Attribution Theory
• Attributing behavior of others
to either internal disposition or
external situations
• Dispositional Attribution
– Based on a person’s
personality or characteristics
• Situational Attribution
– Based on a person’s situation
or environment
Attribution Theory
• Fundamental Attribution
Error
– Make an attribution based on
disposition when attribution
should be situational
• Self-serving Bias
– Attributing one’s own
behavior to situations but
other’s behavior is
dispositional
Attribution Theory
• Preexisting schema
– A set of belief’s about
other’s that leads to
attribution that conforms
to your expectations
• Attractiveness Bias
– The tendency to perceive
attractive people as more
competent than others
Constructing Social Reality
• Pygmalion effect
– The tendency for people to
behave according to the
expectation of others
• Self-Fulfilling prophecy
– A belief that causes itself to
become true
• Behavioral expectation
effect
– A person influences
another according to their
own expectations
Conformity
• A principle that requires
people to adjust their behavior
or thinking to match a group
standard
• Normative Social
Influence
– Influence that draws on a
person’s desire for approval
or feeling of belonging to a
group
• Asch’s Conformity
Studies
– Individuals will change their
answer if other’s are giving
an answer different than
their own
Conformity
• Bystander Effect
– The likelihood of receiving
help from a bystander
– Depends on the number of
bystander’s available
• Reference Group
– A group to which a person
feels affiliated
– If one person conforms
than others will do the
same
Milgram’s Obedience Studies
• Teacher and learner
– Learner is asked questions and
shocked for a wrong response
– Nothing was happening to the
learner
– The real participant was the
teacher
– 67% of individuals obeyed up to
450 volts
Milgrams Obedience Studies
• Proximity of
researcher
• Legitimacy of authority
• Emotional distance to
the learner
• No models of defiance
• A bystander is present
• Normative and
informational influence
• Ingrained habit
Compliance
• A change in a person's
behavior that occurs in
response to a direct
request
• Cognitive Dissonance
– A disconnect between
internal attitudes and
external behavior
• Lowball techniques
– Offering an attractive deal,
only to change terms later
Compliance
• Bait-and-Switch
technique
– Offer something but then
substitute that offer with
something else
• Foot-in-the-door
technique
– Compliance with a small
request increases
likelihood of responding to
a larger request
Compliance
• Shared identity
– A feeling that you are similar
to others in feeling, thought
and behavior
• Norm of reciprocity
– A tendency to desire a return
of favors
• Door-in-the-face technique
– Making a large request to
obtain compliance for a
smaller request
Attitudes
• An evaluative belief or
opinion about a
person, object or idea
• Implicit attitude
– An attitude that
automatically influences
one’s reactions
• External attitude
– An attitude that one
holds consciously and
can report to others
Persuasion
• A deliberate effort to change
an attitude or belief
• Central route
– Paying attention to good
arguments that are personally
relevant and appeal to reason
• Peripheral route
– Evaluating an argument
based on tangential cues
rather than the merits of the
argument
Persuasion
• Elaboration-Likelihood Model
– Central route -motivation is high
– Peripheral route -motivation is low
• Perseverance Effect
– It is difficult to shake an initial
impression
• Sleeper Effect
– Forgetting the sources of unreliable
information
– Remembering information as being
reliable
Group Influence
• Social Loafing
– People believe that individual
efforts do not matter
– Being only one member
makes effort less necessary
• Deindividuation
– People in a group relinquish
personal responsibility
Group Influence
• Group polarization
– The more members of a
group discuss their ideas the
more extreme the ideas
become
• Group think
– A group members opinion
becomes indistinguishable
from the group
Prejudice/Discrimination
• Prejudice
– An attitude toward a particular
group
• Discrimination
– A behavior directed toward a
particular group
• In-group/Out-group
phenomenon
– A group that you are a part of
has more diversity than the
group that you do not belong to
Stereotypes
• A general belief about a
group of people
• Stereotype threat
– A stereotyped group’s
knowledge that they must
work against stereotypes
• Helpful to understand how
our world works in
GENERAL
• Not helpful in understanding
any one individual’s
behavior
Aggression
• Behavior intended to harm another
individual
– Genetics
– Alcohol and violence
– Environmental
• Childhood experiences
• Learned expectations of others
• Frustration-Aggression
Hypothesis
– An individuals becomes frustrated
when goals are not fulfilled
– Resulting behavior is aggression
Altruism
• Prosocial behavior carried out
without concerns for one’s own
safety or self-interest
• Reciprocal altruism
– The hope of some benefit in return
at some point in the future
• Egoism
– The act of altruism with hope of
receiving some benefit in return
Altruism
• Collectivism
– Altruism that benefits the entire
group
• Principlism
– Altruism as a result of principle
• Why do we help?
– Notice the situation
– Identify as an emergency
– Take responsibility
– Decide on course of action