Lecture Overview
• Our Thoughts About Others
• Our Feelings About Others
• Our Actions Toward Others
• Applying Social Psychology to Social
Problems
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Introductory Definition
• Social Psychology: study of how other people
influence our thoughts, feelings, & actions
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010
Social psychology
• examines how other
persons influence our • Actions include social
thoughts, feelings and influence, aggression,
and altruism
actions
– Thoughts include
attitudes and
attributions
– Feelings include
attraction and dislike
Attitude:
• learned predisposition
to respond cognitively,
affectively, &
behaviorally to a
particular object
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Attitudes:
• Cognitive: what you
think
• Affective: physiological
changes
• Behavioral: what you do
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Our Thoughts About Others: Cognitive
Dissonance
• Cognitive Dissonance: feeling of discomfort
created from a mismatch between an
attitude & a behavior or between two
competing attitudes
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Our Thoughts
About Others:
Cognitive
Dissonance
(Continued)
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Our Thoughts About Others: Cognitive
Dissonance (Continued)
• Festinger & Carlsmith’s Cognitive
Dissonance Study. Participants given VERY
boring tasks to complete, & then paid
either $1 or $20 to tell next participant the
task was “very enjoyable” & “fun.”
• Result? Those paid $1 experienced
greater cognitive dissonance, &
therefore changed their attitude more
than those paid $20.
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010
Interpersonal attraction
•
•
•
•
•
•
Three Key Factors:
Physical Attractiveness
Most important, yet culturally
influenced
Proximity: geographic closeness
Similarity: people prefer those who are like
themselves
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Interpersonal attraction
• People do tend to stick with people as
attractive as they : the “matching hypothesis”
This works between and within sexes.
• Why does this happen?
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Interpersonal attraction
• In a normal distribution of people 96% are
neither extraordinary good looking nor
extraordinarily unattractive. Most people in
that 96% do not feel they have settled in
choosing their mate.
• In fact, most married people rate their
spouses as more attractive than themselves .
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010
Criteria for sexual selection?
• Rather consistently, women prefer mates
somewhat older, men prefer younger mates.
• Women prefer wealthy high-status males
• Men prefer younger, attractive women
• Any idea why?
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Interpersonal attraction
• Proximity: geographic closeness
• Logistics
• Familiarity
• Mere exposure increases liking
• Keeping a lasting relationship
Similarity: people prefer those who are like
themselves
So, do opposites attract? Maybe in personality
but not in social background or values.
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010
D
• “What is Beautiful
is Good”; Dion et
al. , 1972
People who are
attractive are expected
to have better jobs,
be nicer people etc.
“Halo effect”
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010
Our Actions Toward Others:
Social Influence
• Conformity: changing
behavior because of real
or imagined group
pressure
• Obedience: following
direct commands,
usually from an
authority figure
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Our Actions Toward Others:
Conformity
Asch’s Conformity Study
• Participants were asked to select
the line closest in length to X.
• When confederates first gave
obviously wrong answers (A or C),
more than 1/3 of true subjects
conformed & agreed with the
incorrect choices.
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010
Our Actions Toward Others:
Conformity (Continued)
Why do we conform?
• Normative Social Influence: need
for approval & acceptance i.e. what
are you wearing to the party?
• Informational Social Influence:
need for information & direction:
teach me!
• Reference Groups: we conform to
people we like & admire because
we want to be like©John
them
Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010
Our Actions Toward Others: Obedience
• Milgram’s obedience study: Participants
serving as “teachers” were ordered to
continue shocking someone with a known
heart condition who is begging to be
released.
• Result? 65% of “teachers” delivered highest
level of shock (450 volts) to the pseudoheart condition “learner.”
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010
Milgram’s Shock Generator
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Our Actions Toward Others:
Obedience (Continued)
Four major factors affecting obedience:
1. legitimacy & closeness of the authority
figure
2. remoteness of the victim
3. assignment of responsibility
4. modeling/imitation
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010
Our Actions Toward Others:
Group Processes
• Group membership involves:
– Roles: set of behavior
patterns
connected with particular
– social positions
– Deindividuation: anonymity
leads to
reduced inhibition vs
self-consciousness, &
personal
responsibility
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010
Group Processes: “Power of the
Situation”
Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Study
• Students were randomly assigned
the role of either “prisoner”
to play
or “guard.”
• Original study, scheduled for 2 weeks, was stopped
after 6 days due to serious psychological changes in
both “prisoners” & “guards.”
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010
Group Processes: Problems with
Decision Making
• Group Polarization: group movement
toward either a riskier or more
conservative decision; result depends
on the members’ initial dominant
tendency
• Groupthink: faulty decision making
occurring when a highly cohesive group
seeks agreement & avoids inconsistent
information
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010
Our Actions Toward Others:
Group Processes (Continued)
Symptoms of Groupthink:
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Illusion of invulnerability
Belief in group’s morality
Collective rationalizations
Stereotypes of out-groups
Self-censorship
Illusion of unanimity
Direct pressure on dissenters
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010
Our Actions Toward Others: Altruism
Why Don’t We Help?
• Diffusion of Responsibility: dilution, or diffusion, of
personal responsibility
• Ambiguity of the Situation: unclear what help is
needed
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Latane & Darley’s 5Step Decision Process
for Helping
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Our Actions Toward Others: Altruism
• How can we increase
helping?
• Assign responsibility
• Reduce
ambiguity
• Increase
societal rewards
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010
Applying Social Psychology to
Social Problems:
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
How can we reduce destructive obedience?
Adjust socialization toward obedience
Recognize power of the situation
Protect against groupthink
Avoid foot-in-the-door technique:
making a small request followed by increasingly larger
requests
5. Guard against relaxed moral guard
6. Increase disobedient models
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010