed her being murdered but no one came to help her. Case study in |

| |bystander intervention. |

|Bystander effect? |People are less likely to help someone when they are in groups than when they are alone. This is because of|

| |diffusion of responsibility and social loafing. “Someone else will help.” |

|Group polarization? |Occurs when group discussion strengthens a group’s dominant point of view and shifts it to more extreme |

| |views. Ex: Democrats and Republicans argue and leave room with more solidified, extreme views. (Think |

| |“polar opposites”) |

|Groupthink? |Occurs when members of a cohesive group want to all agree with one another. (ex: the President’s “yes” men |

| |in JFK’s Bay of Pigs invasion) |

|Social facilitation? |Our performance improves in the presence of others. Explains why home field has advantage. Cheerleaders do |

| |help! |

|Deindividuation? |Person gets caught up in the moment and joins the soccer riot (or gang rape) or Jew hating. No longer an |

| |individual. |

|Individualist countries? |USA, Australia – value individual over community and family. |

|Collectivist countries? |China, Japan, Guatemala – value family, community over individual |

|Stanley Milgram? |Famous for shock experiment studying obedience to authority. |

|Phillip Zimbardo? |Famous for Prison Experiment at Stanford University. Studied how role playing affected our attitudes. |

|Jane Elliot? |Blue eyes/Brown eyes experiment studying racism |

|Solomon Asch? |Studied how people will conform their answers even when correct. |

Social Psychology

* the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another

I. Social Thinking

A. Attributing Behavior to Persons or to Situations

1. attribution theory – the theory that we tend to give a causal explanation for someone’s behavior,

often by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition (personality).

2. 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.

a. self-serving bias – our tendency to attribute our successes to self and failures to

situational pressures

B. Attitudes and Actions – a belief and feeling that predisposes one to respond in a particular way to people,

events, and objects.

1. foot-in-the-door phenomenon – the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small

request to comply later with a larger request.

2. cognitive dissonance theory – the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we

feel when our thoughts (cognitions) and behaviors are

inconsistent.

- when our awareness of our attitudes and of our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting

dissonance by changing our attitudes.

- Festinger (1959)

II. Social Influence

A. Conformity – adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard; Asch (1955)

1. Reasons for Conforming

a. normative social influence – influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval

or avoid disapproval

b. informational social influence – influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept

others’ opinions about reality; Sherif (1936)

2. Conditions that Strengthen Conformity

a. group has at least three people

b. group is unanimous (the support of a dissenting ally greatly reduces conformity)

c. one admires the group’s status and attractiveness

d. others in the group observe one’s behavior

e. one is made to feel incompetent or insecure

f. perception that group members are acting independently

B. Obedience – compliance with a direct order or request.

* Milgram (1964) – conducted social psychology’s most famous and controversial experiments

“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.”

C. Group Influence

1. Individual Behavior in the Presence of Others

a. social facilitation – improved performance of tasks in the presence of others; occurs with

simple or well-learned tasks but not with tasks that are difficult or not

yet mastered.

b. social loafing – the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their

efforts toward attaining a common goal then when individually

accountable

c. deindividuation – the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group

situations that foster arousal and anonymity; increases situational

power over behavior; Zimbardo (1973) Stanford Prison Experiment

2. Effects of Group Interaction

a. group polarization – the enhancement of a group’s prevailing attitudes through

discussion within the group; example: prejudice, terrorists

b. groupthink – the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a

decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives

- coined by Janis (1982) after studying Kennedy’s failed Bay of Pigs invasion

- is fed by overconfidence, conformity, self-justification, and group polarization

III. Social Relations

A. Prejudice - an unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members. Prejudice

generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to

discriminatory action; stereotype - a generalized belief about a group of people

1. Social Roots of Prejudice

a. social inequalities - haves vs. have-nots

b. us and them: ingroup and outgroup

i. ingroup - “Us” - people with whom one shares a common identity

ii. outgroup - “Them” - those perceived as different or apart from one’s ingroup

iii. ingroup bias - the tendency to favor one’s own group; cliques

c. scapegoat theory - prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame

2. Cognitive Roots of Prejudice

a. categorization - may bias our perceptions

b. just-world phenomenon - the tendency of people to believe the world is just and that

people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what

they get.

B. Aggression - any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy.

1. The Biology of Aggression

a. genetic influences - twin studies

b. neural influences - frontal lobe inhibits aggression

c. biochemical influences - aggression correlates with high testosterone levels

2. The Psychology of Aggression

a. aversive events

i. frustration-aggression principle - the blocking of an attempt to achieve some

goal creates anger, which can generate

aggression

b. learning to express and inhibit

C. Attraction

1. The Psychology of Attraction

a. proximity - physical nearness - the most powerful predictor of friendship

i. mere-exposure effect - repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of

them.

b. physical attractiveness

c. similarity & reciprocity

2. Romantic Love

a. passionate love - an aroused state of intense, positive absorption in another, usually

present at the beginning of a relationship.

b. companionate love - the deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our

lives are intimately intertwined.

i. equity - people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it.

ii. self-disclosure - revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others.

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