Reading Notes for Social Psychology by Topic — Exam 3
NOTES:
(1) All reading and video/Prezi material is fair game for the exam; below is a reasonably
thorough outline of the content for Exam 2 from the book The Social Animal, with
additional information added in green;
(2) External readings (photocopied book chapters) have not been outlined.
I.
Social Influence
A. Conformity
1. Definition: Changing your behavior/thought to match a real or imagined group (in the
absence of an explicit request)
a) Elevator video
2. Conformist vs Individualist
a) Imagined preference for individualists but actual preference for conformists
b) Johnny Rocco study
3. Anti-conformity
4. Groupthink
a) Hitler, Nixon, NASA
5. Asch Conformity Study
a) Resisting produces activity in amygdala
6. Factors that influence conformity
a) Characteristics of Group
(1) Unanimity
(2) Group size
(3) Experts
(4) High social status
(5) Comparable to subject
b) Commitment
c) Accountability
d) Personality
(1) Self-esteem
e) Culture
(1) Collectivistic over Individualistic cultures
f) Sex
(1) Women over men (but for male researcher or tasks)
7. Normative vs Informational Influence
a) Normative motivated by social reward/punishment
b) Informational motivated by a need to know
c) Sherif Moving Dot Study (how much does it move)
d) Informational more powerful and enduring than normative
e) Informational influence over emotions
(1) James theory of emotions
(2) Schachter & Singer study
f) Informational influence over cognition
(1) Haney’s Death Qualification study
B. Compliance
1. Definition: Changing your behavior/thought in response to perceived reward or
punishment (usually in the presence of an explicit request)
2. Usually normative and short-lived
C. Identification
1. Definition: Changing your behavior/thought to follow in the footsteps of an influencer
2. Key component is the attractiveness of the person with whom we want to identify
3. Usually informational though weakly so
4. Can be superseded by
a) identification with another, more interesting influencer(s) and
b) a compelling argument that makes the behavior/thought seem incorrect
D. Internalization
1. Definition: Changing your behavior/thought to be correct
2. Key component is the of the person who supplies the information
E. Obedience
1. Definition: Changing your behavior/thought in response to an explicit request from an
authority figure
2. Milgram study
a) Obedience drops to 48% if conducted at a less prestigious institution
b) Obedience drops to 40% if the teacher could see the learner
c) Obedience drops to 30% if the teacher must physically force the learner’s arm onto
the shock plate
d) Obedience drops to under 25% if authority figure issues orders over the phone
e) Obedience drops to 20% if the authority figure is substituted with a non authority
f) Obedience drops to 10% if two fellow teachers disobeyed
g) Predicted obedience levels vs actual obedience levels (not common sense)
II. Persuasion
A. Power of the media to influence
1. VID: The Psychology of Beauty - Media affects body image
2. Commercial ads (Persuaders video segment, other than Lutz segment)
a) Thinking that skepticism makes us immune is an error
b) Mere exposure
(1) Zajonc study
c) Education as propoganda (e.g., examples in textbooks reinforce systems)
d) Peripheral vs Central appeals
3. Politicians
4. Emotional contagion & copycat suicides
a) Phillips
B. Persuasion (Compliance) Strategies
1. Reciprocation
2. Consensus (a.k.a. social proof or get on the bandwagon)
3. Ingratiation
4. Foot-in-the-door (a.k.a. commitment or consistency)
a) Freedman & Fraser ‘sign in the window’ study
5. Door-in-the-face
6. That’s-not-all
7. Scarcity
8. Repetition
C. Factors that influence (persuasive) communication
1. Source of the Communication
a) Credibility (a.k.a. authority)
b) Trustworthiness
(1) ...through arguments against self-interest
(2) ...through unintended communication (when the communicator doesn’t think
you’re listening)
c) Attractiveness (or likability)
2. Nature of the Communication
a) Logical vs Emotional appeals
(1) Fear motivates
(a) Works for all, but more quickly in those with high self-esteem
b) Statistical vs Case Study appeals
(1) Importance of vividness vs pallidness
(a) Gonzales study on energy efficiency
c) One-sided vs Two-sided arguments
(1) Two-sided if audience is informed; one-sided if not
(2) Two-sided if audience is leaning the other way; one-sided if on your side
d) Order of presentation
(1) Primacy vs Recency
(a) If the time between first and last presentation is short, primacy wins
(b) If the time between the last presentation and the vote is short, recency
wins
(c) Relevance to courts, where prosecution has both primacy and recency
e) Size of discrepancy
(1) If communicator is highly credible, larger discrepancies produce larger opinion
change (linear)
(2) If communicator is only moderately credible, effect is curvilinear
3. Nature of the Audience
a) Self-esteem
(1) Low self-esteem, more persuadable
b) Prior experience
(1) Positive experiences (good mood, being given good food) increase
persuadability
(2) Forewarning decreases persuadability
(a) Reactance
(b) Disallowing cognitive resources for counter-argument generation reduces
persuadability
(c) Inoculation Effect
D. General effects of media saturation
III. Social Psychology as a Science
A. Scientific Method
1. Divining for water video (or alternative if a better one; e.g., therapeutic touch)
B. Testing speculation with experimentation
1. IV
2. DV
3. Random Assignment
C. Control vs Impact
1. Experimental vs Mundane Realism
2. Deception
a) Cover story
b) Schachter’s Fear/Affiliation Study (video)
D. Ethical Problems
E. Misuse of Results