Matakuliah : L0014 / PSIKOLOGI UMUM
Tahun
: 2007
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Pertemuan 24
Social Psychology
Definition of Social Psychology
• Studies individuals as they interact with others
– Aristotle: Man is by nature a social animal
– Psychologists study
• Attractions
• Needs
• Influences
– Examine within social context of situations
Social Psychology
Groups and Social Influence
• Lynch mobs
– Racial prejudice: lynching of African Americans
– Deindividuation – anonymous, inidentifiable feeling of group member
• Weakens restraints; are more aggressive
• Uninvolved bystanders
– Murder of Kitty Genovese in New York
– The larger the group, the less likely one will help
– Diffusion of responsibility
Social Psychology
Working and
Solving Problems in Groups
• Social facilitation: being in group improves individual
performance
• Social loafing: individuals exert less effort in group than if by
themselves (slack off)
• Nature of task affects behavior
– Optimal levels of arousal
– Easy/skilled tasks performed more quickly
– Difficult/unfamiliar tasks performed more slowly
Social Psychology
Group Problem Solving
• Groupthink –
–
–
–
–
Faulty decision-making process in groups
President Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs invasion
NASA’s 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster
Causes
• Process of polarization (extreme views)
• Cohesiveness of members of the group (likelihood
highest in tightly knit groups)
• Size of the group
– Interactive dialogue vs. serial monologue
Social Psychology
Conformity,
Social Roles, and Obedience
• Conformity –
– Asch experiments
• Peer and cultural expectations
• Conform for two reasons
– Gain rewards, avoid punishment
– Gain social approval, avoid disapproval
A
X
Y
Z
Yielding to
group
pressure
even when
no direct
request to
comply has
been made.
Social Psychology
Conformity
– Autokinetic effect (Sherif)
• In ambiguous situation – one looks to others for
information that influences judgment
• Likelihood of conformity causes
–
–
–
–
Size of group (increases with size)
Unanimous groups (reduced by dissent)
Culture and conformity
Gender and conformity (sterotypes changing, no longer true)
Decision Model of Helping
1
Notice an event?
Yes
2
No
No
Interpret as an emergency?
Yes
3
Assume responsibility for helping?
No
Yes
4
Know how to help?
No
Yes
5
Decide to help implement intervention?
Yes
Help victim
No
Do not
help
Social Psychology
Social Roles and Social Norms
• Every culture has
– Social roles – expectations of behavior
– Social norms – standards for behavior in given situations
• Zimbardo’s prison study –
– Power of social roles influencing behaviors
– Behavior changes to fit perceptions of role
• Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison scandal
– Social roles coupled with intense emotions
Social Psychology
Obedience
• Direct influence by authority figures
– Unthinkable atrocities of WW II
– Milgram’s shock experiments
• Teacher less likely to give high voltage shock when
learner in same room
• Positive sides of groups
– Accomplish things that individuals cannot
– Can be therapeutic: emotional support, lower stress
Social Psychology
Attitudes and Persuasion
• Attitudes – beliefs that predispose one to act or feel in certain
ways
– Learned directly from experience and others
• Persuasion and attitude change
– Aristotle: persuasive arguments in oral debates
– Ads in media use persuasion to induce behavior
– Persuasion – process of changing another’s attitudes by arguments and
other related means
Social Psychology
Attitudes and Persuasion
• Characteristics of Speaker
– Credibility – is speaker credible source of information about specific
argument being presented
– Attractiveness – more effective to be attractive, popular, famous, or
likeable
– Intent – what the rationale is behind it
Social Psychology
Attitudes and Persuasion
• Characteristics of the message
– Fear appeals (emotional arousal)
– Two-sided arguments (most effective)
– Message framing (how argument is presented)
• Characteristics of listeners
–
–
–
–
–
Intelligence
Need for social approval
Self-esteem
Audience size
Social support
Social Psychology
Attitudes and Persuasion
• Techniques of persuasion
– Foot-in-the-door (small request made, then progressively larger ones)
– Low-ball
• Cognitive dissonance theory
– Explains discomfort of inconsistencies in attitudes and behaviors
– Humans usually reduce dissonance the easiest way possible (ie:
smoking and cancer)
Cognitive Dissonance
Smoking
cigarettes is
unhealthy
Unpleasa
nttension
state
Smoking cigarettes
is unhealthy
I don’t smoke
cigarettes anymore
or
The research on smoking
is not conclusive
I smoke
cigarettes
I smoke cigarettes
Social Psychology
Prejudice and Stereotypes
• Prejudice – harmful attitude based on inaccurate
generalizations (ie: group, race)
– Stereotypes: inaccurate generalizations that are harmful for three
reasons
• Reduce one’s ability to treat another as individual
• Narrow expectations for behavior
• Lead to faulty attributions
– Attitudes lead to behaviors!!
Social Psychology
Prejudice and Stereotypes
• Automatic prejudice – everyone is prejudiced about something
• Causes of stereotypes and prejudice
– Realistic conflict (frustration from competing with another group for
scarce resources)
– Us versus them – human tendency of in-group and out-group
– Social learning (it is taught and learned)
Social Psychology
Prejudice and Stereotypes
• Combating prejudice
– Recognize prejudice
– Control automatic prejudice
– Increase contact among prejudiced groups
• Two groups must be almost equal in status
• View each other as typical of their respective group; not
the exception
• Engage in cooperative, not competitive tasks
• Contact must be informal
Social Psychology
Interpersonal Attraction
• Attribution - Making judgments about what causes people
to behave the way they do
– Fundamental attribution error
• Underestimating negative impact of situations on others
– Situational attribution –
• Blaming external cause for behavior
– Dispositional attribution
• Blaming internal motive/trait for behavior
Social Psychology
Interpersonal Attraction
• Negative Information
– The bad outweighs the good – cognitive algebra
• Chemistry of love and social bonding
– Appears people respond to sex hormones
• Androstadien (in human sweat)
• Oxytocin (in blood and brain)
Social Psychology
Interpersonal Attraction
• Characteristics of the other person
– Drawn to those with similar interests
– Opposites attract – complements each other (gives balance to
relationship, avoids having competition)
– Physical attractiveness
• attribute better qualities to beautiful people
• Most important factor in early stage meeting
• Self-fulfilling prophecy and perceptions
Social Psychology
Interpersonal Attraction
• Characteristics of perceiver
– Personality traits influence person perception
• Neuroticist persons tend not to marry
– Emotions and person perception
• Positive emotions are more attractive
– Gender differences
• Men interested in falling in love
• Majority of people think romantic love is necessary for
marriage
Social Psychology
Extraneous Factors
• Primacy effects
– First impressions are very important; more weight given than to
later information
• Conditions lessen impact primacy effects
– Prolonged exposure
– Passage of time
– Knowledge of primacy effects
• Cause of attraction
– Proximity
– Mutual liking
Social Psychology
Relationships
• Maintaining relationships
– Balancing reality with expectations
– Shift from passionate love to companionate love signals unfulfilled
expectations
– Normal for personal changes to occur over time
• Equity in relationships
– Equity theory