Lecture 7
Social psychology
Social psychology
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The individual and the self
The individual’s relations
The group
The reasons: evolutionary psychology
The individual
The self
How do we describe and characterise ourselves?
The individual
The self
The self may be a relatively new idea on the historical timescale.
Baumeister imagines that in medieval Europe, identity (and action) were
largely determined by one’s position in the social order. Visible attributes
often directly indicated behaviour.
In the 16th century two forces emerged:
• Secularisation: the idea that fulfillment should be actively pursued in
the real world rather than in the afterlife
• Industrialisation: the ability to move jobs, home, and social status,
highlighting a portable personal identity
• Enlightenment: the idea that existing conventions can be overthrown
and replaced, not just lived within
• Psychoanalysis: viewing the self as an indefinable construct buried in
the unconscious
The individual
The self
Collective vs. individual self:
One’s own individual traits
The properties of the group one belongs to
The individual
The self
Collective vs. individual self:
One’s own individual traits
The properties of the group one belongs to
Social psychology is the study of concepts broader than a single human
mind.
“...thos emental products which are created by a community of human
life and are, therefore, inexplicable in terms merely of individual
consciousness since they presuppose the reciprocal action of many.”
-Wundt
Wundt’s views influenced Emile Durkheim, founder of sociology.
The individual
The self
Wundt distinguished between
I: the self as the subject, perceiver of the world
me: the self as an object, scrutinised by self-judgement or selfawareness
The individual
Self-awareness
Self-awareness is the direction of attention towards the self as an object.
It often involves comparisons with a goal or ideal, allowing it to provoke
positive or negative emotions.
We have two selves – the private self and the public self
The individual
Self-awareness
Higgins’ self-discrepancy theory (1987):
• The actual self
• The ideal self
• The “ought” self
A discrepancy between actual self, and idea or ought self, can motivate
action to repair the discrepancy.
• Ideal self: largely prescriptive. Discrepancies cause dejection
• Ought self: largely proscriptive. Discrepancies cause agitation
The individual
How do we describe and characterise the individual?
The individual
How do we describe and characterise an individual?
The individual
Traits
Traits: personal characteristics
The individual
Traits
Solomon Asch
1907 - 1996
The individual
Traits
Intelligent
Industrious
Skilful
Warm/cold
Determined
Practical
Cautious
Polite/blunt
The individual
Traits
Intelligent
Industrious
Skilful
Warm/cold
Determined
Practical
Cautious
Polite/blunt
The individual
Traits
Intelligent
Industrious
Skilful
Warm/cold
Determined
Practical
Cautious
Replicated (1950) in a real setting
Polite/blunt
The individual
Traits
Asch’s configural model:
Central traits
Peripheral traits
1946
The individual
Traits
Does it make sense to say that a trait is always central?
The individual
Traits
Does it make sense to say that a trait is always central?
Are there any circumstances under which the centrality of a trait
changes?
The individual
Traits
Primacy effect in impressions: information presented first influences
judgement disproportionately
The individual
Traits
Recency effects also exist, but primacy effects have more pervasive
influence.
Jones, Edward E., et al. "Primacy and assimilation in the attribution process: The stable
entity proposition1." Journal of Personality 40.2 (1972): 250-274.
The individual
Traits
How do we integrate the effects of different traits?
The individual
Traits
How do we integrate the effects of different traits?
Cognitive algebra (information integration theory)
Anderson, N. H. A Simple Model for Information Integration. In R.P. Abelson E. Aronson,
W.J. McGuire, T.M. Newcomb, M.J. Rosenberg & P.H. Tannenbaum (Eds.), Theories of
Cognitive Consistency: A Sourcebook., Chicago: Rand McNally, 1968
Anderson, Norman H. "Integration theory and attitude change." Psychological Review 78.3
(1971): 171.
The individual
Traits
Summation (adding)
Averaging
Weighted averaging
The individual
Traits
Does the weighted averaging model remind you of anything?
The individual
Person memory
How do we store traits and recall them?
Person memory.
The individual
Person memory
Access:
by person
by group
by characteristic
Dunbar’s number:
150 stable social relationships
The individual
Attitudes
“The concept of attitudes is probably the most distinctive and
indispensable concept in contemporary American social psychology. No
other term appears more frequently in the experimental and theoretical
literature.”
-Gordon Allport, 1935
The individual
Attitudes
An attitude is:
“A mental and neural state of readiness, organised through experience,
exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response
to all objects and situations with which it was created.”
-Gordon Allport, 1935
The individual
Attitudes
Do attitudes really exist?
In other words, should we attribute them as causes of behaviours?
Or are they just an epiphenomenon (a mental construct invented to
explain behaviours)?
They are certainly a major feature of psychological literature.
The individual
Attitudes
An attitude towards an object can consist of
• One component:
positive or negative affect
(Edwards, Thurstone)
• Three components:
thought
feeling
action
(McGuire)
The individual
Attitudes are monitored
Cognitive consistency
Cognitive dissonance
Balance theory:
Person
Object (another person)
C (concept)
Cartwright, Dorwin, and Frank Harary. "Structural balance: a generalization of Heider's
theory." Psychological review 63.5 (1956): 277.
The individual
Balance theory
The individual
Do attitudes cause behaviours?
Attitudes, if they are real phenomena, ought to govern (help to cause)
behaviours.
In order to detect causation, we need to measure attitudes and
behaviour – and we need to ensure we are asking the right questions.
The individual
Do attitudes cause behaviours?
Davidson and Jacard (1979):
Attitudes:
towards birth control
towards using birth control pills
towards using birth control pills during the next two years
Behaviour:
actual use of the contraceptive pill
Davidson, Andrew R., and James J. Jaccard. "Variables that moderate the attitude–behavior
relation: Results of a longitudinal survey." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37.8
(1979): 1364.
The individual
Do attitudes cause behaviours?
Are we measuring specific acts, or general tendencies?
The more acts we average over, the greater the predictive power of the
attitude (as opposed to other factors affecting single acts).
The individual
Do attitudes cause behaviours?
Theory of reasoned action (Azjen & Fishbein, 1980)
Attitudes influence behaviours according to
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Subjective norm: exemplar-guided concept of “the proper thing to do”
Attitude towards the behaviour: the individual’s beliefs
Behavioural intention: internal intention to act
Behaviour: the actual performance of the action itself
Ajzen, Icek, and Martin Fishbein. "Understanding attitudes and predicting social." Behaviour.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall (1980).
Find in library. Instead try:
Fishbein, Martin, and I. Ajzen. "The influence of attitudes on behavior." The handbook of
attitudes (2005): 173-222.
The individual’s relationships
Attribution
Establishing/perceiving/deducing/constructing
the causes and explanations for one’s own behaviour and that of others
The individual’s relationships
Attribution
Heider:
Naive psychology
-A search for causes pervades human thought
-We try to establish stable traits and abilities in others
-We distinguish between
internal (dispositional) attribution
external (situational) attribution
The individual’s relationships
Attribution
Jones and Davis:
Correspondent inference:
the attribution of behaviour to an underlying disposition (as opposed to
chance)
• If a behaviour is freely chosen, it is more indicative of an underlying
disposition
• Non-common effects: an effect exclusive to a particular kind of behaviour.
Outcome bias is pressure to think that a non-common effect is produced
intentionally.
• Antisocial behaviour generally opposes social norms, so can tell us more
about a person’s underlying disposition
• Our inferences are more powerful when someone behaves in a way that
affects us (hedonic relevance)
• Personalistic behaviour (which is intended to help or harm us) strengthens
inferences
The individual’s relationships
Attribution
Kelley:
Covariation model (1963)
People are scientists.
They observe which behaviours vary together, and connect them.
Using information on:
• Consistency (whether a behaviour is always performed)
• Distinctiveness
• Consensus (the agreement of others)
The individual’s relationships
Attribution
Challenging the covariation model:
People may not actually be able to detect covariation
Jones, Edward E., et al. "Primacy and assimilation in the attribution process: The stable
entity proposition1." Journal of Personality 40.2 (1972): 250-274.
Correlation is not causation
But here we are defining how causation is constructed from correlation.
The individual’s relationships
Attribution
Subjects received either
adrenalin
placebo
and were informed either
symptoms of arousal would result
headache and dizziness would result (misinformation)
no explanation
They then completed paperwork with a confederate (actor) who either
behaved euphorically
behaved angrily
Prediction: the adrenalin-drugged participants who were misinformed would
cue their arousal from the confederate’s behaviour, inducing them to feel
euphoric or angry depending on the confederate. Other groups would feel
nothing.
The individual’s relationships
Attribution
Schachter, Stanley, and Jerome Singer. "Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants
of emotional state." Psychological review 69.5 (1962): 379.
Reattribution can be used as a therapeutic tool
The individual’s relationships
Attribution
Weiner’s attributional theory
When attributing an achievement, we consider three dimensions:
• Locus – is the achievement internal or external?
• Stability – is this cause stable?
• Controllability – can the actor influence future achievements?
The individual’s relationships
Attribution
The fundamental attribution error or the correspondence bias:
The tendency to attribute behaviour to a disposition, even when there are clear
external causes.
When someone is forced to do something, we have a tendency to see it as a
choice.
Related to the actor-observer effect:
The tendency to make environmental attributions concerning your own actions,
but causal attributions concerning those of others.
The individual’s relationships
Attribution
False consensus effect:
The idea that everyone will agree with you.
A tendency to suppose others’ judgements will mirror yours.
Self-serving biases:
Internal attribution, taking credit for your successes
External attribution, , denying responsibility for your failures
The individual’s relationships
Attribution
We may not attribute events from environmental information only.
Counterfactual thinking is the imagining of past events different from those which
really occurred, and deducing their effect on the future.
Causation (X causes Y) could be worked out by
imagining what the world would look like if X had not happened
if, in this case, Y would not have happened either, then X must have caused Y.
The individual’s relationships
Attribution
Attribution can work between groups too.
We tend to consider that groups behave like people:
memory
intentions
traits
faults and blame
The ultimate attribution error:
Internal attribution of
External attribution of
bad outgroupers
good outgroupers
good ingroupers
bad ingroupers
The individual’s relationships
Affiliation, attraction and love
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder?”
On one hand, social norms (including those of attraction) obviously change.
On the other hand, some factors (symmetry, eye size) seem to be universal predictors
of attractiveness.
Perceived attractiveness also has an undeniable effect on the behaviour of others.
Langlois, Judith H., et al. "Maxims or myths of beauty? A meta-analytic and theoretical review."
Psychological bulletin 126.3 (2000): 390.
The individual’s relationships
Affiliation, attraction and love
The media has a phenomenal effect on the perception of attraction.
Since January 2013, according to Israeli law:
• Models shown in print adds must prove their BMI is at least 18.5
• Ads featuring digitally-altered images of models must be clearly labelled as such
Grabe, Shelly, L. Monique Ward, and Janet Shibley Hyde. "The role of the media in body image
concerns among women: a meta-analysis of experimental and correlational studies."
Psychological bulletin 134.3 (2008): 460.
The individual’s relationships
Affiliation, attraction and love
Jon Hamm
The individual’s relationships
Affiliation, attraction and love
Britney Spears
The individual’s relationships
Affiliation, attraction and love
Alec Baldwin
The individual’s relationships
Affiliation, attraction and love
Adriana Lima
The individual’s relationships
Affiliation, attraction and love
Attractiveness may be related to averageness.
Averaging several faces usually results in a face which is judged to be more attractive.
This could be simply due to smoother skin; however, studies which only manipulate
face shape obtain similar results.
The individual’s relationships
Affiliation, attraction and love
Hatfield and Walster’s three-factor theory of love:
1. A cultural label acknowledging love as a state
2. Presence of an appropriate object
3. Emotional arousal labelled as “love”
Traupmann, Jane, and Elaine Hatfield. "Love and its effect on mental and physical health." Aging:
Stability and change in the family (1981): 253-274.
The individual’s relationships
Isolation and loneliness
Richard E Byrd: explorer, spent six months alone at
a station in the Antarctic.
24 days: “lost and bewildered”
3 months: depression, hallucinations, bizarre ideas
Grassian, Stuart, and Nancy Friedman. "Effects of sensory
deprivation in psychiatric seclusion and solitary
confinement." International Journal of Law and
Psychiatry 8.1 (1986): 49-65.
Richard E. Byrd
1888 - 1957
The individual’s relationships
Sensory deprivation
The individual’s relationships
Sensory deprivation
Until 1972 the following techniques were permitted for the security forces
occupying Northern Ireland:
wall-standing; hooding; subjection to noise; deprivation of sleep; deprivation of
food and drink
The individual’s relationships
Sensory deprivation
American citizen; designated a foreign combatant after
implication in terrorist attacks. Alleged suffering sensory
deprivation as well as solitary confinement.
José Padilla
1970 - pres
The group
Group communication
The group
Group communication
Allport and Postman’s anatomy of rumour:
• Levelling removes detail and complexity from the rumour, shortening it
• Sharpening exaggerates salient features of the rumour
• Assimiliation distorts the rumour to fit the intentions and preconceptions of
those spreading it
Allport, Gordon W., and Leo Postman. "An analysis of rumor." Public Opinion Quarterly
10.4 (1946): 501-517.
The group
Group communication
The group
Persuasion and leadership
Groups have leaders;
they may have hierarchies.
Leadership is the assumption of a position of power;
persuation is the art of endowing messages with power.
The two processes are closely related; one uses persuasion to attain leadership.
Persuasion can also be viewed as induced attitude change.
The group
Persuasion
Numerous studies have examined the effect of source, sender, medium, fear, and
emotional content.
Elaboration-likelihood model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986):
People assess the arguments of a message, but they are cognitive misers. This
assessment can take two routes:
• Central route: arguments are properly evaluated and attended to
• Peripheral route: unconscious association, less cognitive effort
Much of advertising depends on the peripheral route.
Petty, Richard E., and John T. Cacioppo. "The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion."
Advances in experimental social psychology 19 (1986): 123-205.
The group
Persuasion tactics
• Foor-in-the-door tactic: small request first, then larger request
• Door-in-the-face tactic: large request first, then smaller request
• Low-ball tactic: secure agreement, then reveal hidden costs
The group
Anti-persuasion tactics
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Reactance: fighting back against a deliberate persuasion attempt
Forewarning: persuasive effects are mitigated by advance warning
Inoculation: demonstrating how to repel simple attacks on one’s position
Trivialisation: reducing the importance of an argument (often to subdue the
cognitive dissonance it creates)
The group
Persuasion tactics
Attitude change is one of the most useful techniques studied in social
psychology.
Its great utility gives rise to organisation and business psychology.
The group
Conformity
The group
Conformity
The group
Conformity
The group
Conformity
The group
Norms and stereotypes
Norms are constructed socially, but they can be stored and remembered by
individuals.
The group
Prejudice and discrimination
Norms are constructed socially, but they can be stored and remembered by
individuals.
The group
War
The group
War
War leverages some natural tendencies (aggression, obedience) but dominates
others (fear, self-preservation).
Military psychology:
Intelligence testing – 170,000 soldiers in the US Army during WW1
Organisational psychology
Morale and obedience
Combat psychology – Vietnam war
PTSD and reintegration
Evolutionary psychology
A compelling explanation
Behaviours are evolved responses to the environment in which the human
species evolved.
There are two levels on which behaviours can be transmitted:
• Genetic
• Cultural
Timing information can inform as to which level generates a particular behaviour.
Evolutionary psychology
Trivers-Willard hypothesis
Female mammals are able to adjust offspring sex ratio
Males are more able to exploit good conditions in order to reproduce.
Under good conditions, paents invest more in sons
Under unfavourable conditions, parents invest more in daughters
Evolutionary psychology
In the modern world
Some of our adaptations do not fit so well in the modern world
Evolutionary psychology
Game theory
The Prisoner’s Dilemma
Evolutionary psychology
Social exchange theory
Prosocial behaviour and altruism
Evolutionary psychology
Social exchange theory
Amato, Paul R. "Helping behavior in urban and rural environments: Field studies
based on a taxonomic organization of helping episodes." Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology 45.3 (1983): 571.
Evolutionary psychology
Social exchange theory
Amato, Paul R. "Helping behavior in urban and rural environments: Field studies
based on a taxonomic organization of helping episodes." Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology 45.3 (1983): 571.