SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
HOW ARE OUR ACTIONS, ATTITUDES, AND BELIEFS AFFECTED BY THOSE
WITH WHOM WE INTERACT?
ATTRIBUTION THEORY
1. What reason might you give for a friend who has failed the last 3
psychology tests?
2. What reason might you give for you having failed the last 3 psychology
tests?
3. What reason might you give for teenagers who go out and get drunk
or high each weekend?
4. What reason might you give if this is you every weekend?
5. What reason might you give if the Astros have a losing season again
this year?
6. What reason might a member of the Astros team give for having a
losing (or winning) season?
ATTRIBUTION THEORY
• SITUATION VS. DISPOSITION
• FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR (FAE)
• SELF-SERVING BIAS
ATTRIBUTION THEORY
• It’s a normal tendency of humans to attempt to explain human
behaviors, other’s and our own.
• Attribution theory is the understanding that people attempt to
explain behavior of others by either internal dispositions or external
situations.
• Remember: both disposition and situation are relevant and valid
• Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) is our human tendency to
emphasize disposition rather than situation when explain other
people’s behaviors.
• Self-serving bias is our tendency to emphasize our own situation
rather than disposition when explaining our own behaviors.
FAE
Be cautious of this
in competition:
When you win, it’s
the team’s/your
talent, but when
you lose it was the
referee’s calls.
ATTITUDES & BEHAVIORS
• Attitudes: feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us
to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.
• Attitudes influence actions and actions influence attitudes.
• Knowing attitudes and wanting to change them leads to persuasion
• Central route persuasion: offers evidence aimed to trigger favorable
thoughts. It’s route is through thoughtful and direct messages.
• Peripheral route to persuasion: doesn’t engage systematic thinking but is
very effective in manipulating our emotions leading to snap judgements by
utilizing attractive or famous people.
Video on persuasion via advertising
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC7VLjIw8hY
ATTITUDES & BEHAVIORS
• The foot-in-the-door phenomena
• “Fake it to make it.” Role playing
• Cognitive Dissonance
ATTITUDES & BEHAVIORS
• The foot-in-the-door phenomena: Once a person has agreed to a
small task/favor the more likely they will agree to a larger task/favor
• Role playing can influence our attitudes. This may be why costars fall
into relationships with one another (and fall out as well). A good
example of the power of role playing is the Stanford Prison
Experiment. Know Phil Zimbardo’s name!
ATTITUDES & BEHAVIORS
• The Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE)
ATTITUDES & BEHAVIORS
• How does this happen? One explanation is cognitive dissonance.
• We actually experience levels of discomfort when our actions and
attitudes don’t align, or when we have misaligned attitude about
something. It’s like being a hypocrite, so something has to change,
either our actions or our attitudes.
• For example, proclaiming you don’t believe in sex before marriage,
but then meeting someone you really love and feeling conflicted
about your decisions and possibly your actions as well.
ATTITUDES & BEHAVIORS
• Often our attitudes and beliefs will drive us to act in ways to make
events occur that reinforce these beliefs.
• This is known as the self-fulfilling prophecy.
• Consider the Rosenthal study detailed in the “40 Studies” book.
Teachers were told which children were “bloomers” and subsequently
treated those students differently, better. “Bloomers” continued to
bloom more fully from this reinforcing the teachers’ beliefs that they
really were “bloomers.” In fact, there was no difference between
these students and the others not labeled.
ATTITUDES & BEHAVIORS
• Stereotype
• Prejudice
• Discrimination
• Ethnocentrism
• In-group/out-group
ATTITUDES & BEHAVIORS
• Stereotype: a generalized (sometimes accurate but often
overgeneralized) belief about a group of people.
• Prejudice: an unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a
group and its members. Prejudice generally involves stereotyped
beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory
action.
• Discrimination: in social psychology, unjustifiable negative behavior
toward a group and its members.
• Ethnocentrism: judging other’s cultures based on
one’s own cultural standards.
ATTITUDES & BEHAVIORS
• In-group/out-group bias
HOW OTHERS INFLUENCE US
• Groupthink
• Social loafing
• Social facilitation
• Group polarization
• Deindividuation
• Dehumanization
HOW OTHERS INFLUENCE US
• GROUPTHINK
• The mode of thinking that
occurs when the desire for
harmony in decision-making
groups overrides a realistic
appraisal of alternatives.
• Avoid it by welcoming diverse
opinions, be open to critiques,
identify possibly problems, allow
debate.
HOW OTHERS INFLUENCE US
• SOCIAL LOAFING “SLACKING”
• The tendency for people in a
group to exert less effort when
pooling their efforts toward
attaining a common goal than
when individually accountable
• SOCIAL FACILITATION
• Improved performance on simple of
well-learned in the presence of
others
• Some believe this explains “home
field advantage,” but some research
says it is a product of refereeing.
HOW OTHERS INFLUENCE US
• GROUP POLARIZATION
• The enhancement of a group’s
prevailing inclinations through
discussion within the group.
• DEINDIVIDUATION
• The loss of self-awareness and
self-restraint occurring in group
situations that foster arousal and
anonymity.
HOW OTHERS INFLUENCE US
• Solomon Asch’s conformity study
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyDDyT1lDhA
• Asch discovered that very specific situational factors influence
whether we conform or not:
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If one feels incompetent or inferior (due to age, experience, knowledge, etc.)
If the group has at least 3 people
If the group appears to be unanimous
If one admires the group’s status/attractiveness (think frats & sororitites)
If one has made no prior commitments/doesn’t have an opinion
If others are observing your behavior
If there is a cultural expectation of respect for social standards
HOW OTHERS INFLUENCE US
• Reasons for conformity
• Normative social influence: influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain
approval or avoid disapproval.
• Information social influence: influence resulting from one’s willingness to
accept other’s opinions about reality. This is often enhanced by what we
perceive as “expertise.”
• “Suggestibility” is a subtle form of conformity. This is especially
relevant when we have no established opinion, not fully attentive to
the situation, or lack the energy to establish a stance.
HOW OTHERS INFLUENCE US
• OBEDIENCE
• Conditions that influence obedience
• When the person in charge is in close proximity to participants
• When that person is perceived as legitimate (white coat vs. no white coat)
• When that person is support by a prestigious institution like a university or the
government
• When the victim is depersonalized or separated by the one victimizing him/her
(Consider how easy it is to be harsh, mean, or a bully in cyber situation…)
• When there are no role models for defiance, we are more likely to obey
• The Milgram Experiment
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvSNg0HZwk
HOW OTHERS INFLUENCE US
• Altruism: The unselfish positive regard for other people’s well being.
• Though we want to believe that we are altruistic, we find that when
there are more people around, it is less likely we will help.
• Diffusion of responsibility helps to explain this. When more people
are potentially responsibly for an action, we feel less responsible as
an individual.
ALTRUSIM & THE BYSTANDER EFFECT
• The story of Kitty Genovese
• http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/truth-kitty-genovese-article1.1706942
ALTRUISM
• We are more likely to help under the following conditions:
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We have observed someone else being helpful
We are not in a hurry
The victim appears to need and/or deserve help
The victim is in someway similar to us
We are in a small town or rural area
We are feeling guilty
We are focused on others, not preoccupied
We are in a good mood.
ATTRACTION
• What attracts us to one another?
• Physical appearance matters, especially features that are symmetrical
and youthful. These give cues about reproductive potential
• Proximity matters. We tend to be attracted to people who are near
us and we interact with regularly. Familiarity breeds attraction: the
mere exposure effect: The more we experience it, the more we tend
to like it.
• Similarity: We tend to be attracted to people who are like us in ways
that are important to us.
Triangular Theory of Love
AGGRESSION
• Aggression: any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy
• Biological explanations: Men tend to engage in more violent acts than
women. There is a genetic marker on the Y chromosome that partially
accounts for this. Increased activity of the amygdala influences aggressive
acts, and reduced activity of the frontal lobe does the same. Testosterone
levels influence aggression, too.
• Social/environmental influences: Frustration creates anger which can
spark aggression. Aversive stimuli such as heat, pain, insults, foul odors,
crowds are all environmental factors that can influence aggressive acts.
• Social influences: violent models, remember Bandura and the Bobo doll?
• Media: Movies & tv shows provide us with “social scripts,” which can be
violent and aggressive.
AGGRESSION
• Frustration-aggression hypothesis: (1939, Dollard) a. Frustration
always produces an aggressive urge b. Aggression is always the result
of prior frustrations; In 1989, Berkowitz added that the frustration has
to be decidedly unpleasant.
• Frustration-regression hypotheis: frustration often leads to behaviors
characteristic of a much earlier period in life.