Social Psychology
The study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people.
Humans are a highly _______ species
Group Formation
Evolution: typically have existed in smaller groups;
Why do we belong to groups?:
Why are we susceptible to social influence?
Social influence is typically adaptive
Can “good” or “bad”; negative effects are considered to be by-products of adaptive social influence
We must also question group allegiance and persuasive leaders
Social Comparison aides in ___________________
Social Contagion look to others, especially in ___________________
social
~150 people
In-groups and out-groups
Need-to-belong theory
Survival
self-evaluation
ambiguous situations
Attributions:
Types of Attributions:
Internal:
External:
Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE):
Trend often is reversed for our own behaviours (especially failures)
Results in part from salience
Can result in victim blaming
Culture can influence degree of FAE
The process of assigning causes to behaviour
I: The inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about them, such as attitude, character, or personality.
E: The inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation they are in.
Tendency as human beings to overestimate the extent to which people’s behaviour is due to dispositional influences and to underestimate the role of situational factors.
Conformity:
Give some E.g.;
Why do we conform?
Rely on ____________ when in confusing or ambiguous circumstances
Fear, heavy social pressure, group size, culture
A change in behaviour resulting from the real or imagined influences of other people
E.g.;
Cults
Violence
Dictatorships
Everyday behaviour
social cues
Asch (1955):
Ps stated which of three lines matches ________________
Used _____________, who stated the incorrect answer 12/18 times
~75% of participants conformed on at least 1/12 trials
~11% conformed on 10-12/12 trials
Important Factors in the Asch framework:
Unanimity: all confederates give the _______ answer increases conformity
Difference in the wrong answer: any differing opinion from majority reduced _____________
standard line
confederates
Group Size (size of the majority)
wrong
conformity
Deindividuation:
Give some E.g.;
Why does deindividuation lead to impulsive acts?
Anonymity: groups reduce the likelihood of (…)
The tendency of people to engage in atypical behaviour when they are stripped of their usual identities
E.g; sports fans; military torture
individual blame
Groups lower self-awareness - outward focus
Adhere to normative social influence
Social Roles:
Give some E.g;
Expectations that are shared by group members about how individuals should behave
E.g; Teacher, boss, parent, child, religious leader
Stanford Prison Study:
Assigned ___ male undergraduates to be ___________ or ____________
Both guards and prisoners quickly adopted their respective ______________
Guards humiliated and abused prisoners
Study was ended prematurely
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prisoners or guards
social role
Groupthink:
Maintaining _____________ at the expense of a realistic appraisal of facts
Focus on common knowledge shared by group members at the expense of unique knowledge
Give some E.g.;
Antecedents: what leads to groupthink?:
An emphasis on group unanimity at the expense of critical thinking
cohesiveness
E.g; The Bay of Pigs invasion
Vietnam War decision-making
Corporate decision-making
Legal decision-making (e.g., juries)
Highly cohesive groups
Group isolation
Directive leader
Cult:
Practices are often considered _______ and outside of conventional norms
Give some E.g.;
Mechanisms of Influence:
Misconceptions:
A group of individuals who exhibit intense and unquestioning devotion to a single cause
deviant
E.g.; The Seekers; Heaven’s Gate; The Peoples Temple (Jonestown)
MI: Persuasive Leader
Disconnect group members from the outside world
Discourage questioning of the groups ideas, assumptions, and key members
Indoctrination practices
M: Cult members are disturbed or have mental health issues
Cult members are brainwashed
Inoculation effect: approach to convincing people to (…)
change their minds about something by first exposing them to reasons why the perspective might be correct, and then debunking those reasons
Obedience:
Adherence to instructions from (…)
What is this E.g.?;
Involved obedience to authoritarian leaders and group conformity
The banality of evil (Arendt)
authority figures
Norm of obedience
Important for groups and society to work; negative consequences when we do not critically evaluate our authority figures
Nazi Holocaust
Behavioural Study of Obedience (Milgram, 1963)
Participants are recruited into a study on “___________ and ______________”
Teacher (real participant) will administer shocks to the “learner” (confederate) when they get questions wrong
Shocks range from 15-450 volts: how far will people go?
“learning and punishment”
__/40 obeyed until the maximum shock was given
Results generalize across (…)
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gender, ethnicity, age, personality (mostly) and education level
Prosocial Behaviour:
Give some E.g.;
Any act performed with the goal of benefiting another person or group
E.g.;
Pro-environmental behaviour: recycling, taking the bus, reducing water consumption
Sharing: food, money, toys, or other resources
Cooperating: working mutually on a project
Helping: volunteerism, bystander intervention in emergencies
Bystander Effect:
Give an E.g. of a situation
Why don’t we help?
Pluralistic Ignorance: error of assuming (…)
Diffusion of responsibility: reduction in feelings of (…)
The finding that the greater the number of bystanders who witness an emergency, the less likely it is that any one of them will help
E.g.; Kitty Genovese
Murdered and NY Times reported that nobody helped
This was due to “apathy” from big city life
Latané & Darley: considered the situation
that no one in the group perceives things as we do (e.g., as an emergency)
Important in ambiguous situations
personal responsibility in the presence of others
Basic Methodology:
Many types of settings have been studied:
Philpot et al.
Viewed real life bystander intervention using _____
Helping/intervention was the norm
The more people present, the better the chance of help
Stage an “emergency”
Manipulate how many people participants think are present
Measure helping
Seizure; woman in distress; smoke in lab
Confederates may cue people to avoid action
CCTV
Why engage in pro-social behaviour?:
Altruism:
Factors affecting when we help others:
Situational factors:
self interest or altruism
Helping others for unselfish reasons, even if there is a personal cost
Egotistic reasons
Empathy
physical and psychological proximity, victim characteristics, group norms, time
Individual differences: personality, sex, training
Aggression:
Situational Influences:
Aggressive cues:
Discomfort:
Behaviour intended to harm others either physically or psychologically
Provocation
Social Exclusion
Frustration
Media Violence: video games, TV, movies
weapons
Alcohol and drugs
pain and temperature
Arousal
Sex and Aggression
Men tend to be more ____________________ than women.
Women tend to be more _____________________
Relational Aggression: a form of indirect aggression marked by:
physically aggressive
relationally aggressive
spreading rumours, gossiping, social exclusion, and nonverbal putdowns
Verbal aggression (mixed findings)
Attitudes:
Three Components of Attitudes
Affective:
Cognitive:
Behavioural:
Attitudes can be based on any of these, or a combination of them
Attitudes often do not predict _________ well. Predictions are worse when behaviours are _________ or there are many choices. Stronger or more salient attitudes are better __________. Attitudes are just one factor in the complex behaviour of humans
Behaviour can cause attitudes to change
Evaluations of people, objects, or ideas
emotional responses toward attitude object
thoughts and beliefs about attitude object
actions or observable behaviour toward the attitude object.
behaviour
complex
predictors
Why do attitudes change?
Cognitive Dissonance:
Can 1) Change cognition A; 2) Change Cognition B (or behaviour); 3) Introduce a new cognition C that resolves tension
E.g., negative attitude toward smoking (it’s unhealthy) but continue to smoke
Self-Perception Theory:
Impression Management Theory:
A state of tension or discomfort that arises from holding two conflicting attitudes, or an attitude that conflicts with a behaviour
Attitudes are acquired by observing our own behaviour
We don’t change our attitudes, but we report changes to appear consistent with our attitudes
