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SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY
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Definition of Social Psychology
Social psychology is ´the scientific study of
how people think about, influence, and
relate to one another.µ
Social Psychology studies the influence
that people have upon the beliefs andbehavior of others.
´We cannot live for ourselves alone.µ Herman Melville
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Concerns of Social Psychology
How are people influenced?
Why do people accept influence?
What variables increase and decrease theeffectiveness of social influence?
How do people form, maintain, and
change Attitudes
Positive and Negative Social Behavior
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ATTITUDES A belief and feeling that predisposes a
person to respond in a particular way to
objects, other people, and events.
Three Components:
Cognition
Affect
Behavior
If we believe a person is mean, we may feel
dislike for the person and act in an
unfriendly manner.
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ATTITUDE FORMATION� Classical Conditioning
(Example: Advertising)
� Operant Conditioning
(Attitudes are learned through reinforcement)
� Vicarious Learning(Attitudes are learned by observing and
watching others)
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Pavlov¶s Experiment
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Analysis of Pavlov¶s Study
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CHANGING ATTITUDES: PERSUASION
Message Source Physically & Socially Attractive
Expertise
Trustworthiness
Prestigious Doesn¶t seem to be benefiting himself
Characteristics of the Message One Sided
Two Sided
Fear Producing
Characteristics of the Target
Central-route processing vs. Peripheral-route Processing
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Motivated andMotivated and
able toable to
understand.understand.
Irrelevant, unIrrelevant, un--
willing, unablewilling, unable
to understand.to understand.
Receives andReceives and
elaborates onelaborates on
message.message.
Uses heuristics.Uses heuristics.
If accepted,If accepted,
longlong--termterm
change.change.
EasilyEasily
persuaded bypersuaded by
other message.other message.
PersuasivePersuasive
message.message.
PeripheralPeripheral
CentralCentral
AudienceAudience RouteRoute ResultResult
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COGNITIVE DISSONANCEWh
en our attitudes and actions are opposed, weexperience tension. This is called Cognitive
Dissonance.
To relieve ourselves of this tension we bring our
attitudes closer to our actions (Festinger, 1957). Modifying one or both of the Cognitions
Changing the perceived importance of one
cognition Adding the Cognitions
Denying that the two cognitions are related to
each other
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Attributing Behavior to Persons or to
Situations
Attribution Theory: Fritz Heider (1958)
suggested that we have a tendency to give
causal explanations for someone¶s behavior,
often by crediting either the situation or the
person¶s disposition.
A teacher may wonder whether a child¶s
hostility reflects an aggressive personality(dispositional attribution) or is a reaction to
stress or abuse (a situational attribution).
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Attribution Processes:
Understanding the Causes of Behavior
Attribution Theory
Tendency to give a causal explanation for
someone·s beh
avior, often by crediting eith
erthe situation or the person·s disposition.
Situational Causes
A cause of behavior based on environmental
factors. Dispositional Causes
A cause of behavior based on internal traits
or personality factors
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Biases in Attribution
Fundamental Attribution Error A tendency to attribute others behavior to dispositional
causes and to minimize the importance of situational causes.
Halo Effect
A phenomena in which an initial understanding that a personhas positive traits is used to infer other uniformly positive
characteristics.
Assumed Similarity BiasThe tendency to think of people as being similar to oneself,
even when meeting them for the first time.
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SOCIAL INFLUENCE
The effect of the
presence of other people
on one·s behavior:
Conformity
Compliance
Obedience
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CONFORMITY
A change in behavior or attitudes broug ht about by adesire to follow the beliefs or standards of other people.
Variables producing conformity are:
The characteristics of the group The nature of the individual·s response
The kind of task
Unanimity of the group
Group Think: occurs w hen a group makes faulty decisions
because group pressures lead to a deterioration of
´mental efficiency and reality testing. (Irving Janis, 1972)
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TEST A B C
ASCH¶S EXPERIMENT
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COMPLIANCE
Behavior that occurs in response to
direct social pressure.
Techniques involved:
The foot-in-the-door technique
The door-in-the-face technique
The That¶s-not-all Technique
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OBEDIENCE
A change in behavior due to the commands
of others
Stanley Milgram designed a study that
investigates the effects of authority onobedience. Stanley Milgram
(19331984)
People comply to social pressures.
How would they respond to outrig ht
command?
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Milgram¶s Study
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STEREOTYPES:
Generalized beliefs and expectations about
social groups and their members
PREJUDICE:
The negative or positive evaluations of groups
and their members
DISCRIMINATION:
Negative behavior towards member of a
particular group