Social Psychology
 The branch of psychology that studies the effects of social variables and cognitions on individual behavior and social interactions.

Social Context
 The combination of people, the activities and interactions among people, the setting in which behavior occurs, and the expectations and social norms governing behavior in that setting.

Situationism
 The view that environmental conditions influence people’s behavior as much as or more than their personal dispositions do.

Social Standards of Behavior
 Social Roles – One of several socially defined patterns of behavior that are expected of persons in a given setting or group
 Script – A cluster of knowledge about the sequences of events and actions expected to occur in a particular setting

Social Standards of Behavior
 Social Norms – A group’s expectations regarding what is appropriate and acceptable for its members’ attitudes and behaviors.

Conformity
 Conformity – The tendency for people to adopt the behaviors, attitudes, and opinions of other members of a group.
 Asch Effect – A form of Conformity in which a group majority influences individual judgments.
 Based on the findings of Solomon Asch

 The size of the majority
 The presence of a partner who disented from the majority
 The size of the discrepancy

Conformity
 Groupthink – Members of the group attempt to conform their opinions to what each believes to be the consensus of the group.
 Conditions that influence groupthink:
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Isolation of the group
High group cohesiveness
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Directive leadership
Lack of norms requiring methodical procedures
Homogeneity of members’ social background and ideology
High stress from external threats with low hope of a better solution than that of the group leader

The Stanford Prison Experiment
 Explaining the power of social situations in controlling behavior!

Obedience to Authority
 Milgram’s Obedience Experiment
 2/3 delivered the maximum shock of 450 volts!!!
 Even though the participants verbally dissented, they continued giving the shocks… WHY???

Obedience to Authority
 Conditions under which people tend to be obedient:
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When a peer modeled obedience by complying to the authority figure’s commands
When the victim was remote from the “teacher” and could not be seen or heard
When the “teacher” was under direct surveillance of the authority figure so that he was aware of the authority figure’s presence
When a participant acted as an intermediary bystander, merely “assisting the one who was delivering the shock, rather than actually throwing the switches
When the authority figure had higher relative status (being billed as a “professor” or “doctor”

The Bystander Problem
 Kitty Genovese incident:
 Raped and stabbed to death in Queens, NY while 38 people watched from their windows.
 Only one person called the police, after the incident was over.

The Bystander Problem
 Diffusion of responsibility – Dilution or weakening of each group member’s obligation to act when responsibility is perceived to be shared with all group members.

Interpersonal Attraction
 We usually prefer rewarding relationships
 Reward Theory of Attraction – A social-learning view that says we like best those who give us maximum rewards at minimum cost.

Interpersonal Attraction
 Proximity – Nearness.
 Principle of Proximity – The notion that people at work will make more friends among those who are nearby – with whom they have the most contact.

Interpersonal Attraction
 Similarity
 Similarity Principle – The notion that people are attracted to those who are most similar to themselves.

Interpersonal Attraction
 Self-Disclosure – The more intimate details we share about our lives with someone, the more attracted we become to them.
 Most people find self disclosure highly rewarding.
 Builds trust, which leads to attraction.

Interpersonal Attraction
 Physical Attraction
 Although we may say it doesn’t matter, research shows that it actually does.
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Matters in how people perceive us
Getting a job
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Children
Physically attractive people are often seen as more poised, interesting, sociable, independent, exciting, sexual, intelligent, well-adjusted, and successful.
 Also sometimes perceived as more vain and materialistic.
Same for opposite and same sex couples

Interpersonal Attraction
 Expectations and the Influence of Self-Esteem
 Matching Hypothesis – The prediction that most people will find friends and mates that are perceived to be of about their same level of attractiveness.
 Expectancy-value Theory – A theory of social psychology that people decide whether to pursue a relationship by weighing the potential value of the relationship against their expectation of success in establishing the relationship.

Interpersonal Attraction
 Attraction and Self-Justification
 Cognitive Dissonance – A highly motivated state in which people have conflicting cognitions, especially when their voluntary actions conflict with their attitudes.

Making Cognitive Attributions
 Fundamental Attribution Error – The tendency to emphasize internal causes and ignore external pressures.
 FAE is more common in individualistic cultures than in collectivistic cultures.

Making Cognitive Attributions
 Biased thinking about yourself
 Self-serving bias – An attributional pattern in which one takes credit for success but denies responsibility for failure.

Prejudice and Discrimination
 Prejudice – A negative attitude toward an individual based solely on his or her membership in a particular group.

Prejudice and Discrimination
 Discrimination – A negative action taken against an individual as a result of his or her group membership.

Prejudice and Discrimination
 Dissimilarity and Social Distance
 In-group – The group with which an individual identifies.
 Social Distance – The perceived difference or similarity between oneself and another person.
 Out-group – Those outside the group with which an individual identifies.

Prejudice and Discrimination
 Scapegoating – Blaming an innocent person or a group for one’s own troubles.
 Example – Adolf Hitler used the Jews as a scapegoat for
Germany’s problems following WWI.

 Social Facilitation – An increase in an individual’s performance because of being in a group.
 Social Loafing – A decrease in performance because of being in a group.
 Deindividuation – Occurs when group members lose their sense of personal identity and responsibility and the group “assumes” responsibility for their behavior.

 Group Polarization – When individuals in a group have similar, though not identical, views, their opinions become more extreme.
 Groupthink – An excessive tendency to seek concurrence among group members.

 Loving relationships
 Romantic Love – A temporary and highly emotional condition based on infatuation and sexual desire.
 Triangular Theory of Love – A theory that describes various kinds of love in terms of three components:
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Passion (erotic attraction)
Intimacy (sharing feelings and confidences)
Commitment (dedication to putting this relationship first in one’s life)

 Violence and Aggression – Terms that refer to behavior that is intended to cause harm.

 Cohesiveness – Solidarity, loyalty, and a sense of group membership.
 Mutual Interdependence – A shared sense that individuals or groups need each other in order to achieve common goals.
 How did this end?

Terrorism
 The use of violent, unpredictable acts by a small group against a larger group for political, economic, or religious goals.
 Very psychological in nature because in essence terrorism is an attempt to control the minds of their enemies by making them feel victimized and fearful.