PSYC112 Module 4 (Social Psychology)

Rosseau on the nature of man

• man is by nature good and only institutions make him bad

• people are generally good but when everyone around them is nasty, competitive, cruel, most people will be impacted

Hobbes on the nature of man

• Man is by nature solitary, poore, nasty, and brutish

• If not for the civilising constraints of society, there would be “a war of all against all”

• We are nasty and if it weren’t for the institutions of society constraining us we would do lots of bad things

Questions asked in Social Psychology

• What theory should be used?

• What issue should be studied?

• What research methods should be used?

Cognitive Perspective

• How PERCEPTION affects behaviour

• If you interpret noxious behaviour as accidental then it is unlikely that you will respond aggressively

• If you interpret the same behaviour as deliberate then you may respond aggressively

• How we think about/interpret events affects how we feel and act 

• E.g. attribution

Learning Perspective

• Principles of reinforcement and imitation

• Observable behaviour while mostly ignoring cognition

• Responses based on prior learning

Motivational Perspective

• Emphasis on basic human needs

• We have psychological needs (e.g. to have self-esteem, acceptance, etc) 

• We have a need to be accepted and not rejected

Biological Perspective

• Evolutionary past and genetic disposition

• E.g. aggression because of aggressive genes

Cultural Perspective

• How culture affects social behaviour

Intra-personal level of analysis

• Based on what goes on inside the person

• e.g. genes

Inter-personal level of analysis

• Interactions between two people

Inter-group level of analysis

• Based on group level behaviour

• wider groups (men, women, new zealanders, etc)

Societal level

• Cultural effects on behaviours

• e.g. why is it that some societies are violent and others aren’t (what about that society encourages violence?)

Freud initially drew attention to:

• The study of the unconscious

• The developmental aspects of personality

• Talking cures

Freud’s Hobbesian perspective

• Believed that humans were naturally inclined to do bad things

• ‘seething cauldron of pleasure-seeking instincts’

• Believed that if we were left to our own devices we would just constantly be seeking pleasure wherever 

• BUT different to Hobbes: believed base instincts were sanctioned by internalising societal restraints in childhood 

  • spanking

  • then internalising social norms of right and wrong

Freud & Impulses

• Can never be completely ignored/ruled out

• Impulses can be denied but will always return and reassert themselves

• THEREFORE:

  • always conflict between society vs instincts

Components of the Unconscious

• ID

• Ego

• Superego

ID

• Most PRIMITIVE part of the psyche

• Works on pleasure and concerns basic urges:

  • eat, drink, rest, comfort, warm, kill

• The need to gain sexual pleasure

• The pleasure principle:

  • demands satisfaction IMMEDIATELY regardless of the consequences

Ego

• The reality principle

• stops ID from fulfilling its desires immediately 

• Tries to satisfy the ID pragmatically in accordance with societal norms

SUPEREGO

• Acts as a moral policeman

• Represents internalised rules of parents and society

• If rules are broken the superego metes out punishment

  • anxiety, guilt, self-reproach

• demands are powerful and unyielding

• If the moral needs are met, the impulse of the ID must be repressed (but not disappear)

• When impulses re-emerge with anxiety, defense mechanisms are brought in

Displacement (Defense Mechanism)

• Impulses are redirected into a safer course

  • e.g. going to the gym or being productive when the impulses are bad and they feel anxious/guilty

Reaction formation (Defense Mechanism)

• Original with is supplanted with the opposite

  • e.g. you desire someone and feel bad about desiring them so you start hating them instead, the homosexual erotica experiment

Projection (Defense Mechanism)

• Urges are projected onto others

  • e.g. you think you see someone smile at you but actually YOU want them

Isolation (Defense Mechanism)

• Awareness of memories but not emotions

  • e.g. experience a trauma and can remember everything but can’t access the emotions

Freud’s stages of pleasure development

• Oral stage (0-2)

  • Fulfilling desires orally

  • Putting everything in their mouth

• Anal stage (2-4)

  • Potty trained

  • Urges of the ID are satisfied when kids are moving their bowels

• Phallic (4-6)

  • Most important phase

• Latency stage (6-12)

  • Desires of ID are dormant

• genital stage (12+)

  • Ready for full adult relations

Phallic Stage (Freud) - Oedipus Complex

• Boys: OEDIPUS COMPLEx

  • Boy wants the mother sexually and so hates the father

  • Fears the father will find out and castrate him

  • Leads to CASTRATION ANXIETY

  • Problem resolved - boy gives up desire for mother

  • Boy identifies with Father in hope that he will someday enjoy an erotic partner like mother

Phallic Stage (Freud) - Electra Complex

GIRLS: ELECTRA COMPLEX

• Girl realises she does not have a penis and thinks this is a catastrophe

• Penis envy develops

• trusts her father - has the penis - in the hopes he will give her a baby as a penis substitute

• Sexual attention to father, hates mother

• Anxiety over desires - resolved by identifying with mother

Difficulties at psychosexual stages and the problems they lead to (Arrested development)

• Problems at oral stage:

  • Oral fixation, smoking, thumb-sucking

• Problems at anal stage:

  • Anal retentiveness, won’t spend money, obstinate, likes painting

• Problems at phallic stage:

  • Castration anxiety can lead to a boy becoming gay?

Problems with Freud’s research:

• Never actually studied children

• Ideas are not falsifiable

• Little experimental evidence to support ideas

Experimental Evidence for vs against Freud

• Data can be more appropriately explained through other processes

• Experiments supporting his claims are often flaws

Freud & Authoritarianism

• Claimed that children whose parents treat them harshly would redirect aggressive instincts on to others who have less power

• BUT

  • Evidence says no, it’s actually caused by observational imitation and learning

E.g. the Bobo doll study

• shows that hate and prejudice can be learned through observation NOT a function of suppressed impulses

Freud Flawed experiments (threatening words) - repression

• Freud claimed that threatening stimuli is repressed

• E.g. Bruner and Postman

  • presented threatening words (sex, fuck, & penis)

  • and non-threatening (six, brick, tennis)

  • through a tachistoscope

  • Threatening words took longer to report

  • SUPPORTS IDEA OF REPRESSION

Flaws:

• People may feel:

  • Embarrassment

  • May want to recheck their eyes

What is an Attitude?

• A positive or negative reaction towards a stimulus, such as a person, action, object, or concept

• People hold attitudes about most things (families, religion, pop culture, yourself)

• They determine how we interpret the world and influence our behaviour

3 components of Attitude

• Cognitive

  • Values and beliefs

• Affective

  • Emotional attachment to attitudes

• Behavioural

  • Behavioural intentions

The links between attitude and behaviour are not always straightforward - do attitudes predispose people to behave certain ways?

Techniques of attitude measurement

• Likert Scales

• The bogus pipeline

• Electromyography (EMG)

Likert Scale (technique of attitude measurement)

• Series of questions

• scale of ‘this’ to ‘this’

• To determine a particular trait

  • e.g. is someone a narcissist based on their responses to the statements

  • e.g. ‘I like to look at myself in the mirror’

Flaws:

• depend on honesty

  • sometimes people don’t tell the truth or give socially desireable answers

The Bogus Pipeline

• Hooked up to an apparatus

• Told that it measures minute changes in muscles

• If they believe it assesses their true opinions then they won’t see the point in lying or giving socially desirable responses

Electromyography (EMG) 

• measures activity of facial muscles

• when people experience different emotions different facial muscles move

• Measured attitudes

• Then showed videos that supported or disagreed with these attitudes

• FOUND

  • Muscles associated with happiness moved - video SUPPORTED attitudes

  • Muscles associated with anger moved - video DISAGREED with attitudes

LaPiere (1934) - racist attitude & behaviour relations

• Toured with Chinese couple

• stopped at over 50 hotels and 200 restaurants

• Only one hotel refused service

• He write to each establishment asking if a Chinese couple would be accommodated - 92% said NO

IMPLIES:
- racist attitudes do NOT predict racist behaviour

Theory of Planned Behaviour

• Whether an attitude will predict a behaviour is CONTEXT DEPENDENT

Must consider:

• When we have a positive attitude towards the behaviours

• When norms support our attitude (e.g. do social norms support me expression my attitude in this context)

• When the behaviour is under our control

THEN attitudes predict behaviour

Much support for this model (Sieverding et al., 2010)

• e.g. blood donation, exercising regularly, driving safely

Attitude Stablity

• On the whole they are relatively stable

• What we believe today is generally what we believe tomorrow

• Himmelweit (1990) - 15-year study, found that attitudes to capital punishment did NOT change

Attitude Change

• Attitudes can change

• e.g. attitudes towards Trump and America

REASONS

• Cognitive dissonance

• If the source is credible, trustworthy, attractive, and likeable

• If the message presented is quickly, long, and without hesitation

• If we are approached on sunny days or when we are happy

Cognitive Dissonance (Attitudes)

• Inconsistency between attitudes and behaviour

• Behaviour is unchangeable so we change our attitude into line with our behaviour

Evidence in Support (Knox and Inkster)

• If you place a bet you were much more confident of winning

• You can’t change that you bought it so if you believe you won’t win it will be cognitive dissonance

Emotional Appeals

• Can change attitudes quickly

• e.g. The ad trying to get catholics and protestants not to shoot each other

  • Cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon

• e.g. ads to try and get people to stop speeding

CONSENSUS: Fear works when

• The message evokes moderate to strong fear

• The message provides a feasible (low cost) way to reduce the threat

Otherwise:

• It might actually do the opposite

Attitude Resilience

• We are not completely at the mercy of those who would seek to influence us

• One way to avoid attitude change:

  • the rehearsal of counter arguments

    • e.g. McAlister et al. (1982) - to prevent teens from smoking, taught arguments like “I’d be a real chicken if I smoked just to impress you” - teens trained this way were less likely to smoke

Attribution Research

• Research tends to cluster a central proposition

  • “people’s perception of the causes of an event affects what they do and how they feel

Internal vs External Measurement of Attributions

• Heider (1958)

• Was it them or their environment?

• Generally we look for causes of success/failure either inside or outside of a person

Likert Scales

• E.g. Jane scores 95% on a maths test - what is the single most important cause of this behaviour?

Consequences of Attribution

• Relationships

  • If you attribute your partner’s negative behaviour to internal characteristics, you are more likely to get divorced or have marital stress

• Physical health

  • If you get in a car accident and think it was YOUR fault, you on average spend 30 days in the hospital instead of 20

Optimistic vs Pessimistic attribution styles

Martin Seligman - The Optimistic Child

• Pessimistic:

  • Tend to blame themselves when things went wrong

  • If they didn’t do well in the army - it’s because they weren’t good enough

• Optimistic

  • Attributes it to the fact that life is sometimes good sometimes bad and that’s the reality

  • Yes, my career in the army hasn’t been that great but that’s the nature of the army

Both had negative experiences

• pessimist referred to his own enduring bag qualities

• Optimist tended to attribute it to external factors

CONSEQUENCES:

• pessimists tended to die much earlier - poorer health between 45 and 60

Motivational Basis of Attributions

• Self-esteem 

• Control

Self-Esteem and Attribution

1. If we behave positively/succeed and attribute it to our own internal qualities = ACHIEVE and MAINTAIN self-esteem

2. If we behave negatively/fail and we attribute it to internal qualities = DECREASE in self-esteem

Attribution and Control

• Attributions can enhance control

  • If we attribute our successes to our internal characteristics, we may believe we are in control

Not always positive:

• Victim Blame

  • Rape, AIDS victims, Cancer patients

  • People derogate victims of negative events as a way to feel like they are in control

Intra-personal Level of analysis (Attribution)

• The criteria by which individuals analyse information and come to make an attribution

• The assumption that we will act calmly and rationally and analyse people’s behaviour before making an attribution

Major theories:

• Correspondence Inference

• Covariation and Configuration

Kelley (1967) - Attribution Intra-personal Analysis

• Mr Brown’s hostility

• Information can be derived from sources indication

Consistency 

• If Mr Brown is always hostile to you

Consensus

• If other people are normally hostile to you

Distinctiveness

• If Mr Brown tends to be hostile to other people

Interpersonal Level of analysis (Attribution)

• Face to face attributions

• Attributions NOT seen as rational

Two major types of effect

• Actor Observe Effect

• Self-Serving Bias

The Actor-Observer Effect

• People tend to attribute the cause of their own actions to EXTERNAL factors

• Tend to attribute the cause of others actions to INTERNAL causes

The Self-Serving Bias

• People take credit for their successes but not their failures

Inter-group Level Analysis (Attribution)

• Examining the way in which the members of different groups explain behaviour

Hunter et al., 1991, 1994

• How Catholics and Protestants explained instances of Catholic and Protestant violence

Results of Catholic vs Protestant Violence Study

Protestants:

• Explaining Protestant violence

  • EXTERNAL attributions

  • Said that they attacked because of the previous murder of the two army corporals

• Explaining Catholic violence

  • INTERNAL attributions

  • E.g. they acted like animals, sick people, thirsty for blood, they like to kill

Catholics:

• Explaining Catholic violence

  • EXTERNAL attributions

  • People were frightened and feared another attack so pre-empted it

• Explaining Protestant violence

  • INTERNAL attributions

  • a murdering bastard, hates Catholics, motive was hatred

Societal Level Analysis (Attribution)

Miller (1984)

• Western vs Non-Western cultures

• Western cultures favour DISPOSITIONAL attributional explanations (internal)

• Non-western cultures favour ENVIRONMENTAL (External) attributional explanations

Proximity & Propinquity

McKnight (1994)

• Australian sample

• 83% of people met their ‘special partner’ in a familiar social setting

• 6% in a casual social setting

Byrne

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

The Exposure Effect - Proximity Attraction

Zajonc

• Repeated exposure to stimulus makes it more appeaking

• The more people are exposed to faces, photos, languages, and tunes the more they like them

Mita et al. (1977) Exposure Effect Experiment

• If the exposure effect is true, then we should prefer photos of our facial images as we see them in a mirror (reversed photo image)

• And our friends will prefer a normal photo of our faces

RESULTS

• supports hypothesis

• 70% of people prefer mirror image

• 70% of friends prefer the normal photo image

Reis (1997) - Proximity doesn’t always work

• Personality differences

• Conflicts of interest

• Value differences

• Status differentials

All lead to antagonism

If the initial interaction is negative and this experience is reinforced then dislike will occur

Emotional Arousal

• People who are emotionally aroused rate others as more attractive

White et al. (1981)

• men who ran on the spot rated women as being more attractive

Dutton & Aaron (1974)

• People expecting electric shocks rated members of the opposite sex as more attractive

Dutton & Aaron bridge crossing study (Emotional Arousal & Attraction)

• men crossed a deep ravine on a narrow rope bridge OR a river on a sturdy bridge

• Met by a female experimenter

• Asked to complete an ambiguous story about a woman and then invited to phone up if they wanted to know more about the study

• Those who crossed the ravine on the narrow bridge were more likely to phone up and ask for a date

Physical Attractiveness

• Attractiveness is important in relationships

• But people generally won’t admit it

Wakil et al. (1973) men vs women desirable traits

• Out of 32 desirable traits for a partner

  • Men rankes physical appearance 12th

  • Women ranked it 22nd

Green, Buchanan, & Heuer (1984) - physical attractiveness

• Analysed computer dating services sing photo matching

FOUND:

• For both sexes, physical attractiveness was the major determining factor of date choice

Walster et al - Blind dating observer attractiveness study

• A dance was used to assess student’s reactions to their partners on a blind date

• Tests that measured scholastic ability, personality, and attitudes were presented to all

• INDEPENDENT observers (didn’t know anything about the people) rated the daters on attractiveness

RESULTS:

• The more attractive you were rated by the observer, the more you were liked by your date

Gender differences in Attractiveness

• Men

  • both heterosexual and gay men focused on the physical attractiveness of potential partners

• Women

  • Both heterosexual and lesbian tended to focus on the psychological characteristics

Whipple (2018) - Attractiveness study, approaching people randomly

• 90% of men when approached by an attractive woman would agree to sex

• Only 10% of women when approached by an attractive man would agree to sex

Benefits to Attractiveness

• Adults are less aggressive to attractive children

• More likely to be hired for jobs

• Students are more likely to be given better grades

Ravin & Rubin (1983) - Emergency unit decision-making processes

• studied how emergency rooms decides whether they will try and save you if you are DOA (dead on arrival)

• If they are more attractive, there is more of an attempt to save them

Attractive Features

Facial features

• Men prefer:

  • Childlike profile, big eyes, small nose and chin

• Women prefer:

  • expression of dominance, small eyes, square jaw, thrusting chin

Torso

• Men prefer:

  • Medium bust, hips, waist, and bottom

• Women prefer:

  • V shapen man, broad shoulders which tapers into small bottom

Age and height

• Men prefer:

  • younger, smaller women

• Women prefer:

  • older, taller men

Cultural effects on Beauty

• Ingleby (1981)

  • Fat and diseased babies by western standards are considered beautiful in different cultures

The Ainu of Japan, Chukchi of Siberia, Thonga of Mozambique

• Different cultures have different beauty standards

Similarity & Attractiveness

• Studies show we tend to be attracted to people who look similar to us

• Most important determinants are:

  • similarity of attitudes, values, and activities

Kandel (1978)

• best friends at high school resemble each other in age, race, and academic grades

Craddock (1990)

• Married couple who shared the same egalitarian or religious beliefs were a lot happier

Divorce rates & gendered differences in ending relationships

• Divorce rate is 1 in 3

Gendered differences

• Women often initiate the end of relationships

• Women may feel more distressed in conflicted relationships

• Women are better through: divorce, separation, and widowhood

Loneliness

• Lonely people can sometimes feel distressed, bored, and even depressed

• One effective way of coping is to make something valuable out of the solitude e.g. A hobby, work, studying

• Rejection causes pain, low self-esteem, aggression

Social Facilitation

• How the physical presence of others influences our behaviour

• We are more likely to laugh if others laugh

• The larger the crowd the more we eat

• Cockroaches run faster in the presence of other cockroached

Presence of others can have Detrimental Effects

• Schmitt (1986)

  • Participants completed simple and complex tasks (typing name in a keyboard forwards and backwards)

RESULTS

• When others were present:

  • Simple task ability improved

  • Complex task ability decreased

Drive Theory of Facilitation

• The presence of others leads to increased arousal

• Arousal strengthens the display of our dominant response

• Performance is ENHANCED if our dominant response is APPROPRIATE

• Performance is IMPAIRED if our dominant response is INAPPROPRIATE

E.g. if you have practiced something so much it becomes an automatic/dominant response then you will perform better if people are watching you, the opposite if you are unpracticed

Michaels et al. (1982) - Pool Player’s with vs without Audience

• The accuracy of GOOD players INCREASED from 71% to 80%

• The accuracy of POOR players DECREASED from 35% to 25%

Diffusion of responsibility

The idea that as group size increases individual responsibility decreases

Kitty Genovese

• struggled with her killer for 30 minutes

• the struggle was reportedly watched by 38 of her neighbours

• None helped or phoned the police

Latane and Darley - Diffusion of Responsibility (waiting room)

• Participants along and sit in a waiting room on the pretext of taking part in a laboratory

• Smoke cam out of a vent

• 75% of those waiting alone reacted immediately 

• Less than 1% of those waiting with others reacted

Deindividuation

• Presence of other people can have bizarre or negative effects

• When people are surrounded by others they lose self-awareness and begin to feel anonymous

• When aroused the loss in self-awareness works to disinhibit those impulses which are normally kept under check

• The impulses that are released depend on the situation

Mann (1981) 

• Discusses instances where a potential suicide victim is abused and taunted

Self-Awareness and Deindividuation & Anti-Social behaviour

• DECREASE in self-awareness leads to an increase in anti-social behaviour

Beaman et al., (1979)

• Mirror task with Halloween candy

• 34% took extra sweets

• only 12% of those with the mirror took extra sweets

Conformity

• The extent to which we will do the same thing that others around us are doing even if we know it isn’t right?

Solomon Asch - line experiment

• Participants had to guess which line was equal to another

• Preferences were given out loud

• Confederates were told to say the wrong one confidently, they went first

RESULTS

• 75% went along with majority even though it was incorrect

Influence can actually Change Beliefs

• Newcomb looked at social and political attitudes at a small liberal college in the US

• College students from a conservative background

• By the time they had left, they adapted to the liberal ethos of the college

Stanford Prison Experiment - who, when, where

• Philip Zimbardo

• Early 70s

• Basement of Stanford University’s Psychology Department

Stanford Prison Experiment - Aim/Interest

• To examine how social rules affect individual behaviour

• Those who became a guard or a prisoner

Stanford Prison Experiment - Participants & Recruitment

• 75 participants

• male college students

• Tested to ensure they were:

  • mature, emotionally stable, normal, intelligent

• 24 chosen - ‘cream of crop’ of generation

• Randomly assigned to guards or prisoner

Stanford Prison Experiment - Beginning & setting the scene

• Prisoners arrested by police officers

• fingerprinted, blindfolded, stripped, taken to cell

• Small cells - 6×9 feet, held 3 people

• PRISONERS OUTFITS

  • Wore chains on one ankle, smocks no underwear, rubber sandals, cap from nylon stockings, given prison numbers

• GUARD OUTFITS

  • khaki uniforms, reflective sunglasses, whistle, night stick

  • referred to as “mr correctional officer”

• Zimbardo

  • prison superintendent

• Jaffe (student)

  • Assistant warden

Stanford Prison Experiment - PHASE 1

• Settling in period

• Guards and prisoners not fully into their roles

• guards

  • awkward and uncomfortable with their roles

• prisoners

  • didn’t take subordinate position seriously - made fun of the guards

Stanford Prison Experiment - PHASE 2

• Guards took positions of authority more seriously

• One participant thrown into the hole (punishment cell - 2×7 close

• Led to a shared sense of grievance amongst the prisoners

  • swore at the guards, refused to follow orders, barricaded themselves into cells

• One claimed “time for REVOLUTION had come”

Stanford Prison Experiment - PHASE 3

• Guards became galvanised (shocked into action)

  • Called for reinforcement

  • Broke into barricaded cell, stripped prisoners naked and forced ring leader into the hole

  • Harrassed and intimidated prisoners

  • Tried to split the prisoners via divide and rule

  • Those not in the rebellion given special privileges

• Next 4 days - guards became increasingly brutal, roll calls lasted hours

• prisoners were taunted, humiliated, made to do push ups, clean toilets with bare hands, play homoerotic games

• One suffered an emotional breakdown

Stanford Prison Experiment - shut down after 6 days

• Guards and prisoners succumbed to roles as did Zimbardo

• Human values suspended, the ugliest side of human nature was exposed

• boys treating other boys like animals and dehumanising them

• Zimbardo began to behave like an authority figure

  • succumbed to the power

Stanford Prison Experiment - The influence

• Cited thousands of times, website visited a lot still today

The study suggests:

• ordinary people can be transformed by their immediate context to perform brutal acts

Browning (1992) Book: Ordinary Men: Reserve Battalion 101

• How ordinary men succumbed to a system that was alone a sufficient condition to produce the murder of 38,000 Jews in WWII

Instances of this in the real world:

• torture of prisoners in Abu Gharib (Baghdad)

• Naru detention centre assaults

• Police violence in the US

Stanford Prison Experiment - Critiques

• Zimbardo created a ‘script of terror’

  • encouraged the guards to heavily control them and create fear

  • Told them not to call the prisoners by name and create powerlessness

  • Suggested types of punishments

  • Didn’t intervene when the guards did anything, therefore signalling to the guards that they were doing the right thing

Therefore, can he really claim that anything was natural or human instinct?

• Characteristics of the participants

  • Carnahan and Macfarland (2007) investigate what type of people the participants were

  • Compared personality profiles

  • Those who agreed to take part were more

    • Authoritarian, Machiavellian, Narcissistic, and Socially Dominant

    • Less Empathetic and Altruistic

Stanford Prison Experiment - Actual Statistics on Guard Sadism

• Only 1/3rd of guards became sadistic

• 1/3rd kind, other 1/3rd fair, one resigned because he couldn’t go through with it

• Audio recordings suggest some guards saw themselves as research assistants