Social Psychology Lecture Notes

Social psychology studies how individual thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the social context and group dynamics.
Key components of social psychology:
- Cognition (thoughts)
- Emotion (feelings)
- Affect (emotional responses)
- Actions (behaviors)

Enhances understanding of social interactions and decision-making, specifically in contexts such as jury dynamics and legal psychology.
Real-world application: Jury decisions can be significantly impacted by group influences and biases.

Social Cognition:
- Attitudes: Stable evaluations towards events, objects, persons, or locations. Composed of three components:
  - Cognitive: beliefs and thoughts
  - Emotional: feelings
  - Behavioral: actions exhibited
- Changing Attitudes: Strategies for persuasion and influence, including cognitive dissonance.
Interpersonal Processes:
- Group dynamics, competition, conformity, obedience, and situational influences.
- Prosocial Behavior: Encouraging positive, helpful behaviors in social contexts.

An attitude must be stable. It can be:
- Positive or negative.
- Influenced by personal importance, specificity, environmental reinforcement, and shared values.
- E.g., Positive attitude towards a sports team based on knowledge and emotional engagement.

Strategies for changing attitudes effectively:
- Source credibility (attractive, relatable individuals)
- Tailored message content (specific and concise)
- Proper timing for message delivery.
- Understanding audience motivation and existing attitudes.

Explains how discomfort arises when behavior contradicts existing attitudes, leading to attitude change to reduce tension.
Landmark study by Festinger showed participants lie to others about a boring task; those paid less changed their attitudes to match behavior.

How initial impressions of others are formed using:
- Cognitive algebra: Combining various traits to form an impression.
- Central traits theory: Focusing on significant traits to make quick impressions.
Classic studies by Solomon Asch illustrated how single words can heavily influence the perception of a person.

Schemata help us navigate the social world by forming expectations about people and situations.
Stereotypes can be inaccurate and lead to prejudices or discrimination against groups based on traits or roles.
E.g. Misconceptions about criminals often stoke misunderstanding and bias.

In-groups vs. Out-groups: Social identities influence attitudes towards others, biasing perceptions and behaviors.
Social loafing: Tendency to exert less effort in a group setting, countered by making individual contributions identifiable.

Performance influenced by audience presence:
- Social Facilitation: Better performance with an audience for well-rehearsed tasks.
- Social Inhibition: Poorer performance in unfamiliar tasks.
Foundational studies involved competitive tasks (e.g., tug-of-war).

The Robbers Cave Experiment demonstrated how group formation leads to conflict and strategies for reducing tension include contact and cooperation.
Milgram's obedience study illustrated shocking adherence to authority in morally questionable tasks.

Investigated how people internalize roles (guards vs. prisoners) under controlled conditions, resulting in abusive dynamics.
Ethical concerns emerged due to participant distress, lack of informed consent, and potential methodological flaws.
Replications have shown differing results, suggesting the original findings may not be generalizable.

Phenomenon where individuals in groups are less likely to help a victim in an emergency due to diffusion of responsibility.
Ways to increase intervention include raising awareness of personal responsibility and ensuring clarity of emergencies.

Social psychology combines numerous dynamics affecting human behavior, enriching our understanding of interactions, decision-making, and the influence of group contexts. It remains critical in diverse applications from legal systems to understanding social influences in everyday behavior.