Social Psychology - Exam 1

Social Psychology

The study of how the actual, implied, and imagined presence of others influences our thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

Social beings

Humans are _____ _____.

We have NEEDS that make us susceptible to social influence:

• Belongingness

• Understanding

• Control

• Self-Enhancement

• Trust

• Recognition

Understanding

Control

Self-Enhancement

Trust

As humans (social beings) have NEEDS that make us susceptible to social influence:

Belongingness

U_______

C_______

S___-________

T____

Recognition

Social Influence

All of the ways that people impact one another.

(how to dress, think, act, feel, etc.)

Behave, Think, Feel [Emotion]

Social Psychology is the study of the presence of others impacts how we...

1. _____

2. _____

3. _____

Example of “Presence” of Others: Actual

• People/peers are physically present

• Alcohol consumption increases when we are around other people drinking

• Peer pressure

Example of “Presence” of Others: Implied

• Suggesting that there are actual people there

• Social Artifacts (like traffic lights)

• Students cheat less when eyes are drawn on the board

• Would you stop at a traffic light at 3 a.m.?

Example of “Presence” of Others: Imagined

• Nothing suggesting, but you are thinking “what if ___ [someone] was here…”

• Imagine yourself getting dressed in the morning...

• Ever been mad at someone after an argument you had in

  your head?

Social Artifacts

aids in IMPLIED presence

_____ ______ (human-made objects) imply the interests/presence of others

• Traffic lights, instructional signs, etc.

True

True or False: As social beings, we humans monitor our behavior based against the imagined reactions of others

SITUATION

for the average person, the #1 influence/DETERMINANT of a person’s behavior is the _______ (not traits/personality, memories, biology, etc.)

response; personality

Behavior is often a _______ to the situation,

NOT an individual’s _______

Kurt Lewin’s Framework

B = f(P, E)

behavior (B) is a function (f) of the person (P) and the environment (E), expressed as B = f(P, E).

Kurt Lewin’s Framework: Personal

Traits/Personality

Memories

Biology

Kurt Lewin’s Framework: Situational

Environment

Emotions

Sleep

Motivators

The Two Axioms of Social Psychology

Basic Principles of Social Psychology: Constructivism and Situationism

Axiom of Social Psychology: Constructivism

• Our view of reality is created by our perception (this means we each “construct” our own view of reality based on past experiences, emotion, personality, beliefs, etc.)

• Shaped by cognitive and social processes

• There is no “objective” reality

Axiom of Social Psychology: Situationism

• The primary determinant of behavior is the social context in which it occurs

• Influenced by social roles

• We are often not aware of these pressures

What types of cognition impact our perception? (Constructivism)

• Bias (ethnic, racial, gender, and also ANY preformed beliefs that we have about ANYTHING!!)

• Past learning (as we go through life we experience things that influence our perception of how the world works)

• Representativeness

• Social Processes influences by this:

• Social norms

• Perceived views of other people

Social Information

Besides our cognition (how our minds process information) our perception is shaped by the presence of others

• We use others’ reactions as _____ _____

• We use this _____ ________ to help understand the situation and make decisions (especially if we don’t know how to react)

Naïve Realism

(unawarely) believing that we see the world as it “really is” RATHER than being influenced by past learning

Experience is based on unconscious past learning, current motives, emotional states, and current experiences

Social Roles

Situationism is influenced by ______

Stanford Prison Experiment

Example of Situationism (Developed by Philip Zimbardo)

Designed to examine why prisons become abusive, degrading, violent environments

■ 24 participants recruited via newspaper for “study of prison life”

■ Participants assigned roles as guard or prisoner

controversial

The Stanford Prison Experiment (an example of Situationism) is ______ for many reasons

■ Ethics... obviously

■ Experimenter bias

■ Demand characteristics

Social Roles

The primary determinant of social behavior is the nature of the social

situation in which the behavior takes place

• _____ _____ : defined patterns of behavior that are expected of people in a specific setting or group

• Often implicit – known without anyone telling us about them

• Often unaware of the impact

Reicher; Haslam

The original Stanford Prison Experiment has been criticized for a number of potential methodological issues (read “Debunking the Stanford Prison Experiment” by Letexier for more)

● ____ & ____ (2006) attempted to replicate the Stanford Prison Experiment

○ The guards in their study did not adopt their roles

○ Prisoners eventually revolted, and a “fair” system was established

○ However, two days later, participants re-organized into an even stricter guard/prisoner hierarchy

Strong Situation Hypothesis

Not all situations are of equal STRENGTH!

_____ ____ _____ is the extent to which a situation influences behavior depends on the strength of the situation

○ Strong situation = situation influences behavior (will have a bigger influence)

○ Weak situation = personality/individual differences influence behavior (less of an influence)

Social Cognition

How people select, remember, and use social information to make judgements (attitudes towards other people) and decisions (how to behave in a social setting)

Automatic; High Effort

What are the two types of thinking?

A_____ and H___ E_______

Two Types of Thinking: Automatic

One of the two types of thinking:

• Quick

• Lower conscious awareness

• Based on past learning

ex: making the decision to stop at a stop sign is for most people an automatic thought; anything you have muscle memory for (sports, cooking, etc.)

Two Types of Thinking: High Effort

One of the two types of thinking:

• Slow and Deliberate cognitive processing

• Higher level of CONSCIOUSNESS

• Based on logic (maybe)

Systems of Cognition

The Experiential System and the The Cognitive System are the ….

• These systems operate relatively independently of one another

• Depending on the individual and the circumstances—one or the other system might “take control”

Systems of Cognition: The Cognitive System

Conscious, rational, and controlled way of thinking

Systems of Cognition: The Experiential System

Unconscious, intuitive, and automatic way of thinking; we tend to use this way of thinking MORE in our daily lives

We want to size up situations quickly:

• Who/what is there?

• What is happening?

• What might happen next?

• Often, our conclusions are CORRECT

• Using the cognitive system for the majority of social interaction and action would be exhausting and inefficient

Automatic

Our brains are lazy!

• We are cognitive misers driven to reduce the utilization of cognitive energy and preserve it for emergencies, so we prefer _____ thinking.

• we are always making assumptions

BOTH

Why do we seem to prioritize efficiency?

• Evolutionary origin: hunter/gatherer societies

• Automatic processes were more advantageous in many situations.

• However, to survive, one needed to evolve _____ systems of thought (Tomlin, Rand, Ludvig, & Cohen, 2015). This is still true in modern day.

Automatic Thinking

Thought that is:

• Nonconscious

• Unintentional

• Involuntary (we do not have control over the thoughts that immediately pop into our head)

• Effortless

Has one or more:

• Lack of awareness

• Lack of conscious intent

• Lack of control

• Efficiency

_____ _______ dominates much of our mental lives

• The automatized routines are adaptive

• Accomplish goals with little effort

consciously; external stimuli

We can determine if thinking is AUTOMATIC if it is:

1) Not ______ initiated

2) determined by ____ _____ (seeing something, hearing something, etc.)

time; effort

Automatic thinking requires very little ____ and ____

• Can operate when rushed, multitasking, or distracted

True

True or False:

Automatic thinking can operate when rushed, multitasking, or distracted

False

True or False:

Automatic thinking is easy to control.

True

True or False: Most of our perception of people happens automatically

Preference

________ as Automatic Thought:

• How do we decide we like one person more than another?

• Genetics?

• Learned association?

• Transferred associations?

True

True or False: We naturally group information about the same subject together in our minds

Assimilation (Categorization)

_______(______): Placing new experiences into

existing categories

• _______ is automatic and non-conscious

• These ______ are called schemas (or schemata)

Schemas

Automatic thoughts help us understand new situations based on prior experiences

categorized organization of knowledge by themes

• Mental representation of past experiences in memory

• Impact what we think, notice, and remember

_____ include our knowledge about many things—

• Ourselves (self-_____)

• Other people

• Social roles

• Specific events

• And so on and so forth…

Why Do We Need Schemas?

• Reduce ambiguity and fill gaps in our knowledge

• Without schemas everything we encounter would

be new

• Especially relied on when we have no other point of

reference/previous experience

• Help us to anticipate what to expect from other

people/social situations

schema

Over time, the content of a ______ can be influenced and alter our memories

• What’s the most famous line in Star Wars?

  • “Luke, I am your father.” — when that was never said

The Mandela Effect

Sometimes called ___ ____ _____ when it occurs on a large

scale:

• “Beam me up, Scotty/Scotty, beam me up.” – Star Trek

• “Play it again, Sam.” – Casablanca

• “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.” – Jaws

• It’s our expectations - our schemas - about these events that

shape how we remember them

Accessibility

What dictates which schema we use when?

Accessibility

The extent to which a schema is in the forefront of our minds, ready for use;

Salience

• Two types:

• 1)Chronic

• 2)Temporal

Salience

Two types:

1)Chronic

2)Temporal

Chronic Access

Salience due to repeated experiences

• Constantly activated because of experience

• Always ready to be used

Examples of Chronic Access

Examples:

• Trauma

• Self-Efficacy schema

• Gender role schemas

Temporal Access

Salience due to recent experience or thoughts

Examples of Temporal Access

Saw a car accident on the way to work, now I’m seeing bad drivers everywhere

• Noticing symptoms of a disorder you’ve been studying in people

• Seeing strong people everywhere once you start lifting

Priming

using recent experiences to increase the accendibility of a

schema, trait, or concept

____ is automatic though – it occurs quickly, unintentionally, and

unconsciously

Temporal

Is priming temporal or chronic

Attitudes

• an evaluation of something along a positive - negative dimension

• have multiple components and can be measured multiple ways

Attitudes are…

Affective

Behavioral

Cognitive

Affect

emotions, moods, and “feelings”

Affective

Attitudes have an ______ component:

 How much we like or dislike something

 The emotion(s) it creates

Behaviors

• Attitudes also affect our _______, or

  how we act

Approach

*from Attitudes and Behavior lecture

We _______ things we find rewarding (or have positive attitudes toward)

Avoid

*from Attitudes and Behavior lecture

We _____ things we find punishing (or have negative attitudes toward)

Cognition

Attitude also involves ______

_____:

Current thoughts

Knowledge and beliefs about something

Associated memories and images we have about something

Likert Scale

Measuring Attitudes:

Usually assessed via self-reports, such as _____ ____

 ____ ______:

 Scale measuring response to a statement with a positive

and negative pole

 Scale points are often tied to a number

degree

Likert Scales attempt to gauge the _____ of each

attitudinal component.

Likert Scales - Weakness

Likert scales don’t do well with complex attitudes

 How much do you value freedom?

 How strongly do you feel about the need to reduce discrimination?

 How important is a less polluted environment?

Most responses would be positive... but there is nuance to these attitudes

Accessibility

How much a concept is at the forefront of your mind

example:

How much did you enjoy Superman? (response time)

Subject A: 660 milliseconds

Subject B: 10 Seconds

 May indicate strength of attitude

Response latency

the amount of time it takes to respond to a stimulus (related to accessibility)

Centrality

Another way to assess attitude strength is _____, how important an attitude is to a person

Measuring Attitude Centrality

• Measure a variety of related attitudes

• Calculate how strongly they are related to each other

Example:

To measure your attitudes about Star Wars...

• What is your opinion of...?:

  • Science Fiction

  • The Mandalorian

  • George Lucas

RELATED

With Attitude Centrality, Highly central attitudes should

correlate with attitudes about ______ issues. Probably not to unrelated issues, e.g., “How do you feel about Romantic

Comedies?” or “How do you feel about Donald Trump?”

Explicit

When Attitudes Aren’t ______

• People may be unwilling/unable to report true feelings and

• opinions

• “How do you feel about underage drinking?”

• Oct. 2016 - “How do you feel about Donald Trump?”

• Jan. 1998 - “How do you feel about Bill Clinton?”

Implicit Attitude

Non-conscious attitude

NOTE: Research on implicit attitudes is somewhat controversial

• Theoretically, implicit attitudes may impact our behavior without us being aware of it

• Measuring implicit attitudes may be even more useful than measuring explicit attitudes

  • E.g.: Explicit vs. implicit racism

Implicit Attitude Measures

We use _____ ______ _______: indirect measures of

attitudes that do not involve a self-report

Why is this necessary?

• I may not actually know that I like Foo Fighters

• I may think liking Foo Fighters is uncool, so hide it

Implicit Attitude Test

Measures strength of associations between concepts (e.g.,

black people, white people) and evaluations (e.g., good, bad)

• Theory: making a response is easier when closely related items share the same response key

• You must quickly sort words into categories that are on the left and right hand side of the computer screen

Nonverbal Measures

Actions like smiling and degree of physical closeness can also

reveal attitudes being positive or negative

• Example: How close do you sit to the confederate?

False; Research shows that this is NOT necessarily the

case

True or False: If we know your attitude about something, we should

be able to predict your behavior toward it

LaPiere

Who Conducted this study in 1934?

Strong Anti-Chinese prejudice in the U.S. at the time

• He travelled to 66 hotels and 184 restaurants with a young

• Chinese-American couple

• Only refused service once

• 6 months later, 92% of those responding said they wouldn’t accept guests of Chinese descent

Why Attitudes Don’t Predict Behavior

People may not be aware of what their true attitudes are –

or at least WHY they feel as they do

• Remember implicit attitudes?

Even when people have a clear attitude, other attitudes

may conflict with their behavior

• Ex: “I hate Chinese-Americans!”

• “But... I like money, and they are paying.”

• “But... I think we should be civil to everyone.”

• “But... I know this attitude won’t be received well.”

Specificity

Correlation: r = .30 (modest correlation)

 Certain factors inform when an attitude predicts behavior:

 Accessibility: The higher the accessibility, the more the attitude

predicts behavior

 ________: are the attitude and the behavior at the same level of

______?

Example of Measuring Attitudes

Birth Control Example

True

True or False: Behavior can have a strong influence on attitudes

Cognitive Consistency Theories

Humans justify/rationalize behavior to minimize inconsistencies between thoughts and actions

Cognitive Dissonance

An unpleasant state that arises when a person recognizes the inconsistency between his or her actions and his or her attitudes or beliefs

Cognitive Dissonance: How it works

1. We witness an inconsistency between beliefs/thoughts and actions

2. This inconsistency creates an unpleasant emotion, which we want to get rid of

3. We thus change our attitude to be consistent with our behavior

Cognitive Dissonance Also Occurs When:

1. We’re forced to make a hard decision, with both positive and negative features

2. This in turn triggers emotional distress: dissonance

3. Which in turn triggers a process of rationalization

4. Our attitudes are changed to make us more comfortable with our decisions

Rationalization

Cognitive dissonance occurs when we’re forced to make a hard decision, with both positive and negative features. This in turn triggers emotional distress: dissonance. Which in turn triggers a process of __________

Before; After

Rationalization occurs both _____ and _____ a decision

negatives; consequences

When Does Rationalization Occur?

• Before—rationalizing ______ to help choose a preference

• After—rationalizing ______ to feel good about decision

Effort Justification

Tendency to reduce dissonance by justifying the time, effort, or money devoted to something that turned out to be unpleasant or disappointing

Examples of Effort Justification

”It’s not so bad!” is seen in many contexts:

• Car ownership – Sunk Cost Fallacy (ex: dating someone for 8 months and not wanting to break up with them even if it doesn’t benefit you, so you date them for a longer time)

• Preference for major (lying to yourself about enjoying your major)

• Friendships (similar to dating example)

• Basic Training

Forced Compliance

Also known as Induced Compliance;

Compelling someone to behave in a manner that is inconsistent with their beliefs, attitudes, or values.

If forced, we tend to act as if we’d wanted to do it all along

Festinger and Carlsmith

This study from 1959 is an example of Forced Compliance in play (if I compell someone to behave a certain way, under what circumstances will that make you do what I wanted you to do all along)

The participants had to think: Why am I telling these people they will like the activity?

• Money OR Actual enjoyment

smallest

The Implication of the Festinger and Carlsmith experiment:

When trying to change someone’s attitude... use the _______ amount of incentive or coercion necessary

• Reward too substantial = won’t change the

underlying attitude

• Reward BARELY sufficient = better chance of

changing attitudes

Forced Compliance

We can extinguish unwanted behavior using ____ _______

• “The Forbidden Toy” – Don’t play with this awesome toy

• Severe punishment: “very angry”...”take all the toys and go home and never come back”

• Mild punishment: “very annoyed”

• Severe punishment: did not change their rating of the toy.

• Mild punishment: liked the toy a lot less

Ourselves

When Does Inconsistency = Dissonance?

When it challenges how we view _______

Example of Inconsistency causing Cognitive Dissonance

• When is self-image challenged?

• Imagine you ask a friend for help with homework, but she says no. How harshly would you judge her?

Probably depends on several factors...

• Did she have a choice?

• Could she justify her actions?

• Were there negative consequences to you?

• Could she foresee the harm?

• This is how you evaluate your own behavior!

Another Example: if there is something you value in expressing yourself in your physical appearance (i.e. like a very colorful hair color) but it is not the “accepted” hair color