Social
Psychology
Psychology & Religion
Dr. Mark King
Social Psychology
 Scientific
study of how we influence one
another’s behavior and thinking.
Topics to Explore
1. How others influence our behavior
2. How others influence our thinking
Part 1
How Others
Influence
Our Behavior
Social Influence
 Social
Influence: Changes in a person’s
behavior induced by the actions of another
person. (Someone else influences your
decision)
 Conformity: A change
in behavior and/or
belief to conform to a group norm as a result
of real or imagined group pressure
Social Influence:
 Changes
in a person’s behavior induced by
the actions of another person. (Someone
else influences your decision)
 Conformity: A change
in behavior and/or
belief to conform to a group norm as a result
of real or imagined group pressure
The Asch Study
People were tested in groups, one test participant
and several confederates. Each was asked to judge
which of three comparison lines was the same length
as the standard line. The test participant was asked
last, after the confederates had answered.
The
Asch Study, continued
75% of participants conformed to confederates’ judgments
at least some of the time.
Overall, 37% of judgments conformed.
Normative social influence: influence stemming from our
desire to gain the approval and to avoid the disapproval of
others.
Why
We Comply
Compliance: acting in accordance with a direct request from
another person or group.
Foot-in-the-door technique: compliance to a large request
is gained by preceding it with a very small request.
Door-in-the-face technique: compliance is gained by
starting with a large, unreasonable request that is turned
down, and then following it with a smaller, more reasonable
request.
Obedience
to Authority
Obedience: Following the commands of a person in authority.
Classic Milgram study: Volunteer told to teach another
person (actually an accomplice in the experiment) word pairs
by applying an electric shock each time the learner was wrong.
The learner also told the volunteer that he had a heart
condition.
65% obeyed by going all the way to 450 volts on the “shock
machine” even though the learner eventually could not answer
any more questions.
Results of Milgram’s Study
Situational Factors in Obedience
Obedience to authority
was lowered by:
• increased personal
contact with victim
• social support of others
(e.g., two volunteers
working together)
• “Authority figure”
appearing more
disreputable
• Disagreement between
2 authority figures
What Are Social Psychology’s
Big Lessons?
 We
construct our
social reality
 Our social intuitions
are often powerful
but sometimes
perilous
 Social influences
shape our behavior
 Personal
attitudes
and dispositions also
shape behavior
 Social behavior is
biologically rooted
 Social psychology’s
principles are
applicable to
everyday life and
other disciplines
Group
Influence
Social Facilitation:
the presence of others leads to



heightened arousal, in which our performance of
simpler, familiar tasks is improved and our performance
of more difficult, unfamiliar tasks is adversely affected.
Social loafing: tendency to exert less effort when
working in a group toward a common goal than when
individually working toward the same goal.
Diffusion of responsibility: the lessening of a sense of
individual responsibility for a task when responsibility is
shared among members of a group.
Group Influence, continued



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Deindividuation: the loss of self-awareness and selfrestraint in a group situation that fosters arousal and
anonymity
Group polarization: the strengthening of a group’s
prevailing opinion about a topic following group
discussion about the topic.
Groupthink: a mode of group thinking that impairs
decision making because the desire for group
harmony overrides a realistic appraisal of the possible
decision alternatives.
Bystander effect: the probability of a person’s
helping in an emergency is greater when there are
no other bystanders than when there are bystanders.
Part 2
How Others
Influence
Our Thinking
Attribution Theory
 Attribution:
the process by which we explain
our own behavior and that of others. We can
attribute behavior to:
•
External Causes (situational): Ones that lie
outside of a person
•
Internal Causes (dispositional): Ones that
lie within a person
Attributions We Make
About Ourselves
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

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Actor-observer bias: the tendency to overestimate
situational influences on our own behavior, but to
overestimate dispositional influences on the behavior
of others
Self-serving bias: the tendency to make attributions
so that one can perceive oneself favorably
False-consensus effect: tendency to overestimate
the commonality of one’s opinions and unsuccessful
behaviors (but not successful behaviors)
False uniqueness effect: tendency to underestimate
the commonality of one’s abilities and successful
behaviors
Attributions We Make
About Others
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
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Fundamental attribution error: the tendency as an
observer to overestimate dispositional influences
(internal causes) and underestimate situational
influences (external causes) upon others’ behavior
Just world hypothesis: the assumption that the
world is just and that people get what they
deserve
Primacy effect: information gathered early is
weighted more heavily than information gathered
later in forming an impression of another person
(I.e., first impressions count!)
Self-fulfilling prophecy: our behavior leads a
person to act in accordance with our
expectations for that person