Reviewer Social Psychology PDF

CASINO, LIANNE R. 3CPS THEORY SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Set of interrelated propositions; organizes and explains observed phenomena. MODULE 1: INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PSYCHO...

CASINO, LIANNE R. 3CPS THEORY SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Set of interrelated propositions; organizes and explains observed phenomena. MODULE 1: INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Goes beyond observable facts by postulating causal relations among variables. What Social Psychologists Do: If theory is valid, it enables its user to explain Find answers by applying the methods of the phenomena under consideration and science. (scientific method) make predictions about events not yet Make systematic observations of behavior observed. and formulate theories that are subject to testing. Theoretical Perspectives ** Social psychology investigates the five following SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY theoretical perspectives: Systematic study of the nature and causes of ○ Role Theory human social behavior. ○ Reinforcement Theory ○ Cognitive Theory Social Psychologists Study: ○ Symbolic Interaction Theory Activities of individuals in the presence of ○ Evolutionary Theory others Processes of social interaction between ROLE THEORY people Much of observable social behavior is people Relationship between individuals and groups carrying out their roles, similar to actors Nature and causes of social behavior performing on a stage. Social behavior in a systematic fashion To change a person’s behavior, it is necessary to change or redefine his/her role. Four Core Concerns: Social Psychology Propositions in Role Theory Impact of one individual on another’s ○ People spend much of their lives behavior and beliefs participating in groups and Impact of a group on a member’s behavior organizations. and beliefs ○ Within these groups, people occupy Impact of a member on a group’s activities distinct positions. and structure ○ Each of these positions entails a role, Impact of one group on another group’s which is a set of functions performed activities and structure by the person for the group. REINFORCEMENT THEORY Social Psychology and Other Fields Central proposition: Sociology - scientific study of human ○ People are more likely to perform a society. behavior if followed by something ○ Social psychologists who work in this pleasurable or removal of something tradition are interested in the aversive. relationship between individuals and ○ People will refrain from a particular groups. behavior if followed by something Psychology - study of the individual and of aversive or the removal of something individual behavior. pleasant. ○ Social psychologists who work in this Conditioning tradition are concerned with ○ A relationship is established between individual behavior and social stimuli. emitting a response and receiving reinforcement. ** Sociology + Psychology = Social Psychology ○ If a person emits a particular response and this response is reinforced, the  connection between response and Cognitive Structure and Schemas reinforcement is strengthened. ○ Cognitive Structure - any type of Social Learning Theory organization among cognition ○ Individuals acquire new responses (concepts and beliefs). through conditioning and imitation ○ Social Psychologists propose that Learner acquires new individuals use one kind of cognitive responses by observing structure call schemas - explain behavior of others complex information about other Learner neither performs a people, groups, and situations. response nor receives ○ Ex: People remember a man’s behavior reinforcement as “aggressive”, a woman’s as ○ The learner performing behaviors “nurturing” learned through observations may Cognitive Consistency depend on whether they receive ○ Maintains that individuals strive to reinforcement. hold ideas that are consistent with ○ What drives social behavior? one another, rather than ideas that are Habits rewarded by others. inconsistent or incongruous. (Ex: A boy who acts violently ○ If a person holds several ideas that are after his friends praise him for incongruous or inconsistent, then winning a violent video game.) he/she will experience internal Imitating the rewarded conflict. behavior of others (Ex: Buying SYMBOLIC INTERACTION THEORY a gun after seeing a movie in Human nature and social order are products which the hero wins true love of symbolic communication among people. by shooting half the people in A person’s behavior is constructed through a town.) give and take with interaction with others. Links to other perspectives: “Self” - Occupies a central place in symbolic ○ We learn sociocultural norms from interaction theory because social order is years of learning experiences. hypothesized to rest in part on self-control. ○ Learning follows tracks laid down by Because individuals are continually engaging evolutionary history. (Ex: people raised in role taking, they see themselves from the like family members in kibbutz do not viewpoint of others. fall in love even though norms do not Individuals care most about opinions of oppose it.) significant others, - people who control Reinforcement theory portraits individuals as important rewards or occupy key positions in reacting to environmental stimuli rather than their groups. as initiating behavior based on imaginative EVOLUTIONARY THEORY or creative thought. Evolutionary social psychologists extend Limitations: Reinforcement theory cannot evolutionary ideas to explain social behavior. easily explain altruism and martyrdom. ○ Predisposition toward certain COGNITIVE THEORY behaviors is encoded in our genetic Mental activities (cognitive processes) of the material and is passed on through individual are determinants of social reproduction. behavior. ○ Characteristics that enable the Cognitive processes - perception, memory, individuals to survive and pass on its judgment, problem solving, and decision genetic code will eventually occur making. more frequently. Individual’s cognitive processes intervene What drives social behavior? between external stimuli and behavioral ○ Genetic predispositions inherited responses. from ancestors such as  Tendency to feel fear on seeing Develop and test theories an angry face Tendency for mothers to feel RESEARCH METHODS IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY protective of their children Methodology: A set of procedures that guide Some sex roles naturally fall to the collection and analysis of data. one sex (e.g. bearing children) In a typical study: 1. Develop a research design 2. Go in a laboratory or field setting and COMPARISON OF THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES collect data. DIMENSION ROLE THEORY REINFORCEME 3. Code and analyze the data to test NT THEORY hypotheses and arrive at conclusions about the behaviors or events under Central Role Stimulus-resp investigation Concepts onse; reinforcement How to test hypothesis? ○ Surveys Primary Behavior in Learning of ○ Naturalistic observation behavior role new responses ○ Archival research based on content explained analysis Assumptions People are People are ○ Experiments about human conformist hedonistic How does Social Psychology Fit into the Network of nature Knowledge? What you have learned about social Factores Shift in role Change in psychology is closely connected to: changing expectations Reinforcement behavior ○ Other subdisciplines of psychology ○ Other basic sciences ○ Applied sciences COMPARISON OF THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES Area of Application Example of Common DIMENSION COGNITIVE SYMBOLIC Question THEORY INTERACTION THEORY Developmental Does early exposure to televised violence lead Central Cognitions; Self; role to + aggressiveness in Concepts cognitive taking later years? structure Personality What individual Primary Formation of Sequences of differences predict behavior beliefs acts during success in marital explained interaction relationships? Assumptions People act on People are Environmental How do social about human their self-monitorin dilemmas contribute to nature cognitions g actors. overpopulation and environmental Factores Cognitive Shift in other’s destruction? changing inconsistency standards. behavior Clinical How do normal feelings of attachment go awry in obsessive love OBJECTIVES IN RESEARCH relationships? Describe reality Identify correlations between variables Cognitive How do attention-demanding Test causal hypotheses  distractions contribute harmonious to our ability to resist relationships among persuasive messages? team members? Physiological How do hormones like Marketing How could a sales team adrenaline and best advertise the new testosterone contribute features of an to aggression? energy-efficient automobile? Genetics Is prosocial or aggressive behavior Education How can a teacher linked to genes shared encourage children to within families make healthy attributions after Anthropology Which features of failure? family relationships are common across Engineering How does new cultures , and which are communication unique? technology (cell phones, e-mail) affect social Economics Do people exchange relationships? resources according to different rules between friends, relatives, and MODULE 2: THE SELF IN A SOCIAL WORLD strangers? Who am I? Political Science How do international Few human beings in Western societies live leaders make decisions out their lives without pondering the when they are involved in tense negotiations question of “Who Am I?” with outgroup Each of us has unique answers to this members? question. Our answers reflect: ○ Our self-schema or self-concept Ethnology Are there common ○ The organized structure of cognition features of dominance ○ The thoughts we have about ourselves hierarchies in humans and chimpanzees? The Nature & Genesis of Self Ecology Can the dynamic Our understanding of the Self is drawn from balance between wolves Symbolic Interaction Theory. and rabbits in a forest Self - individual viewed as both the source shed light on human overpopulation? and object of reflexive behavior ○ Self is both active (intitiates reflexive Law How does testimony behavior) and passive (whom reflexive from an unreliable behavior is directed). eyewitness influence a According to William I. James and George H. jury’s decision Mead: processes? ○ I - Active aspect of the self Medicine How does an intact ○ Me - object of self-action marriage relationship Steps Involved in the Geneses of Self influence survival after 1. Self - Differentiation a heart attack? 2. Role Taking Management How can a team leader Self Differentiation promote creative To take the self as the object of action, we problem solving and must be able to recognize ourselves  ○ We must distinguish our own faces ○ The Play Stage and bodies from those of others ○ The Game Stage Infants are NOT born with this ○ Generalized Other ability #1 Play Stage Infants acquire this ability very Young children imitate the activities of quickly people around them Bertenthal and Fisher Role taking involves imitating the mailman, indicate that children doctor, father, etc. recognize self-other #2 Game Stage contingencies by 18 to Occurs when children enter organized 24 months. activities such as complex games of house, Role Taking school, and team sports Process of imaginatively occupying the Role taking requires children to imagine the position of another person and viewing the viewpoints of others at the same time. self and the situation from that person’s Ex: Baseball perspective The Generalized Other (Mid 20th Century) George Mead and Charles Referring to a conception of the attitudes and Horton Cooley recognized that language was expectations held in common by the central to the development of the self and to members of the organized groups with whom role taking. they interact. When a child recognizes himself in the mirror When we imagine what the group expects of - that child has acquired the ability to role us, we are taking the role of the generalized take. other. The Origin of The Self Phases of the Self: “I” and “Me” Cooley and Mead recognized that we acquire Self in interaction with others. “I” - self in action “Me” - self as an object One must recognize and interpret others in the world responses to our actions in order to figure out how we appear to them Self in process, in the Structured and A sense of self depends on ability to use moment determinate part of the self-referent terms, terms to describe the self self. Impulsive, Product of interaction spontaneous, and and conscious The Looking Glass Self indeterminate part of reflection Term coined by Cooley the self Parents and immediate family and later on Non-reflective We know the “I” only the child’s playmates form a child’s through the “me” significant others - people whose views have greatest influence on child’s self-concepts. Part of the self that - As a child grows older and interacts with produces individuality teachers, clergy, fellow workers, etc. the list of significant others widens. The Self We Know Ex: We can come to think of ourselves as Involves specific identities (the meanings funny because people laugh at the things we attached to the self by one’s self and others) say. Primarily influenced by the reactions of others Stages in the Development of Self Varies with the situation Mead (1934) identified three stages to the emergence of the self in children  In today’s society we often communicate Research studies support the hypothesis that through the WWW (world-wide web). There is the perceived reactions of others are crucial an effect on us. for self-concept formation rather than their actual reactions Identities ○ Others rarely give honest feedback Meanings attached to the self by one’s self about their reactions to us and others. The feedback we receive from Linked to social roles we enact or our others is inconsistent and membership in social groups, frequently ambiguous. May be associated with in-group favoritism and out-group stereotyping Situated Self We form self-concepts through learning and Subset of self-concepts chosen from our adopting role and social identities, identities, qualities, and self-evaluations that constitutes the self we know in a particular Role Identities situation. Concepts of self in specific roles Self-concepts most likely to enter the For each role we enact, we develop a different situated self are those distinctive to the view of who we are; i.e. an identity. setting and relevant to ongoing activities. The role identities we develop depend on the social positions available to us in society. Identities: The Self We Enact Involve role expectations The self we enact expresses our identities. We choose behavior to evoke responses from Social Identities others that will confirm particular identities Definition of the self in terms of the defining (people pleaser yan? eme) characteristics of a social group To confirm identities successfully, we must Each of us associates certain characteristics share our understanding of what these with members of specific groups behaviors and identities mean. If you define yourself as a member of a group, these characteristics become standard for Hierarchy of Identities thoughts, feelings, and actions. Importance of an identity varies from situation to situation. (Ex: being a rap artist The Adoption of Role and Social Identities is not important in a math class) Self schemas are formed in part by adopting ○ We organized different role identities identities into a hierarchy according to their The identities available to us depend on salience - relative importance to the whether the culture is individualist or self-schema. collectivist ○ The more salient an identity, the more ○ Individualist Cultures - emphasize likely we are to perceive a situation as individual achievement and one’s an opportunity to enact that identity. personal identities (Ex: Student, School President, Top Athlete) Identities as Sources of Consistency ○ Collectivist Cultures - Emphasize Although the self includes multiple identities, group welfare and one’s group people usually experience themselves as a position (Ex: son, Italian, Catolic, unified entity. American) ○ We use strategies that verify our perceptions of ourselves. Reflected Appraisals Salience Hierarchy - Our most salient Idea that the person bases self-schema on identities provide consistent styles of reactions perceived from others during social behavior and priorities that lend continuity interaction. and unity to our behavior. Self-Disclosure ○ Back Stage - area out of audience’s When we speak as sharing our identity(s) sight, where an individual can let with another down his or her guard; We take great ○ Self disclosure - “disclosing the self” care to conceal it from audiences. Self-disclosure is usually bilateral or A person can relax, drop his reciprocal. “The norm of reciprocity in front, forgo his speaking lines disclosure.” and step out of character - ○ Sharing too much intimate Erving Goffman self-information with another often ○ Front Stage - Area visible to the weakens the relationship and may audience, where people feel compelled lead to disliking each other. to present themselves in expected ways. Impression Management Success of impression management is Process by which people manage the setting judged by whether an audience “plays along (stage), their dress (costumes), and their with the performance.” If the audience plays words and/or gestures (script) to correspond along, the person has successfully projected to the impression they are trying to make. a desired definition of situation. (Erving Goffman) Self-Presentation Sometimes we are aware that we are Process by which individuals attempt to engaging in impression management (Ex: control the impressions that others form of when we are pretending to listen in class them in social interaction. when we’re not. When we’re really listening, We differentiate between authentic, ideal, and we are less aware of the “work” behind giving tactical self-presentations off the impression.) ○ Authentic - creating an image consistent with our self view. Ineffective Self Presentations and Spoiled ○ Ideal - most appropriate public image; Identities ideal self. Some may recover when their identity is ○ Tactical - public image consistent challenged, while others may have a with what others expect of us. permanently spoiled identity. ○ Example: Martha Stewart Tactical Impression Management ○ Example: Phil. Presidential Candidates Use of conscious, goal-directed activity of Poe, Binay, and Duterte controlling information to influence Embarrassment impressions. ○ People feel embarrassed, show lack of The expression of emotions may be poise, fear, and loss of self-esteem appropriate or inappropriate when their identity is challenged ○ Example: Service workers must and/or discredited. conceal anger/fear. ○ Example: Imagine a surgeon Stigma expressing fear before operation. Characteristic widely viewed as an insurmountable handicap that prevents Managing Appearances competent or morally trustworthy behavior. Impression an individual makes on others Types of stigma include those who have depends not only on clothes, makeup, and ○ Physical challenges and deformities grooming, but also on props in the ○ Character defects - dishonesty, mental environment illnesses, that are dangerous to Irving Goffman draws a parallel between a society and themselves. theater’s front and back stages and the regions we use in managing appearances.  ○ Racial, sexual or religious beliefs that certain situations (Ex: schemas on could contaminate or morally restaurants, funerals, graduation, debilitate others. weddings) ○ Group Schemas - stereotypes; schemas regarding the members of a MODULE 3: KAPWA KO, KAPAMILYA KO! THE particular social group, or social FILIPINO SELF & THE FAMILY category (Ex: races, religious groups, SOCIAL COGNITION ethnic groups) Studies how people think about themselves and the social world – how they select, Importance of Schemas interpret, remember, and use social Influence capacity to recall information by information to make judgements and making certain kinds of facts more salient decisions. and easier to recall. Related to process Help process information faster Related to what is in our head (Cognitive Guide our inferences and judgements about representations or schemas) people and objects About people (social). Allow us to reduce ambiguity Social Cognition Strives to Examine SCHEMAS HELP US FILL IN DETAILS Select - How we take information from the Scripts; this script helps us know what to outside world and encode it expect, and we may fill in things that didn’t Interpret - How this interpretation of the actually happen. information is stored in memory Memory is reconstructive Remember and Use - How this information is SCHEMAS INFLUENCE ATTENTION retrieved from memory and used “Graduate Student’s Office” Study ○ IV: Grad Student office included ** In general, social cognition is the use of cognitive schema consistent (stapler, filing methodologies (and theories) to understand people cabinets, book shelves) and schema and social situations. inconsistent (exercise equipment) objects SCHEMAS ○ DV: Leave room and recall what was in Mental structures that represent knowledge the room about a concept or type of stimuli; often Recalled more schema consistent objects include attributes and the relationship than schema inconsistent objects that were among those attributes NOT actually in the office. Type of Schemas SCHEMAS HELP US TO INTERPRET AMBIGUOUS ○ Role - expectation about people in INFORMATION particular roles and social categories Imagine walking down a street and someone (Ex: Student, Doctor, President) is walking behind you. Is that person ○ Self-Schemas - expectations about following you? Or does the person just the self that organize and guide the happen to be walking in the same direction? processing of self-relevant Shady character → activates criminal information schema ○ Person Schemas - expectations based Ask directions → activates lost person on personality traits; what we schema associate with a certain type of person Priming - process by which recent (Ex: introvert, warm, extrovert) experiences increase accessibility of a ○ Event Schemas - expectations about schema, trait, or concept sequences of events in social ○ Positive Primes: 70% had positive situations; what we associate with impression  ○ Negative Primes: 10% had positive impression MODULE 4: SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS Attraction ISSUES WITH SCHEMAS… Conflict and Prejudice Can distort reality and memories Altruism and Peacemaking Can persist even when discredited Aggression ○ Belief perseverance Can be self fulfilling Prejudice ○ People often live up to our Terms that often overlap expectations because we treat them in ○ Prejudice ways that make them act in ○ Discrimination accordance with these expectations ○ Stereotyping Unjustifiable attitude towards a group of Confirmation Biases people; May be overt or subtle; Usually Tendencies to interpret, seek, and create involves stereotyped beliefs. ( a generalized information that verifies our pre-existing belief about a group of people) beliefs or schemas Negative prejudgement of a group and its ○ Example: Belief perseverance: individual members Tendency to maintain beliefs even An attitude - a distinct combination of when discredited feelings, inclinations to act, and beliefs ABC - Affect (feelings), Behavior tendencies ** Our expectations also can influence how we go (inclinations to act), cognition (beliefs) about obtaining new information about another Stereotype person ○ Negative evaluations that mark ** Imagine meeting a friend of a friend. Your friend prejudice stem from emotional tells you that his friend, Dana, is very outgoing and associations, the need to justify friendly (life of the party). When meeting Dana, will behavior, or negative beliefs called that information influence what you say and do? stereotypes. Some work suggests it will. ○ To generalize ○ To categorize Self-fulfilling Prophecies ○ Reflect ideas that groups of people We have expectations (schemas) about hold about others who differ from others them. These expectations influence how we act ○ Tend to make us feel superior in some towards these people way to the person or group being These actions can cause these people to act stereotyped in ways that are consistent with expectations ○ A problem with stereotypes : Examples: overgeneralized or just plain wrong Pygmalion Effect / Rosenthal Effect - if you ○ Can be embedded in single word or think something will happen, you phrase (jock, nerd) unconsciously make it happen through ○ Can either be positive (asians are actions or inaction. ( Ex: When a manager smart) or negative (women are bad raises his or her expectation for the drivers) performance of workers, and this actually Discrimination results in an increase in worker performance ) ○ Prejudice : Negative attitude Golem Effect - psychological phenomenon in ○ Discrimination : negative behavior which lower expectations placed upon ** Prejudice is not just race-based individuals either by supervisors or themselves lead to poorer performance by the Roots of Prejudice individual. Social Sources  Emotional Sources student, member of the Cognitive Sources student council, etc. Social Sources of Prejudice ○ We categorize - find it useful to put Unequal Status people, ourselves in categories ○ Masters view slaves as lazy, (labels) irresponsible, lacking ambition– as ○ We identify - associate ourselves with having those traits that justify slavery. certain groups (ingroups); gain self ○ Once inequalities exist, prejudice aids esteem in doing so in justifying economic and social ○ We compare - contrast our groups superiority of those who have wealth with other groups (outgroups) with a and power. favorable bias towards our own. ○ People view enemies as subhuman Ingroup Bias and depersonalize with labels. ○ The group definition of who your are The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy (race, religion, gender, academic ○ Negative beliefs predict negative major) implies a definition of who you behavior (or problems in life) are not. ○ If a person thinks we are ○ Circle that includes “us” (ingroup) clever/stupid, they will treat us that excludes “them” (outgroup) way ○ Mere experience of being formed into ○ The person has thus had their groups may promote ingroup bias prophecy about us fulfilled ○ Due to human quest for positive ○ Also known as Pygmalion Effect concept Stereotype Threat Conformity ○ Self-conforming apprehension that ○ If prejudice is socially accepted, many one will be evaluated based on a people follow the path of least negative stereotype resistance and conform to fashion ○ Being at risk of conforming, as self ○ Will act not so much out of a need to characteristic, a negative stereotype hate as out of a need to be liked and about one’s group (Steele & Aronson, accepted (people pleaser yan? Pt. 2) 1995) Emotional Sources of Prejudice ○ Ex: Black college freshmen and Frustration and Aggression sophomores performed more poorly vs Personality Dynamics white students when their race was ○ Need for status, self-regard, and emphasized. When race as not belonging emphasized, Black students To perceive ourselves as having performed better and equivalently status, we need people below with White students. us Results showed that acad Psychological benefit of status performance is harmed by is superiority awareness that one’s behavior ○ Authoritarian personality might be viewed through lens Obedience and conformity are of racial stereotypes. the most important virtues Social Identity children should learn. ○ Self-concept - our sense of who we are Adorno identified the contains not just personal identity authoritarian personality as (our sense of personal attributes and having these characteristics: attitudes) but also a social identity Authoritarian Ex: Person may identify himself personality does not a man, a Filipino, a psychology want to give orders,  their personality type Attribution wants to take orders ○ Fundamental Attribution Error (Lee Seek conformity, Ross) security, stability In explaining other’s actions Become anxious and we frequently commit this insecure when events error. upset their previously We attribute people's behavior existing world view so much to their inner Very intolerant of any dispositions that we discount divergence from what important situational forces. they consider normal Error occurs partly because our (usually conceptualized attention focuses on the in terms of their person, not the situation. religion, race, Involves placing heavy nationality, culture, emphasis on internal language, etc. personality characteristics to ○ Scapegoat Theory explain someone’s behavior in Theory that prejudice provides a given situation rather than an outlet for anger by providing thinking about external someone to blame situational factors Hostile social-psychological Ex: Walking down a crowded discrediting routine by which sidewalk with loaded bags, people move/blame someone bumps into you and responsibility away from you’re inclined to think “what themselves towards target an idiot! That person has no person/group. respect for others! He clearly Practice by which angry saw me!” With this, you fail to feelings and feelings of consider situational factors hostility may be projected via like someone else bumping inappropriate accusation to into that person, bags taking others up more room than you think Target feels wrongly persecuted they are, thus forcing people to and receives misplaced bump into you as they try to vilification, blame, criticism; get around you likely to suffer rejection from Ex: You might think someone is those who the perpetrator rude because she acts hostile seeks to influence. when in reality they must be Cognitive Sources of Prejudice having the worst day of your Categorization life because of different factors ○ Organize the world by clustering (accident, death of someone, objects to groups to simplify etc.) environment (Macrae & Bodenhausen, ○ Just-World Phenomenon 2000) People get what they deserve ○ Perceived similarities and differences and deserve what they get Distinctiveness (Melvin Lerner, 1977) ○ Distinctive people and vivid or Attributing failures to extreme occurrences often draw dispositional causes rather attention and distort judgment. than situational causes, which ○ We define people by their most are unchangeable and distinctive traits and behaviors uncontrollable, satisfies our  need to believe that the world ○ Catherine Susan “Kitty” Genovese is fair and we have control over (July 7, 1935 - March 13, 1964) a New our life. Yorker who was stabbed to death Motivated to see a just world outside her apartment building in Kew because this reduces perceived Gardens, a neighborhood in Queens, threats, gives a sense of NY. security, helps find meaning in ○ Reports (New York Times) conveyed a difficult and unsettling scene of indifference from neighbors circumstances and benefits us who failed to come to her aid; 37-38 psychologically. witnesses supposedly saw or heard Results in a tendency for the attack and did not call police. people to blame and disparage Incident prompted inquiries into what victims of a tragedy or accident became known as the bystander effect (ex: she got harrassed because or “Genovese Syndrome” she was wearing revealing Social Exchange Theory clothing) to reassure ○ Decision to help others involves a themselves for their cost-benefit analysis insusceptibility to such events. ○ We enter relationships because we get Even go to extremes like some personal benefit from doing so victims faults in their “past which suggests that no act is truly life” to pursue justification for altruistic, their bad outcome ○ From this perspective, helping is done out of self-interest (egoistic ALTRUISM motivations) Rooted from Latin “alter” - other ○ Idea that our social behavior is an Living for others exchange process which we maximize Key component: selflessness - unselfish benefits and minimize costs. regard for welfare of others Batson’s Model - Empathy - Altruism Ignored as an area of study in Soc. Psych. ○ Argues that true altruism does not Until mid 20th century even though Auguste exist and that empathy is what sets it Comte coined the term 100 years prior apart as altruism. ○ Argues that a person’s motivation for Altruism vs Prosocial Behavior helping may involve urges that are Need to consider the role of selflessness and either egoistic or altruistic. individual’s motivation for helping Egoistic - people help others in Altruism Prosocial Behavior hopes to reduce personal distress (feelings of guilt, Acts carried out A broader category of worry, shame, fear, etc.) voluntarily by helping behavior that Altruistic - people help others individuals who have no does not stress because they feel empathy concern for themselves personal motives towards them and their and have no whereas altruism must expectation of any kind involve clear situation (feelings of of reward self-sacrifice. compassion, warmth, softheartedness, etc.) Evolutionary Theories Continuation of Altruism ○ Perhaps helping behavior is a matter Unselfish regard for the welfare of others. of natural selection Bystander Effect (bystanders less willing to ○ Darwin suggested that “altruistic help if there are other bystanders around) animals risk the survival of their Kitty Genovese Case genes by engaging in self sacrificing  behaviors that threaten their ○ Bad moods = sometimes more helpful, long-term reproductive potential.” sometimes less helpful (in children) ○ Three ways altruistic genes might be ○ Guilt = more helpful behavior passed on: Social Norms Kin Selection Socially constructed expectations for how we We are more likely to act ought to act altruistically when it Two classes of social norms around helping comes to saving behavior relatives ○ Norms that invoke rules of fairness Reciprocity Norm of reciprocity : “tit for tat” Helping in the short run Principle of equity : what’s fair? increases probability Beliefs about justice : you reap that our genes will be what you saw protected in the future ○ Norms that address questions of What goes around social responsibility comes around We should help people who are Helps explain non-kin dependent upon us helping behavior Unwelcome Help Group Selection What explains why people would not want Argues that groups help? consisting of Threat-to-self-esteem Model - a person’s cooperative members reaction to assistance depends on how help are more likely to is offered survive and pass on ○ Providing help in a way that allows for their genes than groups some sort of fair exchange also with selfish members. produces a positive effect that contains elements of self support. Process of Helping Learning to Help Has something happened? → Is it an Culture into which one is born will shape our emergency? → Is this something for which I prosocial and altruistic tendencies should take personal responsibility? → What We learn from norms from our group through form of assistance should I give? → I’ll help. process of socialization Process of Helping: Assuming Personal Responsibility Theories Explaining How We Learn Helping Does the victim “deserve” help? Behavior Do we have competence/expertise to help? Rewarding Altruism and Prosocial Behavior Do other bystanders share responsibility for ○ Results of one study showed “subjects helping? who received a polite thank you for ○ Diffusion of responsibility - tendency giving directions were more likely than for bystander to diffuse the subject who were treated rudely to responsibility for helping among later offer help to a confederate” themselves ○ People treated with kindness = likely Process of Helping: Situational Factors to help vs People who received Time : Do we have the time to help? rudeness = less likely to help Presence of Others : The bystander effect Modeling Altruism and Prosocial Behavior Size of place : Larger the city size, the less ○ Adults and children learn prosocial likely people are to help a stranger behavior through modeling Mood and Emotions : Adults are more likely to help if ○ Good moods = more helpful behavior they see someone model prosocial behavior Development of Prosocial Behavior on hedonistic concerns - how helping Tendency to help others increases as children will satisfy their own needs or wants.” mature. Children are able to do more of the ff ○ As they mature, children begin to as they mature: consider others’ needs. ○ Understand and accept social norms ○ Take the perspective of others AGGRESION ○ Empathize Any physical or verbal behavior intended to ○ Feel greater social responsibility and hurt/destroy. competence Statistics : In the U.S, people are much more ○ Greater moral reasoning - the reasons likely to be murdered vs other developed they give for helping nations. The Biology of Aggression Theories Explaining the Moral Development in Genetics Children Neural Influences (is aggression in the brain) Cialdini’s Socialization Model of Charitable Biochemical Behavior The Psychology of Agression ○ First Step : Children view altruistic Frustration-Aggressive Principle behavior either in a neutral manner or ○ Blocking of an attempt to achieve even as punishing because they some goal associate it with a loss of rewards. ○ Creates anger which generates ○ Second Step : Children become aware aggression of social norms that prescribe ○ Example of Goals : Sports, prosocial or altruistic behavior. Relationship, Work, etc. Motivations for helping are linked to external rewards. ** Hot Weather and Aggression (study) : as ○ Third Step : Charitable behavior is temperature soars, so does aggression. intrinsically rewarding Bar-Tal and Raviv’s Cognitive-Learning ** Aggression and gentleness can be learned but Model once learned is difficult to change. ○ Phase 1: Compliance - concrete ○ Phase 2: Compliance Aggression and TV ○ Phase 3: Internal initiative - concrete By the time you are 18, you spend more time ○ Phase 4: Normative behavior in front of TV than in school. ○ Phase 5: Generalized reciprocity ⅔ of all homes have 3 or more sets average 51 ○ Phase 6: Altruistic Behavior hours a week. Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development By the time a child finishes elementary ○ Children pass through a series of school they have witnessed 8000 murders stages of moral reasoning as they and 100,000 other acts of violence on TV mature Over half of deaths DO NOT show the victim’s ○ Individual’s level of moral pain development is not determined by As TV watching has grown exponentially, as whether he/she decides an action is does violent behavior- a strong positive right or wrong but rather by the correlation specific reasoning he/she uses. ○ Reasoning abilities become more CONFLICT sophisticated as child matures. Perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or Eisenberg’s Model of Prosocial Reasoning ideas. ○ “At the lowest level of development, Social trap or prisoner’s dilemma. children;s decision to help are based ATTRACTION  Proximity PEACEMAKING ○ Geographic nearness Give people superordinate (shared) goals that ○ Mere exposure effect: can only be achieved through cooperation. Repeated exposure to Win Win situations through mediation something breeds liking GRIT (Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives Taiwanese Letters in Tension Reduction) Mirror image concept Reciprocal Liking ○ You are likely to like someone who (CASINO, Lianne R. 3CPS) likes you. Similarity ○ Paula Abdul was wrong : opposites do NOT attract. ○ Birds of the same feather flock together ○ Similarity breeds content. Liking through Association ○ Classical Conditioning can play a part in attraction. Example: I love Frankie's Wings. If I see the same waitress every time I go there, I may begin to associate that waitress with the good feelings I get from Frankie’s. Physical Attractiveness ○ The Hotty Factor Physical attractiveness predicts dating frequency (they end up dating more). Perceived as healthier, happier, more honest and successful than less attractive counterparts. ○ What is beauty? Some say its facial symmetry ○ Beauty and Culture LOVE Passionate Love ○ Aroused state of INTENSE positive absorption of another. Compassionate Love ○ Deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined. ○ What makes compassionate love work? Equity and Self-Disclosure.