Chap2

Chapter 2

The Person and the
Situation

Copyright © 2002 by Allyn and Bacon

Chapter Outline
The Enigma of the Ordinary and
Extraordinary Man
The Person
The Situation
The Person and The Situation
Interact
Revisiting the Enigma of an
Ordinary and Extraordinary Man
Chapter Summary

Outline
The Person
Motivation: What Drives Us
Knowledge: Our View of Ourselves
and the World
Feelings: Attitudes, Emotions, and
Moods
Focus on Method: Assessing
Attitudes, Emotions, and Moods


Motivation: What Drives Us

Motivation: the driving
force that moves people
toward their desired
outcomes.


Motivation
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS?
What goals do you have for
today?
this semester?
your career?
your life?

Motivation

Gain Status
Get Well-Paying,
Highly Respected Job
Earn High Grades
Attend Take Study for
Class Notes Exams


Motivation

Attention: the process
of consciously
focusing on aspects of
our environment or
ourselves.


Motivation

Automaticity: the ability
of a behavior or
cognitive process to
operate without
conscious guidance once
it’s put into motion.

esearc
h Motivation
Willpower:
Use it and lose it.
Participants in one experiment were
asked to eat radishes rather than
nearby cookies.
Others were asked to eat cookies and
ignore the radishes.
The students were then asked to solve
puzzles (which, unbeknownst to them,
were actually impossible).

esearc
h 25:0 Motivation
0 25:52
20:0 18:54
Persisten 0
15:0
ce on
0
puzzles 10:0 8:21
(minutes) 0
5:00

Control Cookie- Radish-
(Puzzle eaters (No eaters
Task Only) Radishes (No Cookies
Allowed) Allowed)
Participants who had to exercise
willpower to resist the cookies
had less will-power left over for
the difficult puzzles

esearc
h 25:0 Motivation
0 25:52
20:0 18:54
Persisten 0
15:0
ce on
0
puzzles 10:0 8:21
(minutes) 0
5:00

Control Cookie- Radish-
(Puzzle eaters (No eaters
Task Only) Radishes (No Cookies
Allowed) Allowed)
These findings are consistent
with the hypothesis that:
Using willpower for one task
reduces its availability for later

Knowledge: Our View of
Ourselves and the World

Explanations

Beliefs Sensory
Memories
Mental
Representation


King pursued
his Explanations
goal because
he was
religious Beliefs Sensory
Memories
He was Martin Luther
spiritual,
wanted to King
eliminate “I have a
discriminatio dream…”


Exemplar: mental
representation of a specific
episode, event, or
individual.



Schema: A mental
representation capturing
the general characteristics
of a particular class of
episodes, events, or
individuals.


Self Concept: A mental
representation
capturing our views and
beliefs about ourselves.



Reflected Appraisal Process:
The process through which
people come to know
themselves by observing or
imagining how others view
them.



Self Perception Process:
the process through
which people observe
their own behavior to
infer their own internal
characteristics.


Social Comparison: the
process through which
people come to know
themselves by comparing
their abilities, attitudes and
beliefs with those of others.

Feelings: Attitudes, Emotions,
and Moods

Attitudes: favorable or
unfavorable feelings
towards particular
people, objects, events
or ideas.


and Moods

Self-esteem: the specific
attitude we have toward
ourselves.


and Moods
Emotions: relatively intense
feelings characterized by
physiological arousal and
complex cognitions (e.g.,
fear, anger, joy).
Emotions are more intense
than attitudes.

and Moods

Moods: relatively long-
lasting feelings that are less
focused than emotions, and
not directed toward a
particular target.


Feelings
On a 9-point scale –
1=extremely sad
9=extremely happy
How do you feel right
now?

Feelings
The self-report method
asks a person directly
“how are you feeling?”
Self-report may not work
if people have reason to
hide their feelings.

Feelings
Self-report bias is reduced
by:
• Making responses
anonymous
• Leading participants to
believe that they are

Feelings
Feelings can also be inferred from
behavior (e.g. clenched fists, or frowns)
or from physiological measures (e.g.
heart rate, blood pressure)
Researchers search for convergence
between self-reports, behaviors, and
physiological measures.

Feelings
Genetic and Cultural
Foundations
Evidence for genetic
influences:
People from different societies
express and experience emotions
in surprisingly similar ways:
People in remote regions of the
world agree on facial expressions
for happiness, fear, anger, and

Feelings
Foundations
influences:
Children born deaf, blind, and
brain damaged are unable to
learn emotional responses from
their social world.
Nevertheless, they show many
normal emotional reactions like
smiling, laughter, anger, and

Feelings
Foundations
influences:
Behavior genetic studies
indicate a heritable
component to emotions and
moods expressed by related
individuals.

Feelings
Foundations
Evidence for cultural
influences:
People in different cultures learn
different rules about expressing
emotions.
Example: Utku Eskimos rarely
express anger; Awlad’Ali
Bedouins quickly express their

Feelings
Foundations
Classical conditioning:
Involuntary process
through which feelings
become associated with
new objects or events.


Feelings
Foundations
Instrumental learning:
The process through
which people learn new
voluntary responses by
being rewarded or
punished.


Feelings
Foundations
Observational learning:
The process through which
people learn by watching
others get rewarded or
punished.


Feelings
Proximate Contributors to
Feelings
Gently hold a pen between
your teeth, making sure
it doesn’t touch your lips.


Feelings
Feelings
Now grip the end of the pen
firmly with your lips,
making sure it doesn’t dip
downward.


Feelings
Feelings
In an experiment by
researchers Fritz Strack,
Leonard Martin and Sabine
Stepper, students read
cartoons while holding the pen
with either their teeth or their
lips.

Feelings
Feelings
Compared to control
participants who held the pen
in their hands, those who held
the pen in their teeth rated
cartoons as funnier.
Those who held the pen in their
lips rated the cartoons as less
funny.
Why?

Feelings
Feelings
Holding the pen between your
teeth contracts the facial
muscles into something like a
smile.


Feelings
Feelings
Holding the pen firmly
between the lips creates an
expression similar to an
angry grimace.


Feelings
Feelings

Our feelings are influenced
strongly be how we
appraise our situations.


esearc
h Feelings
Feelings

Who is happier following
Olympic performances –
Silver medalists or bronze
medalists?


esearc
h Feelings
Feelings

Researchers analyzed films
from 1992 Olympics, and
found that athletes who
won Bronze medals were
happier than those who
Why? Silver.
won

esearc
h Feelings
Feelings
Silver medalists talked about
how close they had come to a
Gold.
Bronze medalists imagined
winning no medal at all.
Counterfactual thinking -
Process of imagining
alternative versions of actual

Outline
The Situation
Persons as Situations: Mere
Presence, Affordances, and
Descriptive Norms
Focus on Social Dysfunction:
Descriptive Norms, Pluralistic
Ignorance, and Binge Drinking on
Campus
Rules: Injunctive Norms and
Scripted Situations
Strong Versus Weak Situations

Persons as Situations: Mere
Presence, Affordances, and
Descriptive Norms
Small schools are “undermanned”--
they need all their students.
Because of this, students participate
in more activities and feel more
challenged.
Large schools are “overmanned”--
they don’t need all their students.
Thus, students are less needed and

Persons
as
Situations
Affordance

Imagine you are at the company
picnic and you spot your new boss
sitting by himself.
This could be a good chance to
advance your career.


Persons
as
Situations

Affordance -
Opportunity or threat provided
by a situation.


Persons
as
Situations

Descriptive norm -
Information about what people
commonly do in a situation.
Example: Many students wear
jeans to classes.


Persons
as
Situations
Pluralistic Ignorance
Imagine you are in your social
psychology class, and don’t
understand a concept the professor
just explained.
You look around and no one else
seems confused.
Not wanting to look like the only one
who doesn’t understand, you don’t
raise your hand.

Persons
as
Situations

Pluralistic Ignorance -
The phenomenon in which people in
a group misperceive the beliefs of
others because everyone in the
group is acting inconsistently with
their beliefs.


Ignorance, and Binge Drinking
on Campus
• Over 40 percent of students
binge drink at least twice a
month.
• Males are more likely to drink
than females (51% vs. 40%)
• Princeton researchers found
pluralistic ignorance plays a role

Ignorance, and Binge Drinking
on Campus
• Many students were
uncomfortable with drinking on
• campus guessed other students
Yet they
were not as uncomfortable
• Over time, men shift their
opinions to be more consistent
with their misperceptions of

Scripted Situations
Injunctive norm -
Rules that define what is
typically approved and
disapproved of in a
situation.


Scripted Situations
Scripted Situation -
A situation in which
certain events are
expected to occur in a
particular order.


Script For a Getting a Date
1. Two people notice each other.
2. They get caught staring, and smile.
3. Find out about one another from
friends.
4. They attempt to “accidentally” come
across one another again.
5. They get a friend to introduce them.
6. They begin a conversation.
7. One requests the other’s phone

Strong Versus Weak Situations

Strong situations demand
people act in particular ways.
Examples: Funeral, job interview.

Weak situations allow people
to behave in many different
ways.

Culture
Culture - the beliefs,
customs, habits, and
language shared by people
living in a particular time
and place


Culture
Individualist Culture -
A culture that socializes its
members to think of
themselves as individuals,
and to give priority to their
own personal goals.


Culture
Collectivist Culture -
A culture that socializes its
members to think of
themselves as members of
a larger group, and to place
the group’s concerns
before their own.

Culture
Where would you rank the
following five countries on
individualism?
• Canada –> # 4
• South Korea –> # 44
• United States–> # 1
• Japan –> # 22
• Mexico –> # 32 (Hofstede,

Outline
The Person and the
Situation Interact
Different Persons Respond
Differently to the Same Situation
Focus on Application: Person
Situation Fit in the Workplace
Situations Choose the Person
Persons Choose Their Situations
Different Situations Prime
Different Parts of the Person
Persons Change The Situation
Situations Change the Person

Differently to the Same
Situation
Different people are attuned
to different parts of a
situation, and the same
situation means different
things to different people.


esearc
h
Situation
Imagine you’ve agreed to
participate in an
experiment studying the
psychology of sports
performance.
The study involves a golf-
like putting task.
How do you think you’d do?

esearc
h
Situation
Two groups of students
were asked to perform
this exact putting task.
The first group was told the
task measured “natural
athletic ability.”


esearc
h
Situation
Two groups of students
were asked to perform
this exact putting task.
The second group was told
the task measured “sports
intelligence.”


esearc
h Motivation
Average
3 27.8
number of 0
2 23.1
strokes. 5
(higher 20
number 15
indicates 1
worse 0
performance) 5

Natural Ability Sports
Intelligence
White participants performed
worse than usual when told the
test measured “natural ability.”

esearc
h Motivation
Average
3 27.8 27.2
number of 0
2 23.1 23.3
strokes. 5
(higher 20
number 15
indicates 1
worse 0
performance) 5

Intelligence
Black participants performed
worse than usual when told the
test measured “sports
intelligence.”

esearc
h Motivation
Average
3 27.8 27.2
number of 0
2 23.1 23.3
strokes. 5
(higher 20
number 15
indicates 1
worse 0
performance) 5

Intelligence
Both groups appeared to do
worse when they had to worry
about re-enforcing pre-
existing stereotypes.Stone et al. (1999)

esearc
h Motivation
Average
3 27.8 27.2
number of 0
2 23.1 23.3
strokes. 5
(higher 20
number 15
indicates 1
worse 0
performance) 5

Intelligence
These findings illustrate how
different people respond
differently in the same
situations.

Situation
(continued)
Person Situation Fit
The extent to which a person
and a situation are
compatible.


When employees’ personal
characteristics –
interests, goals, abilities, traits
– fit with the demands and
opportunities of their
occupations, employees are
happier and more likely to stay
at their jobs.


Other research illustrates
the value of having the
person fit not just the job
but the organization’s
culture.

Situations Choose the Person

Example: Athletic teams have
slots for only so many
players, so not everyone gets
the experience of playing on
the team.


Persons Choose Their
Situations
We choose situations based that
provide opportunities that fit
with our personal
characteristics.
Example: If you are an
introvert, a quiet evening at
home might be more appealing
than a crowded rock concert.

Inside each one of us, there are
different motives, memories, and
feelings.
Each of these is likely to be
triggered by some situations
more than others.


Example: After watching a slapstick
comedy that primes memories of
innocent accidents, an ambiguous
collision with a stranger may draw one
reaction:
(“Oops. How clumsy of me!”)
But a blow-em-up action thriller may
trigger your inner Rambo:

Persons Change The Situation
Sometimes people change
situations to better achieve
their goals.
(a teacher will set up her class
so that her students get along)
Other times people change
situations inadvertently.
(depressed college students may
depress their roommates)

You may be a different
person after spending time in
a situation.
Example: Two similar high
school students may be very
different after one spends four
years in the military while the
other is in a liberal arts college.


Socialization
The process through which a
culture teaches its members
about its beliefs, customs,
habits, and language.


Chap2

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Dernier

Dernier (20)

En vedette

En vedette (20)

Chap2