U NIT 14 S OCIAL P SYCHOLOGY

W HAT I S S OCIAL
P SYCHOLOGY ?
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Social psychologists
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Study social forces that explain why the same person acts differently in different situations
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Personality psychologists
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Study personal traits and processes that explain why people may act differently in the same situation

Fundamental Attribution Error tendency for observers, when analyzing another’s behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personality traits
How do we become more aware of our own personal style?
What are the real world implications of the f.a.e?

A TTITUDES & A CTIONS
Attitudes
Behavior
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If we believe someone is mean we may feel dislike and then act unfriendly toward them
Behavior
Attitudes
…but, there is evidence that attitudes FOLLOW behavior

Attitudes follow behavior…
If someone convinced you to act against your beliefs, you’d change your belief
(attitude) to match your action.
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Foot-in-the-door phenomenon
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People agreeing to a small request will find it easier to later agree to a larger one
Principle works for negative and positive behavior
ATTITUDES FOLLOW BEHAVIOR
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After US schools desegregated in ‘54,
Cooperative actions, such as those performed by people on sports teams feed mutual liking.
Americans expressed lower levels of racial prejudice.

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Role
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A CTIONS A FFECT A TTITUDES
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“ the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent.

P RACTICE Q UESTION (… ON THE TEST …)
Cognitive dissonance theory attempts to explain why a) people who act differently than their attitudes tend to change their attitudes.
b) people who act against their attitudes tend to change their behavior c) agreeing to a small request increases the likelihood that we will agree to a larger request d) people talk one way and act another

SOCIAL INFLUENCE
( PG . 382) chameleon effect:
Asch’s Conformity Study:
 define:
 method:
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 deceived:
# of participants: task:
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What is the decision you have to make during the 3 rd trial? results:
 when answering alone… when in the room with confederates who answered incorrectly…
 more likely to conform when…

confederate participant confederate

Asch’s Conformity Study:
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 define: adjusting our thinking or behavior to go along with a group method: standard
 deceived: a study on visual perception
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# of participants: task: you & 5 others state, 1 by 1, which of 3 lines is the same as a standard 1. Easy.
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What is the decision you have to make during the 3 rd trial? the 5 people before you all give a wrong answer to the same results: easy question…do you go along or be the oddball and answer differently?
when answering alone… wrong less than 1% of the time
 when in the room with confederates who answered incorrectly… wrong 33% of the time
 more likely to conform when… feel insecure admire the groups’ status group has at least
THREE everyone else have not already agrees committed to an culture answer know others will observe our behavior

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M ILGRAM ’ S O BEDIENCE S TUDY define:
Method:
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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16QMQXIjYVU
Intro to Obedience (5 min)
“fake” study – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNo-2AXzHAs
Milgram Replication (14 min) draw randomly to determine –
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 teacher task – learner taskteacher after 1 st wrong answer:
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 teacher after 8 th wrong answer: learner after 10 th wrong answer:
You want to stop hurting this person but the experimenter says:
“…”
Final shock v:
At what level would you stop?
At what level would most people (say) stop?
RESULTS:
Obedience is highest when… (4)

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M ILGRAM ’ S O BEDIENCE S TUDY define: changing a behavior to follow a command
Method
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“fake” study – effect of punishment on learning draw randomly to determine – who will be “teacher” & “learner”
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 teacher task – test learner on word pairs; if wrong = shock them learner taskto learn the words….actually an actor (confederate) teacher after 1 st wrong answer: 15 volts / slight shock
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 teacher after 8 th wrong answer: 120 volts / moderate shock learner after 10 th wrong answer: 150 volts / strong shock
You want to stop hurting this person but the experimenter says:
“You have no choice. You must go on.”
Final shock v: 450 volt
At what level would you stop? your opinion
At what level would most people (say) stop? After 1 st hearing
“learner” in pain
RESULTS
Obedience is highest when…

O BEDIENCE HIGHEST WHEN …
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Person giving order is close by & was an authority figure
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The authority figure was associated with a respected institution
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The victim was depersonalized or far away
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There was no role model of defiance minority influence: you can sway the majority if you hold firmly to your beliefs – power of committed individual is as strong as power of the group

social facilitation: stronger responses on a well-learned task when other people are watching you. social loafing: tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when working toward a common goal deindividuation:
The loss of self-awareness in a group group polarization:
When a belief you hold gets stronger after discussing it with a like-minded group

group think: when no one in a group speaks up to voice a different opinion b/c they want the group to get along

P REJUDICE
H OW P REJUDICED A RE P EOPLE ?
belief that includes negative stereotypes
an overgeneralized belief about a group
negative behavior toward a group

Prejudice
How Prejudiced Are People?

Prejudice
How Prejudiced Are People?

Prejudice
How Prejudiced Are People?

Prejudice
How Prejudiced Are People?

Prejudice
How Prejudiced Are People?

Prejudice
How Prejudiced Are People?

implicit racial associations: unconscious / unaware just-world phenomenon: believing that the world is just
& therefore people get what they deserve in-group/out-group: “us” / “them” in-group bias: tendency to favor our own group scapegoat theory: theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame other-race effect: the tendency to recall faces of one’s own race more accurately than faces of other races.

 any physical or verbal behavior INTENDED to hurt another
BIOLOGY of AGGRESSION
Genetics: identical twins report bad temper more in common than fraternal twins

T HE B IOLOGY OF A GGRESSION
 frontal lobe damage or diminished activity
 frontal lobe not fully developed
 amygdala stimulated
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#30. P SYCHOLOGICAL OF A GGRESSION
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P SYCH J OURNAL
For Mon 10/19, answer the following questions in your journal:
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1) What is the just-world theory?
2) How does the class data match mine? How were our
#s the same/different?
Husband
5.4
Wife
1.2
Lover 1
3.5
Lover 2
4.3
Ferryboat
4.8
Highway man
2.2
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3)What was my score on the just world survey?
What does a high vs low score on the just world survey mean?
If someone had a high survey score (70+) who did they probably blame the most in the scenario? Why?
Thurs 10/22: Love Attitude Scale : Take survey & score

T HE P SYCHOLOGY OF A TTRACTION
W HY DO WE FALL IN LOVE WITH SOME PEOPLE BUT NOT OTHERS ?
 Proximity
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Geographic nearness
Mere exposure effect
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Just being around someone makes you like them
 Similarity
 friends & couples are far more likely to share things in common
 attitudes, beliefs, interests, age, religion, race, education, intelligence, smoking behavior, economic status
 Physical attractiveness
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 its what initially draws us symmetric / youthful / average

R OMANTIC L OVE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjLDomII6No
Rules of Attraction
H OW DOES LOVE CHANGE OVER TIME ?
 passionate love
 all-consuming
 companionate love
 Deep affection
 Equity
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Getting out of the relationship what you put in
 self-disclosure
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Telling secrets about yourself to your loved one

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