Response-Stimulus-Response model of learning (R-S-R)
Behavior produces an environmental effect which affects the likelihood of similar behavior in the future.
*

Positive Reinforcement – When stimulus events have the effect of increasing the probability that a response will occur again.
Negative Reinforcement – Removing a stimulus, usually an aversive one, when this removal makes a specified response more likely to occur.
Punishment – Presentation of a stimulus that makes a specified response LESS likely.
The bottom line is: We repeat behaviors which have, in the past, produced reinforcement, and we shy away from behaviors which have produced punishment.

Other Important Terms:
Extinction – A decrease in strength of a conditioned response when it is no longer reinforced.
Shaping – Reinforcing successive approximations to some final response.

Social Learning Theory
A person learns through conditioning, but also by vicarious reinforcement (i.e., observers increase behavior for which they have seen others reinforced).
The heart of this approach says that we learn through observation/imitation . This is a process of:
Acquisition
Retention
Motor Reproduction
Motivation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK4NPc7HCnY

SOCIAL EXCHANGE THEORY
Individuals are viewed as trying to maximize rewards and minimize costs.
Outcomes = Rewards – Costs
(Rewards include anything positive, desirable.
Costs include anything negative, undesirable.)

STRUCTURAL ROLE THEORY
One of the most reliable sociological findings is that people’s attitudes and behaviors vary according to the social position they occupy in the social structure.
Structural Role Theory would say that people are like actors following a script (role consensus is assumed).
Consider the term, role conflict. In essence, this can occur when a person experiences two of his/her roles “colliding”.

The tendency to discount the role of the situation in affecting a person’s behavior and to over-estimate the importance of personal or dispositional factors.
Why do we commit this error?
A key point of Lovaglia’s: The situation is much more powerful than we think!
How might a person use this information?

Statements about what is good and positive for you.
Techniques: making positive statements
(in writing and/or verbally); visualizing
Social Psychology tells us…Affirmations are behavior; we become what we do.

Just as we observe others’ behavior, we also observe our own behavior. We infer how we feel by observing our own behavior.

 List the people and experiences that have contributed to the development of this attitude.

A relatively enduring organization of beliefs around an object or situation.
(Each attitude is really a package of beliefs).
Instrumental Conditioning
Modeling
Direct Experience
Genetic Factors

Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Overturns the common sense notion that:
Attitudes------ Behavior
“Dissonance” is a state of tension produced when elements are in conflict.
Think of it this way (Equilibrium Process Model): equilibrium -----------dissonance-producing situation-------------------
 dissonance --------- attitude change-------- equilibrium




Selective attention
Lower expectations
Seek support
 CHANGE ATTITUDE

When is dissonance likely?
1.
2.
After making a big decision.
When there is inadequate external justification for behavior.
(“external justification” is situationally-determined) e.g., Festinger & Carlsmith study, 1957)
The key idea : If we can’t find sufficient external justification for our behavior, then we attempt to justify internally, by changing our attitude in the direction of our behavior.
APPLICATIONS?

1.
2.
3.
Herbert Blumer coined the term, “symbolic interactionism”
Blumer’s Propositions:
Human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings that things have for them.
These meanings arise out of social interaction.
Social action results from a fitting together of individual lines of action.
Two Schools of Thought: the Chicago School and the
Iowa School

This perspective emphasizes the production of society as an ongoing process of negotiation among social actors.
Assumptions:
1. Symbols transfer meaning in human interaction.
2. The individual becomes humanized (socialized) through interaction with people.
3. Reality is a process.
4. Human beings have the ability to act upon the environment.
What kind of image do we get of the human actor?
active, creative, shapers of our own reality, goal-seeking

Key Terms:
Meaning
Definition of the Situation – One’s cognitive idea of his/her place in social time and space that constrains behavior.
Taking the Role of the Other
Application: Labeling

Distinction between signs and symbols:
A sign is directly connected to an object or event and calls forth a fixed or habitual response.
A symbol is something that people create and use to stand for something else. (e.g., object, gesture, word)

Communication requires 2 things: Speaking & Listening
What do we mean when we say to our interaction partner: “Are you listening to me?!”
Listening requires our responsive attention.
“pseudo-listening” – We really aren’t paying attention to what the other person is saying, although we act as if we are.
What are some listening situations that are difficult?

Two types of meaning: denotative meaning – The literal, explicit properties associated with a word.
(The dictionary meaning) connotative meaning – Cognitive and emotional responses one has to a word.
(These meanings are personal)
Importance of social context – Who are we with, and what is the situation?

Nonverbal Communication paralanguage – All vocal aspects of speech other than words.
body language – The silent movement of body parts.
interpersonal spacing – How we position ourselves at varying distances and angles from others.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buufiBQvIPs choice of personal effects – Choices of clothing, etc.

What do you see here?

Two Group Portraits

Young Woman/Old Woman

Perception
 The perceptual process involves a sequence of external events followed by internal events.
 Visual agnosia is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize familiar objects. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/activities/2020_mir ror_01.html


physical behavior verbal behavior appearance dispositional traits
(personality characteristics)
Biases:
1. Primacy Effect – People rely more heavily on the first information they get on a person and tend to discount later information.
2. Implicit Personality Theory – Network of assumptions people make about the relationship among traits and behaviors.
3. Stereotypes – Given a group membership, we assume traits about a person.

Attribution – The process of inferring the cause of others’ behavior.
Attribution Theory is concerned with how people assign causes to events.
2 types of explanations of behavior: dispositional & situational attributions

Biases:
1. Fundamental Attribution Error
2. Actor-Observer Differences – A difference between two points of view (that of the actor and the observer).
3. Self-Serving Bias – The tendency we have to attribute positive outcomes to our own dispositions and negative outcomes to situational causes.
4. Self-Defeating Bias – Undesirable behavior is attributed to negative aspects of the self.

We use 3 types of information in making decisions about the causation of action in a situation:
1. Distinctiveness – Observe actor in similar situations.
(low distinctiveness implies personal cause; high distinctiveness implies situational cause).
2. Consensus – Compare actor’s behavior to others’.
(low consensus implies personal cause; high consensus implies situational cause)
3. Consistency – Observe actor’s behavior over time.
(low consistency implies situational cause; high consistency implies personal cause)

Attribution
 Other factors that are relevant to attribution:

Do we like the person whose behavior we are observing?

Is there a reward or punishment attached to the behavior?

Attribution
 Applications of Attribution Theory:


Appraisals (e.g., self/peer/subordinate)
Marketing (e.g., advertising – do consumers attribute claims about a product to the company’s desire to sell the product, or to actual, positive attributes of the product?)

Socialization
Socialization is the process by which we acquire those modes of thinking, acting, and feeling that enable us to participate in the larger human community.
Agents of Socialization are persons or institutions which influence our thoughts and behaviors.
Examples?
Reciprocal Socialization – Recognizes that socialization is not a one-way process; e.g., kids influence adults.
Examples?

Socialization
Developmental psychologist Kenneth Kaye
“frames” – Tools that parents/adults use to organize time and space for child.
Examples: nurturant, protective, instrumental, feedback, discourse
Socialization is like an apprenticeship (i.e., it is a process ; it is relational ).

Socialization
Social Learning Theory
Socialization is accomplished through two processes:
1. Direct Learning – We are first socialized via our parents’ rewards and punishments (i.e., external reinforcement). Over time, we control our own behavior through self-reinforcement
( internalization makes this possible).
2. Observation/Modeling

Socialization
Piaget – Cognitive Developmental Theory
Socialization is a process by which the individual develops from simple to complex. 4 stages:
1. Sensorimotor object permanence, cause-effect, recognitory schemes
2. Pre-Operational knowledge of symbols
3. Concrete Operational concrete operations such as conservation and serialization
4. Formal Operational abstract thought

Socialization
Developmental psychologist Erik Erikson
8 Psychosocial Stages:
1. Trust vs. Mistrust
2. Autonomy vs. Doubt
3. Initiative vs. Guilt
4. Industry vs. Inferiority
5. Identity vs. Role Confusion
6. Intimacy vs. Isolation
7. Generativity vs. Self-Absorption
8. Integrity vs. Despair

Socialization
Piaget’s Theory of Moral Development
1. The Pre-Moral Period
2. Heteronomous Morality – Strong respect for rules. Child is likely to judge the naughtiness of an act by its objective consequences rather than the actor’s intent.
3. Autonomous Morality – Rules are viewed as arbitrary agreements that can be challenged.

Socialization
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development – 3 levels:
1. Pre-conventional – Oriented to personal needs.
2. Conventional – Oriented to social rules.
3. Post-Conventional – Oriented toward making autonomous decisions.
These developmental models feature stages that are step-wise and sequential – i.e., people go through the stages one after another. But…might individuals regress in their morality? Also, might one’s actual behavior fail to correspond to his/her moral judgments?

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory – The key is the process of identification .
Social Learning Theory – Imitation, reinforcement.
Cognitive Development Theory – Gender is an organizing scheme for the developing child.
Symbolic Interactionism – “doing gender” refers to seeing gender as an activity accomplished through social interaction.

Resocialization
Resocialization – The process through which adults learn new values, norms, and expectations when they leave old roles and enter new ones.
Total Institutions – Place where individuals are cut off from the wider society for an appreciable period and where together they lead an enclosed, formally administered life.
 Contact with outside world controlled; new recruits & inmates not allowed to see family, old friends, former associates.


Examples: Army, prisons, mental hospitals, convents, monasteries
The “Stripping process”

SELF
Cooley’s Looking-Glass Self
The process through which we develop our sense of self based upon the reactions of other people to our actions.
G.H. Mead’s Stages to Becoming a Self:
1. The Play Stage
2. The Game Stage
3. The Generalized Other
Two aspects of the self: “I” and “Me”

SELF self-concept: The sum total of beliefs you have about yourself.
self-esteem: The evaluative component of the self-concept.
situated self: The subset of self-concepts that constitutes the self we know in a particular situation.
self-monitoring: Extent to which people use information about the environment as a basis for modifying behavior.

SELF mutable self: A self-concept that is highly adaptive to rapid social and cultural change.
DOES OUR FAST-PACED SOCIETY REQUIRE THAT
EACH OF US HAVE A MUTABLE SELF?
DOES HAVING A MUTABLE SELF THREATEN
THE SENSE OF HAVING A CORE, STABLE SELF?
DO INDIVIDUALS EVER COMPLETELY CHANGE WHO
THEY ARE?

SELF
Identity Salience
Our identities are organized hierarchically based on salience. Implications?
1. The higher the salience of an identity, the more often we will try to draw on that identity.
2. If a given identity is defined as highly important, we will be more inclined to develop it.
3. Highly salient identities can carry over.

SELF
Aaron Beck’s concept of “personal domain” –
Inclusive notion of what a person’s self consists of; everything that you care about and that is important for you to maintain. For example: self-concept personal goals/motives moral rules/principles possessions significant others groups that have symbolic significance

Appearance and the Self
 Consider the tee shirt.

What gets communicated via tee shirts? (e.g., think about messages of style, politics, status, interests, beliefs, etc.)

Depression
Characterized by the “cognitive triad” (Aaron Beck, MD)
1. negative conception of self
2. negative interpretation of life experiences
3. fatalistic view of the future
The depressed person engages in “selective abstraction” – overinterpreting daily events in terms of loss.

Cognitive Therapy and Depression
What we consciously think is what mainly determines how we feel. 5 tactics:
1. Learn to recognize automatic thoughts (ATs).
2. Learn to dispute the ATs by marshaling contrary evidence.
3. Learn to make different attributions (reattributions) and use them to dispute your ATs.
4. Learn how to distract yourself from depressing thoughts.
5. Learn to recognize and question assumptions that govern much of what you do.

For Discussion:
WHY DOES COGNITIVE THERAPY WORK?
CONSIDER THE ROLE OF SOCIAL
INTERACTION. IS DEPRESSION CONTAGIOUS?

Attributional style of depressed person: He/she attributes bad events to causes that are internal, stable, and global. Good results are believed to result from situational, unstable, and specific causes (e.g., luck).
Attributional style of ‘non-depressed” person: He/she takes a bright view of good events, attributing them to internal, stable, global causes, and also a bright view of bad events, attributing them to situational, unstable, specific causes.

Do those who are depressed take an unrealistically dark view? OR, do the non-depressed take an unrealistically bright view?
Consider the studies by Alloy and Abramson in the 1970s -- People who are not depressed distort reality, while those who are depressed judge reality more accurately. Non-depressed subjects had an “illusion of control”.
Applications of this knowledge…
Langer and Rodin’s study of residents in a nursing home – residents who were given increased control over their lives were more active, sociable, and vigorous than those who were not given increased control.
Other applications?

Optimism and Illusion
Martin Seligman’s theory of learned helplessness says that when people see that how they respond has no effect on a problem, they learn not to respond to problems in their lives.
Seligman distinguishes between a pessimistic and an optimistic attributional style:
Pessimistic: permanence, stability, self-blame
(these factors lead to helplessness)

3 Crucial Dimensions to your attributional style:
1. Permanence (permanent vs. temporary)
2. Pervasiveness (universal vs. specific)
3. Personalization (internal vs. external)
Good Outcome – the optimist attributes this internally and stable; the pessimist attributes this externally, unstable.
Bad Outcome – the optimist attributes this externally, unstable; the pessimist attributes this internally, stable.

Influence
How can we influence others?
* Smile at people
* Physical Attractiveness
(this is a “central trait”)
* Apologize when you offend someone
* Self-Disclosure
* Impression
Management

Impression Management
This approach comes from Erving Goffman. It is also known as “self-presentation theory” or “dramaturgical approach.”
Front Stage – Where we try to manage our impressions.
Back Stage - Where we plan.
Use of props – Just as in theater, we use objects in our environment.

Impression Management
Self-Presentation Strategies:
* Intimidation
* Supplication
* Self-Promotion
* Ingratiation
What happens if we fail in our presentation of self?
We feel embarrassed.
We help one another save face.

Impression Management
Another motive for impression management: self-construction (i.e., constructing a public image that is congruent with one’s ideal self)
In our efforts to maintain a positive image, consider the importance of “definition of the situation”.
We attempt to align our definitions and actions with one another. We may use techniques, such as:
“disclaimers” and “accounts”

What we bring to a social gathering:





How do these things affect our presentation of self?

Ethnomethodology – The study of the everyday, common-sense understandings that people have of the world around them. (Harold Garfinkel)
“breaching experiments” – Disrupt normal procedures .

Garfinkel’s “etcetera principle” – We use certain words or phrases in interaction to gloss over possible disruptions or misunderstandings – e.g., “you know,” “and so on”.
Other examples?
“Playing the Game” – Conversing with others about topics even though you do not have any expertise in the area.
When can this be dangerous?
What if we were to refrain from playing the game?

Persuasion
In what ways are people “victims” of persuasion every day? (i.e., what are the sources of persuasion?)
Are you and I susceptible to persuasion?
“the third person effect of communication” – When exposed to an advertisement or some other form of persuasive communication, we commonly think that it has a greater effect on others than on ourselves.

Persuasion
What are the factors that make a person persuasive?
* Credibility
* Attractiveness
* Content of message
* Maintaining a positive mood
* Leading questions
* High status

Persuasion
The Persuaders (PBS Frontline Program, 2004)
Consider the ubiquity of advertising – people trying to figure out how to persuade us what to buy, whom to trust, what to think.
What impact is this having on us?
The Persuaders program explores the idea that Americans are seeking and finding a sort of identity in buying/joining a brand.
What is this about?
Is advertising a business or an art form?

Structural Role Theory
Role is seen as the set of expectations that society places on an individual.
Role consensus is assumed.
How does the interactionist perspective differ?
Role is seen as something that is constantly negotiated between individuals.

>> Roles emerge out of an interactional process.
>> Rather than following rules, people are assumed to follow goals.

When is role negotiation an especially important determinant of role behavior?
* Limits of role are broad
* Role expectations held by actors are not in agreement
* Actor’s characteristics preclude performing role in usual way
* Situational demands interfere
* Other roles intrude upon performance
* Actor and role partner have relatively equal power

Role-Taking – An imaginative process in which we evaluate ourselves and our actions from the standpoint of others.
How do we acquire role-taking abilities?
1. Social experiences
2. Conventionality of identities and performances
3. Familiarity

Role-Making – Constructing a role performance that fits with the definition of the situation while also remaining attuned to personal goals and inclinations.
What is required in role-making?
>> self-consciousness (i.e., knowing who you are and in what situation you are operating)
>> role-taking

What happens when we find ourselves exiting from certain roles? We must disengage from the expectations and self-perceptions with the role.
EXAMPLES?

Emotional Aspects of Interaction
Arlie Hochschild feeling rules – Prescriptions for how we ought to feel in given situations.
emotion work – Attempts to change, in degree or quality, an emotion or feeling (surface acting or deep acting).

Emotions and Role Attachments
Role Embracement – Identifying strongly with a role and allowing it to shape how we think, feel, act, and interact with others.
Role Distance – Performing role in a detached way; our sense of self is not invested in the role.

Social Structure & Personality
 Social Structure – Consists of positions, roles, social networks.

For any position we identify, there is a role and a set of social networks associated with that position.
Status at work – In work settings, there is a hierarchy, just as in society at large there is hierarchy, ranking, stratification.
“status characteristics” – Distinctive parts of a person’s identity; include both ascribed and achieved statuses.
Our status characteristics are the basis on which others have expectations of us.

Social Structure & Personality
Occupational experience varies on three dimensions:
1.
Closeness of supervision
2.
3.
Routinization of work
Substantive complexity of the work
Occupational Roles and Physical Health
Two key ways in which occupational roles affect physical health:
1) exposing workers to health hazards, 2) stress

Social Structure & Personality
We have two kinds of energy: adaptation energy , which is capable of being replenished within a 24-hour period; energy reserves , which are your stores of energy
Distinction between “stress” and “stressor”:
Stress is the utilization of energy beyond that which can be replenished in a 24-hour period.
Stressor is an environmental event which calls for special efforts of adaptation.

Social Structure & Personality
David Elkind says that a person’s attitude toward stressors is extremely important in determining whether he/she will experience stress.
STRESSOR -----> Interpretation----> Attitude

Social Structure & Personality
 Gender and Work

The way we are socialized as children is reflected in our adult relationships and work experiences.


For example, think about what children learn through types of play.
Think, too, about types of “talk” (e.g., “report talk” vs. “rapport talk”).

Prejudice and Discrimination
Origins of prejudice:
Conflict Theory – Prejudice stems from competition among social groups over valued commodities or opportunities.
Social Categorization – People generally divide the social world into two distinct categories: “us” and “them.”
We may commit the ultimate attribution error , which is the tendency to attribute desirable behaviors by members of our in-groups to stable, internal causes, but attribute desirable behaviors by members of out-groups to external causes.
Social Learning – Prejudice is learned.
Stereotypes – These generalizations about the typical characteristics of members of various groups exert strong effects on the way we process information.
Illusion of Out-group Homogeneity – This is the tendency to perceive persons belonging to groups other than our own as all alike.

Prejudice and Discrimination
Ways to combat prejudice and discrimination:
Contact Hypothesis –
Increase the degree of contact between different groups.
Re-Categorization – Eliminate “us-them” boundaries.
Reduce the impact of stereotypes

Group Dynamics
Primary Groups – Characterized by face-to-face communication, cooperation, permanence.
Secondary Groups – Characterized by formality, task-orientation, and being short-lived.
Functions of group membership – i.e., why do we join particular groups?



Help satisfy psychological and social needs.
Help us achieve goals.
Provide us with knowledge and information.
 Contributes to the establishment of a positive social identity.

Group Dynamics
Social Facilitation – The finding that the presence of others enhances performance on easy tasks and impairs performance on difficult tasks.
Social Loafing – A reduction in individual output.
Cohesiveness in groups – Exemplified by the use of “we” and “us” instead of “I” and “me”; joking & laughter; early arrival/late departure; nonverbals.
Groupthink – Group decision-making style characterized by an excessive tendency among members to seek concurrence.

Group Dynamics
Obedience
Famous study: Stanley Milgram (1960s)
At least 3 factors have been identified as affecting the degree of obedience:
1. the authority figure
2. the proximity of the victim
3. the experimental procedure

Group Dynamics
Conformity – The tendency to change perceptions, opinions, or behavior in ways that are consistent with group norms.
Well-known social psychological study:
Asch’s experiment in 1951
reference groups, informational influence, normative influence, identification, cohesiveness, social support

Group Dynamics
Compliance – Efforts to influence others through direct requests.
techniques: ingratiation, “foot-in-the-door,” and
“door-in-the face”

Love
Love is not just a private phenomenon; it is part of our public culture. Love is a narrative.
3 components of love: intimacy, passion, commitment
What is the difference between love and infatuation ?

Love
The Romantic-Love Ideal (5 beliefs):
1. Love at first sight.
2. One true love.
3. Love conquers all.
4. Our beloved is perfect.
5. Follow feelings.
HOW WOULD YOU CRITIQUE THIS IDEAL?
ARE THESE BELIEFS WIDELY ACCEPTED AND
PREVALENT IN OUR CULTURE TODAY?

Love
Love is powerful – e.g., allows people to accomplish things; overcome great obstacles. Also, love is powerful in the sense that, for two people in a romantic relationship, love gives each power over the other. From
Social Exchange Theory, consider the terms:
Comparison Level (CL) – The minimum level of positive outcome one expects in a relationship.
Comparison Level for Alternatives (CLalt) – The minimum level of positive outcome one will accept in a relationship, given his/her alternatives.

Deviance
Sociological conception of deviance:
*Deviance is much more than a personal characteristic.
*Deviance can be viewed as a form of social control.
*Nothing is inherently deviant.
*Deviance can be understood in terms of choice, selection, and purpose.
*Diversity is often labeled deviance.

Deviance stigma –
Any physical or social attribute or sign that devalues an actor’s social identity such that he/she is disqualified from full social acceptance.
Goffman distinguished 4 types of stigma: abominations of the body, blemishes of character, tribal stigma, courtesy stigma
2 basic strategies that deviants use to manage stigma:
1. try to hide or change the stigmatizing condition
2. learn to live with the stigma

Deviance
“Everyday deviances” are occasional slip-ups which temporarily mark individuals as nonconforming or awkward. In an attempt to avoid these everyday deviances, we make an effort to control:
SPACE, PROPS, and BODY.
Techniques we may need to draw upon: disclaimers, accounts.

Deviance
Social Psychological Theories of Deviance
Social Control Theory – The stronger one’s bond to society, the less likely is deviant behavior.
When one’s bond to society is weak or broken, then deviant behavior may result.
Travis Hirschi identified 4 components of the social bond: attachment, commitment, involvement, beliefs.

Deviance
Differential Association Theory –
Deviance is learned through association with others. The likelihood that a person will engage in deviant activity depends on the frequency of association with those who encourage norm violation compared with those who encourage conformity.
Labeling Theory –
Focuses on the process by which the social audience creates deviance and deviants by so defining the acts and actors that way.

Collective Behavior
Collective Behavior – Relatively spontaneous activity, involving a large number of people, that doesn’t conform to established norms.
In situations of collective behavior, at least 4 features are possible: free play of emotions (people experience “emotional
“contagion”) high degree of personal influence give and take of political competition emergence of transitory opinions and allegiances

Collective Behavior
Theories of collective behavior:
Contagion Theory – Crowds can exert a hypnotic influence on their members.
Convergence Theory – There is like-mindedness before the group comes together.
Emergent Norm Theory – Patterns of behavior emerge within the crowd.

Collective Behavior
Examples of collective behavior:
Crowds (types include casual, conventional, expressive, acting, and protest)
Riots – Characterized as highly emotional, involving violence and destruction, and no clear goal.
Stages: precipitating event, confrontation, the carnival phase, siege
Rumor – Unsubstantiated information spread informally.
Fads & Fashions

Social Movements
A social movement refers to a collection of individuals who organize together to achieve or prevent some social or political change.
There is a direct link between social movements and social change.
Theories:
Deprivation Theory – attempting to bring about a more just state of affairs
Resource Mobilization Theory – success requires money, labor, contacts with the media, etc.

Social Movements
Mass Society Theory would say that social movements attract socially isolated people.
Social Networks – People may get involved because of relationships they have with others who already belong to the movement.
The ideological appeal made by the movement might draw people in to the movement.

Aggression
Understanding Aggression
Freud’s Instinct Theory – We have an innate urge to destroy.
Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis – When we are frustrated, we become motivated to aggress.
Arousal Transfer Model – Arousal in one situation can be transferred to a second situation.
Social Learning Theory – We learn to behave aggressively by imitating others.

Aggression
Situational Impacts on Aggression – i.e., What characteristics of a situation might lead to acts of aggression?
1. Reinforcements
2. Modeling
3. Norms (e.g., retribution, revenge)
4. Stress
5. Aggressive Cues

Aggression
Personal Causes of Aggression:
1. Type A behavior
2. Hostile Attribution Bias – The tendency to perceive hostile intent in others, even when it’s totally lacking.
3. Shame

Aggression
1. Reducing Frustration
2. Punishing Aggression
3. Non-aggressive Models
4. Catharsis
Plus, cultivating empathy .
Empathy is the ability to appreciate the feelings and perspectives of others.

Why people help others:
1. Sociobiological Explanation – Ensure survival of your genes.
2. Social Evolution Explanation – Adaptive for the survival of society.
3. Good Mood Effect – The effect whereby a good mood increases helping behavior.
4. Negative State Relief Model – The proposition that people help others in order to counteract their own feelings of sadness.
5. Guilt – This feeling may lead us to help others in order to feel better about ourselves.
6. Social Norms – e.g., norm of reciprocity, norm of equity, norm of social responsibility
7. Personal Norms – An individual’s feeling of moral obligation to provide help when needed.
8. Characteristics of the person in need.

Prosocial Behavior
In emergency situations, people often do not become involved; why don’t people help?
Latane & Darley conducted research studies in the
1970s, arriving at the bystander effect, which is the effect whereby the presence of others inhibits helping.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eq7atH1eIk

Prosocial Behavior
3.
4.
1.
2.
Notice that something is happening.
Interpret the event as an emergency.
Take responsibility.
Decide how to help.

Research Methods
Basic Methods used in Social Psychology:
Experiment
Survey Research
Participant Observation
Consider strengths and weaknesses of each method.

Methods
Ethics in Research
Studies which generated debate (e.g., Milgram’s
Obedience Studies, Zimbardo’s Prison Study)
Importance of informed consent and debriefing.
informed consent – Giving research participants as full a description of the procedures as possible, prior to their participation.
debriefing – After the procedure, giving the participants a full explanation of the study.

Sandstrom book: Chapters 6, 7, 8
Lovaglia book: Appendix

Topics:


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


Deviance
Collective Behavior
Social Movements
Aggressive Behavior
Prosocial Behavior
Methods
 The exam will consist of:

40 multiple choice (29 from new material, 11 from previous exams)

1 essay (Think about the books for this class. What was each attempting to do?)