Social Psychology HW pg 723-730 Social psych is the scientific study of how a person’s behavior, thoughts, and feelings are influenced by the real, imagined, or implied presence of others. _________________________ tries to explain how people determine the cause of what they observe. • People usually attribute others’ behavior either to their natural disposition or their external situations • Example a teacher may wonder about a student’s hostility – aggressive personality (_____________) or a reaction to a stressful situation (____________________) • Juliette never talks in class but Jack always talks nonstop at the coffee house. So we decide that Julie is shy and Jack is outgoing which could be valid BUT it is important to not fall prey to ___________ _____________________ – over estimating the influence of personality and underestimating the influence or situation. Examples? ___________________________________________________________________________ • In an experiment researchers had college students talk one at a time with a young woman who acted either aloof and critical or warm and friendly. Before hand they told half the students she would act spontaneously the other half they told she had been __________________ to act aloof or friendly. What was the difference between the two groups? • NONE – they _______________________ the information. If she acted friendly – she was genuinely nice, if she acted aloof – she was genuinely a cold person. In other words they __________________ her behavior to her disposition even when told that her behavior was situational. • In general the _______ you know someone the more likely you are to attribute their behavior to their personality. For example if your best friend treats you like crap one day you will assume something is wrong and attribute their bad behavior to a bad situation not their personality. • Now the fundamental attribution error was named fundamental because it was believed to be very widespread. Scientists today say that the error is very cultural and found more often in individualistic cultures rather than ________________________ cultures (I cannot remember if we ever defined what these cultures were earlier in the year- I will assume we did because I am lazy). The researchers who first discovered the fundamental attribution error and assumed it was widespread in all cultures were suffering from the ________________________________. The false-consensus effect is the tendency to overestimate the number of people who feel how you feel. If you lived in New York you would probably love the Yankees. You would assume that there are SO many Yankee fans because you are around them all the time. In reality, the Yankees are the most hated team in the USA. Yankee fans suffer from the false-consensus effect, kind of like Red Wing fans – although we know everyone LOVES the wings! • _______________________________ – the tendency to take more credit for good outcomes and less credit for bad ones. So when you all pass the AP Psych test I will take all the credit because of my great teaching skills. However if you all do poorly it will be because you never actually read the book, studied, or the test was completely unfair. Example? ___________________________________________________________________________ • ______________________________ – In 1968 two researchers Rosenthal and Jacobson, conducted a very famous, yet controversial, experiment called "Pygmalion in the Classroom". They gave a test to a bunch of elementary school children. Then they randomly took a bunch of students and told the teachers that these were the students that were on the verge of great academic growth. In reality, the scores did not matter because the students were chosen at random. Five months later, they gave the test again to the students. Incredibly, the students who were randomly chosen to be in the group that the teachers were told were smarter, had much higher IQ scores than the rest of the kids. How did this happen? Well, think about it. The teachers were told that these group of students were on the verge of academic greatness. They then began to treat the students as if they were smarter. The students responded and actually became smarter. In psychology we call this concept a self-fulfilling prophecy; where preconceived notions about people __________________ the way we act towards them, often making the notions a reality. If I think you hate me (and pretend you do not), I will begin to ____________ you badly. If I treat you badly, you will actually begin to hate me. My belief (even though it was originally false) created a reality- powerful stuff. All of this is important because we often struggle to explain other’s actions. • If you are on jury – was it malicious or self defense • In hiring – who is the best applicant for the job • And remember that your ___________________ of the situation can have an affect A happily married couple would attribute a sharp remark from a mate as situational (must have had a bad day) compared to an unhappily married one (Why is I marry such a hostile person?) Attitudes and Actions • Attitudes are feelings based on our beliefs that predispose our reactions to objects, people, and events. • ____________________ – The more you are exposed to something the more you will come to like it. I usually hate a song the first time I hear it on the radio but then after a few times it grows on me. • When it comes to advertising the more attractive a spokesperson is the more persuasive they are. (Although new research says that more educated people are less persuaded by advertisements. Examples? __________________________________________________________________________ • Although most of us would assume that your attitudes lead to your actions it can also be the other way around. • In the 1930s a researcher ______________ was examining prejudice against Asians in the US. He traveled with an Asian couple around the country and watched how they were treated, on only one occasion was the couple treated badly due to race. After the trip, LaPiere contacted all of the establishments they had visited and asked about their attitudes towards Asian patrons. Over 90% of the respondents said they would not serve Asians. The finds showed that attitudes do not perfectly ___________________________________. • _______________________________________ – a tendency for people who agree to a small action to comply later with a larger one. • During the Korean War some prisoners of war changed their personal beliefs while captured in prisons run by Chinese communists. The Chinese began with harmless requests that later lead to larger ones. Ex. Having prisoners write or speak trivial statements…copy or create something more important perhaps the flaws of capitalism, then maybe to gain privileges participate in group discussions, wrote self-criticisms, or uttered public confessions. After doing so many POWs adjusted their beliefs to align with these statements. • Studies have also shown this…when asked to put an ugly lawn sign “Drive Carefully” in California only 17% of people said yes. Another group was only asked to display a 3inch “Be safe driver” and nearly all agreed. 2 weeks later to allow the larger ugly sign 76% now said yes. Examples ____________________________________________________________________________ • __________________________________ – After a large request people will look more favorably to a request that seems small. You ask your mom for 100 dollars to fill up your gas tank and she tells you to get a job. So you ask her for 5 dollars for McDonalds. Examples ____________________________________________________________________________ • _____________________________________ – it is common courtesy to think that when someone does something nice for you, you should do something nice for them. Make your mom dinner and then ask for the 100 dollars. Examples? ___________________________________________________________________________ Role-Playing Affects Attitudes • When you adopt a new role, become a college student, marry, start anew job – you strive to follow the __________________________________. At first the behaviors may feel phony, because you are acting the role. Before long however what started as an act becomes you. • Remember the __________________________________ – the guards and prisoners were playing a role but their attitudes and behavior changed dramatically after only a day or two. In real life this has been in seen in the Abu Ghraib prison. • So why do we do this??? One theory is that when we become aware that our actions and attitudes don’t coincide we experience tension or __________________________________. So in order to relieve this tension we bring our attitudes closer to our actions – Cognitive Dissonance Theory (______________________) • When the war in Iraq stated it was to get rid of WMD. 80% of people believed that they would be found. Only 38% of people at the tell felt that the war was justified even if there were no WMD. Very soon it became apparent that no WMD were going to be found. Very soon the 58% of people now supported the war even though WMD were not found because now the war was to liberate oppressed people. This is all to alleviate the cognitive dissonance. • Another example suppose you think that studying is only for geeks. If you then study for 8 hours for an AP Psychology test, your attitude will not match your actions and you will experience cognitive dissonance. Since you cannot change your actions (you already studies for 8 hours), the only way to reduce the dissonance is to change your attitude and decide that studying does not make someone a geek. (be aware this change does not happen on a conscious awareness) • Although this has mostly been bad behavior…this also works in positive ways. If you are unhappy with your life talk in a positive way and you will become more positive. Changing our behavior can change how we think about others and about how we feel about ourselves. Examples? ___________________________________________________________________________ Stereotypes, Prejudice and Discrimination • _________________________are ideas about what certain groups are like.