Chapter 16
Social Psychology
Chapter 16 Preview
Constructing Social Reality
The Power of the Situation
Attitudes, Attitude Change, and Action
Chapter 16 Preview
Prejudice
Social Relationships
Aggression, Altruism, and Prosocial Behavior
Recapping Main Points
1
Social
Psychology
Social Psychology
Studies effect of social variables
on individual behavior, attitudes,
perceptions, and motives also
studies group and intergroup
phenomena
Social Perception
Social Cognition
Constructing Social Reality
Process by which people select,
interpret, and remember social
information
Process by which people come to
understand and categorize the behaviors
of others
Origins of Attribution Theory
• Describes
ways social
Attribution
Theory
perceiver uses
information to
generate
causal
explanations
2
Origins of Attribution Theory
• People are
Fritz
Heider
intuitive
psychologists
• Dispositional
causes
• Situational
causes
Origins of Attribution Theory
• Covariation
Harold
Kelly
model
• Dimensions of
information
• Distinctiveness
• Consistency
• Consensus
Fundamental Attribution Error
• Fundamental
Attribution Error (FAE)
Lee
Ross
• Tendency to
underestimate impact
of situational factors
and overestimate
influence of
dispositional factors
• Partially due to
cultural sources
3
Ratings of Questioners’ and Contestants’
General Knowledge
Self-serving Biases
Taking credit for
successes and
denying
responsibility for
failures
Self-Serving
Bias
Influenced by
culture
Expectations and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
Prediction modifies interactions
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
so as to produce what is
expected
People behave in ways that
Behavioral Confirmation
elicit specific expected
reactions and then use those
reactions to confirm their beliefs
4
The Power of the Situation
Social Role
• Social-
Rule
• Behavioral
Social Norms
• Expectation
defined
guideline for
group has
pattern of
acting in
for its
behavior
certain way
members
at certain
time
Conformity
Conformity
Tendency for people to adopt
behaviors, attitudes, and values
of other members of group
Guard and
Prisoner
Behavior
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Conformity Influence
Information
Influence
Normative
Influence
Conformity in the Asch Experiment
Conformity
Minority Influence and
Nonconformity
More informational
influence and less
normative influence
Serge Moscovici
and colleagues
6
Decision Making in Groups
Group Polarization
• Tendency of groups to make more extreme decisions then decisions
that would be made by members acting alone
Two underlying process
• Information-influence
• Social comparison
Groupthink
Groupthink
Irving Janis
Tendency of decision making group to filter out undesirable
input so that consensus may be reached
Groupthink
Factors leading to Groupthink:
• High level of group cohesiveness
• Isolation of group from outside information or influences
• Dynamic, influential leader
• High stress from external threats
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Obedience to Authority
Obedience
paradigm
Why do people
To shock or not
obey authority?
to shock?
Obedience in Milgram’s Experiments
Attitudes, Attitude Change, and Action
Attitude
Positive or negative
evaluation of people,
Predictability of
objects, and ideas
attitudes influenced by
•Cognitive
accessibility
•Affective
•Behavioral
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Processes of Persuasion
• How likely people
Elaboration
Likelihood
Model
will focus their
cognitive process
to elaborate on
persuasive
message
• Central routes
• Peripheral routes
Persuasion By Your Own Actions
Dissonance
Theory
Cognitive
Dissonance
• Leon Festinger
• Conflict experienced after
making decision, taking
action, or being exposed to
information that is contrary to
prior beliefs, feelings, or
values
Persuasion By Your Own Actions
• Daryl Bem
Selfperception
Theory
• People
observe
themselves to
discover why
they act as
they do
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Compliance
Change in behavior
consistent with direct
Compliance
request
Reciprocity
Compliance
Techniques
Commitment
Prejudice
• How do
Prejudice
you define
prejudice?
Origins of Prejudice
• Process by which
people organize their
Social
social environment by
Categorization
and others into groups
categorizing themselves
• In-group
• Out-groups
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Origins of Prejudice
In-group bias
• Evaluation of one’s
own group as
better then others
Origins of Prejudice
Racism
Sexism
Effects of Stereotypes
Generalizations about
group of people in which
Stereotypes
same characteristics are
assigned to all members
of group
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Effects of Stereotypes
Expectations
encoding
Effects
Behavior
confirmations
Stereotype threat
(IQ testing)
Implicit Prejudice
Prejudice that exists
outside an individual’s
conscious awareness
Implicit Prejudice
Implicit Association
Test (IAT)
Reversing Prejudice
Reversing
Prejudice
Muzafer Sherif
Elliott Aronson
Robbers Cave
Experiment
Contact
hypothesis
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Social Relationships
Liking
• Physical
Loving
• Passion
attractiveness
• Similarity
• Intimacy
• Commitment
• Reciprocity
Factors in Lasting Relationships
Close relationship
• Feeling that “other” is included in “self”
• Individuals differences in ability to
sustain lasting, loving relationships
• Adult attachment styles
Psychology in Your Life
In what ways are you like a chameleon?
Why do Chartrand and Bargh speculate
that mimicry functions as a kind of social
glue?
For more information, read the study on
page 473 of your text.
13
Aggression, Altruism, and Prosocial
Behavior
Aggression
• Behavior that cause
psychological or
physical harm to
another individual
Aggression
Situational Influences
• Frustration-Aggression
Individual Differences
Hypothesis
• Direct Provocation and
• Impulsive Aggression
Escalation
• Instrumental Aggression
Altruism
Altruism
Reciprocal
Altruism
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Bystander Intervention
Bystander must
• notice emergency
• label events as emergency
• feel responsibility
Roots of Prosocial Behavior
Forces that prompt people
to act for public good
• Altruism
• Egoism
• Collectivism
• Principlism
Effects of the Situation on Prosocial
Behavior
Diffusion of
Responsibility
Bystander Intervention
• Bib Latané and John
Darley
• Willingness to assist
• Larger number of
bystanders, less
responsibility any one
bystander feels to help
person in need
15
Recapping Chapter 16 Main Points
Constructing Social Reality
• Origins of Attribution Theory
• Fundamental Attribution Error
• Self-Serving Biases
• Expectations and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
• Behaviors that Confirm Expectations
Recapping Chapter 16 Main Points
Constructing Social Reality
• Attribution Theory
• Fundamental Attribution Error
• Self-Serving Bias
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
Recapping Chapter 16 Main Points
Attitudes, Attitude Change, and Action
• Attitudes and Behaviors
• Processes of Persuasion
• Persuasion by Your Own Actions
• Compliance
Prejudice
• Origins of Prejudice
• Effects of Stereotypes
• Reversing Prejudice
16
Recapping Chapter 16 Main Points
Social Relationships
• Liking
• Loving
Aggression, Altruism, and Prosocial Behavior
• Individual Differences
• Situational Influences
• Roots of Altruism
• Effects of the Situation on Prosocial Behavior
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