Prelim Social Psychology PDF

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCING THE Social Relations. SCIENCE OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Prejudice. Aggression. Attraction and intimacy. I. Soci...

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCING THE Social Relations. SCIENCE OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Prejudice. Aggression. Attraction and intimacy. I. Social Psychology Helping. - Social psychology is the scientific study II. Social Psychology’s Big Ideas of behavior and mental processes as they relate to how people interact with, or Social Psychology’s Principles Are Applicable relate to, others. in Everyday Life - Social psychology is the study of the dynamic relationship between - How to know ourselves better individuals and the people around them. - Implications for human health - Our starting point is on the person, and - Implications for judicial procedures not society. - Influencing behaviors - Sociology- the study of society or groups, The social psychologist Gordon Allport defines both large and small. social psychology as an attempt to understand and - According to the American Sociological explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behavior Association, sociology is a social science of individuals are influenced by the actual, which involves studying the social lives imagined, or implied presence of others. of people, groups, and societies; studying our behavior as social beings; Social psychology is usually considered a scientifically investigating social subfield of psychology or sociology. aggregations; and is “an overarching Psychological social psychologists focus on unification of all studies of humankind, individuals’ mental processes, while sociological including history, psychology, and social psychologists focus on societal factors. economics.” “Social perception” refers to the first stages in - Society for Personality and Social which people process information in order to Psychology defines social psychology as determine another individual’s or group’s mind- the “scientific study of how people’s set and intentions. thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or Social Psychology: The study of the individual implied presence of others.” and group mental processes and behavior involved in individuals and groups interaction Social Thinking. and the mental processes involved in these How we perceive ourselves and others. interactions. What we believe. Judgments we make. Sociology: The study of society, social Our attitudes. interaction, and social institutions (e.g., schools, prisons, etc.), as well as the rules and processes Social Influence. that bind and separate people as members of Culture. groups, associations, and institutions. Pressures to conform. III. Social Psychology is a Science Persuasion. Groups of people. The science of social psychology investigates the ways other people affect our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It is an exciting field of study because it is so group, and/or the influence one group has on familiar and relevant to our day-to-day lives. another group. Social psychologists study a wide range of topics IV. How do Social Psychologists Do Their that includes attraction, attitudes, peace & Work? conflict, social influence, and social cognition - They observe the world, measure and among others\ record behavior, and then manipulate the clinical psychologists — who research mental conditions under which such behavior may disorders-- have pointed to people feeling a lack occur so that they can make causal of belonging to help explain loneliness, statements about social behavior. depression, and other psychological pains. - The history of social psychology includes the study of attitudes, group behavior, altruism Social Learning Theory (Adapted from Bandura, and aggression, culture, prejudice, and many 1971) other topics. - Various personality doctrines (e.g. Freudian) - Social psychologists study real-world said behavior was impelled by inner forces in problems using a scientific approach. the forms of drives, needs, and impulses, - Thinking about our own interpersonal often operating below the level of the interactions from the point of view of social consciousness. Since the principal causes of psychology can help us better understand and behavior resided in forces within the respond to them. individual, that is where one looked for - Psychologist, as most fields in science, explanations of human's actions. operates by observing the world around the observer. Social psychology attempts to understand the - Observation alone is not enough. complex relationship between minds, groups, and o Social psychologists study the person- behaviors in THREE GENERAL WAYS. situation interaction: how 01. First, it aims to describe how the thoughts, characteristics of the person and feelings, and behaviors of individuals are characteristics of the social situation influenced by the actual, imagined, or interact to determine behavior. implied presence of others. o The social situation creates social - This includes areas like social perception, norms—shared ways of thinking, social interaction, and social influence feeling, and behaving. (including trust, power, and persuasion ). o Cultural differences—for instance, in There is a strong interest in how perceptions individualistic versus collectivistic and thoughts, as well as social cues, affect orientations—guide our everyday individual behavior in this area. behavior. 02. Second, social psychology attempts to Science has two forms describe the influence that individual perceptions and behaviors have on the 1. Basic/Pure science is concerned with the behavior of groups. acquisition of knowledge for the sake of - This includes research on areas such as group the knowledge and nothing else productivity and decision making. 2. Applied science desires to find solutions 03. Third, social psychology explains the to real-world problems. dynamics of groups as behavioral entities. Pure psychology is known as the fundamental - Research in this area investigates the knowledge of psychology. relationships that one group has with another Applied psychology on the other hand, is when (b) vicarious reinforcement - we see how applied psychologists use basic psychological others act, and we see how they are knowledge to solve human problems such as rewarded or punished. V.R. is equipment design, personnel selection and informative (we find out what will be psychological treatment. approved or disapproved). (c) have self-reinforcement. Studies show - at least a masters degree is required. that people tend to adopt standards of V. How We Learn self-reinforcement displayed by exemplary models, they evaluate their 1. Direct experience own performance relative to that - Informative function of reinforcement - standard, and then they serve as their own People receive informative feedback, so they reinforcing agents. develop hypotheses about the types of VIII. Three Major Domains of Social behavior most likely to succeed. Psychology VI. How and Why Does Modeling Work? a. Social Thinking- the self, social beliefs 1. Learning through modeling- influence of and judgements, behavior and attitudes example b. Social Influence- genes, culture, and gender, conformity, persuasion, group 2. Must first gain attention- exposing people to influence. models does not mean they will pay attention to c. Social Relation- prejudice, aggression, them. Attention is affected by association (how attraction, helping, conflict and close and how often do you interact), peacemaking. interpersonal attraction, etc. Social Comparison Theory- learn about one’s 4. Must have the ability - amount of abilities and attitudes by comparing oneself with observational learning that a person can exhibit other people behaviorally depends on whether or not he has acquired the component skills. Upward Social Comparison- where one compare self with people who deem to be socially 3. Reinforcement - a person can acquire, retain, better than her (role model) and possess the capabilities for successful execution of modeled behavior, but the learning Theory of Cognitive Dissonance- proposes that may rarely be activated into overt performance if people have a motivation to reduce dissonance, or it is negatively sanctioned. tension by changing their attitudes, beliefs and behavior, or by justifying or rationalizing their Self-reinforcement- is a process whereby attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. individuals control their own behavior by rewarding themselves when a certain standard of Cognitive Dissonance Theory- most influential performance has been attained or surpassed. and extensively studies theories in social psychology. Self-reinforcement systems can be externally reinforced, as you draw praise from those you respect. VII. Reinforcement (a) Direct. Directly receive rewards and punishments for our actions.  CHAPTER 2: ATTITUDE II. Theories of Attitude Formation and Change ATTITUDE Functionalist Theory - refers to a set of emotions, beliefs, and behaviors toward a particular object, - Daniel Katz proposed a functionalist person, thing, or event. theory of attitudes. He takes the view that - are often the result of experience or attitudes are determined by the functions upbringing, and they can have a powerful they serve for us. influence over behavior. While attitudes - People hold given attitudes because these are enduring, they can also change. attitudes help them achieve their basic - Our attitudes are made up of cognitive, goals. affective, and behavioral components. - Katz's functionalist theory also offers an Consider an environmentalist’s attitude explanation as to why attitudes change. toward recycling, which is probably very According to Katz, an attitude changes positive: when it no longer serves its function and the individual feels blocked or frustrated. In terms of affect: They feel happy when they That is, according to Katz, attitude recycle. change is achieved not so much by In terms of behavior: They regularly recycle changing a person's information or their bottles and cans. perception about an object, but rather by changing the person's underlying In terms of cognition: They believe recycling is motivational and personality needs. the responsible thing to do. Example: As your social status increases, your attitudes toward your old car may change - you I. ABC Components of Attitudes need something that better reflects your new A. Affective - feelings or emotions that status. (For that matter, your attitudes toward your something evokes. e.g. fear, sympathy, hate. May old friends may change as well). dislike welfare recipients. (4) Four Types of Psychological Functions B. Conative, or behavioral - tendency or That Attitudes Meet. disposition to act in certain ways toward 1. Instrumental something. Might want to keep welfare recipients - We develop favorable attitudes towards out of our neighborhood. Emphasis is on the things that aid or reward us.We want to tendency to act, not the actual acting; what we maximize rewards and minimize intend and what we do may be quite different. penalties. Katz says we develop attitudes C. Cognitive - our thoughts, beliefs, and ideas that help us meet this goal. about something. When a human being is the object of an attitude, the cognitive component is Example: We favor political parties that will frequently a stereotype e.g. "welfare recipients advance our conomic lot - if we are in business, are lazy" we favor the party that will keep our taxes low, if unemployed we favor one that will increase social b. Affective - feelings or emotions that something welfare benefits. evokes. e.g. fear, sympathy, hate. May dislike welfare recipients. - We are more likely to change our attitudes if doing so allows us to fulfill our goals or avoid undesirable consequences 2. Knowledge stimuli are the attitude topic and the parental - Attitudes provide meaningful, structured emotion. Through repeated association, a environment. formerly neutral stimulus (the attitude topic - - In life we seek some degree of order, taxes or politicians) begins to elicit an emotional clarity, and stability in our personal frame reaction (the response) that was previously of reference. solicited only by another stimulus (the parental - Attitudes help supply us with standards emotion). Whenever tax increases are mentioned, of evaluation. the child feels an unpleasant emotion; when the - Via such attitudes as stereotypes, we can elected official is mentioned, the child feels a bring order and clarity to the pleasant emotion. complexities of human life. Example 03: Pavlov's dogs. Bell was rung when dogs received food. Food made dogs salivate. 3. Value-expressive Then whenever a bell was rung, dogs salivated - Express basic values, reinforce self- even when food was not present. image. Example 04: When you were a child, parents Example: If you view yourself as a Catholic, you may have cheered for GINEBRA. You may not can reinforce that image by adopting Catholic have even known what GINEBRA was, but you beliefs and values. liked your parents happy attitude. Now Example: We may have a self-image of ourselves GINEBRA team evokes that same response in as an enlightened conservative or a militant you. radical, and we therefore cultivate attitudes that Example 05: Men with bow ties. Meet a bad man we believe indicate such a core value. who wears bow ties, and you may come to hate all bow ties. 4. Ego-defensive - Some attitudes serve to protect us from 2. Instrumental or Operant Conditioning acknowledging basic truths about - Behaviors or attitudes that are followed ourselves or the harsh realities of life. by positive consequences are reinforced - They serve as defense mechanisms. and are more likely to be repeated than Example: Those with feelings of inferiority may are behaviors and attitudes that are develop attitude of superiority. followed by negative consequences. - People agree with your opinion. Learning Theory - Which stresses attitude formation. 3. Observational Learning - There are several means by which we - Children watch the behavior of people learn attitudes. around them and imitate what they see. - determine the responses we learn, but 1. Classical Conditioning reinforcement determines the responses Example 01: For a child watching the parents, the we express. association between the topic and the nonverbal Example: If a young girl hears her mother behavior will become obvious if repeated often denounce all elected officials as crooks, she may enough. And the nonverbal behavior will trigger repeat that opinion in class the next day. Whether emotional responses in the child: the child feels she continues to repeat that opinion depends on upset and disturbed when listening to the father the responses of her classmates, teacher, and and happy when listening to the mother. parents. Example 02: When two stimuli are repeatedly associated, the child learns to respond to them with a similar emotional reaction. In this case, the  4. Cognitive Dissonance Theory IV. Self and Culture - Stresses attitude change - and that Individualism behaviors can determine attitudes. - Concept of giving priority to one’s own Cognition. Individuals’ perception of own goals over group goals and defining one’s attitudes, beliefs, behaviors. identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications Cognitive dissonance. Feelings of tension that - Independent self. arise when one is simultaneously aware of two - Western cultures tend towards self- inconsistent cognitions. inflation (compared to Japanese). Example, when we act contrary to our attitudes; or, when we make a decision favoring one Collectivism alternative despite reasons favoring another. - Giving priority to the goals of one’s group and defining one’s identity III. Racism in Psychology accordingly. - Hoyt Jr. (2012) defines racism as “a - Interdependent self. particular form of prejudice defined by - Asian, African, and Central and South preconceived erroneous beliefs about American cultures. race and members of racial groups.” - According to this definition, we can see In collectivist cultures how racism is built up around - Self-concept is context-specific rather stereotypes, assumptions and prejudiced than stable views. - Conflict takes place between groups - not simply a prejudiced viewpoint. - Persist more when failing - Wellman (1993) fleshes out the definition and understanding of racism, In individualistic cultures showing how it not only includes - Self-esteem is more personal and less interpersonal biases, but is present in relational institutional, historical and structural - Persist more when winning dynamics, which perpetuate the power - Conflict takes place between individuals and advantages of the dominant group. o Divorce What causes people to be racist? V. Self-Efficacy - People learn to be whatever their society Albert Bandura has defined self-efficacy as and culture teaches them. one's belief in one's ability to succeed in specific - We often assume that it takes parents situations or accomplish a task. actively teaching their kids, for them to One's sense of self-efficacy can play a major role be racist. in how one approaches goals, tasks, and - The truth is that unless parents actively challenges. teach kids not to be racists, they will be,” - Self-esteem is focused on how much said Jennifer Richeson, a Yale University value you put on yourself. social psychologist. - Self-efficacy is all about how capable - “This is not the product of some deep- you believe yourself to be, and both are seated, evil heart that is cultivated. It important for developing a positive sense comes from the environment, the air all of self and achieving success. around us.” VI. Characteristics of Low & High Self- Esteem E. Externally oriented goals Low Self-Esteem - Individuals with low self-esteem often A. Feelings of unhappiness determine goals and direction in life - People with low self-esteem are typically based upon what others might want or unhappy. Our sense of satisfaction and need. They often feel that their needs or contentment with life is usually derived desires are unimportant. Such an attitude from how we feel about ourself. For can lead to resentment due to always some people, low self-esteem may taking care of others while their needs are contribute to depression and even not addressed. inability to function in life. F. Negativity B. Feelings of anxiety - Low self-esteem tends to lead to Many people with low self-esteem negativity. This negativity may not experience anxiety, especially social always be externally observed but anxiety. Frequently, this is a consequence internal self-talk is usually negative. of the social evaluative aspect of self- Also, external manifestations such as esteem. In other words, we tend to criticizing oneself to others or evaluate our self-based upon excessively apologizing or commenting comparisons to other people. In addition, about negative observations may be many people are concerned about others' noticed by others. Unfortunately, people evaluating them and assume that others tend to avoid individuals who are will see the same flaws and excessively negative which can reinforce incompetencies that they see the low self-esteem. within themselves. Such a concern leads to the feelings of anxiety. High Self-Esteem - To clearly define the characteristics of C. Feelings of inferiority or superiority high self-esteem, I need to make the - Most people who have low self-esteem distinction between an artificially feel inferior to others. They believe that inflated self-esteem and true self-esteem. they don't measure up to some standard - An artificially inflated self-esteem is an that others meet. Frequently they feel that effort to appear to have high self-esteem. some flaw within them means that they - However, such individuals don't typically are not worthwhile or deserving. For show the following characteristics of many people I have worked with this people with high self esteem. flaw is not something visible to others but - Individuals with low self-esteem may something magnified by the person with have some of the following low self-esteem due to past experiences. qualities as well but those with high self- esteem D. Impatience or irritation with self or others A. Responsibility - Another characteristic of low self-esteem - Since individuals with high self-esteem is a tendency to be impatient or easily can accept themselves completely, they irritated by mistakes, flaws, or are able to take responsibility for inadequacies. Most frequently this is themselves and the consequences of their directed at the self but it can also be actions without being excessively critical directed at other people. of themselves. Therefore, they are readily  able to acknowledge mistakes and accept for the positive aspects of life and not limitations. dwell on the negative. G. Self-improvement B. Goal Commitment - there is a strong tendency to strive - Those with high self-esteem tend to have towards self-improvement among those a strong sense of purpose and are with high self-esteem. As they don't view committed to goals in life. In addition, the need for self-improvement as a they tend to be persistent in achieving negative quality they are able to examine these goals as they commitment does not themselves uncritically. In addition, they fluctuate based on success or failure. As can ask for help as needed because they active participants in life they tend to don't view the need for help as shameful strive for excellence not for perfection. or negative. C. Genuineness VII. Characteristics of Low & High Self- - People with high self-esteem can be Efficacy honest with themselves and others both Low Self- Efficacy emotionally and intellectually. As they A. Fear of risks aren't fearful of others truly knowing - Individuals with low self-efficacy see them, they tend to be genuine in their themselves as unable to be successful. As interactions with others. a result, they are often unwilling to take risks or try new things because they are D. Forgiving convinced that the result will be failure. - High self-esteem tends to correspond This is particularly unfortunate because with tolerance and acceptance of the main way to increase self-efficacy is limitations. As a result, people who have through practice and experience. high self-esteem are forgiving of themselves and others. B. Fear of uncertainty - Low self-efficacy often is related to self- E. Internal Values doubt and uncertainty. The individual - Individuals with high self-esteem tend to doesn't want to try without a guarantee of have internally-based values rather than success. As a result, they may never externally-based values. In other words, discover things at which they could be they have a strong identity based on successful. chosen values rather than values they believe due to the demands or C. Feelings of failure expectations of others. This type of - Those with low self-efficacy frequently identity is usually considered an have feelings of failure. As indicated "achieved identity" in which a person has above they might avoid or not try new analyzed their beliefs and values to things due to the risk involved. Or, they decide the set of internal principles or might only try something half-heartedly. values that they will adhere to. As a result, they are less likely to experience success and more likely to see F. Positivity themselves as a failure. - People with high self-esteem are positive with an appreciative and grateful attitude towards life. They can freely praise themselves and others and tend to look  D. Impression management D. Sense of accomplishment - Impression management is the attempt to - they are often more successful due to the control how others might perceive you in willingness to take risk and to pursue order to be seen more positively. People interests. Even if they fail or make with low self-efficacy feel they are not mistakes, they feel a sense of capable but may try to present a accomplishment because they view successful and competent image to mistakes as opportunities to improve others. They may put a great deal of themselves. energy into behaving in a way to obtain approval from others and experience a VIII. The Influence of Attitudes on Behavior great deal of worry about being found out Behavior does not always reflect attitudes. to be a fraud. For instance, they may try However, attitudes do determine behavior in to hide mistakes from others rather than some situations: learn from them which prevents them - If there are few outside influences, from increasing their sense of self- attitude guides behavior... efficacy. Example: Wyatt has an attitude that eating junk food is unhealthy. When he is at home, he does High Self-Efficacy not eat chips or candy. However, when he is at A. Self-confidence parties, he indulges in these foods. - One of the most obvious characteristics of high self-efficacy is self-confidence. Attitudes are Evaluation. They approach tasks or situations with a - When we say that attitudes are sense of their ability to be successful. evaluations, we mean that they involve a This self-confidence tends to lead to preference for or against the attitude more experience which increases their object, as commonly expressed in terms ability which leads to greater self- such as prefer, like, dislike, hate, and confidence. This positive cycle lends love. itself to increasing self-efficacy even - When we express our attitudes—for further. instance, when we say, “I - like swimming,” “I hate snakes,” or “I B. Accurate self-evaluation love my parents” —we are expressing the - Individuals with high self-efficacy tend relationship (either positive or negative) to be able to accurately evaluate their between the self and an attitude object. performance. They are neither overly- Statements such as these make it clear that critical nor overly positive but are able to attitudes are an important part of the self- examine themselves realistically in order concept. to pursue self-improvement. - Some attitudes are more important than others because they are more C. Willingness to take risks useful to us and thus have more - Those with high self-efficacy are willing impact on our daily lives. to take risks because they understand that - The importance of an attitude, as taking calculated risks increases the assessed by how quickly it comes to chances of success. As they are not mind, is known as attitude strength. fearful of failure or mistakes, reasonable - Some of our attitudes are strong risks can only increase self-efficacy. attitudes, in the sense that we find them important, hold them with confidence, do not change them very  much, and use them frequently to guide our actions. - These strong attitudes may guide our actions completely out of our awareness (Ferguson, Bargh, & Nayak, 2005). IX. Key Takeaways - The term attitude refers to our relatively enduring evaluation of an attitude object. - Our attitudes are inherited and also learned through direct and indirect experiences with the attitude objects. - Some attitudes are more likely to be based on beliefs, some are more likely to be based on feelings, and some are more likely to be based on behaviors. - Strong attitudes are important in the sense that we hold them with confidence, we do not change them very much, and we use them frequently to guide our actions. - Although there is a general consistency between attitudes and behavior, the relationship is stronger in some situations than in others, for some measurements than for others, and for some people than for others.  CHAPTER 3: SOCIAL PERSUASION 4) Retention- If change is to persist, must retain changed Persuasion - A deliberate attempt on the part of attitude over time. one party to influence the attitudes or behavior of 5) Action- Recipient must behave another party so as to achieve some on the basis of the changed predetermined end. The communicator sends a attitude. message to a target person hoping to evoke a particular response. McGuire argued that the failure of any of the steps to occur causes the sequence of processes to be II. Theories of Persuasion broken, with the consequence that subsequent steps do not occur. THEORY is based upon a hypothesis Some persuasive techniques can enhance one part and backed by evidence. It presents a of the process, while being detrimental to other concept or idea that is testable. parts. A theory is a fact-based framework for - Example: Obnoxious ads, such as the describing a phenomenon. "Drink Schlitz or die" campaign. Theories are often complementary Grabbed attention, but worked against because they pertain to different acceptance. variables, and when relevant to the same variables, they often make similar B. Heuristic Model predictions. According to the heuristic Psychological theories are systems of conceptualization, people sometimes ideas that can explain certain aspects of exert little cognitive effort in judging human thoughts, behaviors and message validity. Instead, they base their emotions. Psychology researchers create agreement with a message on a these theories to make predictions for superficial assessment of a variety of future human behaviors or events that persuasion cues. Simple decision-making may take place if certain behaviors exist. rules determine whether and how we are persuaded. A. McGuire’s Information Processing Paradigm Examples: William McGuire argued that the receiver must meet five preconditions in - "Statements by experts can be trusted" order to process persuasive messages: - "People I like usually have correct 1) Attention- Once a message is opinions on issues" presented, the recipient must pay - "More arguments are better arguments" attention to it in order for it to or "The longer it is, the more correct it produce attitude change. must be". 2) Comprehension- Position recommended by the C. Attribution Theory communicator must be - How do individuals go about establishing comprehended. the validity of their own or another's 3) Acceptance- Must yield to the impressions? message content if any attitude Kelley says we must explain the communicator's change is to be detectable. message. Why has a stand been taken? Is it because of biases of the communicator? Is it due to pressures of the situation? Or is it because of the thing being discussed? He - Patrick Reynolds inherited $2.5 million says we consider three things: from his families Tobacco fortune. He is now an antismoking activist, and has 1) Consensus. Do all or only a few people even urged people to sue tobacco respond to the stimulus in the same way companies. as the target person? 2) Distinctiveness. Does the target person respond in the same way to other stimuli THE SLEEPER EFFECT as well? An initially unconvincing message from 3) Consistency. Does the target person an unreliable source becomes more always respond in the same way to this persuasive with the passage of time. stimulus? In some instances the differences in attitude change between positive sources Example: Suppose a friend likes a restaurant. and less positive sources becomes erased You'll be more like to accept her opinion if over time. (1) Consensus is high - everyone likes it After a while people appear to forget (2) Distinctiveness is high - friend seldom likes about the negative source and wind up restaurants changing their attitudes anyway. We call (3) Consistency is high - friend likes it every time. this the sleeper effect. Suggests that beliefs and attitudes are influential a. Attractiveness. to various psychological functions. Attitudes can At least where trivial opinions and be influential on many processes such as being behaviors are concerned, if we like and utilitarian, social, relating to values, or a can identify a person, his or her opinions reduction of cognitive dissonance. and behaviors will influence our own more than their content would ordinarily - Empirical evidence: We will talk about characteristics of the Communicator, the warrant. Message, the Receiver, and the Channel Example: Football players selling shaving (i.e. the medium through which the cream. Brian Bosworth selling deodorant. message is conveyed). Certainly, we are all very impressed by the fact that he graduated from a prestigious institution like the University of Oklahoma, but it probably D. Functional Attitude Theory is not his competence that makes him persuasive. Source: Credibility. Competence, trustworthiness. However, negative stereotypes can also - Competence alone usually isn't enough - be associated with beauty. sources may be seen as too involved, or These attitudes may be less stable - if as having ulterior motives. what you like changes then your attitudes Examples: can change - Garage mechanic is competent - but is he For many things, there is no such thing as trustworthy? If not, he isn't credible. an expert - who is an expert on - In a debate on national health insurance, toothpaste, razor blades, etc.? an insurance company executive might Furthermore, as noted below, there often be quite competent, but too involved or is little rational reason for preferring one biased for him to be credible. product over another! Hence,  attractiveness may be as good a basis as Example: In one study, students were told they any for choosing products. should pick up things. Another group was praised for being the kind of people who kept things neat. b. Power, Compliance. The latter was neater. Receiver wants to get a reward or avoid a punishment from a powerful source. The 4.Forthrightness and competence. source's perceived control over Feelings of competence can be enhanced reinforcements, source's perceived by speaking forthrightly and confidently. concern about compliance, and the The straightforward manner of is often source's ability to scrutinize compliance more persuasive. are important here. Least stable attitudes. III. How Can Persuasion Be Resisted? Example: Parents may be able to "persuade" you A. Challenging authority to attend church - but if you don't like it, once you - Dogmatic authority vs. expert authority get away, you'll stop going. B. Strengthening Personal Commitment - Make a public commitment to your MESSAGE argument 1.Presenting both sides vs. presenting one side C. Challenging beliefs Depends on how well informed or - A mild challenge (not strong enough to opinionated the audience is - if they are persuade)- Causes them to become even already with you then just present one more committed to their positon side. - Developing counterarguments- Exposing Otherwise, you may give them ideas they people to weak attacks upon their didn't have; or, you may just confuse attitudes so that when stronger attacks them. come, they will have refutations If hostile or well-informed the two-sided available approach is better -audience is aware of the counter-arguments, and will think CHANNEL you are biased or unable to refute these The channel is very simply the means through points unless you mention them. which the message travels. In face-to-face communication the 2.Negative appeals. channel involves all of our senses, so the Fear is supposed to motivate people, and channel is what we see, hear, touch, smell following recommended actions can and perhaps what we taste. reduce discomfort. When we’re communicating with Fear appeals have been succesfully used someone online, the channel is the in attempts to terminate cigarette computer. smoking, secure vaccinations, and wear When texting the channel is the cell seat belts. phone; and when watching a movie on Per capita cigarette smoking has declined cable, the channel is the TV. annually. The channel can have a profound impact on the way a message is interpreted. 3.Use of attribution vs. use of persuasion. Listening to a recording of a speaker does - Telling them they should be something. not have the same psychological impact This may be due to role expectations.  as listening to the same speech in person So, remember that often "less is more." or watching that person on television. Be mindful of the demands on other people's time, especially given today's One famous example of this is the 1960 televised ultra-busy society. presidential debate between John F. Kennedy Finally, put your message into context. and Richard Nixon. Make sure that you know your audience's culture. This will help you to converse According to History.com (2012), on with and to deliver your message to camera, Nixon looked away from the people that have different backgrounds camera at the reporters asking him and cultures than you. questions, he was sweating and pale, he had facial hair stubble, and he wore a PERSUASION grey suit that faded into the set Observe others background. Have a plan “Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley Expect Resistance reportedly said [of Nixon], ‘My God, Be the change you seek they’ve embalmed him before he even Don’t go for quick fix died.” Self-evaluate Kennedy, on the other hand, looked into the camera, was tanned, wore a dark suit 3 WAYS TO INFLUENCE that made him stand out from the 1. Logical Appeals: Tap into people’s background, and appeared to be calm rational and intellectual positions after spending the entire weekend with 2. Emotional Appeals: Connect your aides practicing in a hotel room. message, goal, or project to Most of those who listened to the radio individual goals and values broadcast of the debate felt that it was a 3. Cooperative Appeals: Involve tie or that Nixon had won, while 70% of collaboration, consultation, and those watching the televised debate felt alliances that Kennedy was the winner. The ultimate goal of persuasion is to convince IV. How to Remove Barrier from the target to internalize the persuasive argument Communication Process? and adopt this new attitude as a part of their core belief system. Barriers to communication can pop up at any stage of the process. So, to deliver Persuasion can be both a positive and negative your messages effectively, you must force. Learning more about how persuasion break these down. works can help you better understand how you Let's begin with the message itself. If might be influenced by the messages you see and your message is too lengthy, hear. It can also give you the tools you need to disorganized, or is full of jargon or errors, make persuasive arguments of your own. it'll likely be misunderstood and misinterpreted – it might even make your recipient confused or angry! Using poor V. Foot-in-the-Door Technique verbal or body language can also muddle - the foot-in-the-door technique, getting the message that you're trying to send. someone to agree to a small request such as Contextual barriers tend to stem from offering too much information, too fast.  (a) wearing a campaign button can make them - If you consider the relatively high cost of more likely to agree to a larger request, these devices, this transformation has (b) putting campaigns signs in your yard. been truly remarkable. - Much of this shift in attitude can be A common application of foot-in-the-door is credited to the impressive use of tactics when teens ask their parents for a small of persuasion employed by smartphone permission (for example, extending curfew by a manufacturers like Apple and Samsung. half hour) and then asking them for something - This strategy has benefited Apple larger. Having granted the smaller request tremendously as it has sold over 400 increases the likelihood that parents will million iPhones since 2007, making it acquiesce with the later, larger request. one of the wealthiest companies in the world. VI. Door-in-the-Face Technique VIII. Solid Arguments vs Emotion-Based - a type of sequential request strategy. Appeals - It is often used to increase compliance rates of a particular request. Example: We are trying to persuade people to - foot-in-the-door technique, which care about the amount of plastic impacting the prefaces a request with a smaller request environment and to change the way they think that the respondent is more likely to agree about plastic consumption. with, door-in-the-face requests involve asking a more demanding question, - What kind of argument should we use? followed by the actual request. - Should we present an argument filled with solid, logical, evidence including VII. The Effective Use of Persuasion by Apple reasons for why we need to rethink to Drive Sales plastic consumption, or would our - On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs, the audience be more likely to be persuaded enigmatic co-founder and CEO of Apple, by an emotional appeal where we scare Inc., introduced the first iPhone to the them or make them feel sad about the world. impact of plastic on our planet? - The device quickly revolutionized the smartphone industry and changed what First let’s look at the research and then we will consumers came to expect from their look at three news story links to see how phones. information was presented to the audience. - In the years since, smartphones have changed from being regarded as status We know that audiences who are symbols (Apple sold close to 1.4 million motivated and able will follow the central iPhones during their first year on the route of persuasion. market) to fairly commonplace and Remember, we are motivated to pay essential tools. attention to the message when it is - One out of every five people in the world personally relevant to us. now owns a smartphone, there are more We also need to be able to process it. smartphones in use in the world than We need the time to think about it, and PCs, and it is difficult for many young the message needs to be presented in a people to imagine how anyone ever way that we can understand and really managed to function without them. think about what is being said.  If these conditions aren’t met, then we If they are mixed or you do not have the follow the peripheral route. ability to determine which base is We are going to respond based on strongest, it might make the most sense peripheral cues, like credibility, to have an argument that contains both attractiveness, etc. reason and emotion. So, I am sure you predicted at this point that when someone is following the IX. What is an example of an emotional central route, they are going to be more appeal? persuaded by solid arguments. An argument against distracted driving Those individuals who are following the might include an emotional appeal in the peripheral route will be more persuaded form of an anecdote (short story) from a by emotional appeals. person who has lost a loved one in a We also need to consider if our audience traffic accident caused by a reckless is likely to have larger number of driver. individuals with a high need for The New York Department of cognition. Transportation used this personal This could impact the success of our statement from a mother in one of their persuasion attempt. campaigns: A driver hit my son riding his We need to have more solid arguments if bicycle on Shore Front Parkway. Andre we have more of these individuals should be turning 23 this year. present. Emotional appeals (pathos) can be Another important thing to consider is fallacious, or inaccurate, when they are how the people originally formed their presented without logical evidence attitude. (logos) and are designed to exploit an We discussed the different bases or audience's emotions to convince them to components of an attitude: affect, change their beliefs, take an action, or cognition and behavior. buy a product. We discussed that some people do not Emotional appeals are considered have all three bases for each attitude and relevant when they are presented within that some attitude bases are stronger than reasoned arguments that also include others. logical evidence (logos) and appeals to This impacted our ability to predict their authority (ethos) that create trust between behavior with respect to that attitude. the speaker and the audience. These findings address that. If your All emotional appeals can evoke either original attitude formation is more positive emotions, such as love, affective or emotion-based, then you will belonging, freedom, safety, and respond to persuasive attempts that are amusement, or negative emotions, such made with emotional appeals. as fear, outrage, injustice, guilt, and However, if the origin of an attitude shame. resulted in a stronger cognitive base, then not surprisingly, you will be more likely to be persuaded by a solid argument. As you might imagine, it can be challenging to figure out what kind of audience you are dealing with.  CHAPTER 4: SOCIAL - Social perceptions can obviously be flawed PERCEPTION/ATTRIBUTION - even skilled observers can misperceive, misjudge, and reach the wrong conclusions. I. Social Perception: Introduction Once we form wrong impressions, they are - In a study by Rosenhan, eight pseudo likely to persist. patients who were actually research Key question: How do we form impressions of investigators gained entry into mental others? hospitals by claiming to hear voices. - During the intake interviews, the pseudo II. Social Perception: Ordering The World patients gave true accounts of their We often try to simplify the complex flow of backgrounds, life experiences, and present incoming info by putting people into useful (quite ordinary) psychological condition. categories. These classifications help to specify - They falsified only their names and their how various objects or events are related or complaint of hearing voices. similar to each other. - Once in the psychiatric ward, they ceased Why do we classify people and things? simulating any signs of abnormality. Classifications help to serve the "knowledge" - They reported that the voices had stopped, function of attitudes. talked normally with other patients, and A. Simplify perception by grouping together made observations in their notebooks. similar experiences. We can pay attention - Although some of the other patients to some stimuli while ignoring others. suspected that the investigators were not Example: If we perceive a neighborhood as really ill, the staff did not. friendly, we can walk down the street without - Even upon discharge, they were still attending carefully to every look from every diagnosed as schizophrenic, though now it passerby. was "schizophrenia in remission". - Rosenhan described his results to other B. Allow us to go beyond the info that is mental hospitals, and their administrators immediately available - can infer said they could not be taken in by such a additional facts. ruse. Example: When we recognize a discussion as a - Rosenhan then told them that they would be bargaining session, we infer that the participants visited by a pseudopatient in the next 3 represent groups with conflicting interests. months, and he challenged them to identify who it was. C. Help us know how to relate to people and - During the 3-month period, 193 patients object. were admitted, and the psychologists Example: In friendly neighborhoods, we can identified 41 they thought were pseudo smile at strangers and don't have to hold on to our patients. In reality, Rosenhan had not sent wallet so tightly. anybody! Example: We can tell secrets to people who are - Ruse means an action intended to deceive trustworthy, and remain tight-lipped in the someone; a trick. presence of gossips. - In deciding how to classify the patients, the staff doctors were engaged in social D. Allow us to predict behavior. perception. Example: A friend will help us to change a flat - Social perception refers to the processes tire. through which we use available information Example: A vegetarian will turn down a steak to form impressions of other people, to dinner. assess what they are like. III. STEREOTYPES members of other groups. Assume they - A fixed set of characteristics we tend to have nothing in common. attribute to all group members. Example: Varsity players and ballet dancers may - Stereotypes enable us to make quick be thought to have nothing in common. But, in judgments, but these are often wrong. fact, in both groups, there are individuals who are patient, neurotic, hardworking, intelligent, and so Ethnic stereotypes. May have changed - or they on. may just have gone underground. - Example: Americans as industrious or c) Assume the factors that distinguish between intelligent, Italians as artistic or impulsive, groups are also the causes of differences blacks as superstitious or lazy, and Jews as between groups. shrewd or mercenary. However, the idea Example: People may attribute the fact that that negative stereotyping is bigoted and whites obtain higher average scores on standard socially undesirable has increased, so intelligence tests to race. By focusing on one reports may be biased by attempts to hide salient feature, they ignore more likely causes bigotry. such as socioeconomic opportunities, education, and cultural bias in tests. Gender stereotypes. Males are considered more independent, dominant, aggressive, scientific, IV. Social Perception: Forming Impressions and stable in handling crises. Females are seen as - Kelley did a study in which two different more emotional, sensitive, gentle, helpful, and sketches of a guest lecturer were given to patient. students. Sketches were identical, except that half the people were told the guest was A. Origins of stereotypes. cold and the rest were told he was warm. - Have some direct experiences, and then - People make assumptions about how overgeneralize – a "kernel of truth". personality traits are related- which ones go - We might have an experience with a together and which do not. These member of a group, and then assume that all assumptions are called Implicit member of a group share the characteristics Personality Theories: It is a special kind of that we know a few have. stereotyping - we assume that warm people - Boost own self-esteem: Can assert our own or cold people have particular attributes. superiority by Example: Upon learning that a person is a - assuming others are inferior; "self- pessimist, we also tend to assume she is interested motivation" humorless, irritable, and unpopular. - Can enhance group solidarity by developing - An IPT can be thought of as a "mental map" negative stereotypes of groups with which of the way we believe traits are related to we compete. each other. - When we observe that a person has a B. Errors caused by stereotypes. particular trait, we assume they also possess a) Lead us to assume all members of group traits that are close to it on our mental map. have certain traits. - Studies show traits are organized along 2 Example: A professor might think that all varsity distinct positive-negative dimensions - a players are dumb, and grade accordingly. But, social good-bad dimension and an some varsity players are quite intelligent. intellectual good-bad dimension. Warm and cold differ on the social dimension, lazy and b) Lead us to assume that all the members of industrious differ on the intellectual one group differ greatly from all the dimension  - We tend to judge persons who have one included. People were then asked to recall good trait as generally good, and who have behaviors that were relevant for a job for which one bad trait as generally bad. Jane was being considered. - This tendency to perceive personalities as - Those who evaluated her for a job a clusters of either good or bad traits is called "research librarian" recalled twice as many the halo or horn effect. instances of introverted behavior as extroverted behavior. The Halo Effect- when one trait of a person or - Those evaluating her for a job as real estate thing is used to make an overall judgement of that salesperson recalled twice as many person or thing. extroverted behaviors as introverted behaviors. Individual differences in IPTs. - Remember, both groups read about the - We don't all form our IPTs the same way. same Jane! They were then asked how well- Our unique experiences direct our attention suited Jane would be for the other job. to particular trait categories when we form - Those who had evaluated her for the impressions. salesperson job thought she would make a Example: Some of us pay more attention to lousy research librarian, whereas those who intelligence, others to friendliness or had evaluated her for the research position attractiveness. People’s impressions reflect as thought she was very well suited for the job. much about their own modes of perception as they do about the characteristics of the person MORAL: According to Mark Snyder, Even if being perceived. someone doubted an erroneous idea enough to go - Suppose two people meet the same and test it, "one would nevertheless be intelligent, friendly individual. particularly likely to find all the evidence that one - If one attends more to intelligence, she is needs to confirm and retain the belief. likely to form an impression that the individual is industrious, imaginative, and Resistance to change. skillful - all traits associated with - Impressions can be self-fulfilling intelligence in most people's mental maps. prophesies. Because our own actions evoke - If the other attends more to friendliness, she appropriate reactions form others, our is likely to form an impression that the initial impressions are often confirmed by individual is popular, good-natured, and the reactions of others. warm – traits associated with friendly. Both Example: Men were given photographs of impressions may be valid, and they are not relatively attractive or relatively unattractive necessarily contradictory, but they are very women. They then had phone conversations with different. the woman they thought was in the picture. They tended to act differently towards the women they Resistance to change. thought were attractive, and the women, in turn, - It can be very difficult to change people's tended to act differently towards them - the personality theories or stereotypes. Why? "attractive" women tended to act more poised, - People tend to welcome evidence that confident, amiable, sociable and outgoing. confirms their stereotypes or personality theories and to ignore or explain away V. Attribution disconfirming evidence. - The process through which we link Example: People read one week's events in the behavior to its causes - to the intentions, life of a woman named Jane. Equal numbers of dispositions and events that explain why introverted and extroverted behaviors were people act the way they do.  - Dispositional vs. situational attributions Example: Our subject is called Tom. His (or internal vs. external). behavior is laughter. Tom is laughing at a - Must decide whether behavior should be comedian. attributed to characteristics of the person a. Consensus- If everybody in the audience who performed it (dispositional) or to the is laughing, the consensus is high. If only surrounding situation. Put another way, are Tom is laughing, the consensus is low. the causes of an action internal to the actor b. Distinctiveness- If Tom only laughs at or external? this comedian, the distinctiveness is high. Example: Suppose neighbor is unemployed. You If Tom laughs at everything, then might judge that he is lazy, irresponsible or distinctiveness is low. unable (dispositional attribution). Alternatively, c. Consistency- If Tom always laughs at this you might attribute unemployment to racial comedian, the consistency is high. If Tom discrimination, evils of capitalism, poor state of rarely laughs at this comedian, then the economy (situational). consistency is low. Social consequences VI. Attribution Style - Dispositional attributions define suffering Attributional style can also determine the types due to personal problems - solutions of attributions that are made. That is, your involve treating the individual personality may determine whether you attribute - Situational defines suffering as a social things to internal or external characteristics. problem – prescribes changes in the social - The theory of attributional style was structure. developed by Seligman based on his work Example: Status of women may be attributed to on depression. He said bad events can be personal dispositions (fear of success, poorer attributed to either internal/external and skills). Solution is psychotherapy, assertiveness stable/unstable causes. training, etc. Or, it could be due to sexual Example: Suppose a student believes he did prejudice and discrimination - solution may be poorly on the math portion of the Scholastic the ERA (equal rights amendment), adequate Aptitude Test. This is a bad event. What might daycare, etc. have caused it? Kelley says we use three types of information. - Lack of mathematical ability. This is an (NOTE: The Kelley theory is not just limited to internal-stable attribution. Seligman says the persuasiveness of spoken communication - it that depressives are disposed to this kind of applies to attributions for any behavior.) attribution. a. Consensus. Do all or only a few people - I was bored with the math problems. This is respond to the stimulus in the same way internal but unstable (i.e. I won't always be as the target person. Consensus asks bored with math problems). Or, I was tired about generalization across actors. on the day of the exam. b. Distinctiveness. Does the target person - Educational Testing Service gives unfair respond in the same way to other stimuli math exams. External-Stable. as well? This asks about generalization - The test was given on Friday the 13th, an across situations. unlucky day. External-Unstable. c. Consistency. Does the target person always respond in the same way to this Attribution can be either internal or external. stimulus? This asks about generalization - Internal attribution assumes events or across time. behaviors are caused by internal factors, such as personality traits or abilities.  Example: may be that you are either stupid or - If you think the outcome is stable, then it is bright or not interested etc. likely to be the same the next time as well. It seems women tend to point to internal If, on the contrary, it is unstable, the factors more than the seemingly more self- outcome will probably be different on confident men. another occasion. - Success or failure factors may be either External factors assume that an event or controllable or uncontrollable. behavior is caused by situational factors, such as - A controllable factor you can alter or a person's social or physical environment. influence if you wish to do so. Example: are anything or anybody else you can - An uncontrollable factor is one that you blame. cannot easily alter. Example: If you e.g. depend on the teacher for Attribution Style- Implications of each: success or if you compete with your peers for the a. External-Unstable means – the bad few available high grades, you explain your event isn't your fault, and there is hope situation by pointing to uncontrollable factors. for better things in the future. Example: If you fail in your studies, you can thus b. External-Stable leaves you with no hope attribute this to external, uncontrollable factors by for the future, but at least it isn't your blaming the bad school and the poor teachers. fault. c. Internal-Unstable says it is your fault, - This situation you can perceive as stable: but fortunately, you can prevent the bad No matter how hard you try, these thing from happening again. uncontrollable external factors will ensure d. Internal-Stable is the worst - it is your your failure. In other words, you have very fault, and the problem is likely to persist. good explanations for your failure, and Seligman said depressed persons are others are to blame. characterized by a particular attributional style - specifically, they tend to make VIII. Motivational Biases internal-stable attributions for bad events When events affect one's self-interests, biased (e.g. I am bad at math). These are the most attribution is likely. punishing of all possible attributions, the Defense of stereotypes. People tend to perceive worst for self-esteem, and the one making the actions that correspond with their stereotypes as worst predictions for future performance. caused by the actor's personal dispositions. Actions that contradict their stereotype are VII. Attribution Theory attributed to situational causes. As a result, - Attribution theory was developed by the stereotypes persist even in the light of social psychologists Heider, Kelley, Jones contradictory evidence. and Ross. - Example: If a female executive cries, we - The theory is concerned with how people attribute this to her emotional instability; if explain or attribute various causes to events. she does well in a crisis, we attribute this to - According to the 'attribution theory' it is the calming influence of her male assistants. normal for people to look for explanations When events affect one's self-interests, biased or causes - that can be attributed to their attribution is likely. own success or failure. - An assumption of the attribution theory is Success and failure attributions. People tend to that people will interpret their environment take personal credit for acts that yield positive in such a way as to maintain a positive self- outcomes, and to deflect blame for bad outcomes, image. attributing them to external causes. Attributing success to personal qualities and failure to We also often show group-serving biases where external factors enables people to enhance or we make more favorable attributions about our protect their own self-esteem. ingroups than our outgroups. - Example: College students were asked to explain the grades they received on three We sometimes show victim-blaming biases due examinations. Students who received A's to beliefs in a just world and a tendency to make and B's attributed their grades much more to defensive attributions. their own effort and ability than to good luck or easy tests. However, students who received C's, D's, and F's attributed their grades largely to bad luck and the difficulty of the tests. When events affect one's self-interests, biased attribution is likely. Just world. More serious the consequences of an act, more guilt we tend to assign. People want to believe they live in a just world. Want to have order – want to believe bad things don't happen to good people. - Example: People often blame themselves for their own misfortune. Why? Because otherwise, they would have to admit that misfortune was beyond their control, and they would be unable to avoid it in the future. SUMMARY Attributions are inferences generated by people when they try to explain reasons for events, the behavior of others, and their own behavior. Attributions may be internal (dispositional), based on something within a person, or external (situational), based on something outside a person. A student who wins an art contest may decide it is because of ability (internal attribution) or because the judges are friends of her or his parents (external attribution). We tend to make self-serving attributions that help to protect our self-esteem; for example, by making internal attributions when we succeed and external ones when we fail.