psychology chapter 12

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What is social psychology

Deals with all kinds of interactions between people, spanning a wide range of how we connect: from moments of confrontation to moments of working together and helping others

Social psychologists believe

an individual's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by social situations

intrapersonal topics

emotions and attitudes, the self, and social cognition(the way you talk/feel about yourself)

interpersonal topics

helping behavior, aggression, prejudice and discrimination, attraction and close relationship, and group processes and intergroup relationships(the way you talk/feel about others)

situationism

the view that our behavior and actions are determined by our immediate environment and surroundings

• Used by social psychologists

dispositionism

the view that our behavior is determined by internal factors (attribute a person such as personality traits and temperament

• favored in U.S.

• used by personality psychologists

Modern psychologists often consider both the

situation and individual

Fundamental Attribution Error

Tendency to overemphasize internal factors as explanations/attributes for the behavior of other people and underestimate the power of the situation

• People tend to fail to recognize when a person’s behavior is due to situational variables 

Quizmaster Study

Participants were randomly assigned to play the role of either the questioner or participant

Questioners developed difficult questions to which they knew the answers to

Participants answered questions correctly 4/10 times

Participants tended to disregard the influence of the situation and wrongly concluded that a questioner’s knowledge was greater than their own

Is the fundamental attribution error a universal phenomenon?

Research suggests that people from an individualistic culture have the greatest tendency to commit the fundamental attribution error

People from collectivistic cultures such as Asian cultures, are more likely to 

emphasize relationships with others than to focus primarily on the individual

Focusing on others provides a broader perspective including

both situation and cultural influences

Actor-observer Bias

Phenomenon of explaining other people’s behaviors are due to internal factors and our own behaviors are due to situational forces

We often make the fundamental attribution error because

we do not have enough information to make a situational explanation about the person’s behavior

when we explain our own behaviors

we have more information available and are more likely to make situational explanations 

Self-serving bias

Tendency of an individual to take credit by making dispositional or internal attributions for positive outcomes but situational or external attributions for negative outcomes (protects our self-esteem)

Attribution

a belief about the cause of a result

One model of attribution proposes three dimensions

Locus of control, stability, controllability

Locus of control

internal vs external

Stability

extent to which the circumstances are changeable

Controllability

extent to which the circumstances can be controlled

When our team wins we make attributions such as it’s talented (______), works hard (______), and uses effective strategies (_______)

internal, stable, controllable

When our team loses we might say the other team has more experienced players (______), the other team played at home (______), and the weather affected our teams performance (___________)

external, unstable, uncontrollable

Just World Hypothesis

belief that people get the outcomes they deserve

Based on the belief that the world is a fair place and therefore good people experience positive outcomes and bad people experience negative outcomes

Allows people to feel that the world is predictable and we have some control over life outcomes

Victim blame

A consequence of the tendency to provide dispositional explanations for behavior

People who hold just-world beliefs tend to

blame the people in poverty for their circumstances, ignoring situational and cultural causes of poverty 

social roles

A pattern of behavior that is expected of a person in a given setting or group(e.g. being a student)

Facts about social roles

• We each have several

• Defined by your culturally shared knowledge

• Behavior related to a certain one varies across situations

Social Norm

A group’s expectation of what is appropriate and acceptable behavior for its members

Script

a person’s knowledge about the sequence of events expected in a specific setting

Facts about scripts

• vary between cultures

• Important sources of information to guide behavior in situations

Who did the Stanford Prison Experiment and in what year did it take place?

Philip Zimbardo 1971

The Stanford Prison Experiment

Demonstrated the power of social roles, norms, and scripts

A mock prison was constructed and participants (male college students) were randomly assigned to play the role of prisoners or guards

In a very short amount of time the guards started to harass the prisoners in an increasingly sadistic manner

Prisoners began to show signs of severe anxiety and hopelessness

The two week study had to be ended after six days

What did social norms do in the Stanford prison expirement?

required guards to be authoritarian and prisoners to be submissive

What did scripts do in the Stanford prison experiment?

influenced the way guards degraded the prisoners by making them do push-ups and removing privacy

Attitude

Our evaluation of an object, person, or idea

Facts of attitude

• Can be positive or negative 

• Influenced by internal and external factors that we control

• Three components

Three components of attitude

affective

behavioral

cognitive

Affective component

feelings

Behavioral component

the effect of the attitude on behavior

cognitive component

belief and knowledge

Cognitive dissonance

psychological discomfort arising from holding two or more inconsistent attitudes, behaviors, or cognitions

example of cognitive dissonance

Believing cigarettes are bad for your health, but smoking cigarettes anyway

To reduce cognitive dissonance, individuals can:

• Change their behavior - quitting smoking

• Change their belief through rationalization or denial - such as discounting the evidence that smoking is harmful

• Add a new cognition - “smoking suppresses my appetite, so i don’t become overweight, which is good for my health”

Later research found on cognitive dissonance

• Only conflicting cognitions that threaten positive self-image can cause dissonance (1978)

• Dissonance can also cause physiological arousal (1983)

• Dissonance can also activate brain regions involved in emotions and cognitive functioning (2009)

The effect of initiation

Justification of effort has a distinct effect on a person liking a group

A difficult initiation into a group influences us to like the group more

Justification of effort suggests that

we value goals and achievements that we put a lot of effort into

Aronson and Mill’s Experiment (1959)

• College students volunteered to join a group that would regularly meet to discuss the psychology of sex

• 3 conditions - no initiation, easy initiation, difficult initiation 

• Students in the difficult initiation condition like the group more than the students in other conditions due to the justification of effort

• 2006 study

3 conditions of the Aronson and Mill’s Experiment

no initiation, easy initiation, difficult initiation

Persuasion

Process of changing our attitudes toward something based on some kind of communication

We are uncontrollably confronted with what everyday?

persuasion

Petty and Cacioppo (1986)

Persuasion can take one of two paths, and the durability of the end result depends on the path

Central route

• Logic driven

• Uses data and facts

• Direct route to persuasion focusing on the quality of information

• Works best when audience is analytical and willing to engage in processing of the information

Peripheral route

• Indirect route

• Uses peripheral cues to associate positivity with the message

• Uses characteristics such as positive emotion or celebrity endorsement 

• Results in less permanent attitude change

Foot-in-the-door technique

Persuader gets a person to agree to a small favor, only to later request a larger favor

Our past behavior often directs our future behavior

desire to maintain consistency

With the foot-in-the-door technique, a small request such as 

1. Wearing a campaign button can turn into a large request, such as

2. Putting campaign signs in your yard

Who came up with conformity?

Solomon Asch

Conformity

The change in a person’s behavior to go along with the group, even if he does not agree with the group

Asch’s experiment

These line segments illustrate judgement task in Asch’s conformity study

Which line on the right—a, b, or c—is the same length as line x on the left?

there was one naive subject, the rest were confederates who purposefully gave the wrong answer. 76% of participants conformed to group pressure at least once by also indicating the incorrect line

Asch effect

the influence of the group majority on an individual's judgment

What factors make a person more likely conform?

the size of the majority

the presence of another dissenter

the public or private nature of presence

The size of the majority

the greater the majority, the more likely an individual will conform

The presence of another dissenter

causes conformity rates to drop to near zero

The public or private nature of the presence

public responses cause more conformity than private

Motivation to conform 

People in crowds tend to take cues from others and act accordingly 

Normative social influence

people conform to the group norm to fit in, to feel good, and to be accepted by the group

Who discovered obedience?

Stanley Milgram

People often comply with the request because

they are concerned about a consequence if they do not comply

Stanley Milgram

a social psychology professor who taught at Yale and was influenced by the trial of Adolf Eichmann (a Nazi war criminal)

Eichmann’s defense for the atrocities he committed was

that he was “just following orders.”

Milgram’s obedience test

Milgram sought to test the validity of this response by recruiting 40 men for his own experiment. He led the participants to believe they were part of a study to improve learning and memory. He instructed them to teach students(learners) the correct answers to a series of test items. The participants were shown how to use a device that they were told delivered electric shocks to the students if they gave the wrong answer and it would help them learn. The participants believed that they gave the students shocks that increased in 15 volt increments going all the way up to 450 volts. What they didn’t know is that the students were confederates and did not actually receive the shocks. In response to wrong answers, the participants were obedient in their orders and shocked the students. The students complained, asked the teachers to stop, and even said they had heart trouble. Yet when the researcher told the participants to keep shocking the students, 65% kept shocking them at full voltage until the students became unresponsive. Several variations of this test have been done, finding that when certain features of the situation were changed, participants were less likely to continue to deliver shocks to the students. When the authority of the experimenter decreased, the obedience decreased as well. 

Martin and Bull (2008)

Midwives privately filled out a questionnaire regarding best practices and expectations in delivering a baby. Then a more senior midwife asked the junior midwives to do something they had stated before they were opposed to. Most of them were obedient despite their beliefs

Group think

the modification of the opinions of members of a group to align with what they believe is the group consensus

facts about groupthink

• Most of the time, in a group setting, people make bigger choices they wouldn’t usually make outside of a group setting

• Groupthink can hinder opposing trains of thought causing faulty decision making by the whole group

Why does groupthink occur?

• the group is highly cohesive

• the group has a strong sense of connection (maintaining group harmony may become more important to the group than making sound decisions)

• If the group leader is directive and makes his opinions known, this may discourage group members from disagreeing with the leader

• If the group is isolated from hearing alternative or new viewpoints, groupthink may be more likely

How do you know when groupthink is occurring?

• perceiving the group as invulnerable or invincible—believing it can do no wrong

• believing the group is morally correct

• self-censorship by group members, such as withholding information to avoid disrupting the group consensus

• the quashing of dissenting group members’ opinions

• the shielding of the group leader from dissenting views

• perceiving an illusion of unanimity among group members

• holding stereotypes or negative attitudes toward the out-group or others’ with differing viewpoints

How can groupthink be avoided?

• voting in private

• having the leader withhold position statements until all group members have voiced their views

• conducting research on all viewpoints

• weighing the costs and benefits of all options

• developing a contingency plan

Group Polarization

the strengthening of an original group attitude after the discussion of views within a group

Group polarization can be observed at

political conventions, when platforms of the party are supported by individuals who, when not in a group, would decline to support them

Social traps

refer to situations that arise when individuals or groups of individuals behave in ways that are not in their best interest and that may have negative, long-term consequences

Social loafing

involves a reduction in individual output on tasks where contributions are pooled(Because each individual's efforts are not evaluated, individuals can become less motivated to perform well)

social loafing could be alleviated if, among other situations, individuals knew

their work would be assessed by a manager (in a workplace setting) or instructor (in a classroom setting), or if a manager or instructor required group members to complete self-evaluations

prejudice and discrimination

Occur across the globe

prejudice

a negative attitude and feeling toward an individual based solely on ones membership in a particular social group

e.g. “I hate Yankees fans; they make me angry.”

Stereotype

a specific belief or assumption about individuals based solely on their membership in a group

e.g. “Yankees fans are arrogant and obnoxious.”

Discrimination

a negative action toward an individual as a result of one’s membership in a particular group

e.g. “I would never hire nor become friends with a person if I knew he or she were a Yankees fan.”

Why do prejudice and discrimination exist?

• Social learning

• Conformity to social norms

Racism

Prejudice and discrimination against an individual based on race

Dual Attitudes Model

• Explicit - conscious and controllable

• Implicit - unconscious and uncontrollable

Most people no longer show extreme racial bias on measures of explicit attitudes but measures of implicit attitudes often provide evidence of mild to strong racial bias/prejudice

why modern forms of racism are hard to detect

Ageism

Prejudice and discrimination toward individuals individuals based solely on their age 

• Typically against older adults

Homophobia

Prejudice and discrimination of individuals based solely on their sexual orientation

• Often results in discrimination of individuals from social groups

• Widespread in the U.S.

Sexism

Prejudice and discrimination toward individuals based on their sex

• Common examples include gender role expectations and expectations for how a gender group should behave 

• Can exist on a societal level - employment and education opportunities 

• Women now have many jobs previously close to them thought they still face challenges in male-dominated occupations

Self-fulfilling prophecy

An expectation held by a person that alters his or her behavior in a way that tends to make it true

• Stereotypes → expectations about stereotype → treat person according to our expectations → influences person to act according to stereotypical expectations → confirms our stereotypic beliefs 

Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968)

Disadvantaged students who had teachers that expected them to perform well has higher grades that disadvantaged students whose teachers expected them to do poorly

confirmation bias

Tendency to seek out information that supports our stereotypes and ignore information that is inconsistent with our stereotypes

ingroups

a group that we identify with or see ourselves as belonging to

outgroups

a group that we view as fundamentally different from us

ingroup bias

prejudice and discrimination because the outgroup is perceived as different and is less preferred than our ingroup