Social Psych Overheads Part 1 SMU F24 PDF

TODAY: Announcements… Quiz 5 (Learning and Memory) Opens today Nov. 4 (a week later than posted in the course outline (Oct. 28) Closes by 11:59 pm Sun. Nov. 17 (Nov. 10) Attributions: explaining causes Social influence: Conformity, obedienc...

TODAY: Announcements… Quiz 5 (Learning and Memory) Opens today Nov. 4 (a week later than posted in the course outline (Oct. 28) Closes by 11:59 pm Sun. Nov. 17 (Nov. 10) Attributions: explaining causes Social influence: Conformity, obedience & compliance SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Final exam When: ▪ Thursday, Dec. 12, 2:00 - 5:00 pm Where: LA 290 What: ▪ Readings and lectures on  Social psychology  Personality  Health psychology  Psychological disorders  Therapies Did You Know? ▪ People sometimes act in accord with their consciences, but often we are left wondering why we acted the way we did.  It is more common that our consciences change to match our behaviour. 3 Did You Know? ▪ We appreciate things more when we have to work for them. 4 Did You Know? ▪ We tend to hold others responsible for their misdeeds but to see ourselves as victims of circumstances when we misbehave. Copyright © 2012 by Nelson Education Ltd. 5  Did You Know? ▪ The pressure to obey is very strong. In the right situation most people will torture, and perhaps even kill, an innocent person if they are ordered to do so. Copyright © 2012 by Nelson Education Ltd. 6  Did You Know? ▪ Seeing is not always believing - especially when the group sees things differently. Copyright © 2012 by Nelson Education Ltd. 7  What Is Social Psychology? 8  What is Social Psychology? ▪ The study of the ways in which the presence of others influences the thoughts, feelings and behaviour of individuals ▪ How we think about, respond to, and interact with other people 9  What is Social Psychology? The study of how the immediate social context and broader cultural environment influence people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions. Social Perception A thought experiment… ▪ Buddy cuts you off on the highway… Why did Buddy drive like that??? Q: How do we explain our behaviour and others’ behaviours? ▪ A: We make attributions. ▪ Attributions: assumptions (or inferences) about the causes of behaviour Attribution Theory Basically, there are two kinds of attributions: Buddy is Dispositional attributions inconsiderate and self-centered ▪ Internal factors  such as personality traits and free will Situational attributions ▪ External factors Buddy is trying to get to the hospital  such as social influence or because his wife socialization went into labor 14 What do you think? In which of the following situations would someone be likely to attribute their behavior to internal factors? a) Doug loses a game of soccer to his rival. b) Lindsay does worse on their exam than they thought they would. c) Gottfried doesn’t win the lottery. d) Meghana is able to sing a difficult song flawlessly. One more time… In which of the following situations would someone be likely to attribute their behavior to external/situational factors? a) Gottfried wins the lottery. b) Lindsay does worse on their exam than they thought they would. c) Graham gets a bonus on his paycheck. d) Rachel earns an A on her essay. Fundamental attribution error (FAE) Actor-observer bias Self-serving bias ATTRIBUTION BIASES  Attributional Biases Fundamental Attribution Error When explaining other people’s behaviour, we tend to ▪ Overemphasize internal factors ▪ Underemphasize external factors (this applies mostly to negative behaviour) 18 Attribution theory  What do you think? Valerie is being interviewed for a job. She arrives 15 minutes late to the interview and seems very flustered. If the interviewer made the fundamental attribution error just discussed after meeting Valerie, they would be most likely to: a) feel less bad about times that they were late themselves and like Valerie more. b) think that Valerie is an irresponsible person. c) imagine that Valerie probably had a stressful morning. d) understand that circumstances outside of Valerie’s control (like being stuck in traffic) may have made her late.  Attributional Biases Self-serving bias: We are likely to ascribe ▪ our successes to internal, dispositional factors but ▪ our failures to external, situational influences. We perceive our actions and outcomes in ways that benefit ourselves. Good events are due to internal factors, while bad events are due to external factors. 21 Attributional Biases Actor–observer bias ▪ The tendency to attribute  other people’s behaviour to dispositional factors and  our own behaviour to situational influences. ▪ E.g., coming to work in a cranky mood… 22 What’s the difference? FAE: explaining other people’s behavior (only)… Actor-observer: other’s vs our own… Self-serving bias: our own behaviour (only)… SOCIAL INFLUENCE PERSUASION Compliance, Conformity and Obedience Social influence ▪ Candid camera https://www.facebook. com/Prudential/videos /watch-elevator- experiment- reactions/94517085226 4591/ Social Influence The process by which the actions of an individual or group affect the behaviour of others. Conformity, Obedience & Compliance “Everybody else was doing it.” “I was just following orders.” What would YOU do???  NOW, A SHORT SOCIAL PSYCH EXPERIMENT…. Raise your hand to indicate the correct answer. Which flies the fastest? A B 29 Which has the most people? A B 30 Which is heaviest? A B C 31 Which line matches the first one? CONFORMITY Conformity ▪ Conformity – when we change our behaviour to fit existing social norms (e.g., others’ expectations)  We implicitly mimic and adopt the behaviors, beliefs, and preferences of those around us. ▪ Social norms – widely accepted expectations concerning social behaviours  Patterns of behavior, traditions, beliefs, and preferences that are reinforced by others and influence behavior. 34 The Social Norms Dare 1. What norm did you break? 2. How did it make you feel? How did you and others around you react? 3. What factors make this norm more or less challenging to break? ▪ Please be prepared to discuss your experiences.  Journaling: The Social Norms Dare ▪ ▪ Over the weekend I went to a concert and thought it would be a funny opportunity to try and break a social norm. So I went into the crowd and faced the back for about a minute. At first I thought it was funny, but then I noticed that the people I faced were definitely confused and distraught to a degree. This made me feel a bit uneasy, and it’s why I only did it for a minute. The people directly in front of me who were facing the stage looked back a few times, as if they were anticipating that I was looking for someone who might be coming toward me. ▪ I think differences in environment could play a role in how hard it is to break this norm. For example, a rock concert has many fewer cultural norms than a classical symphony performance; the fact that this instance was at a rock concert made it less difficult for me to break the social norms of that environment. All in all, this was a funny and interesting experiment in breaking social norms. Asch’s Study of Conformity (1955) Asch’s (1955) classic studies of conformity: ▪ Which comparison line (1, 2, or 3) is the same length as the standard?  Asch’s Study of Conformity (1955) Participants judged which of three comparison lines matched a standard line in the presence of six others. http://www.youtube.com/v/TYIh4 MkcfJA&fs=1&source=uds&autopl ay=1 ©2009 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. 38 ©2009 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. 39  Asch’s Study of Conformity Most people will conform some of the time (even when we are wrong!) 5 % conformed to the majority all of the time 70% of subjects conformed to incorrect response some of the time; 25 % did not conform at all 40 Why do we conform? Normative Informative Social Influence Social Influence The need to be liked The need to be right when a person When a person conforms, complies, or conforms, complies, or obeys in order to gain obeys in order to gain rewards or avoid information punishments from “They must be right.” another person or group “I just want to fit in.” Factors that affect conformity ▪ Public versus private beliefs: Participants often verbally conformed but wrote down the correct answer ▪ Group size  Less likely to conform with 2 or 3 other people ▪ Group cohesiveness  United or split ▪ Social support  If even 1 other person dissents… How is conformity affected by being in a large group or having a defined social role? CULTURAL NORMS AND CONFORMITY  Cultural Norms and Conformity A large group can cause deindividuation (loss of individuality) ▪ e.g., silly, dangerous, or unlawful behavior WE’LL COME BACK TO THESE IDEAS WHEN WE TALK ABOUT THE POWER OF THE GROUP Group influence Next… Stanley Milgram and the Obedience Study  Milgram’s Obedience Experiments ▪ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOYLCy5PVgM ©2009 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. 48 Obedience to Authority Milgram’s Obedience Experiments ▪ Majority complied to demands of authority even when that required they ‘inflict’ a harmful shock on innocent people Copyright © 2012 by Nelson Education Ltd. 49 Copyright © 2012 by Nelson Education Ltd. 50  Milgram’s Obedience Experiments The study is supposed to examine the effects of punishment on learning - Incorrect responses are punished with a shock - No shock was actually administered ©2009 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. 51  Milgram’s Obedience Experiments To keep participants going, four verbal prods were used: 1. Please continue 2. The experiment requires that you continue 3. It is absolutely essential that you continue 4. You have no other choice; you must go on ©2009 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. 52  Milgram’s Obedience Experiments In Milgram’s first condition, 65% of the participants provided full compliance ©2009 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. 53 ©2009 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. 54  What Breeds Obedience? Four factors determined obedience: 1. Emotional distance of the victim 2. Closeness and legitimacy of the authority 3. Institutional authority 4. The liberating effects of group influence ©2009 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. 55 Some helpful review videos (Milgram & obedience) ▪ The Milgram Experiment: Would You Do It? – YouTube ▪ Social Influence: Crash Course Psychology #38 – YouTube PERSUASION how to get people to do what you want  Compliance How do we persuade others to comply? Here’s a few tricks we’ll talk about next class… ▪ Foot-in-the-door technique ▪ Door-in-the-face technique ▪ Low-ball technique