K

Social Psychology: Key Concepts and Classic Studies (Power of the Situation)

  • Study of how feelings, thoughts, and behaviors are shaped in social situations
  • Central idea: the power of the situation often determines behavior more than stable personality traits
  • Humans have a fundamental need to belong; fear of isolation can drive conformity
  • Social psychology vs. personality psychology: social psychology emphasizes situational variables; personality psychology emphasizes stable traits
  • Lewin’s foundational idea: behavior is a function of the person and the environment (B = f(P, E))
  • Confederates are often used to manipulate social context without participants knowing

Classic Experiments

  • Milgram’s obedience study: explored why ordinary people may follow destructive orders
    • Approximately 64\% = \frac{26}{40} of participants went all the way to 450\text{ megavolts}
    • Highlighted power of situational context and authority (e.g., prestigious setting, foot-in-the-door effect)
  • Good Samaritan study: manipulated time pressure and situational variables to test helping behavior
    • More time increased helping; roughly 63\% of non-hurried participants helped vs. about 10\% in high time-pressure conditions
    • Results underscored the power of context over moral reasoning alone

Attribution Theory and Biases

  • How we explain others’ behavior: dispositional (internal traits) vs. situational (external factors)
  • Fundamental attribution error: tendency to overemphasize dispositional explanations for others’ behavior and underemphasize situational factors
  • Actor-observer bias: we attribute our own actions to the situation but others’ actions to their dispositions
  • Self-serving bias: success due to internal factors; failures due to external factors

Other Key Concepts

  • Channel factors (nudges): small design features that steer behavior predictably (e.g., opt-in vs. opt-out organ donation)
  • Conscience and perception: people construct social reality, filling in missing information based on expectations; automatic processing can reinforce stereotypes
  • Stereotypes: cognitive schemas that reduce cognitive load but can bias perception and actions

Real-World Relevance & Ethics

  • Concepts explain everyday behavior, public policy, and ethical considerations
  • Milgram’s work raised ethical questions about obedience research, consent, and deception

Key terms to remember:

  • Power of the situation
  • Role-based behavior
  • Need to belong
  • B = f(P, E) (or B = f(E, P))
  • Confederates
  • Obedience vs. disobedience (operational definitions)
  • Foot-in-the-door technique
  • Attribution theory: dispositional vs. situational attributions
  • Fundamental attribution error
  • Actor-observer bias
  • Self-serving bias
  • Channel factors (nudges)
  • Construals and automatic processing
  • Stereotypes and heuristic processing

Equations and numerical references:

  • Lewin’s formula for behavior: B = f(P, E)
  • Milgram’s obedience results: approximately 64\% = \frac{26}{40} of participants went all the way to 450\text{ megavolts}
  • Good Samaritan study (time pressure effects): more time increased helping; roughly 63\% of non-hurried participants helped vs. about 10\% in high time-pressure conditions