Chapter 10: Social Psych

Attitudes

Beliefs/evaluations that predispose one to act or feel in certain ways 

• Learned directly from experience

Persuasion techniques: foot-in-the-door

Make a small request first ($1- yes), so they’re more likely to pay a larger amount (yes) 

Conformity (Asch)

Yielding (giving into/going along) to group pressure even when no direct request to comply has been made.

Tested this by judging the length of lines. One was clearly the same length but 3 people got it wrong. When the actual test subject was asked, he got it wrong.

Obedience (Milgram)

Conclusion of the shock study and memory test: most people kept going/ didn’t stop the first time the guy yelled out in pain and were willing to get the maximum shock when encouraged to do so (guy in the lab coat goes you must continue)

Social Roles (Prison study by Zimbardo)

Social roles – expectations of behavior 

Zimbardo’s prison study 

• Power of social roles influencing behaviors 

• Behavior changes to fit perceptions of role 

• conclusion: people act according to social roles rather than personal beliefs

Difference in compliance and obedience

Authority level of the person making the request.

Cognitive dissonance

• Suggests that we seek to justify our actions  

• Therefore, when our actions and attitudes don’t agree we feel tension: cognitive dissonance 

Group Think

• Faulty decision-making process in groups 

• Cohesiveness of members of the group (likelihood highest in tightly knit groups); hard to stand up to people you like

Diffusion of Responsibility (Kitty Genovese case)

All the people saw her, but nobody called 911. Somebody else will call, so why should I?

Social Facilitation

being in group improves individual performance because individual is working harder

Deindividuation

anonyms (false name to remain anonymous), unidentifiable feeling of group member; makes a person more likely to violate social norms and rules if you can’t be identified

Bystander Effect (when do we help)

You’re more than likely to help if you’re by yourself/the larger the group, the less likely one will help.

Diffusion of responsibility

Who we are attracted to and why: proximity

how psychically/geographically close you are to each other

Who we are attracted to and why: Is opposites attract true?

False. complements each other and people who’re similar to us in long-term relationships; drawn to those with similar interests 

Attribution

Making judgements about what causes people to behave the way they do

Dispositional Attribution

The use of personal characteristics to make decisions about why people act the way they do. Blaming internal motive/trait for behavior 

example: don’t value your education, hate psychology, you’re lazy/late

Fundamental Attribution Error

Underestimating negative impact of situations on others; When you judge people’s behavior based more (overestimate) on dispositional than situational (underestimate).

example: Matthew’s date didn’t show up so he called her a loser, but in actuality she was tired and unfamiliar with the streets

Discrimination

Acting (behaviors) on the prejudice; treating different groups of people differently 

• Ex: walking by the homeless lady but helping the well-dressed lady