Transcript Unit 14: Social Psychology

Unit 14
Social Psychology
Module 74: Attribution, Attitudes,
and Actions
Module 75: Conformity and
Obedience
Module 76: Group Behavior
Module 77: Prejudice and
Discrimination
Module 78: Aggression
Module 79: Attraction
Module 80:Altruism, Conflict, and
Peacemaking
Social Psych versus Sociology
• Social Psychologists study
how individuals interact with
each other and society at
large.
• Sociologists explore the
behavior of groups and
cultures as they interact
internally and externally.
The Fundamental Attribution Error
• Attribution Theory – scientific process of forming perceptions of others
• Fundamental Attribution Error:
• Tendency to incorrectly attribute behavior of others or of ourselves
• Dispositional Attributions – stable, enduring, internally triggered
• Situational Attributions – externally triggered, unstable
• Self Serving Bias: “I won because I’m a beast.”
• Defensive Attribution: “She got raped because of how she dresses.”
Cultural Influences: Westerners and political conservatives are more likely to
make dispositional attributions while Non-Westerners and political liberals
are more likely to make situational attributions.
Making Attributions
1. Sergio the Magnificent just won a million dollar on a TV talent show
Situational: ____________________________________________
Dispositional:___________________________________________
2. Frankie totaled his brand new SUV.
Situational: ____________________________________________
Dispositional:___________________________________________
3. Diane arrives to school at 8:30.
Situational: ____________________________________________
Dispositional:___________________________________________
Covariation Model of Attribution considers the role of Consensus and Consistency.
How would these 2 things influence your answers above?
Attitudes and Actions
Central Route Persuasion
Uses evidence and logic to make
their claim
Peripheral Route Persuasion
Relies on emotions and anecdotes
More likely to be effective at
changing attitudes over time
Celebrity endorsement or
attractive people
Attitudes and Actions
• Chicken or the egg problem… Which comes first?
• Actions STRENGTHEN Attitudes- we believe more firmly about things we have
had to stand up for
• Foot in the Door Phenomenon
• Get people to agree to a small request and add more on later
• “Mom, can I stay out an extra hour this Saturday?”
• Once your gone… “Mom, Jase is giving me a ride but he doesn’t have to be home for two
more hours”
• “It would just be easier if I stayed here tonight….”
Role Playing Affects Attitudes
Role playing strongly impacts our attitudes about ourselves and others
even when we know we are just playing a role (or that someone else is).
The Stanford Prison Experiment (1971)
Cognitive Dissonance
If our attitudes and behaviors don’t match, we are likely to adjust our
attitudes to match the reality of our behaviors.
• Examples:
• Boy likes girl. He tells friends he’s going to ask her out. Girl rejects boy and
laughs at him. Boy tells friends “she’s ugly and nasty anyway”
• Americans supported invading Iraq to find WMD, we didn’t find WMD,
Americans revised the initial rationale for invading Iraq and continue to
support “liberating the oppressed people of Iraq”
• Girl suffers embarrassing hazing to join sorority, convinces herself she must
really want to be a part of the group and feels an increased level of
commitment
Conformity
• Adjusting your behavior or thinking to match a group or perceived
group
• Automatic Mimicry
• Being around someone who touches their face will often prompt others to
touch their face
• Mood Contagion
• Happy people make us happy; no one wants to hang out with Eeyore
• Re
Look how unique they all are!
•
Conformity
• Solomon Asch Experiment
• After hearing 5 obviously wrong
answers, one third of people were still
willing to give an incorrect answer
• Asch Experiment
Social Psych Videos
• Face The Rear (elevator) - conformity
• Don’t Eat Light - compliance
• Picketing Everything - obedience
• Delaware is Closed - obedience
• Invisible Glass - compliance
• Sharing Ice Cream – influence
• Obeying a Fake Cop; Shocking a Stranger
• Smoke in the Room
• Marry a Stranger
Obedience
Stanley Milgram (1960s)
• Seemed to be randomly picked
to be “teacher” or “learner”
• The learner screamed and provided
no further answers once 300 volts
(“Severe Shock”) was reached
• 65% obeyed by going all the way to
450 volts on the “shock machine”
even though the learner eventually
could not answer any more questions
Original Milgram Footage
Social Facilitation v. Social Loafing
• Facilitation
• Tendency to have performance
enhanced by the presence of an
audience
• Individual tasks
• BBN
• Loafing
• Tendency to decrease effort when
responsibility for a task is
distributed among group members
• Group tasks
Group Polarization v. Groupthink
• Polarization
• Enhancement and solidification of
opinions because of spending time
of like minded individuals
• “birds of a feather” mentality
• Groupthink
• Not thinking critically in a group to
preserve harmony within the
group
• Imagine someone mindlessly
nodding along
Prejudice
Prejudice is an attitude
Discrimination is a behavior
Roots of Prejudice
• Social
• Just-world phenomenon: “people get what they deserve” belief
• Then how do you explain that one really sweet kid who Santa didn’t come visit? Huh? HUH?!
• Ingroup v. Outgroup
• Emotional
• Scapegoat theory – think of the backlash ordinary police officers are facing
amid the current events and behaviors of some
• Cognitive
• Humans naturally categorize things
• Other-race effect- Tendency to feel that “All _____ people look the same to me”
• Vivid cases feed stereotypes, easier to recall
• Natural resistance to change
Aggression
• Biology of Aggression
• Genetic – animals can be bred for aggression
• Neural – frontal lobe damage, amgydala activation
• Biochemical – testosterone & alcohol
Aggression
• Social-Cultural Factors
• Aversive events – heat, proximity, pain, odors increase hostility
• Parenting styles - spankings, etc
• Media – “social scripts”
• Pornography influences attitudes regarding aggressive sexual acts
• Video Games – GTA lead to a copycat murder in 2002
• Bottom line – YES! Violent video games are influential in aggressive behaviors!
Attraction
• Proximity – most likely to end up with someone near to us
• Mere Exposure Effect – a fondness for things/people we see frequently
• How do we know what pretty is?
• Evolutionary explanations
• Varys culture to culture
• 18 different countries Photoshop same original photo to their ideal standard of beauty
Love
• Passionate Love
•
•
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Intense
All-consuming
Temporary
Causes us to ignore partners flaws
• Companionate Love
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•
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Deep affectionate attachment
Marriage
Commitment
Increased by equity, selfdisclosure, and intimacy
Altruism
•Altruism
•Selfless act to benefit others (questionable if it exists at all)
–Kitty Genovese
–Queens NYC 1964
•Bystander Intervention
–Diffusion of responsibility
–Bystander Effect video