Social Thinking
Erick Fesler, JP John, Cecelia Lofton,
BriAna Lopez
Objectives
• Describe the structure and function of
different kinds of group behavior (e.g.,
deindividuation, group polarization).
• Explain how individuals respond to
expectations of others, including groupthink,
conformity, and obedience to authority.
• Predict the impact of the presence of others
on individual behavior (e.g., bystander effect,
social facilitation).
Normative Social Influence
• The influence of other people, leading us to conform in order
to be liked and accepted
• Example: If you go see a comedy show and laugh when others
are laughing, while you yourself don’t find it humorous,
you’ve been affected by normative social influence.
Informational Social Influence
• When placed in a difficult or ambiguous situation, you look to
the behaviors of other people in a same situation to see how
they behave or react.
• Example: If a speaker says something that you don’t know is
supposed to be humorous or not, you look to others to see if
they are laughing or listening.
Social Facilitation
• stronger responses on simple or well-learned
tasks in the presence of others.
• Ex.) having noticed that cyclists’ racing times
were faster when they competed with a clock,
Norman Triplett (1898) hypothesized that the
presence of others boosts performance.
Social Loafing
• the tendency for people in a group to exert less
effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining
a common goal than when individually
accountable.
• Ex.) blindfolded people seated in a group clapped and
shouted as loud as they could while listening through
headphones to the sound of loud clapping or shouting.
When told they were doing it with the others, the
participants produced about one-third less noise than
when they thought their individual efforts were
identifiable.
Deindividuation
• The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint
occurring in group situation that foster arousal
and anonymity
– Generally associated with negative behaviors
Ex) Women dressed in Ku Klux-Klan style hoods
delivered twice as much electric shock to a
victim than identifiable women would have
Group Polarization
• The enhancement of a group’s prevailing
inclinations through discussion within the
group
Ex) When a group of high-prejudice students
discuss racial issues, they become more
prejudice
Group Think
• the mode of thinking that occurs when the
desire for harmony in a decision making group
overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives
• when you want to do a something different
with your friends but they all want to do
something else so you agree that you want to
do that for the sake of supporting the group
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
• the theory that we act to reduce the
discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts
are inconsistent
• When you start from not believing in
something and eventually feel responsible for
your actions and start to believe in what you
are doing
Social Influence: Group 3
By: Ben Tran, Lily Dunlap, Jared
Jacobson, Parker Simpson, Madelyn
Milligan
Applicable Objectives
• Describe processes that contribute to
differential treatment of group members (e.g.,
ingroup/outgroup dynamics, ethnocentrism,
prejudice.
• Articulate the impact of social and cultural
categories (e.g. gender, race, ethnicity) on self
concept and relation with others.
Vocabulary
• Culture: The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes,
values, and traditions shared by a group of
people and transmitted from one generation to
the next; the ‘Math Geeks’ at North Shore High
School can be seen as having their own culture;
they focus on their studies in mathematics, have
few social skills and wear nice clothing.
• Norm: An understood rule for accepted and
expected behavior; it is the norm for the Plastics
to wear pink on Wednesdays
Vocabulary
• Prejudice: an unjustifiable (and usually negative)
attitude toward a group and its members; all of
the girls at Northshore have prejudice against the
members of the Plastics, as they do of them.
• Stereotype: a generalized (sometimes accurate
but often overgeneralized) belief about a group
of people; Damien is considered ‘too gay to
function’ because he displays many of the
stereotypes attributed to gay male culture.
Vocabulary
• Discrimination: unjustifiable negative behavior
toward a group and its members; Janis Ian and
Damien Franzese are both gay, and are subjected
to large levels of gossip and homophobic slander
from the Plastics
• Ingroup: “Us”—people with whom we share a
common identity; Regina George’s ingroup call
themselves the “Plastics”, they wear pink on
Wednesday and consider themselves superior to
the rest of the North Shore High School
population
Vocabulary
• Outgroup: “Them”—those perceived as
different or apart from the ingroup; those not
in with the “Plastics”
• Ingroup bias: the tendency to favor our own
group; Ian and Janis favor Cady less when she
becomes a member of the Plastics
Social Influence
Nomney Roel, Alec 𝐻2 𝑂, M.D. DuVall,
Fitzerton
Objectives
• Describe the variables that contribute to
altruism, aggression and attraction.
• Articulate the impact of social and cultural
categories on self concept and relation with
others.
• Describe processes that contribute to
differential treatment of group members.
Scapegoat theory
Shallow
• The theory that
prejudice offers an
outlet for anger by
providing someone to
blame
Deep
• After 9/11 some
outraged individuals
lashed out at innocent
Arab-Americans
because they were of
the same ethnicity as
the terrorists
Other-Race Effect
• Shallow Strategy
– The tendency to recall faces of one’s own race more accurately
than faces of other races. Also called the cross-race effect and
the own-race bias.
• Deep Strategy
– A suspect line is assembled, a Caucasian witness is called in to
identify a Caucasian suspect as the wrong doer. Since they are
of the same race it is easy for him to identify the guilty suspect.
However in a different case a Caucasian victim was called in to
identify the guilty African American suspect. The victim wrongly
accuses the wrong African American suspect because of the
difficulty in identifying a persons face from a different race.
After years of retrial the wrongly accused African American is
released from custody after being wrongfully accused by the
eye-witness.
Just-World Phenomenon
Definition:
• The tendency for people to believe the world is just and
that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve
what they get.
Deep Strategy
• In this scenario two men walk into a convenience store. The
first man finds a $20 dollar bill on the ground and instead of
keeping it, he gives it to the store owner. He receives a
reward of a free candy bar. The second man goes into the
store and tries to steal food and a drink from the store and
he is punished by getting arrested and going to jail. This
shows that good is rewarded and evil is punished.
Aggression
• Shallow
Any physical or
verbal behavior
intended to hurt or
destroy
• Deep
You have just gotten
100% on the AP exam for
psychology and posted
about it on Facebook.
Your classmate, who
failed that test, got so
angry that you passed
and he didn’t that he
blew up your house in an
attempt to harm you.
This is an aggressive act.
Frustration-Aggression Principle
• Shallow
• The principle
that frustration –
the blocking of
an attempt to
achieve some
goal – creates
anger, which can
generate
aggression
• Deep
• Your goal of
becoming the world’s
first trillionaire was
foiled by Craig when
he earned a trillion
dollars before you
did. This frustration
caused you anger
which caused you to
act aggressively by
saying, “see you in
hell, Craig!”
Social Relations
By: Breylin, Angela, Hanna, and Hayley
Objective:
Behavior can be influenced by the
presence of a group
Social Exchange Theory
● people help each other when the benefits – tangible or
intangible - physical or psychological outweigh the costs. The
person perceives the benefits to be greater than the costs.
● For example, someone would give up
tickets to a concert if the benefit of the
other person going was worth it to
them.
Reciprocity Norm
● an expectation that people will help
people who they have helped, not
hurt them.
● For example, if someone gives
another person a ride to school, the
person who gave the ride would
expect the other to be nice to them
at school and not be mean.
Social-Responsibility Norm
● an expectation that people will help
those dependent upon them
● Each of us as children are dependent upon our parents until
a certain point in life. They are responsible for feeding us,
loving us, and in general keeping us alive. This is their social
responsibility norm, as a parent.
Conflict
● a perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas
● When two people have a different idea of what is ideal and
cannot agree on a compromise.
Social Trap
Social trap: describes a short-term
solution to a problem that ultimately
causes a long-term loss.
An example of a Social trap would be
clear-cutting a rainforest. The short
term profit of the lumber causes a
long-term loss environmentally and
destroys numerous habitats.
Mirror-Image Perceptions
Mirror-Image Misperception: Mutual views
often held by conflicting people, as when
each side sees itself as ethical and
peaceful and views the other side as evil
and aggressive.
An example of a Mirror-Image
Misperception would be North Korea and
the United States, each side sees the
other as an aggressive threat.
Superordinate Goals
goals that get people from opposing
sides to come together and work
toward a common end result
Deep Learning Strategy:
two groups get lost in the jungle
together and the only way they
survive is to work together
GRIT
A personality trait which is encompassed by
a passion and resilience to achieve one's
goals.
Deep Learning Strategy:
Someone who is a high achiever and works
hard to overcome obstacles can be
described as having GRIT, especially if
they have a humble background