Social Psychology Notes

Social Psychology: considers how individuals interact with each other

Sociology: how groups interact with each other

Attitudes Impacting Actions

Attribution: the way explain the cause(s) of behavior

• Dispositional Internal: behavior driven by personality, feelings, ability, etc.

  • “I got a bad grade because I’m dumb”

• External: behavior driven by outside situations

  • “I got a bad grade because I was distracted by the noisy fan”

Fundamental Attribution Error: when we go too far in assuming that a person’s behavior is driven by personality

• we reemphasized dispositional attribution and underestimate situational attribution

Self-Serving Bias: “if I succeed, it is my doing, but if I fail it not my fault.”

Actor-Observer Bias: attributing other’s behavior to their character and one’s own behavior to the situation

Explanatory Styles

• How you explain negative events

• Optimistic: tends to attribute negative causes to external and specific factors

• Pessimistic: tends to attribute negative events to internal factors

Locus of Control

• Internal: believing ones’s actions significantly influence outcomes

• External: believing that external forces determine outcomes

Cognitive Dissonance: when actions aren’t in harmony with our actions

Persuasive Message

Halo Effect: tendency to allow one specific trait of a person, company, product to positively influence our judgement of their other related traits

Mere Exposure Effect: occur when people are exposed to stimulus repeatedly over time, which causes them to like the stimulus more

Foot-in-the-door Technique

• Small compliance to large compliance

  • more likely to agree to large request after agreeing to small one

Door-in-the-face Technique

• large compliance to small compliance

  • more likely to agree to a small request after agreeing to a large one

Role Playing: play role, event though pretend, eventually tend to adapt attitudes that go with role and become role

Conformity: refers to adjusting our behaviors thinking to fit in with a group standard

Types of Conformity

Automatic Mimicry: confirming without realizing

• mimicry of others not by choice

  • body language (contagious yawning or smiling)

  • adopting region accents, grammar, vocab

  • empathetic shifts in mood to match others

  • adopting coping styles of parents/peers (generational trauma)

Social Norms: “correct” or “normal” standards in society

• Asch Conformity Study: 1/3 of people will agree with obvious mistruths to match group

Social Influence Theory:

• Normative: going along with other's in pursuit of social approval or belonging

• Informational: going along with others because their ideas and behaviors makes sense or they have knowledge

Likely to conform:

• not firmly committed to one set of beliefs/behaviors

• medium sized group and unanimous

• admire or are attracted to the group

• group makes you feel incompetent, insecure or closely watched

Obedience

Factors to Increase Obedience:

• when orders were given by:

  • someone with (or seemingly with) legit authority

  • someone associated with prestigious institution

  • someone standing close by

• when “learner” / victim is in another room

• when other participants obey and/or nobody disobeys

Bias, Prejudice, Discrimination

Social Relations:

• Prejudice: an unjustified attitude toward group (usually bad)

  • stereotype: generalized believe about group, applied to every member of the group

• Discrimination: unjustified behavior selective applied to members of group

In Group: Group that one identifies with and belongs to (“WE”)

Out Group: group that one does not belong to/identify with (“THEY”)

Thinking Habits Reinforce Prejudice:

Availability Heuristic: stereotypes are built on vivid cases rather than stats

Confirmation Bias: not likely to look for counter examples to stereotypes

Hindsight Bias: Blames victims for misfortunes

Cognitive Dissonance: “My culture treats minorities this way, it cannot be bad”

Altruism

Altruism: Unselfish regard for the welfare of other people

• helping/protecting others without personal gain, does right thing despite personal sacrifice/risk

  • does not count if satisfaction from deed or any form of benefit for “selfless” individual

Why Do We Help

Social Exchange Theory: states our social behavior is exchange process, aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize cots

Reciprocity Norm: states an expectation that people will help those that help them

Social Responsibility Norm: expectation that people will help those in need of help

Bystander Effect: less likely to render aid if other bystanders are present

Most likely to help when the person being helped:

• appears to be in need

• is a woman and/or similar to us

• is small town / rural area

Upon encountering person:

• we feel guilt and/or saw someone else trying to help

• not in hurry and/or preoccupied

• in a good mood

  • strongest predictor

Cooperation vs Competition

Social Trap: Pursuing own self-interest instead of good for collective group