Chapter 13: Social Psychology

Social Psychology

* The study of how individual or group behaviour is influenced by the presence and behaviour of others

Attributions

* Judgements about the causes of our own and other people’s behaviour and outcomes

Personal Attributions

* Internal
* Infers the person’s behaviour is caused by their characteristics
* Judging the cause of behaviour because its who they are

Situational Attributions

* External
* Infers aspects of the situation cause a behaviour
* Judging behaviour based on the context of the situation

Kelley’s Covariation Model

* An attribution theory in which people make causal inferences to explain why other people and ourselves behave in a certain way.
* It is concerned with both social perception and self-perception

Consistency

* Kelley’s Covariation Model
* Is the behaviour seen across time in the present situation?
* Stability
* High = stable
* Low = Unstable

Distinctiveness

* Kelley’s Covariation Model
* Does the behaviour occur across situations?
* High = external
* Low = internal

Consensus

* Kelley’s Covariation Model
* Do other people behave this way?
* High = external
* Low = internal

Fundamental Attribution Bias

* A tendency to underestimate the impact of the situation and overestimate the role of personal factors and underestimate situational factors when explaining other people’s behaviour
* Focus on the “target object”
* Intuitive and immediate reactions
* Higher in western culture
* ex: self-serving bias

Salience

* Determines which information will most likely grab one’s attention and have the greatest influence on one’s perception of the world
* information or perceptual

Self-Serving Bias

* The tendency to make relatively more personal attributions for success and situational attributions for failure
* Not seen in collectivist cultures

Self-Serving Bias for depressed Individuals

* Tend to make personal attributions toward failure and situational attributions towards success

Attitude

* A positive or negative evaluative reaction toward a stimulus
* Form our identity and our social perceptions
* MAY influence behaviour but not always
* Generally predict behaviour

When Attitudes best predict our behaviour

* Counteracting situational forces are weak
* When we are aware of our attitudes and they are strongly held
* General/specific __ are better at predicting general/specific classes of behaviour

Theory of Planned Behaviour

* The view that our intention to engage in a behaviour is strongest when we have a positive attitude toward that behaviour
* When subjective norms (our perceptions of what other people think we should do) support our attitudes, and when we believe that the behaviour is under our control

Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

* The relationship between attitudes and behaviour can be bidirectional
* The theory is that people strive to maintain consistency in their beliefs and actions and that inconsistency creates dissonance
* Unpleasant arousal that motivates people to restore balance by changing their cognitions

Counter Attitudinal Behaviour

* Behavior that is inconsistent with an attitude

When Cognitive Dissonance Occurs

* When counter attitudinal behaviour is:
* Freely chosen
* Threatens our self worth
* Produces foreseeable negative consequences

Reducing Cognative Dissonance

* Add or revise a cognition
* Trivialize/rationalize our attitude or behaviour
* Find an external justification
* Make excuses

Self-Perception Theory

* The theory is that we make inferences about our own attitudes by observing how we behave
* effect of behaviour on attitude does not occur due to dissonance
* Best explains attitudinal changes when initial attitudes are weak and self-worth is not threatened

Forming Impressions

* Making quick and snappy judgements about another person
* Early information can influence a mental set that influences our perceptions

Primacy Effect

* The tendency to attach MORE importance to the INITIAL formation that we learn about
* Making an impression based on the first thing we see

Reducing Primacy Effect

* Need to carefully consider our judgements or our motivations to make more accurate judgements

Recency Effect

* Giving more importance to the recent information
* Weighing different information equally

Mental Set

* A readiness to perceive the world in a particular way
* Based on schemas

Schemas

* A pattern of thought or behaviour that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them.

Stereotype

* Generalized belief about a group or category of people
* Powerful schemas that influence social knowledge and behaviour

Self-Fulfilling Propchecy

* When people’s erroneous expectations lead them to act in a way that brings out the expected behaviours, thereby confirming the original impression

Social Influence

* Any change in an individual’s thoughts, feelings or behaviours caused by other people, who may be actually present or whose presence is imagined, expected or implied
* Can be real or fictional

Persuasion

* An active attempt by one person to change another person’s attitudes, beliefs, or emotions associated with some issue, person, concept or object

Effectiveness of Persuasion

* Communicator
* Message
* Channel
* Audience
* Surrounding context
* Attractive
* Likability
* Similarity

Communicator Credibility

* How credible the communicator is
* Are they an expert in what they are saying
* More effective if they are an expert
* Expertise and trustworthiness

Two-Sided Refutational

* Bringing up and addressing the counter-argument in your own argument
* refuting the opposite side
* Highlight the weakness of the counterargument

Fear Appeals

* Work best when it evokes moderate fear and provides people with effective ways to reduce the threat
* Only at a specific level

Central Route to Persuasion

* This occurs when people think carefully about a message and are influenced because they find the arguments compelling
* Uses logic and reason
* MORE EFFECTIVE FOR HIGHER COGNITION

Peripheral Route to Persuasion

* Occurs when people do not scrutinize a message and are influenced mostly by other factors, such as a speaker’s attractiveness or a message’s emotional appeal
* Superficial aspects

Social Facilitation

* An increased tendency to perform one’s dominant response in the mere presence of others
* One of the first conceptual studies in social psychology
* Performing better when in a group than alone
* Can also impair performance

Triplett Study

* Cyclists speeds
* individuals will perform differently based upon the presence of observers.
* Specifically, individuals tend to perform better on easy or well-rehearsed tasks and worse on complex tasks or new ones.

Social Inhibition

* Decrease in performance when in the presence of others
* Dominant response in incorrect = decrease in performance

Zajonc Drive Theory of Social Facilitation

* The mere presence of others produces increments in levels of arousal.
* Arousal, in turn, enhances the frequency of dominant responses
* Having an optimal level of arousal

Social Norms

* Shared expectations about how people should think, feel and behave
* Can be unspoken laws or rules
* Enforced through socialization

Social Role

* A set of norms that characterize how people in a given social position ought to behave
* Impact how we think and behave
* Role conflict when the norms of the different role are incompatible

Culture and Norm Formation

* Different groups put together can create new norms in a specific context

Conformity

* The adjustment of one’s opinions, judgements, or actions so that they become more consistent with the options, judgements or actions of other people or the normative standards of a social group or situation

Outward Conformity

* Compliance
* Doing what is expected

Inward Conformity

* Conversion
* Change in beliefs

Informal Social Influence

* Following the opinions or behaviour of other people because we believe they have accurate knowledge and what they are doing is right
* Observation
* Using others behaviours as a way to act

Normative Social Influence

* Conformity is motivated by gaining social acceptance and avoiding social rejection
* Avoiding punishment

Asch’s Conformity Study

* Subject to social desirability bias
* People changed their answered based on the answers of others (even if it was wrong)

Factors that Affect Conformity

* Group size increases conformity but only to a certain point
* The presence of a dissenter reduces conformity
* Conformity decreases with more certainty and higher cost

Obedience

* Behaviour in compliance with a direct command, often one issued by a person with a position of authority
* “good soldiers follow orders”

Milgram Obedience Studies

* Explored the willingness of individuals to follow the orders of authorities when those orders conflict with the individual's own moral judgment.
* Presented weak attempts at disobedience
* Key players:
* Experimenter
* Teacher (participant)
* Learner (confederate)

Method of the Milgram Study (1)

* Participants were told they were participating in a study on negative reinforcement and learning

Method of the Milgram Study (2)

* Participants “randomly drew” the teacher role; confederates was the learner

Method of the Milgram Study (3)

* Each time the learner was wrong, the teacher administered increasing levels of shock

Method of the Milgram Study (4)

* During the study, the learner would make noises suggesting they were uncomfortable, then in pain, and then they were silent

Results of the Milgram Study

* 65% obeyed
* Transferred responsibility to escape possible blame

Factors that Influence Destructive Obedience

* The remoteness of the victims
* Location of the learner in the context to the researcher
* The closeness of the authority figure
* Idea of observance
* The legitimacy of the authority figure
* Level or respect and perception of skill
* Level of responsibility
* Who would be the one to take responsibility

Compliance

* The action or fact of complying with a wish or command.

Norm of Reciprocity

* The norm is that when other people treat us well, we should respond in kind

Door-in-the-face Technique

* A manipulation technique in which a persuader makes a large request, expecting you to reject it, and then presents a smaller request
* Requests must be made by the same person

Foot-in-the-door Technique

* A manipulation technique in which the persuader get someone to comply with a small request first and later presents a larger request
* Easier to accept the larger one
* Need for consistency

Lowballing

* A manipulation technique in which a persuader gets someone to commit to some behaviour and then increases the “cost” of that same behaviour
* Idea of commitment

Crowd Behaviour

* The activities or conduct of a group of people who congregate temporarily while their attention is focused on the same object or event.

Deindividualization

* A state of increased anonymity in which a person, often part of a group or crowd, engages in disinhibited behaviour
* Reduces accountability
* Decreased sense of conformity
* Used to explain anti-social behaviour

Social Loafing

* The tendency for people to expend less individual effort when working in a group

Social Compensation

* Refers to when individuals work harder and expend more effort in a group setting —to compensate for other group members—compared to when working alone

Collective Effort Model

* On a collective task, people will put forth effort only to the extent that they expect their effort to contribute to obtaining a valued goal

Increases Social Loafing

* Believe that individual performance is not monitored
* The task has little meaning or value to the person
* The group is less important to the person
* The task is simple and the person’s input is redundant
* Fatigue

Show more Social Loafing

* All male-groups
* Individualistic cultures

Group-Polarization

* The tendency for the “average” opinion of group members to become more extreme when like-minded people discuss an issue

Normative Social Influence

* The influence of other people that leads us to conform in order to be liked and accepted by them
* Leads to conformity

Informational Social Influence

* An explanation for conformity that is driven by our wish to be correct.
* It occurs when we lack information (an ambiguous situation) about something and look to others for guidance.

Reduces critical thinkinking

* Groups outside of group polarization

Groupthink

* The tendency of group members to suspend critical thinking because they are motivated to seek agreement
* Committed to reaching a consensus, particularly when under collective threat

Reducing Groupthink

* Leaders should remain impartial
* Encourage critical thinking
* Bring in outsiders
* Make subgroups

Hills Affiliation Motivation Theory

* Obtain positive stimulation
* Receive emotional support
* Gain attention
* Permit social comparison

Social Comparison

* The act of comparing one’s personal attributes, abilities and opinions to those of other people
* Can be good or bad

Downward Social Comparison

* Comparing yourself to someone who did worse to improve your sense of worth

Upward Social Comparison

* Comparing yourself to someone who you think is better than you
* Role model

Need for Affiliation

* As an individual difference
* Personality trait
* Threatening situations increase the need
* Creates a sense of community

Proximity

* Physical location
* Leads to increased attraction
* Works with constant exposure

Mere Exposure Effect

* Repeated exposure to a stimulus predicts increases in liking of that stimulus
* Increases tolerability and familiarity

Attraction

* the interest in and liking of one individual by another, or the mutual interest and liking between two or more individuals
* People tend to be attracted to those who are similar
* Validate our worldview

Attractiveness

* Strong predictor for short-term dating partners
* Affiliate with these types of people because we see them as “what is good” based on stereotypes
* Can predict more negative outcomes

Matching Effect

* In romantic relationships, the tendency for partners to have a similar level of physical attractiveness
* More likely to marry

Social Exchange Theory

* A theory proposing that a social relationship can best be described in terms of exchanges of rewards and costs between partners
* Rewards - costs = Outcome
* Negative outcome = seek out alternatives
* Positive outcome = more commitment

Prejudice

* A negative attitude toward people based on their membership in a group
* Affective
* Inherently negative
* Boost self-esteem
* Maintained via self fulfilling prophecies

Discrimination

* Treating people unfairly based on the group to which they belong
* Behavioural

Overt Prejudice

* Very explicit and well known

Covert Prejudice

* Not expressed explicitly
* Subtle
* Implicit
* Hide or are unaware of the bias

IAT

* Implicit Association Task
* Uses reaction time to look at how fast you match groups
* Can be used to measure covert prejudice
* Not a valid assessment

Roots of Prejudice

* ty bias“us” vs “them” dichotomy
* Display in-group favouritism
* Display and out-group homogeneity
* Stereotypes

In-group Favoritism

* Preferential bias to the group we belong to
* Things that have meaning to us
* Turns into out-group hate

Out-group Homogeneity

* Does not distinguish differences between groups that are perceived as similar

Social Identity Theory

* A conceptual perspective on group process and intergroup relations that assumes that groups influence their members’ self-concepts and self-esteem, particularly when individuals categorize themselves strongly as group members and identify strongly with the group
* Inform how we understand ourself

Reduces Prejudice

* Engaging in sustained close contact
* Having equal status
* Achieve a common goal that requires cooperation
* Creates common group identity
* Supported by broader social norms

Contact Hypothesis

* Having continued contact reduces prejudice

Transfer of Exitation

* A misinterpretation of one’s state of arousal that occur when arousal actually is caused by one source, but the person attributes it to another source
* ‘Misattributed” the arousal

Passionate Love

* Involves intense emotional arousal and yearning for one’s partner
* less stable
* Declines quick