PSYC112 Social Psychology

Rousseau

believed that "man is by nature good and only institutions male him bad" the world and society is what makes us who we are

Hobbes

"man is by nature solitary, poore, nasty and brutish" men are evil from birth and that's just how they are

theories we hold and push on people can have an affect on their performance an example of this is...

if people are told that IQ is fixed they don't change or succeed much but if you say IQ is environmental and the longer you learn the smarter you will there is more change

the 5 approaches to social psychology are

1. cognitive
2. learning
3. motivational
4. biological
5. cultural

cognitive perspective and an example

an emphasis on how perception affects behaviour
eg. someone's behaviour being perceived as accidental is less likely to respond aggressively compared to if that behaviour was perceived as deliberate

learning perspective

emphasis on principles of reinforcement and imitation
tendency to focus on observable behaviour and ignore cognition. Responses based on prior learning

motivational perspective

emphasis on basic human needs
as we have biological needs - we have psychological needs e.g needing to think people like us, feel in control, good self esteem

Biological Perspective

emphasis on evolutionary past and genetic disposition

cultural perspective

Emphasis on how culture affects social behaviour, different parts of us are more aggressive

levels of explanation in social psychology - 4 levels of analysis

1. intra personal level
2. interpersonal level
3. intergroup level
4. societal level

intra-personal level of analysis

Based on what goes on inside the person. Focuses on the criteria by which individuals analyse information and come to make an attribution

inter-personal level of analysis

Interactions between two people. Deals with face to face attributions that no longer seem as rational. There are two types of the effect - Actor observer effect and self-serving bias

inter-group level of analysis

Based on group behaviour. Attributions at this level examine the way in which members of different groups explain behaviour

societal level of analysis

Cultural affects on behaviour. Shows that while individuals from western cultures favour dis-optional explanations, individuals from non-western cultures ten do favour environmental explanations

Freud

id, ego, superego

to fried the basic human condition was...

seething cauldron of pleasure-seeking instincts

impulses can be ______ bit will _______ return and reassure themselves

denied, always

3 subsystems involved in conflict

id, ego, superego

What is the id?

the most primitive part of the psyche
contains the most basic urges (eat, drink, rest, seek comfort)
The need to gain sexual pleasure (driven by sexual desire)
works on the pleasure principle
- demands satisfaction now not later, regardless of the consequences

what is the ego?

works on the reality principle
tries to satisfy the id pragmatically in accordance with societal norms
- holding hands in public

what is the superego?

acts as a moral policeman (your conscious)
represents internalised rules of parents and society
if rules are broken the superego metes out punishment
this leads to intense anxiety, guilt and self-reproach

4 defence mechanisms

Displacement
Reaction formation
Projection
Isolation

Displacement defence mechanism is

Impulses redirected into a safer course - gym or jogging to re-channel the sexual drive

reaction formation defence mechanism is

Original wish is supplanted with the opposite - men who are homophobic and desire gay relationships themselves redirect that back into being homophobic

projection defence mechanism is

urges are projected onto others - you like a person and then you think that they like you

isolation defence mechanism is

awareness of memories but not emotions - trauma (overwhelmed) talk rationally surviving removing emotions but not the memories, can hit people later on

unconscious conflicts

Most of the contents of the unconscious are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict

Origins of unconscious conflicts

- Unconscious conflicts are a result of childhood experiences.

- Child starts life as a bundle of pleasure-seeking tendencies.

-As the child grows pleasure is achieved through the stimulation of certain body zones.

Oral Stage 0-2 putting stuff in their mouth
Anal stage 2-4 going to toilet - potty training
Phallic stage 4-6
Latency Stage 6-12 sexual dormancy - don't like boys don't like girls
Genital Stage 12+

phallic stage

Freud's third stage of development, when the penis becomes the focus of concern and pleasure age 4-6

boys develop an Oedipus Complex
wants to sexually possess the mother - hates the father
fears that father may find out and castrate him
leads to CASTRATION ANXIETY
problem resolved when the boy decides to give up his desires for his mother
identifies with father in hopes he too will some day enjoy erotic partner like his mother

Oral Stage (Freud's Psychosexual Stages)

(Freud) The first sexual and social stage of an infant's development (from about age 0 to 2). Libidinal energy is centred around the mouth

Anal Stage (Freud's Psychosexual Stages)

(2-4) Freud's second stage of psychosexual development where the primary sexual focus is on the elimination or holding onto feces. The stage is often thought of as representing a child's ability to control his or her own world.

Latency Stage (Freud's Psychosexual Stages)

(6-12) Freud's fourth stage of psychosexual development is where sexuality is repressed in the unconscious and children focus on identifying with their same-sex parent and interacting with same-sex peers.

(sexual dormancy - don't like girls don't like boys)

Genital Stage (Freud's Psychosexual Stages)

(12+) Freud's last stage of personality development, from the onset of puberty through adulthood, during which the sexual conflicts of childhood resurface (at puberty) and are often resolved during adolescence).

Oedipus complex

according to Freud, a boy's sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father

castration anxiety

the fear in young boys that they will be mutilated genitally because of their lust for their mothers

Electra complex

Conflict during phallic stage in which girls supposedly love their fathers romantically and want to eliminate their mothers as rivals

girl realises she doesn't have a penis - which she regards as a catastrophe
feels she has been castrated already, develops 'penis envy'
turns to her father who has a desirable organ in hopes he will give her a penis substitute in the form of a baby
turns sexual attention to father - hates mother and develops anxiety over her desires
resolves by identifying with her mother

difficulties in the oral stage lead to later problems such as

oral fixation, smoking, thumb sucking, drinking alcohol

difficulties in the anal stage lead to later problems such as

won't change ideas, anal retentiveness, won't spend money, obstinate, like painting

difficulties in the phallic stage lead to later problems such as

castration anxiety (guilt about finding parent attractive) - having relations with the same gender not wanting to have sex with the opposite gender - leads to being gay?

Problems with Freud

Never actually studied children
Ideas not falsifiable (always right) (not science - belief structure) theory is proved either way of the outcome
Little experimental evidence to support ideas (some studies might support)

experimental evidence freud

1. Data more appropriately explained through other processes
2. Experiments supporting Freuds claims are often flawed

Freud claimed that children who's parents treat them harshly would redirect aggressive instincts on to others who have less power

evidence suggests that authoritarian aggression is not caused by the redirection of repressed implied but by observational learning

Bandura (1965) - the Bobo doll study

showed that aggression was a consequence of imitation and learning

Bruner and Postman

threatening words (sex, f*ck, penis) and non-threatening words (six, brick, tennis) by means of tachistoscope
found that threatening words take longer to detect, supports idea of repression

bruner and postman findings problematic because people may feel...

embarrassment
may want to recheck their eyes

An attitude in psychological terms

a positive or negative reaction towards a stimulus, such as a person, action, object or concept
(Crano & Prisilin, 2006)

Attitudes 3 components

cognitive, beliefs and values
affective, emotions
behavioural intentions to behave

Techniques of attitude measurement

likert scales
bogus pipeline
electromyography

The bogus pipeline

a phony lie-detector device that is sometimes used to get respondents to give truthful answers to sensitive questions - told it measures changes in muscles
- machine can't actually tell but is less likely to lie if believe that it does

likert scales

(agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 disagree) - this depends on honesty. Some people will give socially desirable answers - women underestimate and men overestimate.

electromygogram (EMG)

measures activity of facial muscles
different emotions use different face muscles
muscles associated with happiness moved when video supported attitudes and muscles associated with anger moved when the video disagreed with attitudes

LaPiere (1934) - source of controversy

he investigated the relation between racist attitudes and behaviour, touring with a Chinese couple and stopping at over 50 hotels and 200 restaurants only one hotel refused service bit when he wrote to each establishment asking if Chinese couples would be accommodated 92% said NO.
therefore expressed a racist attitude but not racist behaviour

Theory of Planned Behavior

the theory that attitudes toward a specific behavior combine with subjective norms and perceived control to influence a person's actions

to demonstrate relationship between attitudes and behaviour we must consider...

when we have a positive attitude towards the behaviour
when norms support the attitudes
when the behaviour is under our control

Sieverding et al., 2010

blood donation, exercise regularly, drive safely

Attitude Stability and Change

"On the whole, attitudes are relatively stable."

"Himmelweit (1990) in a 15-year study found that attitudes to capital punishment did not change."

inconsistency between attitudes and behaviour =

cognitive dissonance

cognitive dissonance

an unpleasant state that arises when a person recognizes the inconsistency of his or her actions, attitudes, or beliefs

Knox and Inkster

evidence supporting cognitive dissonance asked people to estimate the chances of winning a bet those who had placed bets were much more confident of winning

attitudes can be changed by a host of factors

-if the source is credible, trustworthy, attractive and likeable

-if the message is presented, quickly, long and without hesitation

-if we are approached on sunny days or when we are happy

emotional appeals consensus that fear can work in circumstances where

the message evokes moderate to strong fear
the message provides a feasible (low cost) way to reduce the threat

Attitude resilience

- We are not at the mercy of those who would seek to influence us.
- One way to avoid attitude change is via the rehearsal of counterarguments.

McAlister et al. (1982)

Sought to prevent teenagers from
smoking, taught arguments such as "I'd be real chicken if I smoked just to impress you".
Teenagers trained in this way were less likely to smoke.

Attribution

the process of explaining one's own behavior and the behavior of others

Attribution research tends to cluster around a central proportion this is that...

"peoples perception of the causes of an event affects what they do and how they feel"
Antaki, 1984)

Measurement of Attributions

Heider (1958) Internal and external
likert scales Internal 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 External
scores 95% on a test what is the single most important cause of this behaviour intelligence (internal) working hard/easy course (external)

Consequences of Attributions

couples who experience marital distress tend to attribute their partners negative behaviours to internal characteristics

Frey and Rogner (1987) found that following accidents individuals who..

thought they were in some way to blame spent 30 days in hospital and those who thought they were not to blame spent 20 days in hospital

two kinds of attributional styles

optimistic and pessimistic

pessimistic attributional style

cognitive style involving a tendency to make internal, stable, and global attributions for negative life events

"cannot seem to decide firmly on a career.. seems to be due to my unwillingness to face reality"
maybe not cut out for this --> don't believe in self

optimistic attributional style

sees failure as the result of external causes

"my career in army has been chequered but on the whole characteristic of the army"
glass half full/just the way it is

both optimists and pessimist had a negative experience but the difference is

pessimist referred to his own enduring qualities and the optimist explained the negative events in terms of external factors both of these perspectives are learned

men who tended to have poorer health between ages 45 and 60 interpreted negative events in their earlier life in a

pessimistic way as they referred to their own internal, stable, pervasive characteristics

how are attributions linked to self-esteem

1. if we behave positively or successfully and then attribute this to our own internal qualities we can achieve and maintain self-esteem

2. if we behave negatively or fail in some way and then we have attributed this to the same internal qualities then we can suffer a decrease in self-esteem

how can attributions enhance control

by attributing our successes to our internal characteristics we may believe that we are in control

victim blame

tendency of victims of abuse to place the blame for the abusive actions of others onto themselves

4 Levels of attributions

intrapersonal
interpersonal
intergroup
societal

Level one of attributions

intrapersonal focuses on criteria by which individuals analyse information and come to make an attribution
two major theories
Correspondence inference
covariation and configuration

Kelly (1967) said that we gather three types of information (consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency) when trying to determine whether events have been caused by people or by circumstances.

if Mr own is always hostile to you (consistency)
If other people are normally hostile to you (consensus)
if Mr brown tends to be hostile to other people (distinctiveness)

Level two of attributions

interpersonal deals with face-to-face attributions
attributions no longer seem as rational
two major types of effect -
actor-observer effect and self serving bias

actor-observer effect

people tend to attribute the cause of their own actions to external facts
they tend to attribute the cause of others actions to internal causes

self-serving bias

people take credit for their success but not for their failures

level three of attributions

intergroup attributions examine the way in which the members of different groups explain behaviour

Hunter, et al. 1991, 1994

looked at how Catholics and Protestants explained instances of Catholic and Protestant violence

Protestants explain protestant violence

generally external
1. Due to previous murder of two army corporals on the Falls road.
2. He (Michael Stone) was obviously registering a personal protest at the blatant I.R.A funeral trimmings.
3. Michael Stone attacks Milltown in protest.
4. An attempt to rid Ulster of its greatest perverter

Protestants explain catholic violence

generally internal
1. People at funeral acted like animals.
2. A crowd massacres two people. They are frenzied and seem to be needing blood.
3. Callous murder by some very sick people. No explanation for such action except bloodlust.
4. Sometimes I think they do it for the pleasure of killing. There can't be any other reason.

Catholics explain catholic violence

external factors
1. Spurred on by the fear of another U.V.F attack they (the crowd) swarm round the car in an attempt to get the two men.
2. Crowd beat them up because they fear another episode like that in Milltown.
3. Crowd thought they were being attacked.
4. The mourners thought they were being attacked.

Catholics explain protestant violence

internal factors
1. He acts in this way because he detests Catholics and because he is a murdering bastard.
2. The mans only motive was hatred.
3. He is an obvious psychopath not caring who he killed.
4. The assassin is acting out of intense hatred, perhaps he is insane

level four of attributions

a societal level study was done by miller (1984) showing that while individuals from cultures favour dispositional explanations
individuals from non-western cultures tend to favour environmental explanations

Miller (1984) examined the attributions of American and Indian participants and found that

while individuals from cultures favour dispositional explanations
individuals from non-western cultures tend to favour environmental explanations

McKnight (1994)

-found that 83% of people met their 'special partner' in a familiar social setting, 6% in a casual social setting

Bryne found that

people tended to make friends with those whom they were seated beside alphabetically

The mere exposure effect Zajonc

the phenomenon that repeated exposure to any stimulus makes it more appealing
the more people are exposed to faces, photos, languages and tunes the more they like them

Mita et al. (1977)

Claimed that if it was merely repeated exposure to a stimulus that enhanced our liking then we should prefer photos of our facial images as we see them in a mirror (ie. a reversed photo image).
- Our friends, however, should prefer a normal photo of our faces (since this, image is the one that they normally see).
- Results support this view, 70% of people prefer a photo of their own reversed mirror image, 70% of people, however, prefer the normal photo image of their friends.

Reis (1997)

- Proximity doesn't always work.
- Personality differences, conflict of interests, value differences, status differentials can all lead to antagonism (hostility or opposition)
- If the initial interaction is negative and this experience is reinforced then dislike will occur.

emotional arousal

the arousal of strong emotions and emotional behavior

what does research indicate about emotional arousal

people who are emotionally aroused rate others as more attractive

White et al. (1981)

found that men who ran on the spot rated women as being more attractive rather than just standing

Dutton and Aron (1974)

people expecting electric shocks rated members of the opposite sex as being more attractive (people with feelings go fear or pain like others more)

Dutton and Aron Bridge Study

Young men interviewed by attractive women while crossing a narrow rope bridge above a river or deep ravine and a sturdy bridge.
-those who crossed the narrow rope bridge were more likely to phone up women and ask for a date - think she's more attractive