CHAPTER 16: SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY
AP Psychology
Social Psychology
Study of how others influence our thoughts,
feelings, and actions
Focuses on:
•How large social forces bring out the best and
worse in us
•Why people act differently in the same
situations and why the same person might act
differently in different situations
Our Thoughts About Others

Attributions
 An
explanation for the cause of
behaviors and events
Mistaken Attributions
 Fundamental Attribution Error
 Misjudging
the causes of others’
behavior as due to internal
(dispositional) causes rather than
external (situational) ones
Attribution
Fundamental Attribution Error
Other Attribution Errors

Saliency Bias
 Focusing
on the most noticeable
(salient) factors when explaining the
cause of behavior

Just-World Phenomenon
 Tendency
to believe that people
generally get what they deserve

Self-Serving Bias
 Taking
credit for our successes and
externalizing our failures
Self-Serving Bias
Attitudes

Attitude
 Learned
predisposition to respond cognitively,
affectively, and behaviorally to a specific object
Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive Dissonance
A
feeling of discomfort resulting from a
mismatch between an attitude and a
behavior or two competing attitudes
 Example:
smoking!
 Example: Festinger and Carlsmith’s study
Cognitive Dissonane
Cognitive Dissonance
Group Processes

Roles
 Sets
of behavioral patterns connected with particular
social positions
 Philip Zimbardo’s Prison Study (1971)
Deindividuation

Deindividuation
 Reduced
selfconsciousness,
inhibition, and
personal
responsibility that
sometimes occurs
in a group,
particularly when
members feel
anonymous
Group Decision Making

Group Polarization
 Group’s
movement toward
either riskier or more
conservative behavior,
depending on the member’s
initial dominant tendency

Why?
 As
people interact and share
opinions, they find new and more
persuasive information that
supports their original idea
Group Decision Making

Groupthink
 Faulty
decision making that occurs when a highly
cohesive group strives for agreement and avoids
inconsistent information
 Examples:
Kennedy and Bay of the Pigs, war in Iraq, failure
to anticipate Pearl Harbor attack, etc.
Other Group Behavior

Social Facilitation
 Improved
performance of simple tasks in the presence
of others
 If the task is difficult or unpracticed, a person will do
worse in the presence of others
Other Group Behavior

Diffusion of Responsibility
 The
diffusion of personal responsibility
for acting by spreading it among other
group members
 Example:

Kitty Genovese murder
Bystander Effect
 Presence
of other people reduces
helping behavior
 Example:
Bystander Experiment, Chinese
Girl Hit, Homeless Man Stabbed
Other Group Behavior

Social Loafing
 Phenomenon
of people exerting less effort to achieve a
goal when they work in a group than when they are
alone
Social Loafing – Rope Pulling
Our Feelings About Others

Prejudice
A
learned, generally negative, attitude towards
members of a group (includes thoughts, feelings,
and potential behaviors)

Stereotype
A
set of beliefs about the characteristics of
people in a group that is generalized to all
group members (Average Asian)

Discrimination
 Negative
group
behaviors directed at members of a
Prejudice
Why does prejudice exist?
1.
Learning
 Learned
2.
Personal Experience
 One
3.
through media, parents, friends, etc.
bad experience, people generalize to all
Mental Shortcuts
 Attempts
to simplify and make quick judgments
 Ingroup favoritism, outgroup homogeneity
4.
5.
Economic & Political Competition
Displaced Aggression
 Scapegoat
Interpersonal Attraction

Interpersonal Attraction
 Positive

feelings towards another
Most important determinants?
Physical Attractiveness
Proximity
1.
2.

Mere exposure effect
Similarity
3.


Opposites attract?
Need complementarity, need
compatibility
Love

Romantic Love
 Intense
feeling of attraction to
another within an erotic context
and with future expectations
 Usually short-lived

Companionate Love
 Strong
and lasting attraction
characterized by trust, caring,
tolerance, and friendship
 Grows stronger with time
Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love
Our Actions Towards Others

Conformity
 Changing
behavior because of real or
imagined group pressure
 Solomon Asch’s experiment (1951)

Asch’s conclusions:


Subjects often conform to a group, even
when obviously wrong
Conformity increases with the size of the
group, but only when the group is
unanimous
Why conform?

Normative Social Influence
 Conforming
out of need for
approval and acceptance

Informational Social Influence
 Conforming
out of need for
information and direction

Reference Groups
 People
we conform to because
we like and admire them and
want to be like them
Chameleon Effect

Chameleon Effect
 Our
tendency to unconsciously mimic those around us
 Examples:
yawning, picking up on people’s moods
Obedience

Obedience
 Following
direct commands, usually from an authority
figure

Stanley Milgram’s Study (1961)

Have times changed?
Why Obey?




Foot –in-the-Door Technique
 A first, small request is used as a setup
for a later, larger request
Door-in-the-Face Technique
 A large request is made knowing it will
probably be refused so that the person
will agree to a much smaller request
Lowball Technique
 An initial agreement is made before all
of the details are explained
Reciprocity
Extra Credit Opportunity!




You may ask for 5 or 10 points of extra credit.
If everyone asks for 5 points, everyone gets 5
points.
If you ask for 10 points, you will get 10
points…UNLESS more than 6 people ask for 10
points, THEN everyone gets 0 points.
Write your name on your slip of paper and
either “5” or “10” written. DO NOT LET
ANYONE SEE YOUR PAPER!
Social Trap


People do what is in
their best interest,
even though it may
hurt the group
Short-term gains vs.
long-term loss for
group
 Examples:
logging
overfishing,
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: motivated by concern for others