Chapter 14

Chapter 14
Social Psychology

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Copyright © 2008 Allyn & Bacon

Chapter 14 Overview
 Social perception
 Attraction
 Conformity, obedience, and compliance
 Group influence
 Attitudes and attitude change
 Prosocial behavior
 Aggression
 Prejudice and discrimination


Social Perception
 Social psychology is the subfield that
attempts to explain how the actual,
imagined, or implied presence of others
influences the thoughts, feelings, and
behavior of individuals
– Confederate is a person who poses as a
participant in an experiment but is actually
assisting the experimenter
– Naïve subject is a person who has agreed to
participate in an experiment but is not aware
that deception is being used to conceal its real
purpose

Why are first impressions so
important?

 The primacy effect
– An overall impression of another person is
influenced more by the first information received
about that person than by information that
comes later
 Once formed, an impression acts as a
framework through which later information
is interpreted


What is the difference between a
situational attribution and a
dispositional attribution?
 An assignment of a cause to explain one’s
own or another’s behavior
 When we explain our own failures, we tend
to make situational attributions
– Attributing behavior to an external cause or
factor related to a situation
 When we explain other people’s failures, we
are more likely to make dispositional
attributions
– Attributing behavior to an internal cause, such
as a personality trait


What is the difference between a
situational attribution and a
dispositional attribution?
 The tendency to attribute other people’s
behavior to dispositional causes and our
own to situational causes is referred to as
the actor-observer bias
 People generally attribute their successes to
dispositional causes and their failures to
situational causes
– This is referred to as the self-serving bias


Attraction

 Think about your friends. What makes
you like, or even fall in love with, one
person and ignore or react negatively
to someone else?


What factors contribute to
attraction?

 Proximity
– We tend to like and feel attracted to people who
are frequently in our local environment
 The mere-exposure effect
– The tendency to feel more positively toward a
stimulus as a result of repeated exposure to it
 Reciprocity
– We tend to like people who like us


What factors contribute to
attraction?

 People of all ages have a strong tendency to
prefer physically attractive people
 People who are physically attractive are
also perceived as having other favorable
qualities
– This is known as the halo effect


How do psychologists explain
romantic attraction and mating?

 The matching hypothesis proposes that
people choose mates who are similar to
themselves in physical attractiveness and
other attributes
– Similarity attracts and is associated with marital
success
 Evolutionary psychologists argue that
men and women prefer mates on the basis
of what they can contribute to reproductive
success
– Men prefer young, attractive women
– Women prefer men with resources and high
status Copyright © 2008 Allyn & Bacon

How does Sternberg’s triangular
theory of love account for the
different kinds of romantic love?
 Three components
singly, and in
various
combinations,
produce seven
different kinds of
love
– Intimacy
– Passion
– Commitment


Conformity, Obedience,
and Compliance
 Conformity is changing or adopting a
behavior or an attitude in an effort to
be consistent with the social norms of
a group or the expectations of other
people
– Social norms are the attitudes and
standards of behavior expected of
members of a particular group


What did Asch find in his famous
experiment on conformity?

 In Asch’s study (1955),
75% of participants
conformed at least some
of the time with the
incorrect answer given by
the majority
 The same results were
attained when varying the
size of the group

What did researchers find when
they varied the circumstances of
Milgram’s classic study of
obedience?
 Research participants (the “teachers”)
believed that they were giving electric
shocks to another participant (the “learner”)
 Shock intensity increased each time the
learner answered incorrectly
 If the teacher hesitated, experimenter told
him that he must continue
 26 out of 40 participants (65%) continued
to highest possible shock intensity: 450 volts
 All 40 went up to at least 300 volts


What did researchers find when
they varied the circumstances of
Milgram’s classic study of
obedience?
 Nearly as many participants went all the
way to 450 volts (48%) when the
experiment was conducted at a run-down
office building away from Yale University
 But only 10% obeyed and gave maximum
shock when they saw another person defy
the experimenter and refuse to obey


What are three techniques used to
gain compliance?

 Foot-in-the-door technique
– Gaining agreement to a small request first to make a
person more likely to agree to a larger request later
 Door-in-the-face technique
– Making a large request, with the expectation that the
person will refuse, to make the person more likely to
comply with a smaller request later
 Low-ball technique
– Making an attractive initial offer to get a person to commit
to an action, but then making the terms less favorable


Group Influence

 Being part of a group often means
giving up a bit of individuality, but the
reward is the support and camaraderie
of the group. Clearly we behave
differently in a variety of ways when
we are part of a group, small or large.


How does social facilitation affect
performance?
 Social facilitation is
any positive or
negative effect on
performance that can
be attributed to the
presence of others
 When others are
present
– Performance is
usually enhanced on
easy tasks and tasks
at which we are
skilled
– Performance usually
suffers on difficult
tasks at which we are
not skilled Copyright © 2008 Allyn & Bacon

What is social loafing, and what
factors reduce it?

 The tendency to put forth less effort when
working with others than when working
alone
 Social loafing is common
– When individual contributions to a group project
cannot be identified
– Among people who score low in achievement
motivation
– In individualistic societies


How do group polarization and
groupthink influence decision
making?
 Group polarization
– Occurs when, after discussion, group members
shift to more extreme positions in the directions
they were already leaning
 Groupthink
– Occurs when a group’s desire to maintain
solidarity outweighs other considerations, a
process that often leads to poor decisions


How do social roles influence
individual behavior?

 Social roles are socially defined behaviors
considered appropriate for individuals
occupying certain positions within a group
 Social roles can shape behavior
– In Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison
Experiment, participants’ behaviors were
dramatically influenced by roles
 “Guards” became heartless and sadistic
 “Prisoners” became subservient
 Identification with their roles led to deindividuation


Attitudes and Attitude
Change
 A relatively stable evaluation of a
person, object, situation, or issue,
along a continuum ranging from
positive to negative


What are the three components of
an attitude?

 An attitude
usually has
three
components
– Cognitive
– Emotional
– Behavioral


What is cognitive dissonance, and
how can it be reduced?

 An unpleasant state that can occur when
people become aware of inconsistencies
between their attitudes or between their
attitudes and their behaviors
 People usually try to reduce dissonance by
changing their behavior, changing their
attitudes, or explaining away the
inconsistency or minimizing its importance


Methods of reducing cognitive
dissonance


What are the elements of
persuasion?

 Persuasion is a deliberate attempt to
influence the attitudes and/or behavior of
another person
 The four elements of persuasion are
– The source of the communication
– The audience
– The message
– The medium


persuasion?

 Factors that make a source more
persuasive include
– Credibility
– Attractiveness
– Likeability
 Audiences with low IQs tend to be more
easily persuaded than those with low IQs


persuasion?

 A one-sided message is usually most
persuasive when the audience is not well-
informed on an issue
 A two-sided message is usually most
persuasive when the audience is well-
informed
 Experimental studies suggest that television
is the most effective medium through
which to communicate a persuasive
message

Prosocial Behavior

 Behavior that benefits others, such as
helping, cooperation, and sympathy


What motivates one person to help
another?

 Some helping behavior is motivated by
altruism
– Behavior that is aimed at helping another that
requires self-sacrifice and is not performed for
personal gain
 We are more likely to help those in need
– If we are in a committed relationship with them
– Or if we perceive them to be similar to us
 Cultural norms also influence helping
behavior

What is the bystander effect, and
why does it occur?

 As the number of
bystanders at an
emergency increases,
the probability that a
victim will receive
help decreases
 Darley and Latané
(1968): This results
from diffusion of
responsibility

Aggression

 The intentional infliction of physical or
psychological harm on others


What biological factors are thought
to be related to aggression?

 Twin studies and adoption studies indicate a
genetic link for criminal behavior
 Low arousal level of the autonomic nervous
system is related to antisocial and violent behavior
 A high level of testosterone is correlated with
aggressive behavior in males
 Low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin is
associated with violent behavior
 Brain damage, alcohol abuse, and high levels of
childhood lead exposure are also associated with
aggressive behavior


What other factors contribute to
aggression?

 Frustration produces aggression
– This is referred to as the frustration-
aggression hypothesis
 Aggression is often triggered by aversive
conditions, such as pain, loud noise, and
crowding
 Belief in the superiority of one’s own group
over other groups may lead to aggression
toward others

According to social learning theory,
what causes aggressive behavior?

 Proposes that people acquire aggressive
responses by observing aggressive models
 The theory is supported by findings that
people who were abused as children are
more likely to be abusers as parents
 Also, research provides overwhelming
evidence of an association between TV
violence and aggressive behavior by viewers


Prejudice and
Discrimination
 Prejudice consists of attitudes
(usually negative) toward others based
on their gender, religion, race, or
membership in a particular group
 Discrimination consists of behavior
(usually negative) directed toward
others based on their gender, religion,
race, or membership in a particular
group

What factors contribute to the
development of prejudice and
discrimination?
 Realistic conflict theory
– Proposes that prejudice can arise out of
competition between groups for scarce
resources
 Prejudice can also be caused by people’s
tendency to divide the world into distinct
social categories
– In-groups and out-groups
 Social-cognitive theory
– Proposes that prejudice is learned in the same
way that other attitudes are– through modeling
and reinforcement

What evidence suggests that
prejudice and discrimination are
decreasing?
 Survey research suggests that White
Americans have become less prejudiced
during the past few decades
 But, research also indicates that racial
stereotyping and prejudice still exist
 Members of different ethnic groups tend to
have varying views of the degree to which
prejudice and discrimination continue to be
a problem in the United States

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