Chapter 10

Social Psychology

What Social Psychology Is

• The scientific study of how a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by the real, imagined, or implied presence of others

• Referred to by some as ‘the psychology of everyday life’

What Social Psychology Is Not

• Sociology–Concerned with looking at the machine as a

whole (i.e., how groups of people live, work, and play)

• Social psychology focuses on the individual cogs of the machine (i.e. how does the member of the group act and how the member is influenced by the group)

Social Influence

• The process through which the real or implied presence of others can directly or indirectly influence the thoughts feelings, and behavior of an individual

• Forms of social influence–Conformity–Compliance–Obedience

I’m Not a Conformist! Conforming Is too Mainstream…

• Have you ever…–Taken out your phone when

others have theirs out–Faced the same direction as

everyone else in an elevator–Watched a TV show or

movie a friend recommended to you

–Ordered the same thing in a restaurant as someone else with you

Conformity

• Changing your behavior to match the behavior of others

• Extremely common, we all do it

• Not as bad as society tends to think

The Asch Series of Studies

• 1 participant, several actors pretending to be participants (confederates)–4 max for effect

• Asked to match a line to one of the lines in a set

• Confederates would answer incorrectly

• The participant would answer correctly at first, but eventually would go along with the answer the rest of the group provided

The Asch Series of Studies

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRh5qy09nNw

Groupthink

• Kind of thinking that occurs when people focus on preserving group cohesion than truly assessing the facts of the problem at hand

Compliance

• Changing your behavior as a result of other people asking for the change

• Person asking for the change usually doesn’t have the power or authority to make you change

• Commonly seen in marketing

• Several techniques are used to gain compliance

Compliance Techniques

• Foot-in-the-door technique–asking for a small commitment and ask

gradually for progressively larger commitments after getting compliance

• Door-in-the-face technique –start by asking for a large commitment which is

refused and then followed by a smaller commitment

Compliance Techniques

• Lowball technique–get a commitment from a

person that becomes more involved

• That’s-not-all technique• persuader makes an offer and

then adds something to it to enhance the offer before a decision can be made

–http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpqiyFPdHZ4

Obedience

• Changing your behavior at the command of an authority figure

• Very powerful force

• Interest in research came from the atrocities of the Nazis in WWII

Milgram’s Study

• Participant was instructed to teach another participant a set of words

• The ‘teacher’ was also instructed to punish the ‘learner’ through a shock for each wrong answer

• The shock increased intensity by 15 volts

• As the teachers began to hesitate giving higher voltages, the experimenter would tell them to continue

Milgram’s Study

• It was expected that the teachers would reach a point and stop giving the shock

• 65% of the teachers went to 450 volts (maximum amount)

• Results were unexpected

• Raised serious ethical concerns

Social Cognition

• The ways people think about others and how those thoughts influence behavior towards others

Attitudes, What are They?

• What is an attitude?

• What makes up an attitude?

Attitudes

• Tendency to respond either positively or negatively towards a source of stimulation–More general in nature

• Consists of three parts–Specific parts define the whole

• Possible to be predisposed based on past experience

ABC Model of Attitudes

• Affective component- emotion

• Behavior component- action

• Cognitive component- thought

Build an Attitude Workshop

• General idea

• Affect

• Behavior

• Cognition

Attitude Change

• Poor predictors of behavior–Strong attitudes are better predictors

• Attitudes are subject to change

• Can be changed by–Persuasion–Cognitive dissonance

Persuasion

• Process by which a person tries to change the belief, opinion, position, or course of action of another through argument, pleading, or explanation

• Combination of factors determines effectiveness–Source–Message–Target audience

Elaboration Likelihood Model• People will either add details or

information to a message or pay attention to other surface characteristics of the message

• Poses two types of processing–Central route- people pay

attention to the message’s content

–Peripheral route- people pay attend to other factors rather than the message’s content (i.e., length, credibility of speaker)

Cognitive Dissonance• Sense of discomfort or distress

that occurs when a person’s behavior does not match his or her attitude

• Need to address this uneasiness• Three solutions

–Change behavior to match attitude–Change attitude to match behavior –Justify behavior with a new line of

thought

Attribution

• Process of explaining your behavior and the behavior of others–Justification

• Fulfills need for an explanation

• Will create an answer if not obvious

• Cognitive dissonance can occur if an explanation is not found

Attribution Theory

• Two kinds of explanations–External cause–Internal cause

• Situational cause- external–i.e., actions of others, aspects of the situation

• Dispositional cause- internal–i.e., personality, character

Fundamental Attribution Error

• Tendency to overestimate the influence another person’s internal characteristics have on his/her behavior and to underestimate the influence of the situation

Social Interaction

• Relationships between people–Casual–Intimate

• Prejudice

• Aggression

• Prosocial behavior

• Liking and loving

Prejudice, Discrimination, and Stereotypes, Oh My!

• What is prejudice?

• What is discrimination?

• What is a stereotype?

• Are they the same or are they different?

• How are they the same or different?

Prejudice

• Negative attitude held about people in a particular social group

• Hard to control

• Prejudice is not discrimination–Discrimination is acting upon prejudice(s)

–Discrimination can be controlled

Prejudice

• Prejudice is not a stereotype–Stereotypes are thoughts –Stereotypes can be positive or negative

• Stems from the idea of us vs them–In-group- us; people we identify with–Out-group them; people we don’t identify with

Brown Eye, Blue Eye Study

• Second grade class taught by Jane Elliot• Divided students into 2 groups (brown

eyes, blue eyes)• Blue eyed kids were favored over brown

eyed kids• Brown eyed kids were criticized by both

Jane Elliot and later their blue eyed peers• Brown eyed kids felt and acted inferior

Brown Eye, Blue Eye Study

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html

Harms of Prejudice

• Scapegoating- an out-group with little power that becomes the target of blame, frustration, and negative emotions of the in-group

• Stereotype vulnerability- the effect of stereotypes of your group on your behavior

Harms of Prejudice

• Self-fulfilling prophecy- expectations affect behavior in a way to make the expectation more likely to happen

• Easy to learn

• Takes effort to remedy

Countering Prejudice• Intergroup contact-

opposing groups have direct contact with each other to see the other group as people through observation and interaction–Can backfire

• Equal status contact- contact between groups where equal status or power is maintained between them–Shown to work

Aggression

• Behavior intended to cause harm to another person–Can be physical–Can be verbal

• Several causes–Learned –Biology–Chemical

Social Roles

• Pattern of behavior expected of a person as a result of their social position

Role Time

• What are some social roles?

• What are the expectations of those roles?

Stanford Prison Experiment

• Conducted by Philip Zimbardo at Stanford

• Turned the basement into a prison

• 70 young men participated

• Randomly assigned to the role of guard or prisoner

• Planned to last for 2 weeks

Stanford Prison Experiment

• Guards and prisoners given clothes for their role–Guards had sunglasses covering their eyes

• Quickly began to assimilate to their roles

• Guards began to harass and beat the prisoners

• Study was called off after 5 days

• Social roles have a powerful influence on behavior

Stanford Prison Experiment

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8McGyYAwcU

Prosocial Behavior

• Socially desirable behavior that benefits others

• Altruism- beneficial behavior done without expectation of a reward or gain

• Debated on whether or not if people are truly altruistic

The Five Must’s of Helping

• Must notice that there is a problem that needs addressing

• Must be able to interpret the cues as an emergency; a need to help

• Must take responsibility to act

The Five Must’s of Helping

• Must decide how to help and what skills/abilities will be useful

• Must act

Another Brief Interlude Survey

• You’re driving along on a road and your car dies, would you rather be on a major highway or a county road?

• Why would you want to be there?

Bystander Effect

• The effect that the presence of other people has on the decision of whether or not to help

• Studied by Latane and Darley–Inspired by the tragedy of Kitty Genovese in New York

• Help is less likely with more people present–Diffusion of responsibility

Bystander Effect

–http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIvGIwLcIuw