Psyc 102 Module 13

Social psychology

• The study of how behaviour is influenced by the real, imagined or implied presence of other people

  • Use scientific methods to study how people think/ feel about, influence & relate to each other

  • Study the social influences that explain why the same person will act differently in different situations

Attributions

• Causal explanations for behaviours

  • We make attributions to understand our experience and explain other people’s behaviour

  • There are two types of attribution

Dispositional attribution

• It is something within the person we observe, ie., their personality

• Internal attribution

Situational Attribution

• It is caused by something outside the person we observe, ie., their situation

• External attribution

Fundamental Attribution Error

• The tendency to explain other’s behaviours by overestimating personality factors (dispositional attribution) and underestimating the influence of external factors (situational attribution)

  • ex: cashier at starbucks is grumpy and rude to you. You assume they are just a mean person. But what if their dog is sick and they are having a hard time, or the person in before you was really rude to them and they are displacing anger? Person vs situation

Self-serving bias

• The tendency to attribute our own successes to internal causes and failures to external ones

Obedience

• The act of following direct commands, usually given by an authority figure

• Classic example: Milgram’s shocking studies

  • Will people obey a direct order to harm another person if directed to do so by an authority figure?

Milgram Study test overview

• Real participant and a confederate (actor)

• Real participant “randomly assigned” to act as the “teacher”

  • Confederate = “learner”

• Teacher is told to shock the learner every time he gets and answer wrong

  • Shock level increases with each wrong answer

• Over time, learner complains of heart trouble, demands to be released, etc.

Milgram Study Results

• Key points to remember:

  • 80% to continue after learner screams, “My heart’s bothering me … I won’t be in the experiment anymore”.

  • 65% of Ps delivered maximum shock

  • Obedience depends on psychological forces of victim (learner) and experimenter

Lessons from the Milgram study

• Psychiatrists estimated:

  • <2% would give maximum shock

  • Actual result = 65% have maximum shock

• How could this have happened? What does it mean?

  • Ps wanted to stop and some tried

  • Not blind obedience, but indecisive disobedience

• We underestimate the power a situation can have over us

  • Gradual shock increase (slippery slope, rationalization)

  • Confusing situation and experimenter behaviour

  • Seemingly appropriate transfer of responsibility

Conformity

• Occurs when people yield to real or imagined social pressure

• Classic test of conformity: Asch’s line studies

Conformity test

• The majority (75%) of participants conformed at least once

  • In the control group, with no pressure to conform, less than 1% of participants gave the wrong answer

• Less conformity was seen under these conditions:

  • Difficulty of task - less conformity in easy conditions; more in hard conditions

  • Presence of an ally - one other dissenter led to less conformity

  • Ability to give written responses instead of verbal

Attitudes

• Relatively stable and enduring evaluations of things and people

• ABC model of attitudes:

  • Affective component: how we feel toward the object

  • Behavioural component: how we act toward the object

  • Cognitive component: what we believe about the object

Cognitive dissonance

• Emotional discomfort as a result of holding contradictory beliefs or holding a beleif that contradicts a behaviour

• Although attitudes are relatively stable, they can and do change

• One reason they change

Cognitive Dissonance study (1959)

• Ps did a boring task for three hours

• Some Ps were paid to lie/tell the next “P” the task was really interesting (vs. control group)

  • One group given $1, another group given $20

• Afterwards, Ps were asked what they thought of the task and if they wanted to do it again

• Results:

  • Ps who were paid $1 said they would do it again

Cognitive dissonance theory

• When attitudes do not fit with actions, it is often easiest to change our attitudes to match actions (reduces tension)

  • Being paid $20 provides external justification for lying about the boring task (no dissonance)

  • Being paid only $1 did not provide enough justification for lying, so those Ps experienced dissonance. They overcame this by changing their attitude/ belief and saying the task was enjoyable

Interpersonal attraction

• Positive feelings toward another person (including liking, friendship, admiration, lust, or love)

What key factors are important in liking?

1. Proximity - frequency and familiarity

2. Similarity - shared attitudes, interests, age etc.

3. Self-disclosure: we disclose more to people we like. and vice versa

Mere exposire effect

• Tendency for people to like things - objects, places and people - the more they are exposed to and become familiar with them

Mere Exposure Effect Study

• Female confederate was randomly assigned to classes 0, 5, 10, or 15 times during the semester

• The confederate would sit alone at the front of the class and keep it herself

• End of the semester, the real students were shown the confederates picture and rated how much they liked/ felt attracted to her

• Students who saw the confederate more often rated the confederate as more attractive and said they liker her more

  • Being near others more often may increase liking/ attraction because familiarity breeds liking

Matching hypothesis

• People are likely to form/ succeed at relationships with people who are similar to them

• Birds of a feather, flock together, not opposites attract

Similarity study

• Participants (N=120) online dating profiles and the people they messaged were rated on attractiveness and compared for similarity

• People messaged others who were rated as more attractive than they were, but were more likely to get replies from people who “matched” them

Social Penetration Theory

• Relationships develop through gradual, reciprocal self-disclosure (process of revealing personal information about yourself)

Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love

• Love has 3 key ingredients:

  • Intimacy: Knowing a lot about each other and being close/ bonded

  • Commitment; Intention to maintain relationship

  • Passion: “Hot” stuff, sexual arousal

• Can be combined to form different types of love

Intimacy

• Liking - intimacy alone

Romantic love

• Intimacy + passion

Passion

• Infatuation - passion alone

Compassionate love

• Intimacy + commitment

Consummate love

• Intimacy + passion + commitment

Fatuous love

• Passion + committment

Commitment

• Empty love- commitment alone