Chapter 13. Social Psychology 231c.ppt

Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Chapter 13:Social Psychology Chapter Overview  Social Thinking  Social Influence  Antisocial Relations  Prosocial Relations Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Social Thinking  Social psychology  Is the scientific study of how we think ab...

Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Chapter 13:Social Psychology Chapter Overview  Social Thinking  Social Influence  Antisocial Relations  Prosocial Relations Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Social Thinking  Social psychology  Is the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another  Social psychologists  Use scientific methods to study how people think about, influence, and relate to one another  Study the social influences that explain why the same person will act differently in different situations Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Social Thinking  When explaining others’ behavior, especially from an individualist Western cultural perspective  Fundamental attribution error committed by underestimating the influence of the situation and overestimating the effects of stable, enduring traits  Behavior more readily attributed to the influence of the situation  Explaining and attributing actions can have important real-life social and economic effects Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Social Thinking  Fundamental attribution error  Is tendency, when analyzing others’ behavior, to overestimate the influence of personal traits and underestimate the effects of the situation  Is most likely to occur when stranger acts badly  Has real-life and social consequences Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Attitudes Affect Actions  Attitudes are feelings influenced by beliefs, that predispose reactions to objects, people, and events.  Peripheral route persuasion uses incidental cues to try to produce fast but relatively thoughtless changes in attitudes.  Central route persuasion offers evidence and arguments to trigger thoughtful responses Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Actions Affect Attitudes  Actions can modify attitudes.  Foot-in-the-door phenomenon involves compliance with a large request after having agreed to a small request  Role playing includes acting a social part by following guidelines for expected behavior Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Social Thinking  Foot-in-the-door phenomenon  People agreeing to a small request will find it easier to agree later to a larger one  Principle works for negative and positive behavior  Attitudes follow behavior  Cooperative actions, such as those performed by people on sports teams, feed mutual liking. Such attitudes, in turn, promote positive behavior. Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Social Thinking  When attitudes do not fit with actions, tensions are often reduced by changing attitudes to match actions (cognitive dissonance theory).  We act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) clash.  Brain regions become active when people experience cognitive dissonance.  Through cognitive dissonance we often bring attitudes into line with our actions (Festinger). Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Social Influence  Conformity and obedience  Chartrand and colleagues (1999)  Demonstrated chameleon effect with college students  Automatic mimicry helps people to empathize and feel what others feel.  The more we mimic, the greater our empathy, and the more people tend to like us.  This is a form of conformity. Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Conformity and Obedience Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images ASCH’S CONFORMITY EXPERIMENTS Which of the three comparison lines on the left is equal to the standard line? The photo on the right (from one of the experiments) was taken after five people, who were actually working for Asch, had answered, “Line 3.” The student in the center shows the severe discomfort that comes from disagreeing with the responses of other group members. Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Milgram’s Obedience Experiments  Stanley Milgram’s experiments  People obeyed orders even when they thought they were harming another person.  Strong social influences can make ordinary people conform to falsehoods or exhibit cruel behavior.  In any society, great evil acts often grow out of people’s compliance with lesser evils. Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Social Influence  In social facilitation (Triplett), presence of others arouses people, improving performance on easy or well-learned tasks but decreasing it on difficult ones.  Performance can also be hindered because the most likely, but not necessarily the correct response occurs.  Home town advantage  Crowding effect Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Lawrence Lewis Whyld/ PA Wire/Press Association/AP Images Migdale/Photo Researchers, Inc. Social Influence  Social loafing  Tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable  Causes WORKING HARD, OR HARDLY WORKING? In group projects, such as this Earth Day beach cleanup, social loafing often occurs, as individuals free ride on the efforts of others.  Acting as part of group and feeling less accountable  Feeling individual contribution does not matter  Taking advantage when there is lack of identification with group Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Social Influence  Deindividuation  Involves loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity  Thrives in many different settings Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Antisocial Relations Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images The Biology of Aggression  Biology influences aggression at three levels.  Genetic influences  Evidence from animal studies and twin studies; genetic Y chromosome genetic marker; MAOA gene  Alcohol associated with aggressive responses to frustration  Neural influences  Neural systems facilitate or inhibit aggression when provoked  Aggression more likely to occur with frontal lobe damage  Biochemical influences  Testosterone linked with irritability, assertiveness, impulsiveness, and low tolerance for frustration; alcohol effect Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Psychological and Social-Cultural Factors in Aggression  Adversive events  Frustration-aggression principle: Frustration creates anger, which can spark aggression  Other anger triggers  Hot temperatures, physical pain, personal insults, foul odors, cigarette smoke, crowding, and a host of others  Previous reinforcement for aggressive behavior, observing an aggressive role model, and poor selfcontrol Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Psychological and Social-Cultural Factors in Aggression  Media portrayals of violence provide social scripts that children learn to follow.  Viewing sexual violence contributes to greater aggression toward women.  Playing violent video games increases aggressive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Aggressive Behavior Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Altruism  Altruism is an unselfish concern for the welfare of others.  People are most likely to help when they notice an incident, interpret it as an emergency, and assume responsibility for helping (Darley and colleagues).  Odds for being helped are also increased if the person appears to deserve help or is a women.  Similarity to self, unhurried or in a good mood, feeling guilty, focused on others and not preoccupied also raises likelihood of being helped. Macduff Everton/The Image Bank/Getty Images Altruism  Bystander affect  Tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present  Occurs when there is a diffusion of responsibility