Chapter 18: Social Psychology
Definition: Sub-field of psychology that
studies of how others influence our
thoughts, feelings and actions
Focuses on…
- How large social forces such as groups,
social roles and norms bring out the best and
worst in all of us
- Explaining why people act differently in the
same situation, and why the same person
may act differently in different situations.
Chapter 16: Social Psychology
TOPICS
Our Thoughts About Others
- Attribution
- Attitude
Our Feelings about Others
- Prejudice & Discrimination
- Interpersonal Attraction
Our Actions Toward Others
- Social Influence
- Group Processes
- Aggression
- Altruism
Applying Social Psych. to Social
Problems
- Reducing Prejudice & Discrimination
Attribution Theory
Definition: Inferences that people draw about the causes
of events, others’ behavior, and their own behavior
Dispositional Attribution: we attribute a
person’s behavior to an internal state
(personality, abilities, etc.)
Situational Attribution: attributing a
person’s behavior to an external state
(stress, abuse, hardship, wealth, etc.)

Function: People like to explain and understand behavior and the
events that impact their lives

Attributions are made when an event is unusual and personal
Covariation Model of Attribution
Attribution
Example
Bias in Attribution

Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE): Observer’s bias in favor of internal
attributions in explaining others’ behavior but external attributions in
explaining their own
(Ex: Someone else drops out of college because “they couldn’t handle the pressure
or work load” – internal. You drop out of college because “tuition was raised and
you had to help support your family” – external)

Defensive Attribution: Tendency to blame the victim for their misfortune, so
that one feels less likely to be victimized in a similar way
Self-Serving Bias: Tendency to attribute one’s successes to personal factors
and one’s failures to situational factors
 In-group bias- tendency to favor your own group over the out-group

Attitudes & Attitude Formation
- When we observe & respond to the world around us, it is never without the
influence of our attitudes (even if we don’t realize it).
- Advertisers spend millions because they know that
attitudes can be shaped & changed….to their benefit $$


Definition
Positive, negative, or mixed feelings, based on our beliefs, that predispose
us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.
Ex: A friend tells you that they believe Coach Stove is a mean teacher.
You may feel dislike for Coach Stove, and act unfriendly.
Components of Attitudes
• Cognitive: What you believe
• Affective: How you feel about it
• Behavioral: What you are willing to do about it
Components of Attitudes
Attitudes can Affect Action

Example: You believe working out is good for
you, but you dislike getting sweaty so you
avoid working out
- Your attitude toward exercise will guide
your physical fitness program

Foot-in-the-door phenomenon: peoples’
willingness to agree to a large request after
having agreed to a related small request.

Role-playing: people who behaved in certain
ways in scripted scenarios have adopted
attitudes in keeping with those roles. (Philip
Zimbardo’s prison experiment)
Cognitive Dissonance & Social Facilitation
Cognitive Dissonance Theory:
When we act in a way not
consistent with our beliefs we feel
tension. We then revise our beliefs
to align with our behavior.
Example:
 Asked to do hour long boring task
 Offered $1 or $20 to say it’s fun
 Results: Larger payment led to less
dissonance b/c high payment could
account for ‘lying’. $1 was not enough to
justify lying so those people changed their
attitude to saying they enjoyed the task
Example:
After you go to all
the trouble of buying
a new house you
start to like it more
Social Facilitation
Being watched while doing task
vs. being alone when doing task
 better on simple tasks
 worse on complex tasks
Person Perception

Definition: The process of forming impressions of others

Impressions are influenced by:
• Physical appearance
• good looking people are seen as intelligent, friendly, and
confident
• Schemas: Organized clusters of ideas about categories of social
events and people
• 1st Impressions: self fulfilling prophecy, primacy
• Stereotypes: gender, race, job
Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination



Stereotype: Thoughts and beliefs held about people strictly because of
their membership in a group
Prejudice: A negative attitude held toward members of a group
Discrimination: Negative actions towards a group
Explanations
These often arise from learning, personal experience, mental shortcuts,
economic & political competition, & displaced aggression
 Scapegoat: Blame other groups without as much power
 Social Identity (in-group bias): Favor own group
 Outgroup Homogeneity: Judge members of outgroup as more alike
 Learning Theory: Classical or operant conditioning
 Cognitive: Easier to organize our world if we ‘categorize’
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Attraction

Contributors to Attraction
• Proximity: Physical closeness (mere exposure)
• Physical Attractiveness: Pleasant physical appearance (often
different depending on culture), signs of health such as symmetry
(universal)
• Similarity: Commonalities between two people
• Reciprocity: The tendency to like those who like you
• Matching Hypothesis: “opposites do not attract”
Results of Attraction

Friendship: An attraction driven by a set of rules that must be
followed for the relationship to continue
• Examples of rules:
• help when needed
• trust and confide in each other

Romantic Love: Intense feeling of attraction to another within an
erotic context with future expectations

Compassionate Love: Strong and lasting
attraction characterized by trust, caring,
tolerance, and friendship

Triangular Theory of Love: (see next slide)
Triangular Conception of Love
Social Influence

Chameleon Effect: our tendency to unconsciously mimic
those around us
•
•
•
•
Yawning when others yawn
Picking up the mood of a happy or sad person
Dress like your friends
This automatic mimicry is an ingredient in our ability to
empathize with others
Persuasion

Source: credible, trustworthy, likable, attractive, similarity

Message: Fear vs. logic, one or two sided, repetition

Channel: TV, radio, in person

Receiver: Personality, expectations, preexisting attitudes,
intelligence
Persuasion Techniques

Limited time offer
 Everyone is buying!!!
 DEAL!!!
 Reciprocation
 Foot in the door
 Door in the face
 Low-balling
Conformity and Obedience

Conformity - yielding to social pressure
• Asch’s Conclusions
1) subjects often conform to a group, even
when the group states clearly inaccurate
conclusions
2) conformity to a group increases with the
size of the group, up to five or six, but
only when the group is unanimous in its
beliefs

Obedience
• Milgram’s Conclusions
1) situational pressures can make people
obey instructions that go against their
belief systems
Obedience Experiment
Behavior in Groups

Bystander Effect: less likely to help others
when in groups than when alone

Social Loafing: individuals produce less
work (reduced efficiency & effort) when
working in groups than by themselves

Decision Making
• Group Polarization - when group
discussion leads to a more “polarized”
point of view by the group
• Groupthink - when feel pressure to
conform to the group, stops critical
thinking to avoid dissention in the group
• Ex: Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs
Percentage of Bystanders
Helping Victims & Time Taken
Group Polarization
Aggression & Altruism
Aggression: Any form of behavior intended
to harm or injure another living being
Where does aggression come from?
- Instincts
- Genes
- Brain & Nervous System
- Substance Abuse - Mental Disorders - Hormones & NTs
- Aversive Stimuli (e.g. noise, heat, pain, bullying, frustration),
culture & learning, Violent media/video games
Altruism: Actions designed to help others
with no obvious benefit to the helper
Why are we altruistic?
Evolutionary Perspective: favors survival of genes
Egoistic Model: motivated by anticipated gain
Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis: sometimes for selfish gains, Kitty Genovese
other times truly selfless & motivated by concern for others Story…diffusion of
responsibility…