Introduction to Social Psychology

Introduction to Social Psychology

• Social psychology examines how social factors influence behavior.
• It focuses on attitudes, persuasion, and self-understanding, particularly how individuals interact and behave with others.
• This field looks at how social context impacts individuals' feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.
• Social psychology differs from sociology, as sociology focuses on the behavior of groups of people, whereas social psychology focuses on how individuals are shaped by social environments.

Lesson Objectives

• Key objectives include explaining social factors impacting behavior, describing attitude formation through persuasion, and applying social psychology terminology to related experiences.

Social Psychology & Sociology

• Separate yet connected fields.
• Sociology studies society as a whole, while social psychology examines the impact of social factors on individual behavior within a social context.

The Difference Between Sociology & Social Psychology

• Sociology examines society scientifically, evaluating its structure and behavior.
• Social psychology studies how individuals interact with their social environment and how that influences them.

Social Psychology: Focus

• Primarily concerned with how other people affect the behavior, thoughts, and emotions of an individual in a particular situation.
• It also looks at the effects of a group on an individual.

The Need to Belong

• A fundamental human need, fulfilled by group affiliations (teams, clubs, or groups with similar beliefs).

Social Psychologists vs. Sociologists

• Social psychologists focus on how individuals adapt to social norms.
• Sociologists study group behavior within large social structures.

Topics of Interest in Social Psychology

• Conformity
• Group behaviors
• Persuasion and compliance
• Obedience to authority
• Social perceptions
• Establishing relationships
• Altruistic behavior
• Aggression and violence

Group Behaviors

• Social influence is observable in group settings.
• Conformity is a key aspect of group behavior, but other factors are also influential.

Groupthink

• Occurs when a group prioritizes cohesion over critical thought, potentially making poor decisions.
• It occurs when a group feels it is better to maintain cohesiveness rather than consider all the facts in a situation.

Causes of Groupthink

• Feeling that a group can do no wrong or always succeeds.
• Negative stereotyping of group members with opposing views.

Group Polarization

• During a group discussion, people generally take more extreme positions on an issue.
• This relates to risky or cautious actions.

Social Facilitation

• The presence of other people can positively affect an individual's performance.
• Conversely, negative influences can lead to decreased performance.

Social Loafing

• Individuals tend to exert less effort when others are involved in a shared task.
• Their effort is reduced when working with a group rather than when working alone.

Deindividuation

• A reduction in personal identity when part of a group.
• Individuals in groups may act in ways they wouldn't normally.

Conformity

• Altering behavior to match the actions of others.
• A change in behavior to mirror others'.

Asch (1951) Social Experiment

• A social experiment regarding conformity to group opinion.
• Participants were asked to match a line's length with others, even though they knew the answer was different.

Why Do People Conform?

• Normative influence: wanting to be liked and accepted.
• Informational influence: relying on others when faced with ambiguity.

Persuasion and Compliance

• Strategies for influencing others.
• Techniques used to change attitudes and encourage compliance.

Persuasion Techniques

• Liking/similarity: People are more easily persuaded by those they like or perceive to be similar.
• Reciprocation: Doing a favor may cause a sense of obligation to return the favor.
• Contrast effect: An offer seems better (or worse) compared to another offer.
• Foot-in-the-door technique: Starting with a small request and following with a larger request.
• Door-in-the-face technique: Beginning with a large request (which is likely to be refused) then following with a smaller more reasonable request.
• Bait-and-switch technique: Making an attractive offer then making it less attractive.
• That's-not-all technique: Improving an offer before a person can respond.

Obedience to Authority

• Changing behavior due to direct orders from an authority figure.

Milgram (1963, 1974) Experiment

• A study on obedience to authority figures.
• Participants were instructed to administer increasingly harmful shocks to others, demonstrating how far people can go to comply.

How do Social Perceptions Affect Behavior?

• Social cognition and perception processes form impressions of others and guide actions.
• The way people act with others is impacted by the information they have about them.

Social Perception and Cognition

• Processes used to gather knowledge and form judgments about others.

Attitude

• Tendency to react positively or negatively toward an object, person, or situation.

Components of Attitude

• Affective component: Emotional response.
• Behavioral component: Action taken in response.
• Cognitive component: Thoughts and beliefs concerning the issue.

Cognitive Dissonance

• Feeling of discomfort resulting from conflicting attitudes and behaviors.

Impression Formation

• Initial judgments made about others; forming first impressions.

Primacy Effect

• First impressions have the strongest impact on overall impressions.
• Initial information has a more significant impact than later information when forming impressions.

Impression Formation: Stereotypes vs Prejudice

• Stereotypes are beliefs about groups of people, potentially inaccurate.
• Prejudice is an unfavorable attitude leading to negative treatment.
• Direct contact can help counter prejudice.

Attribution

• Processes used to attribute causes to behavior, both personal and situational.

Attribution: Internal vs External

• Internal attributions: Explanations based on a personal characteristic of an individual.
• External attributions: Explanations based on the situation or outside forces.

Attribution Biases

• Fundamental attribution error
• Self-serving bias
• Self-handicapping strategies

Establishing Relationships

• Proximity effect: Friendships or relationships often form between those who frequently encounter each other.
• Mere exposure effect: Familiarity with a person or thing often increases the likelihood of liking them.
• Similarity: People often seek out those with similar backgrounds and interests.
• Reciprocity of liking: Liking those who have demonstrated that they like you.

Altruistic Behavior

• Helping others without the expectation of personal gain.
• Helping kin and offspring is often part of altruistic behavior.

Why We Help Others

• Cooperation and helping is necessary to maintain social relationships and gain necessities (wants)
• Societal norms and trust contribute to altruism.
• Often related to fairness.

Accepting or Denying Responsibility

• Diffusion of responsibility: When others are present, feeling less responsible because others can help.
• Pluralistic ignorance: When people conform to a silence around an issue, creating an incorrect perception of shared views.

Bystander Effect

• The presence of others might discourage intervention in a crisis or emergency situation as everyone thinks someone else will help or intervene.

Aggression and Violence

• Aggression: Intentional behavior that harms another person.
• Anger and violence are a part of human experience and are often linked to feeling frustrated.