SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY CHAPTER 12 MYERS AND DEWALL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

 What is Social Psychology?  Social Thinking  Social Influence  Social Relations SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY  Social Psychology – the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to each other  Situational factors that affect how and why we act differently across situations SOCIAL THINKING  Fundamental Attribution Error – the tendency to overestimate the influence of personal traits and underestimate situational factors when explaining others’ behaviors  Attributions influence how we treat others ATTITUDES AND ACTIONS

 Attitudes – evaluative reactions to objects, people, and events  Attitudes are inconsistent predictors of our behaviors  Behaviors lead to Attitude change  Role playing affects attitudes - Stanford Prison Study  Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon – agreeing to a small request make it more likely that you will agree to a larger request later ATTITUDES AND ACTIONS  Why Behaviors Affect Attitudes  Cognitive Dissonance Theory – we adjust our attitudes to match our behaviors in order to reduce cognitive discomfort (i.e. dissonance)  Attitude change reduces dissonance when there is a lack of justification to explain our behavior

SOCIAL INFLUENCE  Social Influence – interpersonal processes that lead to changes in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors  Norms – socially accepted rules for behaving  Conformity – change in thoughts and behaviors to match those of a group  Factors influencing Conformity  Group size, Proximity, Status, and Unanimity SOCIAL INFLUENCE

 Solomon Asch’s Conformity and Influence Experiments

80 70 60 50 40 30 1 2 3 20 Standard lines Comparison lines 10 0 Average Conformed # complying at conformity every time least once SOCIAL INFLUENCE

 Obedience – following the commands of an authority figure  Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Experiments demonstrated the power of obedience Pounding sound

“Ugh!”

“Let me out of “I absolutely here.” refuse to answer any Maximum more. You can’t obedience

hold me here.” (450 v) Percent Obedient Percent

Shock Level SOCIAL INFLUENCE

Percentage who obeyed to 450 0 20 40 60 80 100

Baseline

Voice-feedback

Heart

Same room

Touch

Bridgeport

Obedient others

Disobedient others SOCIAL INFLUENCE

 Lessons from the Milgram Experiments  Anyone given the right circumstances has the capacity to commit evil acts  Social influence and Personal influence interact to determine behavior  It is difficult for the minority to resist the stronger majority GROUP INFLUENCE

 Social Facilitation – improved performance when completing simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others  Arousal and concerns about others’ evaluations contribute to facilitation GROUP INFLUENCE  Social Loafing – decreased effort/performance when working on collaborative tasks  Decreased concern with evaluations, reduced feeling of responsibility, benefits without effort result in loafing GROUP INFLUENCE

 Deindividuation – an altered psychological state resulting from anonymity, loss of self-awareness and an increase in physiological arousal  Group Polarization – discussion factors that strengthen group member’s previous attitudes and behaviors  GroupThink – faulty decision strategy stemming from an increased motivation to reach a group consensus SOCIAL RELATIONS

 Prejudice – unjustified negative prejudgment of a group and its members  Stereotypes – typically negative beliefs about a social category  Discrimination – unjustified negative behavior towards a group and its members  Blatant prejudice had declined and been replaced by covert and subtle prejudice

SOCIAL RELATIONS

 Modern Prejudice – subtle and automatic forms of discrimination, revealed through preferences, biased associations, and judgments  Biased judgments, Less Positive Facial expressions, vocal tones, eye contact, body posture SOCIAL RELATIONS

 Cognitive Sources of Prejudice  Ingroup Bias – tendency to favor ingroup member  Vivid Cases – we remember extreme stereotype-consistent example  Emotional Sources  Scapegoat Theory – frustration can lead to unfair blame  Just World Phenomenon – false assumption that the world is fair and people get what they deserve