Chapter 18
Social Behavior
Quiz
1. Social roles are the expected behavior patterns associated
with particular social positions (student, daughter, worker,
etc)
2. Fundamental Attribution Error is the tendency to attribute the
behavior of others to internal causes (personality, likes, etc)
3. A Secure attachment base is when someone avoids people
they care about
4. ‘Groupthink’ is a compulsion by members to maintain their
independence, even at the detriment of group consensus
5. Social influence is when we act differently around people we
don’t know well, such as police officers or distant neighbors
What is Social Psychology? Some
Definitions
• Social Psychology: Scientific study of how
individuals behave, think, and feel in social
situations; how people act in the presence
(actual or implied) of others
• Culture: Ongoing pattern of life that is passed
from one generation to another
Social Roles
• Social Role: Patterns of behavior expected of
people in various social positions (e.g.
daughter, mother, teacher, President
• Ascribed Role: Assigned to a person or not
under personal control
– Achieved Role: Attained voluntarily by
special effort: Teacher, mayor, President
• Role Conflict: When two or more roles make
conflicting demands on behavior
• What are some examples of role conflicts?
• How could this look for recent immigrants?
Groups
• Group Structure: Network of roles,
communication, pathways, and power in a
group
• Group Cohesiveness: Degree of attraction
among group members or their commitment
to remaining in the group
– Cohesive groups work better together
• Status: Level of social power and importance
• Norm: Accepted, but usually unspoken,
standard of appropriate behavior
Typical spatial zones (in feet) for face-to-face interactions in North America. Often,
we must stand within intimate distance of others in crowds, buses, subways,
elevators, and other public places. At such times, privacy is maintained by
avoiding eye contact, by standing shoulder to shoulder or back to back, and by
positioning a purse, bag, package, or coat as a barrier to spatial intrusions.
Write down the name of two people you didn’t
know when class began, but you know now. Then
swap papers with someone
Fig. 18-2, p. 609
Social Perception
• Attribution: Making inferences about the
causes of one’s own behavior and others’
behavior
– Consistency: Person’s behavior changes
very little in many different circumstances
– Distinctiveness: Noticing that a behavior
only occurs under certain circumstances
More Attribution Concepts
• Fundamental Attribution Error: Tendency to
attribute behavior of others to internal causes
(personality, likes, and so on). We believe
this even if they really have external causes!
• Actor-Observer Bias: Tendency to attribute
behavior of others to internal causes, while
attributing the behavior of ourselves to
external causes (situations and
circumstances)
Affiliation
• Need to Affiliate: Desire to associate with
other people; appears to be a basic human
trait
• Social Comparison: Making judgments about
ourselves by comparing ourselves to others.
E.g. comparing our feelings and abilities to
those of other people
• Write down whether you are below average,
average, or above average in the following
ways: physical attractiveness, friendliness,
creativity, athleticism, sense of humor, height,
weight.
More on Affiliation
• Downward Comparison: Comparing yourself
with someone who ranks lower than you on
some area (e.g. money, attractiveness)
• Upward Comparison: Comparing ourselves to
someone who ranks higher than we do on
some area; may be used for selfimprovement (something we strive for)
Interpersonal Attraction
• Social attraction to another person
• Physical Proximity: Physical nearness to
another person in terms of housing, school,
work, and so on
• Physical Attractiveness: Person’s degree of
physical beauty as defined by his or her
culture
• Halo Effect: Tendency to generalize a
favorable impression to unrelated personal
characteristics
Interpersonal Attraction Continued
• Similarity: Extent to which two people are
alike in terms of age, education, attitudes,
and so on
– Similar people are attracted to each other
• Homogamy: Tendency to marry someone
who is like us in almost every way
• Groups by gender: in same sex group, come
up with a list of 10 things you find attractive in
the opposite sex
Self-Disclosure
• Process of revealing private thoughts,
attitudes, feelings and one’s history to others
– Should be used cautiously and sparingly
when you are the therapist performing
therapy
– May lead to countertransference in therapy
– In pairs, the younger person will decide
level of self disclosure, the older person
has to respond at the same level of selfdisclosure
Attachment
• Secure Attachment: A stable and positive
emotional bond
• Avoidant Attachment: Fear of intimacy and a
tendency to resist commitment to others
• Ambivalent Attachment: Mixed emotions
about relationships; conflicting feelings of
affection, anger and emotional turmoil
Social Influence
• Changes in a person’s behavior induced by
the presence or actions of another person
– Someone else influences your decision:
husband, wife, mother, peer, etc.
– Peer pressure: Rudy is swayed by Fanny
to go see “MI3” when he really wanted to
see “X-Men 3”
– Social reinforcement:
– Turn to the person closest to you and give
them two compliments, the person is only
allowed to say thank you
– How does social reinforcement work?
Conformity
• Bringing one’s behavior into agreement with
norms or the behavior of others
Solomon Asch’s Experiment
• You must select (from a group of three) the
line that most closely matches the standard
line. All lines are shown to a group of six
people (including you)
– Other five were accomplices and at times
all would select the wrong line
– In 33% of the trials, the real subject
conformed to group pressure even when
the group’s answers were obviously
incorrect!
Fig. 18-5, p. 619
Group Factors in Conformity
• Groupthink: Compulsion by decision makers
to maintain each other’s approval, even at the
cost of critical thinking
• Group Sanctions: Rewards and punishments
administered by groups to enforce conformity
among members
Power
• Social Power: Capacity to control, alter or
influence the behavior of another person
• Reward Power: Rewarding a person for
complying with desired behavior
• Coercive Power: Based on ability to punish a
person for failure to comply
More Power Concepts
• Legitimate Power: Accepting a person as an
agent of an established social order
• Referent Power: Respect for, or identification
with, a person or a group
• Expert Power: Based on possession of
knowledge or expertise
Obedience (Milgram)
• Conformity to the demands of an authority
• Would you shock a man with a known heart
condition who is screaming and asking to be
released?
• Milgram studied this; the man with a heart
condition was an accomplice and the
“teacher” was a real volunteer. The goal was
to teach the learner word pairs.
Fig. 18-6a, p. 622
Fig. 18-6b, p. 622
Fig. 18-6c, p. 622
Milgram’s Results
• The learner screamed and provided no
further answers once 300 volts (“Severe
Shock”) was reached
• 65% obeyed by going all the way to 450 volts
on the “shock machine” even though the
learner eventually could not answer any more
questions
• Group support can reduce destructive
obedience
Fig. 18-7, p. 622
Fig. 18-8, p. 623
Foot-in-the-Door Effect
• A person who has agreed to a small request
is more likely later to agree to a larger
demand.
– Once you get a foot in the door, then a sale
is almost a sure thing
Door-in-the-Face Technique
• A person who has refused a major request
will be more likely later on to comply with a
smaller request
– After the door has been slammed in your
face (major request refused), person may
be more likely to agree to a smaller request
Low-Ball Technique
• Commitment is gained first to reasonable or
desirable terms, which are then made less
reasonable or desirable
– Henry accepts the price he states for a
new car. Then, later, Tillie the
saleswoman tells Henry “How about
adding all these options?”, thus increasing
the price
Make up quizzes
• For each quiz you missed, write one
handwritten page explaining why you weren’t
in class. It needs to be based on something
from the textbook. It does not have to be true.
• For example: I had these overwhelming
feelings that something bad would happen on
the day of the quiz, I could have been
diagnosed with ‘agoraphobia’ that day