© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved Slide 1 Social Psychology 16.

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Slide 1

Social Psychology

16


Slide 2

Definition of Social Psychology

• Studies individuals as they interact with others– Aristotle: Man is by nature a social animal– Psychologists study

• Attractions• Needs• Influences

– Examine within social context of situations

Social Psychology


Slide 3

Groups and Social Influence

• Lynch mobs– Racial prejudice: lynching of African Americans– Deindividuation – anonymous, inidentifiable

feeling of group member • Weakens restraints; are more aggressive

• Uninvolved bystanders– Murder of Kitty Genovese in New York– The larger the group, the less likely one will help– Diffusion of responsibility

Social Psychology


Slide 4

Working and Solving Problems in Groups

• Social facilitation: being in group improves individual performance

• Social loafing: individuals exert less effort in group than if by themselves (slack off)

• Nature of task affects behavior – Optimal levels of arousal– Easy/skilled tasks performed more quickly– Difficult/unfamiliar tasks performed more

slowly

Social Psychology


Slide 5

Group Problem Solving• Groupthink –

– Faulty decision-making process in groups– President Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs invasion– NASA’s 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster– Causes

• Process of polarization (extreme views)• Cohesiveness of members of the group

(likelihood highest in tightly knit groups)• Size of the group

– Interactive dialogue vs. serial monologue

Social Psychology


Slide 6

Conformity, Social Roles, and Obedience

• Conformity – – Asch experiments

• Peer and cultural expectations• Conform for two reasons

– Gain rewards, avoid punishment– Gain social approval, avoid disapproval

Social Psychology


Slide 7

Yielding to group pressure even when no direct request to comply has

been made.X Y ZA


Slide 8

Conformity

– Autokinetic effect (Sherif)• In ambiguous situation – one looks to others

for information that influences judgment• Likelihood of conformity causes

– Size of group (increases with size)– Unanimous groups (reduced by dissent)– Culture and conformity– Gender and conformity (sterotypes

changing, no longer true)

Social Psychology


Slide 9

Decision Model of Helping

Yes

Know how to help?

Decide to help implement intervention?

Help victim

Interpret as an emergency?

Assume responsibility for helping?

Notice an event?

Do not help

2

No

No

No

No

3

4

5

1

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes


Slide 10

Social Roles and Social Norms

• Every culture has – Social roles – expectations of behavior– Social norms – standards for behavior in given

situations

• Zimbardo’s prison study – – Power of social roles influencing behaviors– Behavior changes to fit perceptions of role

• Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison scandal– Social roles coupled with intense emotions

Social Psychology


Slide 11

Obedience

• Direct influence by authority figures– Unthinkable atrocities of WW II– Milgram’s shock experiments

• Teacher less likely to give high voltage shock when learner in same room

• Positive sides of groups– Accomplish things that individuals cannot– Can be therapeutic: emotional support, lower

stress

Social Psychology


Slide 12

Attitudes and Persuasion

• Attitudes – beliefs that predispose one to act or feel in certain ways– Learned directly from experience and others

• Persuasion and attitude change– Aristotle: persuasive arguments in oral debates– Ads in media use persuasion to induce behavior– Persuasion – process of changing another’s

attitudes by arguments and other related means

Social Psychology


Slide 13


• Characteristics of Speaker– Credibility – is speaker credible source of

information about specific argument being presented

– Attractiveness – more effective to be attractive, popular, famous, or likeable

– Intent – what the rationale is behind it

Social Psychology


Slide 14


• Characteristics of the message– Fear appeals (emotional arousal)– Two-sided arguments (most effective)– Message framing (how argument is presented)

• Characteristics of listeners– Intelligence– Need for social approval– Self-esteem

Social Psychology

– Audience size– Social support


Slide 15


• Techniques of persuasion– Foot-in-the-door (small request made, then

progressively larger ones)– Low-ball

• Cognitive dissonance theory– Explains discomfort of inconsistencies in

attitudes and behaviors– Humans usually reduce dissonance the easiest

way possible (ie: smoking and cancer)

Social Psychology


Slide 16

Cognitive Dissonance

Smoking cigarettes is unhealthy

or

The research on smoking is not conclusive

I don’t smoke cigarettes anymore

I smoke cigarettes

Smoking cigarettes is unhealthy

I smoke cigarettes

Unpleasanttension

state


Slide 17

Prejudice and Stereotypes

• Prejudice – harmful attitude based on inaccurate generalizations (ie: group, race)– Stereotypes: inaccurate generalizations that are

harmful for three reasons• Reduce one’s ability to treat another as

individual• Narrow expectations for behavior• Lead to faulty attributions

– Attitudes lead to behaviors!!Attitudes lead to behaviors!!

Social Psychology


Slide 18


• Automatic prejudice – everyone is prejudiced about something

• Causes of stereotypes and prejudice– Realistic conflict (frustration from competing

with another group for scarce resources)– Us versus them – human tendency of in-group

and out-group– Social learning (it is taught and learned)

Social Psychology


Slide 19


• Combating prejudice– Recognize prejudice– Control automatic prejudice– Increase contact among prejudiced groups

• Two groups must be almost equal in status• View each other as typical of their respective

group; not the exception• Engage in cooperative, not competitive tasks• Contact must be informal

Social Psychology


Slide 20

Interpersonal Attraction

• Attribution - Making judgments about what causes people to behave the way they do

– Fundamental attribution error • Underestimating negative impact of

situations on others– Situational attribution –

• Blaming external cause for behavior– Dispositional attribution

• Blaming internal motive/trait for behavior

Social Psychology


Slide 21


• Negative Information– The bad outweighs the good – cognitive

algebra

• Chemistry of love and social bonding– Appears people respond to sex hormones

• Androstadien (in human sweat)• Oxytocin (in blood and brain)

Social Psychology


Slide 22


• Characteristics of the other person– Drawn to those with similar interests– Opposites attract – complements each other

(gives balance to relationship, avoids having competition)

– Physical attractiveness • attribute better qualities to beautiful people• Most important factor in early stage meeting• Self-fulfilling prophecy and perceptions

Social Psychology


Slide 23


• Characteristics of perceiver– Personality traits influence person perception

• Neuroticist persons tend not to marry– Emotions and person perception

• Positive emotions are more attractive– Gender differences

• Men interested in falling in love• Majority of people think romantic love is

necessary for marriage

Social Psychology


Slide 24

Extraneous Factors

• Primacy effects – First impressions are very important; more

weight given than to later information

• Conditions lessen impact primacy effects– Prolonged exposure– Passage of time– Knowledge of primacy effects

• Cause of attraction– Proximity– Mutual liking

Social Psychology


Slide 25

Relationships

• Maintaining relationships– Balancing reality with expectations– Shift from passionate love to companionate

love signals unfulfilled expectations– Normal for personal changes to occur over

time

• Equity in relationships– Equity theory

Social Psychology


Slide 26

The End

16Social Psychology

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved Slide 1 Social Psychology 16.

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Transcript of © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved Slide 1 Social Psychology 16.