Chapter 16
Social Behavior
Social Psychology
 Person
perception
 Attribution processes
 Interpersonal attraction
 Attitudes
 Conformity and obedience
 Behavior in groups
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Person Perception: Forming Impressions of
Others
 Effects
of physical appearance
 Cognitive schemas
 Stereotypes
 Prejudice and discrimination
 Subjectivity in person perception
 Evolutionary perspectives
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Fig 16.1 – Examples of social schemas. Everyone has social schemas for various
“types” of people, such as sophisticated professionals or working-class stiffs. Social
schemas are clusters of beliefs that guide information processing.
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Attribution Processes: Explaining Behavior
 Attributions
– Internal vs. External
– Kelley’s covariation model
 Biases
in attributions
– Fundamental attribution error
– Defensive attribution
– Self-serving bias
 Cultural
influences
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Fig 16.4 - An alternative view
of the fundamental
attribution error. According to
Gilbert (1989) and others, the
nature of attribution processes
favor the fundamental
attribution error. Traditional
models of attribution assume
that internal and external
attributions are an either-or
proposition requiring equal
amounts of effort. In contrast,
Gilbert posits that people tend
to automatically make internal
attributions with little effort and
then may expend additional
effort to adjust for the influence
of situational factors, which
can lead to an external
attribution. Thus, external
attributions for others’ behavior
require more thought and
effort, which makes them less
common than personal
attributions.
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Close Relationships: Liking and Loving
 Key factors in attraction
– Physical attractiveness
– Matching hypothesis
– Similarity
– Reciprocity
– Romantic Ideals
 Perspectives on love
– Hatfield & Berscheid – Passionate vs. Companionate love
– Sternberg - Intimacy and commitment
– Hazen & Shaver – love as attachment
 Evolutionary perspectives
– Mating priorities
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Fig 16.7 - Infant attachment and romantic relationships. According to Hazan and Shaver
(1987), people’s romantic relationships in adulthood are similar in form to their attachment
patterns in infancy, which are determined in part by parental care-giving styles. The theorized
relations between parental styles, attachment patterns, and intimate relations are outlined here.
(Data for parental care-giving styles and adult attachment styles based on
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Hazan and Shaver, 1986, 1987; infant attachment patterns adapted from
Shaffer, 1985)
Attitudes and Attitude Change
3
components
– cognitive, affective, and behavioral
 Factors in changing attitudes
– source, message, and receiver
 Theories of attitude change
– Learning theory
– Dissonance theory
– Self-perception theory
– Elaboration likelihood model
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Fig 16.9 - The possible components of attitudes. Attitudes may include
cognitive, affective, and behavioral components, as illustrated here for a
hypothetical person’s attitude about gun control.
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Fig 16.10 - Overview of the persuasion process. The process of persuasion essentially
boils down to who (the source) communicates what (the message) by what means (the
channel) to whom (the receiver). Thus, four sets of variables influence the process of
persuasion: source, message, channel, and receiver factors. The diagram lists some of the
more important factors in each category (including some that are not discussed in the text
because of space limitations). (Adapted from Lippa, 1994)
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Fig 16.13 - Design of
the Festinger and
Carlsmith (1959) study.
The sequence of events
in this landmark study of
counter-attitudinal
behavior and attitude
change is outlined here.
The diagram omits a third
condition (no
dissonance), in which
subjects were not
induced to lie. The results
in the nondissonance
condition were similar to
those found in the lowdissonance condition.
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Fig 16.14 - Bem’s self-perception theory. The traditional view is that attitudes determine
behavior. However, Bem stood conventional logic on its head when he proposed that behavior
often determines (or causes people to draw inferences about) their attitudes. Subsequent
research on attribution has shown that sometimes people do infer their attitudes from their
behavior.
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Yielding to Others: Conformity
 Conformity
– Solomon Asch (1950s)
– Classic experiment
• Group size
• Group unanimity
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Yielding to Others: Obedience
 Obedience
– Stanley Milgram (1960s)
– Controversial landmark experiment
– “I was just following orders”
• presence of a dissenter
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Behavior in Groups: The Influence of Other
People
 The
bystander effect - Darley and Latane (1968)
– Diffusion of responsibility
 Group
productivity and social loafing
 Decision making in groups
 Polarization
 Groupthink
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Fig 16.19 - The effect of loss of coordination and social loafing on group productivity. The amount of
sound produced per person declined noticeably when people worked in actual groups of two or six (orange
line). This decrease in productivity reflects both loss of coordination and social loafing. Sound per person also
declined when subjects merely thought they were working in groups of two or six (purple Table of Contents
line). This smaller decrease in productivity is due to social loafing. (Data from Latané,
Williams, & Harkins, 1979)
Fig 16.20 - Group polarization. Two examples of group polarization are diagrammed here.
In the first example (top) a group starts out mildly opposed to an idea, but after discussion
sentiment against the idea is stronger. In the second example (bottom), a group starts out
with a favorable disposition toward an idea, and this disposition is
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strengthened by group discussion.
Fig 16.22 - The three potential components of prejudice as an attitude. Attitudes can
consist of up to three components. The tricomponent model of attitudes, applied to
prejudice against women, would view sexism as negative beliefs about women (cognitive
component) that lead to a feeling of dislike (affective component), which in turn leads to a
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readiness to discriminate against women (behavioral component).
Fig 16.23 - Relationship between prejudice and discrimination. As these
examples show, prejudice can exist without discrimination and discrimination
without prejudice. In the green cells, there is a disparity between attitude and
behavior.
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Fig 16.24 - Bias in the attributions used to explain success and failure by
men and women. Attributions about the two sexes often differ. For example,
men’s successes tend to be attributed to their ability and intelligence (blue cell),
whereas women’s successes tend to be attributed to hard work, good luck, or
low task difficulty (green cells). These attributional biases help perpetuate the
belief that men are more competent than women.
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