Gen Psy Lecture 12 Social behavior
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Lecture 12 – Social behavior
What are the rules for interpersonal and group behaviors?
Our behaviors, our perceptions and judgment of others, our attitudes and our decisions
are not as independent as we may expect. In many situations, we think and act under the
influence of others. Even when we are alone, we can also be affected by the implied presence
of others.
We will find out, in this lecture, how social forces affect our behaviors and thoughts,
and how pervasive they could be. We will look at six aspects of these social situations in two
categories.
A) Interpersonal Behaviors
1. Person Perception (Judgment)
What factors guide us in perceiving and judging other people? We will consider first
impression, person schema, physical attractiveness, egocentric slant, stereotype, prejudice
and discrimination.
2. Attraction (beyond physical)
How are people attracted to each other? We will consider proximity, similarity, and mutual
liking.
3. Attribution
How do we explain the behaviors of our own and others? There are two dimensions. Also,
our explanations (or attributions) are not always accurate. There are biases.
4. Changing Attitude
What are the components of “attitude”?
By what routes does our attitude change? There are sender, message, and receiver factors.
What are the mechanisms in an attitude change? The mechanisms are learning and cognitive
dissonance.
B). Group behaviors (Group affect on self)
5. Norm and role-Compliance and Conformity
How likely are we to be obedient to an authority? (Milgram’s study)
Why do people in groups often agree with the majority, even when they have exactly the
opposite opinion, or the majority’s ideas are wrong? (Asch’s study)
6. Social facilitation, Effect of a Group on an Individual’s Action
Under what situation would you work harder for examinations? Alone in a classroom, or in
an examination hall with hundreds of students? The answer can be understood in social
facilitation.
Which person, do you think, is more likely to help in an injured stranger nearby? A person
walking alone a quiet street, or a person being in a busy crowd? The answer is called
bystander Effect.
Why do many people become so aggressive during riots, even though they are decent people
also in their normal daily lives? This is the negative effect of group.
7. Altruistic commitment
If the consequence is clear and one’s responsibility is not masked, working together is
positive.
C) Social psychology and Christian faith
1. Attribution error and human evil.
2. Interpersonal factors that affect evangelism.
3. As a local church is a group, we should find some of the group behavior in church.
How should we eliminate such effect or use such effect for the ministry of the church?
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Gen Psy Lecture 12 Social behavior
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Matching of definitions 1
Terms
1. Attitude
2. Cognitive
3. Persuasion
4. Peripheral Route
5. Central Route
6. Social imbalance
7. Cognitive dissonance
8. Post-decision
dissonance
9. Justification of effort
10. Counter-attitudinal
advocacy
Definitions
[ ] A fairly stable, evaluative disposition that makes a person think, feel, or behave positively or
negatively about some person, group, or social issue. (1,6)
[ ] An inconsistency among some experiences, beliefs, attitudes, or feelings. (8,7)
[ ] Arguments of a persuasive message are seriously thought about, and attitude change depends on
the nature of the arguments. (4,5).
[ ] Arguments of a persuasive message are not seriously thought about, and attitude change depends
on other factors. (4,5)
[ ] To change other people's attitude towards some people or events. (3,7).
[ ] The phenomenon that the goal will be esteemed more highly the harder it was to reach. (3,9)
[ ] A person is asked to give speech in support of a view contrary to his own position. (9,10)
[ ] The phenomenon that one will favor one’s choice more afterwards. (7,8)
[ ] Belong to an individual's thoughts, knowledge, interpretations, understandings, or ideas. (1,2)
[ ] A condition in which disharmony will be generated between the attitudes of two persons to
another person or object.(6. 7)
Matching of definitions 2
Terms
Definitions
1. Attribution
[ ] The difference in attributions made by actors who describe their own actions and observers
2. Dispositional attribution who describe another person's. (6,8)
3. Situational attribution
[ ] Schemasta that are applied to the whole groups (9,10)
4. Distinctiveness
[ ] The way we try to explain a person's behavior. (1,2)
5. Consensus
[ ] The manifestation of biasing against certain types of people. (7,11)
6. Actor-observer effect
[ ] The attitude of biasing against certain types of people. (10,11).
7. Self-serving bias
[ ] The tendency to deny responsibility for failures but take credit for successes. (1,7)
8. Reciprocal liking
[ ] A common view. (5,9)
9. Stereotype
[ ] To attribute a person's behavior to the characteristics of the person. (2,3)
10. Prejudice
[ ] To attribute a person's behavior to the factors external to the person. (2,3)
11.Discrimination
[ ] It creates a closely knit social unit. (5,8)
[ ] Person behaves differently in different situations. (4,6)
Matching of definitions 3 (the three pairs of social effects)
Terms
Definitions
1. Social facilitation
[ ] People go along with what other people think or do. (8,9)
2. Coaction effect
[ ] People are more aroused or energized in the presence of others. (1,2)
3. Audience effect
[ ] Involves publicly acting in accord with pressure from authority. (7,8)
4. social loafing
[ ] The tendency to perform better when acting with others than when doing alone. (1,3)
5. Bystander effect
[ ] The tendency for persons in a group situation to fail to take action(as in an emergency) because
6. Pluralistic ignorance others are present. (5,6)
7. Diffusion of
[ ] The conditions that would enhance anonymity and deindividuation. (9,7)
responsibility
[ ] Each of the witnesses looks to the others to decide whether there really was an emergency. (4,5)
8. Compliance
[ ] Most of us can recall feeling more tense or excited when before an audience. (2,3)
9. Conformity
[ ] The loss of individuality in the development of too strong group identity [1, 10]
10. Deindividuation
[ ] Each member exert less effort because of the lack of monitoring [4. 7]
Matching of definitions 4 (negative aspects of a group and intergroup)
Terms
Definitions
1. Group
[ ] Persons in a crowd become wild, stupid, and irrational, giving vent to primitive impulses that are
polarization effect normally suppressed. (9, 3)
2. Groupthink
[ ] A fixed conventional idea about a group with all its members having the same characteristics [1, 5]
3. Mob behavior
[ ] The strengthening of a position as a result of group discussion [1, 2]
4. Lynching
[ ] The behaviors of violent crowds whose frenzy is turned against the defenseless victims. [4 ,2]
5. Stereotype
[ ] The mode of thinking that concurrence-seeking becomes so dominant in group that it tends to
6. Prejudice
override realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action. [9, 2]
7. discrimination [ ] Unjust negative attitude towards individuals based on their group membership [5, 6]
8. Ethnocentrism [ ] Have positive toward group member to get a positive self-image [2, 9]
9. Social Identity [ ] The denial of the privileges of a person a group on the basis of prejudice [5, 7]
theory
[ ] The tendency to favor one's own group over other groups [1. 8]
Key:1,7,5,4,3,9,10,8,2,6; 6,9,1,11,10,7,5,2,3,8,4; 9,1,8,2,5,7,4,3,10,4; 3.5.1.4.2.6.9.7.8.
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