Module 39: Social Relations

Social Psychology - The scientific study of how we think

about, influence, and relate to one another.

What is Prejudice?

Prejudice- An unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members.

Stereotype- A generalized (and sometimes accurate) belief about a group of people.

Discrimination- Unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members.

What Is Prejudice? Judging by what Americans say, gender

and racial attitudes have changed dramatically in the last century.

Support for all forms of racial contact, including interracial marriage, has also dramatically increased. And nearly everyone agrees that children of all races should attend the same schools and that women and men should receive the same pay for the same job

What Is Prejudice?

Yet as overt prejudice wanes, subtle prejudice lingers.

A slew of recent experiments illustrates that prejudice can be not only subtle but also automatic and unconscious.

What are some major social divisions and types of Social

Prejudice?RaceClassGenderNationalityReligionSexual OrientationAge

What are the Social Roots of Prejudice?

I. People in a position of power and wealth justify their position in the social hierarchy by creating narratives (ideologies) that make their power appear to be natural.

II. People who are not in positions of power may internalize and subjectively validate narratives of victimization.

III. Identity in a social group can decrease feelings of uncertainty. In order to deal with their mortality, people adopt a cultural world view that imbues subjective reality with stability and permanence and provides standards of value against which judgments of self-esteem can be made.

IV. Social groups provide clear normative prescriptions for behaviors and thus imbues people with a positive valence.

V. Adaptive Behavior- Biased views may be important at times for survival. There is not always enough time to form a legitimate view about a potential foe before adopting a defensive stance that could save lives.

Just-World Phenomena

The idea that “people get what they deserve.” If someone is a victim or is suffering, they are experiencing this because they are bad.

Such reasoning enables the rich to see both their own wealth and the poor’s misfortune as justly deserved.

Merely watching someone receive painful shocks has led many people to think less of the victim.

Us and Them: Ingroup and Outgroup

Ingroup- “Us”- People who share a common identity.

Outgroup- “Them” - Those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup.

Ingroup Bias- The tendency to favor our own group.

Emotional Roots of Prejudice

Scapegoat Theory- The idea that prejudice can expresses anger by finding someone to blame when things go wrong.

In experiments, students who experience failure or are made to feel insecure restore their self-esteem by disparaging a rival school or another person.

Cognitive Roots of Prejudice

Other-Race Effect- the tendency to recall faces of one’s own race more accurately than faces of other races.

This own-race bias emerges between 3 and 9 months of age.

Vivid cases- In judging other groups we often overgeneralize from vivid memorable cases.

Violent crimes are more impressionable and memorable than non-violent crimes.

Aggression

Any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy.

– Aggression has three Biological Influences:

Genetic InfluencesNeural InfluencesBiochemical Influences

Genetic Influences on Behavior

Animals are bred for aggressiveness, either for sport or research.

Twins- If one twin admits to “having a violent temper,” the other twin will often independently admit the same whereas fraternal twins are much less likely to respond similarly.

Neural Influences on Behavior

Neural systems, when stimulated, either inhibit or produce aggressive behavior.

A mild mannered woman had an electrode implanted in her brain’s limbic system (next to her amygdala). When stimulated she exhibited violent behavior to the researcher / doctor.

One survey concluded that 15 death row inmates revealed all 15 had suffered a severe head injury. Their violence may be due to diminished activity in the frontal lobes, which play an important role in controlling impulses.

Biochemical Influences on Behavior

Hormones, alcohol, and other substances in the blood influence nervous systems that control aggression.

Violent criminals tend to be muscular young males with above average testosterone levels, lower than average serotonin levels, and lower than average intelligence scores.

For both biological and psychological reasons, alcohol unleashes aggressive responses to frustration. Just thinking you’ve drank alcohol has some effect; but so, too, does unknowingly ingesting alcohol slipped into a drink.

Psychological and Socio-Cultural Factors in Aggression

Frustration-Aggression Principle- Being blocked short of a goal may increase our readiness to aggress.

Pitchers are more likely to hit batters when frustrated by the previous batter’s hitting a home run, by the current batter’s hitting a home run the last time at bat, or by a teammate’s having been hit by a pitch in the previous half inning.

Frustration and aggression arise less from deprivation than from the gap between reality and expectation, which may rise with education and attainments.

Psychological and Social-Cultural Factors in Aggression

Averse stimuli- physical pain, personal insults, foul odors, hot temperatures, cigarette smoke- can also evoke hostility.

Violent crime and spousal abuse are higher during hotter years, seasons, months, and days.

When overheated, people think, feel, and act more aggressively.

Global warming of 4 degrees Fahrenheit would cause more that 50,000 additional assaults and murders in the US alone.

Social and Cultural Influences of Aggression

We are likely to be more aggressive in situations where experience has taught us that aggression pays. Children whose aggression successfully intimidates other children may become more aggressive.

Rejection intensifies aggression. Higher crime rates are higher (and average

happiness lower) in countries marked by a great disparity between the rich and the poor.

High violence rates exist among cultures and families that experience minimal father care. Even after controlling for parental education, race, income, and teen motherhood, American male youths from father-absent homes have double their peers incarceration rates.

Observing Models of Aggression

Observing aggressive behavior can increase tendencies towards aggression.

Media creates social scripts- models of behavior- that people copy in unfamiliar or uncertain situations.

Portrayals of sexual violence affects men’s acceptance willingness to behave aggressively with women. Rather than “providing an outlet” it increases the risk of sexual violence.

The Psychology of Attraction

Proximity is the most powerful predictor of friendship and love. People are inclined to like- and marry- those who live in the same neighborhood, who sit nearby in class, who work in the same office, who share the same parking lot.

Mere Exposure Effect- Familiarity breeds fondness. For our ancestors the mere exposure effect was adaptive since what was unfamiliar was more threatening.

Physical Attractiveness Attractiveness influences first impressions. We perceive attractive people to be healthier, happier,

more sensitive, more successful, and more socially skilled, though not more honest or compassionate.

Attractive characters are portrayed as morally superior to unattractive characters.

Strikingly attractive people are wary that any praise they receive is insincere and just related to their beauty.

Since 1970’s women have been more unhappy with their appearance.

Attractiveness also depends on our feelings about a person. If led to believe that someone has appealing traits (such as being honest humorous, and polite rather than rude, unfair, and abusive) people perceive the person as more physically attractive.

Physical Attractiveness

Similarity- Friends and couples are more likely to share common attitudes, beliefs, and interests (also age, religion, race, education, intelligence, smoking behavior, and economic status) than randomly paired people.

Proximity, attractiveness, and similarity are not the only determinants of attraction. We also like people who like us.

Reward Theory of Attraction- we will like those whose behavior is rewarding to us and that we will continue relationships that offer more rewards than costs.

Romantic Love

Passionate Love- An aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship.

Companionate Love- The deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom are lives are intertwined.

Passionate Love

Arousal is a key ingredient in passionate love.

Two Factor Theory of Emotion-1) Emotions have two ingredients- physical

arousal plus cognitive appraisal, and

2)Arousal from any source can enhance one emotion or another, depending on how we interpret and label their arousal. Experiment using arousal- Passionate love is linked to physiological arousal.

Companionate Love There may be adaptive wisdom to this

change from passionate love to compassionate love- Passionate love often produces children whose survival is aided by the parents’ waning obsession with each other.

Recognizing the short duration of passionate love, some societies deemed such feelings an “irrational” reason for marrying. Better to choose a partner with a compatible background or compatible interests.

Non-Western cultures, where people rate love less important for marriage, do have lower divorce rates.

Companionate Love

Equity- A condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it.

Self Disclosure- Revealing intimate aspects about oneself to others.

In one national survey “sharing household chores” ranked third after “faithfulness” and a “happy sexual relationship.”

Self disclosure breeds liking, and liking breeds self-disclosure.

Altruism

Unselfish regard for the welfare of others.

Bystander Intervention

Bystander Effect- The tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present.

Example: Kitty Genovese IncidentPeople in a group of strangers are more likely than

solitary individuals to keep their eyes focused on what they themselves are doing or where they are going. If they notice an unusual situation, they may infer from the blasé reactions of the other passerby that the situation is not an emergency.

The Norms for Helping

Social Exchange Theory- The idea that self interest underlies all human interactions, that our constant goal is to maximize our rewards and minimize our costs.

Reciprocity Norms- An expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them.

Social Responsibility Norm- An expectation that people will help those dependent on them.

Conflict and Peacemaking

A perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas.

Social Traps

Distorted Perceptions

Social Traps

Social Trap- A situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their interest, become caught in mutually self destructive behavior.

Example: Depleting common resources such as fishing or hunting grounds.

Example: Banking crisis (I.e. Run on bank)

Enemy Perceptions

Mirror Image Perceptions – Mutual views often held by conflicting people, as when aech side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive.

Contact

Greater contact between in and out groups can foster more mutual understanding.

Cooperation

Superordinate Goals- Shared goals that override the difference between and require their cooperation.

Conciliation

GRIT- Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension Reduction Strategy