Chapter 12

Social Psychology

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Attitudes and Social Cognition

• Learning Outcomes– Define persuasion– Explain social cognition

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Persuasion: Changing Attitudes• Attitudes: evaluations of a particular person,

behavior, belief, or concept– Attitude change depends on factors:

• Message source: characteristics of the communicator, such as expertise & trustworthiness

• Characteristics of the message: two-sided (presenting both sides of the argument) more effective than one-sided

• Characteristics of the target: for example, intelligent people are more resistant to persuasion than less intelligent people

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Persuasion: Changing Attitudes (cont.)

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– Central route processing: message interpretation characterized by thoughtful consideration of the issues and arguments used to persuade (content of the message)

– Peripheral route processing: message interpretation characterized by consideration of the source and related general information rather than of the message itself (how the message is provided)

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Persuasion: Changing Attitudes (cont.)

– Cognitive dissonance: the conflict that occurs when a person holds two contradictory attitudes or thoughts (cognitions)

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Persuasion: Changing Attitudes (cont.)

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Social Cognition: Understanding Others

• Social cognition: the cognitive processes by which people understand and make sense of others and themselves– Schemas: sets of cognitions about people and

social experiences– Impression formation: how we organize

information about another person to form an overall impression of that person• Central traits: the major traits considered in forming

impressions of others

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Social Cognition: Understanding Others (cont.)

– Attribution theory: seeks to explain how we decide, on the basis of samples of an individual’s behavior, what the specific causes of that person’s behavior are• Situational causes: perceived causes of behavior that are

based on environmental factors• Dispositional causes: perceived causes of behavior that

are based on internal traits or personality factors

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Social Cognition: Understanding Others (cont.)

• Attribution biases– The halo effect: an initial understanding that a person has

positive traits is used to infer other uniformly positive characteristics

– Assumed-similarity bias: the tendency to think of people as being similar to oneself, even when meeting them for the first time

– Self-serving bias: tendency to attribute personal success to personal factors (skill, ability, or effort), and to attribute failure to factors outside oneself

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Social Cognition: Understanding Others (cont.)

– Fundamental attribution error: a tendency to over-attribute others’ behavior to dispositional causes and the corresponding minimization of the importance of situational causes; prevalent in Western cultures

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Social Influence and Groups

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• Learning Outcomes– Define conformity– Explain compliance– Discuss obedience

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Conformity: Following What Others Do

• Conformity: a change in behavior or attitudes brought about by a desire to follow the beliefs or standards of other people; comes from subtle, sometimes even unspoken, social pressure– Solomon Asch experiments: participants conformed in

about 1/3 of the trials; conformity higher when people must respond publicly, lower when at least one other person dissents from the group

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Conformity: Following What Others Do (cont.)

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– Social roles: the behaviors that are associated with people in a given position• Philip Zimbardo “prison” study: conforming to a social

role can have a powerful consequence on the behavior of anyone

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Compliance: Submitting to Direct Social Pressure

• Compliance: behavior that occurs in response to direct social pressure– Foot-in-the-door technique: people are more

likely to agree to a more important request if they have first agreed to a smaller one

– Door-in-the-face technique: making a large request, expecting it to be refused, then following with a smaller one, which is the targeted request

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Compliance: Submitting to Direct Social Pressure (cont.)

– That’s-not-all technique: immediately after an initial offer at an inflated price, you are offered an incentive to clinch the deal

– Not-so-free sample: you feel the need to reciprocate when given a free sample, so you are more likely to buy the product (based on the norm of reciprocity)

• Industrial-organizational (I/O) psychology: focuses on work and job-related issues, including worker motivation, satisfaction, safety, and productivity

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Obedience: Following Direct Orders

• Obedience: a change in behavior in response to the commands of others (people in power/authority figures)– Stanley Milgram experiments: 65% of participants

eventually used the highest setting on the shock generator (450 volts)• Participants said they obeyed mostly because they

believed the experimenter would be responsible for any potential harm to the learner

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Prejudice and Discrimination

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• Learning Outcomes– Identify the origins of prejudice– Distinguish measuring practices for prejudice and

discrimination– Assess ways to reduce prejudice and

discrimination

• Stereotype: a set of generalized beliefs and expectations about a particular group and its members– Help in categorizing & organizing information– Can be negative or positive, but all stereotypes

oversimplify the world

• Prejudice: a negative (or positive) evaluation of a particular group and its members (attitudes)

Prejudice and Discrimination (cont.)

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Prejudice and Discrimination (cont.)

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• Discrimination: behavior directed toward individuals on the basis of their membership in a particular group

• Self-fulfilling prophecy: when expectations about a behavior act to increase the likelihood that the behavior will occur

The Foundations of Prejudice

• Prejudices are not innate; they are learned– Observational learning approaches: the behavior of

parents, other adults, and peers shapes children’s feelings about members of various groups; prejudice is learned through imitation and reward and punishment

– Social identity theory: people tend to be ethnocentric, viewing the world from their own perspective and judging others in terms of their group membership

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Measuring Prejudice and Discrimination: The Implicit Personality

Test

• Implicit Association Test (IAT): allows for measurement of subconscious attitudes, and attitudes that people do not want to be shown, toward members of specific groups– Go to https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit to take

the test

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Reducing Prejudice and Discrimination• Increasing contact between the target of stereotyping

and the holder of the stereotype– Contact is relatively intimate– Individuals are of equal status– Participants must cooperate with one another

• Making values and norms against prejudice more conspicuous

• Providing information about the targets of stereotyping

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Positive and Negative Social Behavior

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• Learning Outcomes– Compare and contrast the concepts of “like” and

love– Explain aggression and prosocial behavior

Liking and Loving: Interpersonal Attraction and the Development of

Relationships

• Interpersonal attraction (close relationships): positive feelings for others; liking and loving

• Factors in attraction (liking):– Proximity: geographic closeness leads to liking– Mere exposure: repeated exposure to any

stimulus usually makes you like it more; if negative initial interaction, dislike will intensify

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Liking and Loving: Interpersonal Attraction and the Development of

Relationships (cont.)

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– Similarity: increases liking because we assume that people with similar attitudes will evaluate us positively, which promotes our attraction to that person because of the reciprocity-of-liking effect

– Physical attractiveness: all else being equal, physically attractive people are more popular than physically unattractive ones (beautiful = good)

Liking and Loving: Interpersonal Attraction and the Development of

Relationships (cont.)• Passionate (romantic) love: a state of intense absorption in

someone that includes intense physiological arousal, psychological interest, and caring for the needs of another

• Companionate love: the strong affection we have for those with whom our lives are deeply involved

• Sternberg says love consists of decision/commitment, an intimacy component, and a passion component

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Liking and Loving: Interpersonal Attraction and the Development of

Relationships (cont.)

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Aggression and Prosocial Behavior: Hurting and Helping Others

• Aggression: the intentional injury of, or harm to, another person– Instinct approaches: aggression is the outcome of

innate urges• Catharsis: the process of discharging built-up aggressive

energy• Little evidence to support the need for catharsis

– Frustration-aggression approaches: frustration produces anger, which leads to a readiness to act aggressively

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Aggression and Prosocial Behavior: Hurting and Helping Others (cont.)

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– Observational learning approaches: social and environmental conditions can teach individuals to be aggressive• Rewards and punishment given to both the individual

and models whose behavior is imitated• Research shows much support

• Prosocial behavior: helping behavior– Diffusion of responsibility: tendency for people to

feel that responsibility for acting is shared, or diffused, among those present

Aggression and Prosocial Behavior: Hurting and Helping Others (cont.)

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• Four basic steps in deciding to help– Noticing a person, event, or situation that may

require help– Interpreting the event as one that requires help– Assuming responsibility for helping– Deciding on and implementing the help• Altruism: helping behavior that is beneficial to others

but clearly requires self-sacrifice

Stress and Coping

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• Learning Outcomes– Define stress and discuss how it affects us– Explain the nature of stressors– Describe how we people cope with stress

Stress: Reacting to Threat and Challenge

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• Stress: a person’s response to events that are threatening or challenging– Stressors: circumstances or events that produce

threats to our well-being– Both positive and negative events can produce

stress

The Nature of Stressors: My Stress Is Your Pleasure

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• Categories of stressors– Cataclysmic events: strong stressors that occur

suddenly, affecting many people at once (ex.: natural disasters)

– Personal stressors: major life events, such as the death of a family member, that have immediate negative consequences that generally fade with time

The Nature of Stressors: My Stress Is Your Pleasure (cont.)

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• Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): victims of major catastrophes or strong personal stressors feel long-lasting effects that may include re-experiencing the event in vivid flashbacks or dreams

– Background stressors (daily hassles): everyday annoyances that cause minor irritations and may have long-term ill effects if they continue or are compounded by other stressful events

The Nature of Stressors: My Stress Is Your Pleasure (cont.)

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• High cost of stress– Continued exposure to stress can result in decline

in overall functioning because of constant secretion of stress-related hormones

– Psychophysiological disorders (formerly known as psychosomatic disorders): medical problems influenced by an interaction of psychological, emotional, and physical difficulties

The Nature of Stressors: My Stress Is Your Pleasure (cont.)

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The Nature of Stressors: My Stress Is Your Pleasure (cont.)

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• Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI): the study of the relationship among psychological factors, the immune system, and the brain– Consequences of stress• Direct physiological effects• Engaging in behaviors harmful to one’s health• Indirect health-related behaviors

Coping with Stress

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• Coping: efforts to control, reduce, or learn to tolerate the threats that lead to stress– Emotion-focused coping: trying to manage your

emotions in the face of stress– Problem-focused coping: trying to modify the

stressful problem or source of stress– Avoidant coping: trying to use escape routes, such

as wishful thinking, drug or alcohol use, or overeating; is often ineffective and can make the problem worse

Coping with Stress (cont.)

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– Learned helplessness: a state in which people conclude that unpleasant or aversive stimuli cannot be controlled – a view of the world that becomes so ingrained that they cease trying to remedy the aversive circumstances, even if they can actually exert some influence; correlated with depression

– Social support: a mutual network of caring, interested others• Helps in coping with stress

Coping with Stress (cont.)

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• Effective coping strategies– Turn threat into a challenge, focusing on ways to

control it– Make a threatening situation less threatening; if

situation is uncontrollable, change your appraisal and modify your attitude

– Change your goals– Take physical action (ex.: exercise)– Prepare for stress before it happens (proactive coping)