Myers for AP, Unit 14
Social Psychology
Opening Activity
• Just listen and follow directions, please
• Discussion
Social Psychology
• Exploring connections by scientifically
studying:
• How we think about each other
• How we influence each other
• How we relate to each other
• What’s the difference between sociology and
social psychology?
• Sociology explores groups and cultures
• Social psychology explores how individuals interact
6 Overarching Themes (NIB)
• We construct our own social reality
• Our social intuitions are powerful but
sometimes perilous
• Social influences shape our behavior
• Personal attitudes and dispositions also shape
behavior
• Social behavior is biologically rooted
• Social psychology principles apply in everyday
life
Do Now:
• Can you think of a time when you have been
misjudged as BEING a certain way when you
have only been FEELING a certain way due to
circumstances?
• Are you a different person in different
settings? How so?
What you said:
• Age range: 37-64!!!
• Marital Status:
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Married: 7
Divorced: 9
Divorced twice: 1
Single: 5
• Music:
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Country: 10
West Coast Rap: 1
Jazz: 2
Folk: 2
80s pop/rock: 1
• Food:
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Peaches: 1
Eggplant: 1
Organic gluten-free vegan
cookies: 1
Tacos: 1
Rice: 1
Italian/pasta: 5
Mexican: 1
Vegetables: 2
Apples: 1
Chinese: 1
Greek food
• Color:
• Kids:
• 2 sons: 7
• 2 children: 9
• One child: 4
• 3 children: 2
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Pink: 10
Purple: 11
Red: 1
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Vacation:
South America
Europe: 4
Travel around world
Rome
Backpack –Europe
International
historic tour
Africa safari
Hawaii: 2
Germany
Meeting new people
in exotic country
Somewhere
tropical: 3
Leadership
conference
Machu Picchu
Paris
Some nature place
Hobbies:
• Travel: 10
• Singing: 2
• Dancing
• Socializing: 2
• Reading: 7
• Writing
• Community service
• Wine tasting
• Kayaking
• Meeting People
• Cooking
• Skydiving
• Grocery shopping
Gardening
• Grading!!!
• Internet
• Social media: 2
• Knitting
Hobbies:
• Watching Grey’s
Anatomy
• Listening to NPR
• Speaking to
troubled youth
• Teaching
• Learning
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Born:
California: 4
Montana
Georgia
Tennessee
Washington 4
Arizona
New York: 2
Michigan: 2
Virginia: 3
Utah
Oklahoma
Alaska
Social Psychology Questions
• How did Brittney Griner become
comfortable with herself, given her
experiences growing up?
http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch
/2014/04/08/300516000/coming-outin-basketball-how-brittney-grinerfound-a-place-of-peace
• Pick a friend: If an alien (or even
someone from another country) saw
that person’s social media output,
what conclusions would they draw?
• Discussion: Social media vs. Real Life
How do we explain others’
behavior and our own?
• Attribution theory:
• Is she a hostile person
(dispositional attribution) OR
• Is she behaving in a hostile way
because she is going through
something difficult (situational
attribution)
• Are teachers outgoing? How
does attribution theory figure
into the current debate about
student performance and
teacher pay?
Do Now:
On the small paper
you’ve been given:
1) Age
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4)
5)
Marital status
Music
Food
Color
6) Ideal vacation
7) Hobbies
8) State of birth
9) Children? How
many?
More on attribution:
• Fundamental attribution error:
overstating personality and
understating situational influences
• We TEND to attribute the behavior of
others to their personality
• We TEND to attribute our own
behavior to the situation
• “There, but for the grace of God, go
I.” -- John Bradford
Tie-In Unit 12
• Explanatory style:
• Optimists – more likely to attribute good events to
disposition and bad events to situations
• Pessimists – more likely to attribute bad events to
disposition and good events to situations
Does what we think affect what we
do, or does what we do affect what
we think?
• Attitudes affect actions:
• Do now: What attitudes have you seen in your
lifetime that have changed actions of many?
• Central route persuasion: “I believe it
because the argument was solid and made
sense.” (More analytical and thoughtful)
• Peripheral route persuasion: “I believe it
because Matthew McConaughey said it, and
he’s hot!” (More incidental and superficial)
Actions Affect Attitudes
• Foot-in-the-door phenomenon – behavior
follows actions. (Frog in the pot)
• Works for good and bad
• Moral action strengthens moral convictions
• Interesting: Looking Glass Effect (Diener &
Wallbom)
• Why do we not do what we say we believe in?
• “Do what’s right whether anyone’s watching or
not.”
Role-Playing
• Fake it to Make it?
• Acting the part helps you become the part:
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Being a college student
Being a new husband or wife
Being a new parent
Being a new anything
Is this why actors often fall in love with their
romantic co-stars?
Activity CD Module
Cognitive Dissonance
Clash of the attitudes and actions
We bend our beliefs to fit our actions
Example: Iraq War & WMD
Example: I believe cheating is wrong. I do it
anyway. I create explanations to make it “okay.”
• Example: I believe that the world will end in 2008.
It doesn’t. I create a new story that makes me not
wrong, perhaps that some things have changed so
the world doesn’t need to end.
• A big part of why public opinion changes
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Significant Evidence
• Zimbardo (Stanford Prison Experiment)
• Abu-Ghraib
• Can you think of a time when you acted a role
and then later became “that way?”
• Video
• One bad apple does not always spoil the whole
bunch, but it has a reasonable chance of doing
so
Bottom Line on Attitudes
Acting cruel can make you more cruel
Acts of good will can shape us in good ways
Changing behavior changes attitudes
Be the change you want to see in the world – M. Gandhi
No one can make you feel inferior without your
permission – E. Roosevelt
• If you think you can, or you think you’re right. – H. Ford
• Do now: Using attitudes-follow-behavior principle, how
could you change an attitude you’ve been wanting to
change (what attitude and how?)
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What do experiments
on conformity and
compliance reveal
about the power of
Social Influence?
Part II: Social Influence
• Do Now: Why do you obey some rules and disobey
others? Have you ever been convinced by friends to do
something you knew was wrong? Do you consider
yourself a conformist or nonconformist? Why?
• When we know how to act, life runs smoothly. How is
this true? When is it not true?
• Bold statement: Behavior is contagious. Give three
examples!
• Conformity: Define
• Chameleon effect: Define
• Mood linkage & mood contagion (sometimes we try to
make this happen unnaturally)
Activity
• On the slip of paper
you’ve been given, write
at least two attitudes or
opinions you have that you
believe are NOT the
popular view. (Be brave!
This is anonymous)
• Agree/Disagree activity
Solomon Asch
• Conformity Studies:
• Suggestibility
• Individually, participants answered a question
(such as about line length) incorrectly less than 1%
of the time.
• In groups, people answered incorrectly more than
1/3 of the time when the others did.
• If others jaywalk, do you?
• If others swear, do you?
• If others cheat, do you?
• Hmmm…
Factors Related to Conformity
• Informational influence - belief that others are correct in their judgments.
• Normative influence - Fear the possible negative social consequences of
not going along.
• Size of group - conformity tends to increase as the size of the group
increases, however, there is little change in conformity once the group size
reaches 4-5.
• Awareness of norms - the more aware someone is of the prevailing norm,
the more likely one is to conform.
• Presence of an ally - Asch found that even the presence of just one
confederate that goes against the majority choice can reduce conformity
as much as 80%.
• Age differences - there is some evidence that age may play a factor. For
example, during adolescence there is an increased tendency to "conform"
to peers.
• Cultural influences - many instances of cultural influences leading to
differences in conformity.
Why we conform:
• Normative social influence: avoid rejection and/or
gain approval (Think Maslow, too)
• Informational social influence: willingness to
accept others’ opinions
• The idea that “I’m right, and everyone else is wrong,”
doesn’t usually get us very far (Rebecca Denton!!)
• Upworthy video: http://www.upworthy.com/a-guyhung-an-offensive-sign-around-his-neck-to-make-asolid-point-and-it-worked
• Robert Baron experiment (1996)
Compliance
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Stanley Milgram’s experiments
Sheep not wolves (experiment without coercion)
Gretchen Brandt “I don’t want to be responsible for harm”
Germany
Rwanda
Etc.
Modern Day slavery
Music?
Fashion?
Morals?
“Great evils sometimes grow out of people’s compliance with
lesser evils.”
Factors that Influence
Obedience
• Authority figure - Prestige & presence =
greater obedience
• Proximity of victim -- Milgram variations
• Personal responsibility – Experimenter vs.
participant
• Escalation of harm – gradual = more obedience
(foot-in-the-door)
How is our behavior
affected by the
presence of others or
by being part of a
group?
Digital History
• NPR Report on Susan Sontag (17,000+ emails)
• Lots of you exists that you don’t have any
control over.
• Given enough material and a bias, you could
form any kind of opinion about anyone.
• It used to be that you could just burn any
documentation.
Group Influences
• What do you do better when people are
watching?
• Demo: baskets! Volunteers (4)
• Home court advantage
• Social facilitation: Doing better on practiced
or simple tasks when others are present
• Bottom line: what you do well, you’re likely to
do better when people are watching,
especially if they are friendly (and vice versa)
What causes these problems?
• Social loafing:
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Your input is dispensable?
You are less worried about what others think?
You’ll get the same benefits anyway?
Males in individualist cultures do this most
Discussion?
• Deindividuation – Diminished sense of
responsibility
• Examples: stadium riot, food fight, KKK costumes,
war paint, “mob mentality”
What are group polarization and
Groupthink?
• Group Polarization: The enhancement of a
group’s prevailing inclinations (ideas) through
discussion. (Result: Bigger gaps between
groups)
• Benefits & Drawbacks – can increase resolve,
understanding and tolerance, but can also increase
division and prejudices
• Polarizing political areas are a concern
• Groupthink—suppression of concerns or
alternative views to maintain harmony, usually
when there’s a charismatic leader.
How do cultural norms affect
our behavior?
• Common behaviors, attitudes, values &
traditions
• Preservation of innovation
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Division of labor
What about when cultures clash?
Changes in US culture – positive or negative?
What if we THINK they’re norms and they’re
not? (False consensus effect)
A new definition of culture?
• David Matsumoto defines culture as:
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Relative affluence
Population density
Technology access
Climate
• Have you ever tried to act against your
culture? Give an example.
• Homework: Survey people within your culture:
What is considered rude behavior?
How much power do individuals
have? Can a minority sway the
majority?
• Yes! There are all kinds of examples. What
ones come to your mind?
• Key: consistency – no waffling
Part III: Social Relations
• Prejudice: mixture of beliefs (stereotypes),
emotions and predisposition to action
(discrimination)
• Subtle prejudice
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Implicit racial association
Unconscious patronization
Race-influenced perceptions
Seeing Black
Reflexive bodily responses
Doll experiment video
Test your own http://implicit.harvard.edu
Why prejudice?
• Social Roots:
• Social inequalities? Haves vs. have nots and
pursuant justification?
• Blame the victim dynamic
• Us and them (survival by banding together); social
identities
• In-Group bias (Seahawks)
• Activity: Class is divided into two groups:
• Make a list of how the other group is not like you.
• Discuss
• Weirdly, the most intense rivalries are between very
similar groups
Why Prejudice?
• Emotional Roots
• Terror
• Anger
• Scapegoat theory
• Cognitive Roots
• Categorization
• Other-race effect
• Vivid cases
• The Just-World
Phenomenon
Aggression
• Any physical or verbal behavior intended to
hurt or destroy.
• Aggression or not (14-12)
• Requires biology + experience
• Biology? Too much variation = learned
behavior, but there are biological factors:
• Genes – the Y chromosome + more (pit bulls vs.
cocker spaniels)
• Neural influence -- amygdala stimulation and/or
lessened frontal lobe activity = aggression
Aggression
• Biochemical influences—
• (High T, low Serotonin = bad combo)
• Behavior can increase testosterone
• Alcohol unleashes aggression
Aggression
• Psychological Triggers:
• Aversive events
• Frustration-aggression principle
• Thwarted goal
• Gap between reality and expectations
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Pain
Insults
High temperatures
Other personal peeves
Aggression
• Social and cultural influences
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Learning—situations where aggression pays
Ostracism—shunning, mocking, bullying
Disparity between rich and poor
Cultures within cultures
Minimal father care
Parenting styles
Media influences/social scripts
Pornography
The rape myth
Video games
http://www.upworthy.com/see-how-these-menrespond-when-a-woman-makes-sexist-remarks
Aggression & Video Games
• More violent games seems to equal
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More hostility
More arguments and fights (10x nongamers)
Worse grades
Desensitization to violent imagery
• With both video games and pornography, the
“catharsis hypothesis” seems to be
disconfirmed
• “We are what we repeatedly do” -- Aristotle
Interesting Gun Facts (in book)
• More than 1 million people killed in the U.S. by
firearms in nonwar settings in the past 40 years*
• Those who keep guns in the house are almost 3x
more likely to be murdered in the home than those
who don’t.
• For every self-defense use of a gun in the home,
there are:
• 4 unintentional shootings
• 7 criminal assaults or homicides
• 11 attempted or completed suicides
Passive-Aggression
• Manipulative, indirect ways of expressing
anger.
• An interesting blog:
http://masksofsanity.blogspot.com/2011/04/p
assive-aggressive-behavior.html
Attraction
• Why do we fall in love with some and not
others?
• Proximity
• Mere exposure effect
• Attractiveness (sorry, looks do matter)
• Similarity (reality: opposites retract)
• Reward theory of attraction (reciprocity is good)
Romantic Love?
• Passionate Love
• Aroused state of intense positive absorption
• Two-factor theory of emotion (again)
• Adrenaline makes the heart grow fonder
• Companionate Love
• Deep affectionate attachment
• Equity—both give and receive proportionately
• Self-disclosure (thoughts and feelings)
Altruism
• The unselfish regard for the welfare of
others (Sidenote: This is the basic
philosophy of Hazen’s Leadership Class)
• Kitty Genovese (again)
Altruism
• Bystander effect
• Diffusion of responsibility
• Best odds of helping:
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The person appears to need help
The person is similar to us
We just saw someone else being helpful
We are not in a hurry
We are in a small town
We feel guilty
We are focused on others, not preoccupied
We are in a good mood
• But remember??? Actions create attitudes
Why Help at All?
• Self-interest dominates:
• Cost-benefit analysis
• Utilitarianism
• Social exchange theory
• Maximize rewards, minimize costs (what’s in it for
me?)
So what IS in it for you?
• Intrinsic rewards (feel better)
• Helpfulness breeds happiness
• Reciprocity norm (return help, not harm)
• Social responsibility norm (help those who don’t
have the resources to give back)
• What examples can you think of that would make
Hazen a better place?
• Homework: Come up with two altruistic ideas,
practice them for a week, and write a reflection.
Conflict & Peacemaking
• Conflict: a perceived incompatibility of
actions, goals or ideas.
• Social traps
• Distorted perceptions
Peter & Cindy: Conflict Options
• Problem: It’s vacation time. Peter wants to go
to a mountain lodge; Cindy wants to go to a
seaside resort. Conflict options:
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Contending (concern for self)
Yielding (concern for others)
Problem-solving (concern for both)
Inactivity (concerns for self and other are weak)
Withdrawal (no deal)
Key Concepts of Conciliation
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Mirror-image perceptions
Self-fulfilling prophecies
Contact
Cooperation
Superordinate goals