Social Psychology
AP Psychology
What is Social Psychology?
 Social Psychology
 How other people,
groups, and cultures
shaped our perceptions
 Examples:
 1. Why do people
become and stay
friends?
 2. How can a boss
keep his workers
happy?
 3. Why does violence
occur?
 4. Why would people
follow unjust rule?
Group Dynamics
 Humans have a basic
drive to form social
bonds with others.
 Social group – two or
more individuals sharing
common goals and
interests, interacting, and
influencing each other’s
behavior.
 Norms – Implicit or
explicit rules that apply to
all members of the group
and govern acceptable
behaviors and attitudes
Social Roles:
 Role
 set of expectations about a
social position
 defines how those in the
position ought to behave
 The Power of the
Situation: The Stanford
Prison Experiment
 Didn’t the guard,
prisoners, and warden all
fall into their respective
roles? Why?
 Can something like the
placebo effect cause us to
fall into certain
stereotypical roles?
Working in Groups:
• You will undoubtedly
work in groups
throughout your
entire life.
• Social loafing –
members of group
realize that others will
complete the task
(combat this by
offering individual
evaluations)
Why Does Social Loafing
Happen?
• 1. People acting as a
part of a group feel less
accountable, so they
worry less about what
others think of them.
• 2. They may not believe
that their contribution
makes a difference.
• 3. Motivation matters! –
those with lower
motivational levels know
that someone will pick up
the slack (in a group)
Deindividuation:
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Deindividuation: The process of
losing ones’ “identity” while in a
group. (usually occurs when
there is a heightened sense of
arousal)
Example: Gang members wear
similar outfits and act in similar
ways that are appropriate to their
gang.
Where does this happen?
1. Sporting contests - fighting
2. Church
3. Rock concerts
4. Protests - chanting
5. Riots and Looting after natural
disasters (Haiti)
Bystander Intervention:
• When in trouble, we’ve
been taught to go to
crowded places.
• Kitty Genovese
• Diffusion of
Responsibility
(bystander effect) – the
sense of personal
responsibility reduces
when more people are
present.
Altruism:
• Bystanders don’t always
diffuse responsibility
• Altruism - a “hero” will
emerge and fight off
attackers or help a
person in need.
• Researchers debate
whether there is an
inborn trait of altruism or
if it may be reward
based.
Social Facilitation:
• Social Facilitation: The
presence of others sometimes
helps or hurts performance.
• We perform better when we
are doing an already learned
task in front of others.
• We perform worse when we
are doing a new task in front
of others. (social impairment)
• Point to remember: What
you do well, you are likely to
do even better in front of an
audience. (especially a
friendly audience)
Group Think:
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Groupthink: When the desire for
harmony replaces realistic
judgment.
Example: When a group has to
make a decision and no one
stands up opposing the decision,
then the group feels it is a
unanimous decision. (even
though it may not be) – Bay of
Pigs
Group Polarization – When in a
group of like minded people,
decisions are often more extreme
than if made individually.
Minority Influence – a lone
dissenter holds on their opinion
and ends up convincing others of
their opinion.
Attribution Process:
• Theorists believe that
each of us is an amateur
scientist engaged in
trying to figure out why
people act the way that
they do.
• Social Cognition –
refers to the way people
gather, use, and interpret
information about their
social aspects of the
world around them.
Social Thinking
 Attribution Theory
 tendency to give an
explanation for
someone’s behavior,
often by crediting either
the situation or the
person’s traits.
• Dispositional attributions
– hold an individual
responsible for his or her
behavior.
• Situational attributions –
look at factors in the
environment to explain why
someone acted the way
that he/she does.
Evaluating Behavior:
• Self serving bias – we
attribute our achievements
and successes to personal
causes and our failures to
situational factors. (group
projects)
 Fundamental Attribution
Error
 tendency for observers,
when analyzing another’s
behavior, to underestimate
the impact of the situation
and to overestimate the
impact of personal traits
Social Roots of Prejudice:
• Some people have
money, power, and
prestige – others do not.
• This creates a “have”
and “have not” world.
• The Just World
Phenomenon: The
tendency for people to
believe the world is just
and that people therefore
get what they deserve
and deserve what they
get.
How Does This Work?
• “Slave owners developed
attitudes that “justified”
slavery. They perceived
the people they enslaved
as innately lazy,
ignorant, and
irresponsible.” (Hoffman
& Hurst, 1990)
• Do you think that over
time, the slaves bought
into this?
• So…Prejudice
rationalizes inequalities.
Us and Them:
• We have inherited our ancestors’ need to
belong, to live and love in groups.
• We cheer for them, kill for them, and die
for them.
 Ingroup
 “Us”- people with whom one shares a
common identity
 Outgroup
 “Them”- those perceived as different or
apart from one’s ingroup
How Does This Work?
• Facing fear and terror
(such as from the 9/11
attacks), patriotism
heightens and produces
anger and aggression
towards “them.” – those
who threaten our world.
• Scapegoat theory:
When things go wrong,
finding someone else to
blame can provide an
outlet for anger.
Prejudice and Stereotyping:
• Prejudice: An
unjustifiable, and usually
negative attitude towards
a group and it’s
members.
 Stereotype: a
generalized (sometimes
accurate, but often
overgeneralized) belief
about a group of people
Causes of Conflict:
• Ethnocentrism –
belief that our culture
is superior to others.
• Out-group
homogeneity –
tendency to believe
all members of
another group are
more similar than is
true (Hitler and the
Jews)
Increasing Cooperation:
• Contact Theory – Equal
status contact between
opposing groups should
lower tension and
increase harmony.
(Sherif study)
• Sherif showed that
teamwork increased
because of a super
ordinate goal
(emergency situation that
requires joint
cooperation)
Ethnocentrism is the belief
that:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Ethnic foods are all good
Human diversity is a positive
force
One’s own culture is superior
to others
Other people are all pretty
much alike in their opinions
Cultural pluralism is a
destructive goal that fosters
conflict
You read in the newspaper that survivors in a plane
accident in the Andes were discovered to have eaten
other survivors during their 32-day ordeal. You will have
committed the fundamental attribution error if you:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Attribute the behavior to
dispositional (personal)
factors
Attribute the behavior to
situational factors
Think you would have done
the same thing if you had
been there
Consider the behavior as a
signal for the moral
degradation of our society
Decide never to fly in a plane
again
Of the following, which would be a
good example of a self-serving
bias:
1.
Carlos, who feels that everyone
2.
3.
4.
5.
should strive to help themselves
as well as others
Antoine, who says that he has
bombed a test even though he
always gets an A
Mai, who works harder for
teachers who compliment her on
her efforts
Lina, who overestimates the
degree to which people agree
with her opinions
Betty, who believes that she
works harder than others and is
under-appreciated
Key terms:
 Normative Social
Influence
 influence resulting
from a person’s desire
to gain approval or
avoid disapproval
 Conformity
 adjusting one’s
behavior or thinking to
coincide with a group
standard
Other Terms:
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Chameleon effect: People will
naturally (unconsciously) mimic
others’ expressions, postures,
and movements.
Laughing
Coughing
Yawning
Why do we do this?
It helps us to feel what others feel
(empathize)
The more we mimic, the more
people like us (people like people
like them) (conformity)
Solomon Asch: Conformity
Experiment
• In 1955 Asch
conducted a simple
experiment to assess
conformity.
What this show us..
•
Experimentation reveals that we
are more likely to conform when:
• 1. We are made to feel
incompetent or insecure
• 2. We are in a group of at least
three people
• 3. We are in a group in which
everyone agrees.
NOTE: If just ONE other person
disagrees, the odds that we also
will disagree greatly increase.
• 4. We admire the group’s status
and attractiveness
• 5. We have not already
committed ourselves to any
response
• 6. We know that others in the
group will observe our behavior.
Discussion: Is conformity
good?
• What do you think?
• Positive: If people
conform to what we want
we may consider them
as being “open minded”
• Negative: If they don’t
conform to what we want
we scorn their inability to
“give in”
• So….how do
individualistic and
collectivists cultures
handle conformity
differently?
Stanley Milgram: Obedience
• Stanley Milgram (Yale) was a
student of Solomon Asch’s
and wanted to continue
studying conformity and
obedience.
• In 1974 he set up a lab to
assess how obedient subjects
would be when asked to
physically harm another
human being.
• Obedience: Adjusting our
behavior or thinking to
coincide with a group
standard.
What have we learned from
the research on obedience?
• Obedience is highest when:
• 1. The person giving the
orders was close at hand and
was perceived as being a
legitimate authority figure.
• 2. The authority figure was
supported by a respected,
well known institution.
• 3. The victim was at a
distance (killing)
• 4. There were no role models
for defiance (no one stood up
to the researcher)
Types of Power:
• Coercive Power: The power
to punish (parents placing
their kids in time out)
• Reward Power: The power to
reward desirable behavior
(boss giving bonuses)
• Legitimate Power: The
power granted by some
authority. (police officer)
• Expert Power: The power of
knowledge (wise professor)
• Referent Power: The power
of respect or admiration
(Looking up to certain people)
Lesson Four: Objectives
• By the end of this lesson, I will be able to:
• 1. Discuss attitude formation and
change, including persuasion
strategies and cognitive dissonance.
Attitudes:
• Attitude – learned predispositions to
respond in a favorable or unfavorable
way to something
• Many people claim to be honest citizens,
yet lie, cheat, and steal
• How do we change attitudes?
Social Thinking
 Foot-in-the-Door
Phenomenon
 tendency for people
who have first agreed
to a small request to
comply later with a
larger request
 Example: Sales
 Reciprocity – your
are more likely to help
someone else out if
they help you first.
Ways of Changing Attitudes:
• The Elaboration Likelihood Model looks at
two ways that attitudes can be changed.
• 1. Central Route to Persuasion – person uses
facts and figures to enable listeners to process
information and think about their decisions.
• 2. Peripheral Route to Persuasion –
Superficial information is used to distract the
audience to win favorable approval (pro
athletes pitching a product)
Friendships and attitudes:
• Proximity is the primary
determinant of who will
initially become friends.
• We are also more likely
to be attracted to
somebody we see
everyday
• Mere-exposure effect –
the more we come into
contact with someone,
the more likely we are to
like that person.
Mixed Emotions:
 Cognitive Dissonance Theory: Relief
from tension (Leon Festinger)
 we act to reduce the discomfort
(dissonance) we feel when two of our
thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent
 Example- when we become aware that
our attitudes and our actions clash, we
can reduce the resulting dissonance by
changing our attitudes
Advertising and Attitudes
• Advertising works well in changing attitudes
and beliefs
• People will often “trust” someone that is famous
or even good looking more than someone who
isn’t.
• Millions of dollars a year are spent on
advertising, especially to kids.
• Some argue that advertising is a social issue
(female portrayal of seduction and weakness)
Blaming the Victim
• when the victim(s) of a crime, an
accident, or any type of abusive situation
are held entirely or partially responsible
for the actions committed against them
(regardless of whether the victim actually
had any responsibility for the incident).
Confirmation Bias
• tendency of people to favor information
that confirms their beliefs or hypotheses