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Social Psychology Social Psychology Industrial Psychology Values differ not only across time but also across cultures. Introduction to Social...
Social Psychology Social Psychology Industrial Psychology Values differ not only across time but also across cultures. Introduction to Social Psychology Europe has given us a major theory of “social identity.” What is Social Psychology? American social psychologists have focused more on A science that studies the influences of our situations, with individuals—how one person thinks about others, is special attention to how we view and affect one another. influenced by them, and relates to them. More precisely, it is the scientific study of how people think Australian social psychologists have drawn theories and about, influence, and relate to one another methods from both Europe and North America. Compared with sociology (the study of people in groups and Values also influence the types of people who are attracted to societies), social psychology focuses more on individuals and various disciplines. does more experimentation. Values obviously enter the picture as the object of social Compared with personality psychology, social psychology psychological analysis. focuses less on individuals’ differences and more on how Subtle Ways Values Enter Psychology people, in general, view and affect one another. The Subjective Aspect of Science A young science - Culture - the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, The first social psychology experiments were reported barely and traditions shared by a large group of people and more than a century ago, and the first social psychology texts transmitted from one generation to the next. did not appear until approximately 1900 (Smith, 2005). - Social Representations - a society’s widely held Social psychology studies our thinking, influences, and ideas and values, including assumptions and relationships by asking questions that have intrigued us all. cultural ideologies. Our social representations help Does our social behavior depend more on the objective us make sense of our world. situations we face or how we construe them? Psychological Concepts Contain Hidden Values Would people be cruel if ordered? - Defining the good life To help? Or to help oneself? - Professional Advice - Forming Concepts What Are Social Psychology’s Big Ideas? - Labeling Social Thinking We Construct Our Social Reality Is social psychology simply common sense? Our Social Intuitions Are Often Powerful but Sometimes Social psychology faces two contradictory criticisms: Perilous It is trivial because it documents the obvious Social Influences It is dangerous because its findings could be used to Social Influences Shape Our Behavior manipulate people. Personal Attitudes and Dispositions Also Shape Hindsight Bias - the tendency to exaggerate, after Behavior learning an outcome, one’s ability to have foreseen how Social Relations something turned out. Also known as the I-knew-it-all- Social Behavior Is Biologically Rooted along phenomenon. Social Psychology’s Principles Are Applicable in Everyday Life Social Neuroscience An interdisciplinary field that explores the neural bases Research Methods in Social Psychology of social and emotional processes and behaviors, and how these processes and behaviors affect our brain and Forming and Testing Hypothesis biology. Theory A set of related assumptions that allows scientists to use To understand social behavior, we must consider both under-the- logical deductive reasoning to formulate testable hypotheses. skin (biological) and between-skins (social) influences. Mind and A single assumption can never fulfill all the requirements body are one grand system. Stress hormones affect how we feel and of an adequate theory act: A dose of testosterone decreases trust, and a dose of oxytocin Isolated assumptions can neither generate meaningful increases it (Bos et al., 2010). Social ostracism elevates blood hypotheses nor possess internal consistency—the two pressure. Social support strengthens the disease-fighting immune criteria of a useful theory. system. We are bio-psycho-social organisms. The components of a theory are not proven facts in the sense that their validity has been absolutely established. How Do Human Values Influence Social Psychology? They are, however, accepted as if they were true. Obvious ways values enter psychology Used by the researcher to formulate hypotheses. Values enter the picture when social psychologists choose research Unless a hypothesis can be tested in some way, it is topics. worthless. 1940s - fascism raged in Europe Hypothesis 1950s - a time of look-alike fashions and intolerance of An educated guess or prediction specific enough for its differing views, gave us studies of conformity validity to be tested through the use of the scientific method. 1960s - aggression increase with riots and rising crime They allow us to test a theory rates Predictions give directions to research 1970s - the feminist movement helped stimulate a wave The predictive feature of good theories can also make of research on gender and sexism them practical 1980s - offered a resurgence of attention to psychological aspects of the arms race Social Psychological Research 1990s to present - marked by heightened interest in how Classification people respond to diversity in culture, race, and sexual Laboratory research (Controlled environment) orientation. Field research (Everyday situations) Future - reflect today’s and tomorrow’s issues, Methods including immigration, income inequality, and aging. Industrial Psychology Correlational research (Asking whether two or more factors The experiment should engage the participants are naturally associated) Deception Experimental research (Manipulating some factor to see its In research, an effect by which participants are effect on another) misinformed or misled about the study’s methods and purposes Correlational Research Demand Characteristics Correlations indicate a relationship, but that relationship is not Cues in an experiment that tell the participant what necessarily one of cause and effect. behavior is expected Correlational research allows us to predict, but it cannot tell us Informed Consent whether one variable causes another An ethical principle requiring that research participants Correlation Coefficient (r) be told enough to enable them to choose whether they The degree of relationship between two factors wish to participate From -1.0 through 0 to +1.0 Debriefing - -1.0 (As one factor score goes up, the other goes In social psychology, the post-experimental explanation down) of a study to its participants. Debriefing usually discloses - 0 (No Correlation) any deception and often queries participants regarding - +1.0 (the two factors’ scores rise and fall together) their understandings and feelings Strength tends to occur in real-world settings where we can examine factors such as race, gender, and social status— The self in a social world factors that we cannot manipulate in the laboratory Weakness Spotlight Effect Ambiguity of the results The belief that others are paying more attention to our appearance and behavior than they really are Survey Seeing ourselves at center stage, thus intuitively If researchers want to describe a whole population (which for overestimating the extent to which others’ attention is many psychology surveys is not the aim), then they will obtain aimed at us a representative group by taking a random sample Illusion of Transparency Random Sampling - Survey procedure in which every The illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and person in the population being studied has an equal can be easily read by others chance of inclusion Social surroundings affect our self-awareness Bias Influences of Surveys Self-interest colors our social judgment Unrepresentative Samples Self-concern motivates our social behavior Question Order Social relationships help define our sense of self Response Options Question Wording Self-Concept: Who Am I? Medial Prefrontal Cortex Experimental Research A neuron path located in the cleft between the brain The difficulty of discerning cause and effect among naturally hemispheres just behind the eyes, seemingly helps stitch correlated events often prompts social psychologists to create together the sense of self laboratory simulations of everyday processes whenever this is It becomes more active when you think about yourself feasible and ethical. Self-Concept Two Major advantages: Random Assignment and Control What we know and believe about ourselves. The most important aspect of yourself is yourself. Random Assignment: The Great Equalizer Self-Schema The process of assigning participants to the conditions of an Beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing experiment such that all persons have the same chance of of self-relevant information. being in a given condition The elements of your self-concept, the specific beliefs by In one fell swoop, random assignment eliminates all such which you define yourself extraneous factors - Schema - mental templates by which we organize our worlds Control: Manipulating Variables Social Comparisons Independent Variables Evaluating one’s abilities and opinions by comparing The experimental factor that a researcher manipulates oneself with others. Dependent Variable We compare ourselves with other people and consider The experimental factor that the independent variable how we differ from them. influences - Schadenfreude - taking some pleasure in a peer’s failure, especially when it happens to someone we The Ethics of Experimentation envy and when we don’t feel vulnerable to such Mundane Realism misfortune ourselves Degree to which an experiment is superficially similar to Charles H. Cooley (1902) everyday situations Described our use of how we think others perceive us as Experimental Realism a mirror for perceiving ourselves (The Looking-Glass Degree to which an experiment absorbs and involves its Self) participants George Herbert Mead (1934) Mundane Realism vs. Experimental Realism Refined The Looking-Glass Self concept, noting that Laboratory behavior need not be like everyday behavior, what matters for our self-concepts is not how others which is typically mundane, or unimportant. actually see us but the way we imagine they see us Industrial Psychology Self and Culture High self-esteem people usually react to a self-esteem threat Individualism by compensating for it (blaming someone else or trying harder The concept of giving priority to one’s own goals over next time) group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of Low self-esteem people are more likely to blame themselves personal attributes rather than group identifications. or give up Collectivism Terror Management Theory Giving priority to the goals of one’s group (often one’s Proposes that people exhibit self-protective emotional extended family or work group) and defining one’s and cognitive responses (including adhering more identity accordingly strongly to their cultural worldviews and prejudices) when confronted with reminders of their mortality. Culture and Cognition Jeff Greenberg (2008) argues that humans must find ways to manage their overwhelming fear of death Self-Compassion Leaving behind comparisons with others and instead treating ourselves with kindness Kristin Neff (2011) - This approach of compassion was actually more likely to lead to the higher self-esteem people sough. The Trade-Off of Low and High Self-Esteem People low in self-esteem are more vulnerable to anxiety, loneliness, and eating disorders When feeling bad or threatened, those low in self-esteem often Culture and Self-Esteem take a negative view of everything In collectivist cultures, self-esteem tends to be malleable People with low self-esteem also experience more problems in (context-specific) rather than stable (enduring across life situations). Longitudinal Study - research in which the same people In individualistic cultures, self-esteem is more personal and are studied over an extended period of time less relational. When good things happen, people with high self-esteem are more likely to savor and sustain the good feelings Self-Knowledge Belief in our superiority can also motivate us to achieve— Predicting Behavior creating a self-fulfilling prophecy—and can sustain our hope Planning Fallacy - The tendency to underestimate how through difficult times long it will take to complete a task. One of the most It fosters initiative, resilience, and pleasant feeling common errors in behavior prediction. Narcissism - Be more realistic about how long tasks took in the Inflated sense of self past High self-esteem becomes especially problematic if it - Estimate how long each step in the project will take crosses over into narcissism Predicting Our Feelings Delroy Paulhus and Kevin Williams (2002) - The link Affective Forecasting - people have greatest difficulty between narcissism and problematic social relations led predicting the intensity and the duration of their future to include narcissism in “The Dark Triad” of negative emotions traits, along with Machiavellianism (manipulativeness) Impact Bias - Overestimating the enduring impact of and antisocial psychopathy. emotion-causing events The Wisdom and Illusion of Self-Analysis Self-Efficacy Dual-Attitude System A sense that one is competent and effective, distinguished Differing implicit (automatic) and explicit (consciously from self-esteem, which is one’s sense of self-worth. controlled) attitudes toward the same object. Verbalized Children and adults with strong feelings of self-efficacy are explicit attitudes may change with education and more persistent, less anxious, and less depressed. persuasion; implicit attitudes change slowly, with Albert Bandura - captured the power of positive thinking practice that forms new habits. in his research and theorizing about self-efficacy When problems arise, a strong sense of self-efficacy leads people to stay calm and seek solutions rather than ruminate on their inadequacy Self-Esteem and Self-Serving Bias Competence plus persistence equals accomplishment. If you believe, you can do something that is self-efficacy. Self-Esteem Defined If you like yourself overall, that is self-esteem. Self-Esteem A person’s overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth Self-Serving Bias Defined The sum of all our self-views across various domains Self-Serving Bias The subjective sense of overall personal worth or value The tendency to perceive oneself favorably Similar to self-respect, it describes your level of Situations that combine skill and chance (games, exams, confidence in your abilities and attributes and job applications) are especially prone to the phenomenon Self-Esteem and Motivation Self-Serving Attributions Most people are extremely motivated to maintain their self- A form of self-serving bias; the tendency to attribute esteem positive outcomes to oneself and negative outcomes to other factor Industrial Psychology Self-Serving Bias Norms prescribe “proper” behavior. (In a different sense Unrealistic Optimism of the word, norms also describe what most others do— Optimism predisposes a positive approach to life what is normal.) Most humans are more disposed to optimism than There is no better way to learn the norms of our native culture pessimism than to visit another culture and see that its members do things Most people expected their lives to improve more in the that way, whereas we do them this way. next 5 years than they did in the past 5 years Cultural Variations Illusory Optimism Individual Choices Believing ourselves immune to misfortune, we do not Expressiveness take sensible precautions Punctuality Defensive Pessimism Rule-Breaking The adaptive value of anticipating problems and Personal Space harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective action Cultural Similarities False Consensus Universal Friendship Norms The tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s Universal Trait Dimensions opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful Universal Social Belief Dimensions behaviors. Universal Status Norms This phenomenon may occur because we generalize The Incest Taboo from a limited sample, which prominently includes ourselves Males and Females “We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we Gender are.” In psychology, the characteristics, whether biological or False Uniqueness socially influenced, by which people define male and The tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s female. abilities and one’s desirable or successful behaviors On most psychological attributes, the overlap between the sexes is larger than the difference Explaining Self-serving Bias Compared to males, the average female Questing for self-knowledge, we’re motivated to assess our Has 70 percent more fat, has 40 percent less muscle, is 5 competence inches shorter, and weighs 18 kilograms less Questing for self-confirmation, we’re motivated to verify our Is more sensitive to smells and sounds self-conceptions Is twice as likely to experience anxiety disorders or Questing for self-affirmation, we’re especially motivated to depression enhance our self-image Compared to females, the average male is Slower to enter puberty (by about two years) but quicker to die (by four years, worldwide) Three times more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder), four times Genes, Culture and Gender Part One more likely to commit suicide, and five times more likely to be killed by lightning Genes, evolution and behavior More capable of wiggling his ears Natural Selection The evolutionary process by which heritable traits that Males Vs. Females best enable organisms to survive and reproduce in Independence vs. Connectedness particular environments are passed to ensuing Play generations. Friendship Evolutionary Psychology Vocations The study of the evolution of cognition and behavior Family Relations using principles of natural selection. Smiling Empathy - The vicarious experience of another’s Culture and behavior feelings; putting oneself in another’s shoes. Culture Social Dominance The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions From Asia to Africa and Europe to Australia, people rate shared by a large group of people and transmitted from men as more dominant, driven, and aggressive one generation to the next Across many studies, people perceive leaders as having Epigenetics more culturally masculine traits—as being more confident, forceful, independent, and outspoken A field of research exploring the expression of genes across different environments. In leadership roles, men tend to excel as directive, task- focused leaders; women excel more often in the “transformational” or “relational” leadership Cultural Diversity In many cultures, masculinity is seen as something that The diversity of our languages, customs, and expressive must be earned and defended behaviors confirms that much of our behavior is socially Men act more impulsively and take more risks programmed, not hardwired Men use more complex language and women use more If we all lived as homogeneous ethnic groups in separate social words and pronouns regions of the world, as some people still do, cultural diversity Aggression would be less relevant to our daily living Men exhibit more physical aggression Women are slightly more likely to commit indirect Expected Behavior aggressive acts, such as spreading malicious gossip Norms Standards for accepted and expected behavior Sexuality Industrial Psychology Men expressed more desire for unrestricted sex Gender Roles vary with Culture Men’s sexual impulses are stronger, resulting in men Despite gender role inequalities, the majority of the yielding to sexual temptation more often world’s people would ideally like to see more parallel The average man thought about sex about once per hour, male and female roles. the average woman about once every two hours Gender Roles vary over Time Men masturbate more often than women In the past half-century—a thin slice of our long history—gender roles have changed dramatically Peer-Transmitted Culture The Nurture Assumption - Parental nurture, the way parents bring their children up, governs who their Genes, Culture and Gender Part Two children become - Children do acquire many of their values, including Evolution and Gender their political affiliation and religious faith, at Gender and Mating Preferences home. Evolutionary psychology predicts no sex differences in Peer Influence - What children and teens care about most domains where the sexes faced similar adaptive is not what their parents think but what their friends think challenges - It is their peers with whom they play and eventually - Evolutionary psychology predict sex differences in will work and mate. behaviors relevant to mating and reproduction Nature selects traits that help send one’s genes into the Culture and Biology future Everything social and psychological is ultimately biological Our natural yearnings are our genes’ way of making Genes and hormones predispose males to be more more genes physically aggressive than females To attract women, men will strive to offer what women Culture amplifies that difference through norms that will desire—external resources and physical protection expect males to be tough and females to be the kinder, To attract men, women may balloon their breasts, Botox gentler sex. their wrinkles, and liposuction their fat to offer men the youthful, healthy appearance (connoting fertility) that The Situation and The Person men desire A given social situation often affects different people Both women and men desire kindness, love, and mutual differently attraction Because our minds do not see reality identically or objectively, we respond to a situation as we construe it Reflections on Evolutionary Psychology People often choose their situations Outside mainstream science, other critics challenge the Given a choice, sociable people elect situations that teaching of evolution evoke social interaction Evolutionary psychologists sometimes start with a People often create their situations finding (such as the male-female difference in sexual If we expect someone to be something, our actions initiative) and then work backward to construct an toward the person may induce the very behavior we explanation for it expect Gender and Hormones Testosterone The male sex hormone that influences masculine appearance and other traits Social Beliefs and Judgments Part One Children exposed to more testosterone in the womb exhibit the psychological pattern more typical of males, Questions to be answered including less eye contact, lower language skill, and less 1. How do we perceive our social worlds? empathy 2. How do we judge our social worlds? Estrogen 3. How do we explain our social worlds? The female sex hormone that influences masculine appearance and other traits How do we perceive our social worlds? Young women restrain their impulses to assert and be Our preconceptions guide how we perceive and interpret independent but as women mature to middle ages, they information. We construe the world through belief-tinted become more assertive and self-confident glasses. As men and women graduate from these early adult roles, they “We respond not to reality as it is but to reality as we construe supposedly express more of their restrained tendencies. it.” Androgynous - from andro (man) + gyn(woman)—thus mixing both masculine and feminine characteristics. Perceiving and Interpreting Events Despite some startling biases and logical flaws in how we Culture and Gender perceive and understand one another, we’re most accurate Culture Cycle (Jussim, 2012). Cultures vary and compete for resources and thus evolve Our first impressions of one another are more often right than over time wrong. People create the cultures to which they later adapt, and cultures shape people so that they act in ways that Political Perceptions perpetuate their cultures Because political perceptions are very much in the eye of the Gender Role beholder, even a simple stimulus may strike two people quite A set of behavior expectations (norms) for males and differently. females. Industrial Psychology People everywhere perceive mediators and media as biased Dunning-Kruger Effect – a cognitive bias in which people against their position. with limited competence in a particular domain overestimate their abilities. Belief Perseverance Four stages of competence Persistence of one’s initial conceptions, such as when the basis 1. Unconscious incompetence – you’re ignorant of what for one’s beliefs is discredited but an explanation of why the you don’t know. belief might be true survives. 2. Conscious incompetence – you’re aware of what you In a time when “fakes news” (false stories often designed to don’t know, but you haven’t taken steps to learn more. attract clicks and thus advertising profits) spreads on social 3. Conscious competence – you’re active learning and media (Fulgoni & Lipsman, 2017), it’s especially important to acquiring knowledge about a subject. understand why people continue to believe false information. 4. Unconscious competence – you’ve mastered a subject so extensively that you may forget or take for granted Constructing Memories of Ourselves and Our Worlds how much you truly know. We reconstruct our distant past by using our current feelings Confirmation bias – a tendency to search for information that and expectations to combine information fragments. Thus, we confirm one’s preconceptions. can easily (although unconsciously) revise our memories to suit our current knowledge. Remedies for Overconfidence When an experimenter or a therapist manipulates people’s 1. Prompt feedback – an immediate and efficient response to an presumptions about their past, many people will construct individual’s inquiry. false memories. 2. Get people think of one good reason why their judgments Misinformation effect – incorporating might be wrong – this is to force them to consider “misinformation” into one’s memory of the event after disconfirming information. witnessing an event and receiving misleading information about it. Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts Far from being a repository for facts about the past, our Representativeness Heuristic – the tendency to presume, memories are actually formed when we retrieve them, and they sometimes despite contrary odds, that someone or something are subject to strong influence by the attitudes and feelings we belongs to a particular group if resembling (representing) a hold at the time of retrieval. typical member. Availability Heuristic – a cognitive rule that judges the How Do We Judge Our Social Worlds? likelihood of things in terms of their availability in memory. If According to the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman in instances of something come readily to mind, we presume it to Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011), we have two brain systems: be commonplace. System 1 influences more of our action than we realize. It is the intuitive, automatic, unconscious, and fast way of thinking. It is also known as automatic processing. System 2 is the deliberate, controlled, conscious, and slower way of thinking. It is also known as controlled processing. Priming – refers to activating particular associations in memory. Embodied cognition – the mutual influence of bodily sensations on cognitive preferences and social judgments. Even physical sensations, thanks to our embodied cognition, prime our social judgments and vice versa. Counterfactual Thinking Powers of Intuition Imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have Automatic thinking – “implicit” thinking that is effortless, happened, but didn’t. habitual, and without awareness; roughly corresponds to The more significant and unlikely the event, the more intense “intuition”. the counterfactual thinking. Controlled thinking – “explicit” thinking that is deliberate, Most people, however, live with more regret over things they reflective, and conscious. didn’t do than what they did. Our brain knows much more than it tells us. Illusory Correlation Limits of Intuition Perception of a relationship where none exists, or perception Overconfidence phenomenon – the tendency to be more of a stronger relationship than actually exists. confident than correct – to over estimate the accuracy of one’s People easily misperceive random events as confirming their beliefs. beliefs (Crocker, 1981; Ratliff & Nosek, 2010; Trolier & Heuristics – a thinking strategy that enables quick, efficient Hamilton, 1986). judgment. Counterfactual thinking – imagining alternative scenarios Moods and Judgments and outcomes that might have happened, but didn’t. Social judgment involves efficient information processing. It Illusory correlation – perception of a relationship where none also involves our feelings: Our moods infuse our judgments. exists, or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists. Overconfidence Ironically, incompetence feed overconfidence. Industrial Psychology Why do we make attribution error? Perspective and situational awareness – attribution theorists have pointed out that we observe others from a different perspective than we observe ourselves. Cultural differences – cultures also influence attribution error (Ickes, 1980; Watson, 1982). An individualistic Western worldview predisposes people to assume that people, not situations, cause events. In collectivistic cultures, people less often perceive others in terms of personal dispositions (Lee et al., 1996; Zebrowitz-McArthur, 1988). Social Beliefs and Judgments Part Three Social Beliefs and Judgments Part Two Our own social beliefs How do we explain our social worlds? Self-fulfilling Prophecy Our judgments of people depend on how we explain their Beliefs that lead to their own fulfillment behavior. When our ideas lead us to act in ways that produce their Attribution theory helps us make sense of how such apparent confirmation explanations work. Studies show that our perceptions of others are more accurate than biased Attributing Causality: To the Person or the Situation Behavioral Confirmation Attribution theory – the theory of how people explain other A type of self-fulfilling prophecy whereby people’s people’s behaviors – for example, by attributing it either to social expectations lead them to behave in ways that internal dispositions (enduring traits, motives, and attitudes) or cause others to confirm their expectations to external situations. Dispositional attribution – attributing behavior to the Conclusion of Social Beliefs person’s disposition and traits. Research on social beliefs and judgments reveals how we Situational attribution – attributing behavior to the form and sustain beliefs that usually serve us well but environment. sometimes lead us astray Misattribution – mistakenly attributing a behavior to the A balanced social psychology will therefore appreciate both wrong source. the powers and the perils of social thinking Inferring Traits Spontaneous trait inference – an effortless, automatic inference of a trait after exposure to someone’s behavior. Conformity Example: The librarian carries the old woman’s groceries across the street.” CONFORMITY DEFINED The students would instantly, unintentionally, and unconsciously Conformity infer a trait. When later they were helped to recall the sentence, the a change in behavior or belief as the result of real or imagined most valuable clue word was not “books” (to cue librarian) or “bags” group pressure (to cue groceries) but “helpful” — the inferred trait that we suspect the overall term for acting differently due to the influence of you, too, spontaneously attributed to the librarian. Just 1/10th of a others second exposure to someone’s face leads people to spontaneously it is acting or thinking differently from the way you would act infer some personality traits (Willis & Todorov, 2006). and think if you were alone Acceptance Fundamental Attribution Error Conformity that involves both acting and believing in accord The tendency for observers to underestimate situational with social pressure influences and overestimate dispositional influences upon Compliance other’s behavior. Conformity that involves publicly acting in accord with an Even when people know they are causing someone else’s implied or explicit request while privately disagreeing behavior, they still underestimate external influences. Obedience – a type of compliance involving acting in accord with a direct order or command Conformity and Obedience Studies Sherif’s Studies of Norm Formation Muzafer Sherif A Turkish-american social psychologist Wondered whether it was possible to observe the emergence of a social norm in the laboratory Participants were placed in a dark room and asked to estimate the movement of a pinpoint of light (the autokinetic effect) when, in reality, the light was stationary. Sheriff observed that individual estimates of the light’s movement varied widely Industrial Psychology However, when participants were put into groups and asked to Group setting: discuss their perceptions, a group norm emerged over time. Participants were placed in a room with a group of confederates (individuals working with the Mood linkage experimenter) who pretended to be participants. The phenomenon where individuals in a group or social setting The real participant was unaware that the others were tend to synchronize or share their moods and emotions confederates. Suggests that people in close proximity or social interaction Conformity testing: can influence each other’s emotional states, leading to a Confederates consistently gave incorrect answers in a collective mood within the group pre-arranged manner during some of the trials. This phenomenon has implications for understanding group The real participants faced the choice of conforming to cohesion, communication, and the overall emotional climate the group’s incorrect response or sticking to their own within social settings judgements. Participant response: Asch observed that a significant Chameleon effect percentage of participants conformed to the group’s incorrect Individuals unconsciously mimic the behaviors, postures, answers, even when the correct answer was obvious mannerisms, and even facial expressions of those around them Variations in group size: It’s a non-verbal form of imitation that occurs in social Asch conducted variations of the experiment, interactions manipulating the number of confederates present. It can contribute the establishment of rapport and positive Conformity rates were influenced by the size of the social interactions by creating a sense of similarity and opposing group, with larger groups leading to higher connection between individuals levels of conformity. Debriefing and reflection: Mass hysteria Participants were debriefed afterward, and the true A situation in which a group of people collectively experiences nature of the experiment was revealed. physical symptoms, emotional disturbances, or irrational Asch explored the reasons behind conformity, behaviors that lack a clear medical or environmental emphasizing the influence of social pressure on explanation individual decision-making Characterized by the rapid spread of symptoms within a Asch research demonstrated the potential for individuals to community, often triggered by psychological or social factors abandon their own judgement in the face of group pressure. rather than by a contagious diseases or other tangible threats It has since become a foundational study in the face of group pressure. Conversion disorder A condition characterized by the presence of neurological Stanley Milgram (1933-1984) symptoms that cannot be explained by a known medical or An American social psychologist neurological disorder Gained notoriety for his obedience experiment conducted in The term “conversion” refers to the idea that emotional or the basement of Linsly-Chittenden Hall at Yale University in psychological distress is converted into physical symptoms 1961. o Social contagion – both conversion disorder and Milgram’s work raised important questions about the mass hysteria involve a degree of social contagion, influence of authority on human behavior and the ethical where individuals within a group influence each implications of experimental research other. It sparked discussion about obedience, conformity, and the responsibility of individuals in hierarchical structures. Milgram’s experiments were controversial due to the ethical concerns surrounding the psychological stress placed on Studies on Conformity: Asch and participants and the potential for harm. Milgram Objective: milgram aimed to investigate the extent to which individuals would obey authority figures, even if it meant causing harm to others Studies on Conformity: Group Pressure Experimental setup: Solomon Eliot Asch (1907-1996) Participants were instructed to administer what they A polish-american gestalt psychologist and pioneer in social believed were increasingly severe electric shocks to a psychology person in another room. Created seminal pieces of work in impression formation, The shocks were part of a simulated learning experiment, prestige suggestion, conformity, and many other topics and the person in the other room was an actor who was Most well known for his conformity experiments, in which he not actually receiving shocks. demonstrated the influence of group pressure on opinions Authority influence: the authority figure (experimenter) Asch aimed to investigate the extent to which individuals instructed participants to continue administering shocks, even would conform to a group opinion, even when that opinion when the person in the other room expressed distress, was obviously incorrect. protested, or appeared to be in pain. Participants were asked to match the length of lines. They were Obedience levels: despite the apparent harm being inflicted, a placed in a group setting with confederates (individuals significant portion of participants continued to obey authority secretly working with the experimenter) who intentionally and administer shocks up to the highest levels. provided incorrect answers. Participant stress: many participants experienced significant Introduction and instruction: psychological stress during the experiment, expressing Participants were introduced to the task of comparing discomfort and conflict between their own moral values and line lengths the authority’s instructions. Informed that the study was about visual perception, they Ethical controversy and impact: were asked to match the length of a standard line to one Milgram's experiments sparked ethical debates due to the of three comparison lines. potential psychological harm inflicted on participants. Industrial Psychology The findings raised questions about the willingness of individuals to comply with authority figures and the Racial Prejudice ethical boundaries of psychological research. Is racial prejudice disappearing? Milgram's obedience experiments remain highly influential in In 1942, most American agreed, “there should be separate the fields of psychology and ethics, contributing to our section for Negroes on streetcars and buses” (Hyman & understanding of human behavior in hierarchical and Sheatsley, 1956). Today the question would seem bizarre, authoritative contexts. because such blatant prejudice has nearly disappeared. In 1942, fewer than a third of all Whites (only 1 in 50 in the South) supported school integration; by 1980, support for it was 90 percent. Prejudice Part One “It’s all right for Blacks and Whites to date each other,” agreed 48 percent of Americans in 1987 and 86 percent in 2012 (Pew, Defining Prejudice 2012). “Marriage between Blacks and Whites” was approved Prejudice by 4 percent of Americans in 1958 and 87 percent in 2013 o A preconceived negative judgment of a group and its (Newport, 2013) individual members Stereotype Subtle racial prejudice o A belief about the personal attributes of a group of 3 in 4 people who take the Implicit Association Test display people an automatic, unconscious White preference Stereotypes are sometimes overgeneralized, inaccurate, and Modern prejudice appears subtly, in our preferences for what resistant to new information (and sometimes accurate) is familiar, similar, and comfortable Prejudice is an attitude—a combination of feelings, Prejudiced attitudes and discriminatory behavior surface when inclination to act, and beliefs: they can hide behind the screen of some other motive o Attitude Modern prejudice even appears as a race sensitivity that leads o Behavior to exaggerated reactions to isolated minority persons— o Cognition overpraising their accomplishments and over-criticizing their A prejudice person may dislike those different from self and mistakes behave in a discriminatory manner, believing them ignorant and dangerous Automatic racial prejudice To stereotype is to generalize. To simplify the world, we critics note that unconscious associations may only indicate generalize cultural assumptions, perhaps without prejudice (which Generalizations can be more or less true (and are not always involves negative feelings and action tendencies) negative) In some situations, automatic, implicit prejudice can have life Stereotypes often arise from the occupational roles we observe or death consequences people playing An accurate stereotype may even be desirable. We call it Gender Prejudice “sensitivity to diversity” or “cultural awareness in a From research on stereotypes, two conclusions are indisputable: multicultural world”. Strong gender stereotypes exist Discrimination Members of the stereotyped group accept them o Unjustified negative behavior toward a group or its Mary Jackman and Mary Senter (1981) found that gender members stereotypes were much stronger than racial stereotypes o Discriminatory behavior often has its source in o Note that the average man and woman do differ prejudicial attitudes somewhat in social connectedness, empathy, social o Prejudice attitudes need not breed hostile acts, nor does power, aggressiveness, and sexual initiative (though not all oppression spring from prejudice in intelligence) o Prejudice is a negative attitude; discrimination is o Stereotypes of men’s and women’s restlessness, negative behavior nonverbal sensitivity, aggressiveness, and so forth were Racism reasonable approximations of actual gender differences o An individual’s prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory o The persistence and omnipresence of gender stereotypes behavior toward people of a given race have led some evolutionary psychologists to believe they o Institutional practices (even if not motivated by reflect innate, stable reality prejudice) that subordinate people of a given race o Stereotypes (beliefs) are not prejudices (attitudes). Sexism Stereotypes may support prejudice. o An individual’s prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory behavior toward people of a given sex Sexism o Institutional practices (even if not motivated by Women-are-wonderful effect prejudice) that subordinate people of a given sex. o People don’t respond to women with gut-level negative emotions as they do to certain other groups Prejudice: Implicit and Explicit o Most people like women more than men Implicit Association Test (IAT) o they perceive women as more understanding , kind, and Shows that we can have different explicit (conscious) and helpful implicit (automatic) attitudes toward the same target benevolent sexism Has been taken more than 16 million times o attitudes and beliefs that appear positive on the surface Assesses “implicit cognition”—what you know without but, in reality, perpetuate traditional gender roles and knowing that you known reinforce the power imbalance between men and women It does so by measuring people’s speed of associations hostile sexism Explicit attitudes may change dramatically with education, o involves overtly negative and antagonistic attitudes and implicit attitudes may linger, changing only as we form new behaviors directed towards women habits through practice Industrial Psychology Discrimination prejudice habit - the idea that people develop stereotypes and men are three times more likely to commit suicide and be biased behaviors that become deeply ingrained “automatic murdered processes.” men are nearly all the battlefield and death row casualties men die five years sooner Cognitive Sources of Prejudice Men are most of those with intellectual disability or autism, as Categorization – classifying people or objects into groups. well as students in special education programs. Spontaneous categorization - we find it especially A woman whom people see as power hunger suffers more easy and efficient to rely on stereotypes when we are: voter backlash than does a similarly power-hungry man - pressed for time (Kaplan et al., 1993; Rivers et al., 30 percent of women have experienced intimate partner 2020) violence - preoccupied (Gilbert & Hixon, 1991) 20 percent literacy rate of women is nearly double of men’s - tired (Bodenhausen, 1990; Ghumman & Barnes, The biggest violence against women may occur prenatally 2013); or Overt prejudice against people of color and against women is - emotionally aroused (Esses et al., 1993b; far less common today than it was in the mid-twentieth century Stroessner & Mackie, 1993) Techniques that are sensitive to subtle prejudice still detect Outgroup homogeneity effect – perception of outgroup widespread bias members as more similar to one another than are ingroup members. Thus, “they are alike; we are diverse.” In parts of the world, gender prejudice makes for misery Own-race bias – the tendency for people to more accurately Gay-Lesbian Prejudice recognize faces of their own race. Also called the cross-race effect or other-race effect) Most of the world’s gay and lesbian people cannot comfortably disclose who they are and whom they love Group-serving bias – explaining away outgroup members’ positive behaviors; also attributing negative behaviors to their In many countries, same-sex relationships are a criminal dispositions (while excusing such behavior by one’s own offense group). How self-enhancing social identities support stereotypes Prejudice Part Two Social Sources of Prejudice A principle to remember: Unequal status breeds prejudice. Just-world phenomenon – the tendency of people to believe The social situation breeds and maintains prejudice in several that the world is just and that people therefore get what they ways. A group that enjoys social and economic superiority will deserve and deserve what they get. often use prejudicial beliefs to justify its privileged position. Blaming the victim results from the common presumption that Children are also brought up in ways that foster or reduce because this is a just world, people get what they deserve. prejudice. Those with authoritarian personalities are said to be socialized into obedience and intolerance. The family, Consequences of Prejudice religious communities, and the broader society can sustain or Prejudice and stereotyping have important consequences, reduce prejudices. especially when strongly held, when judging unknown authoritarian personality – a personality that is individuals, and when deciding policies regarding whole disposed to favor obedience to authority and intolerance groups. of outgroups and those lower in status. subtyping – accommodating individuals who deviate Social institutions (government, schools, media) also support from one’s stereotype by thinking of them as “exceptions prejudice, sometimes through overt policies ad sometimes to the rule.” through unintentional inertial subgrouping – accommodating individuals who deviate from one’s stereotype by forming a new MOTIVATIONAL SOURCES OF PREJUDICE stereotype about this subset of the group. People’s motivations affect prejudice. Frustration breeds Once formed, stereotypes tend to perpetuate themselves and hostility, which people sometimes went on scapegoats and resist change. They also create their own realities through self- sometimes express more directly against competing groups. fulfilling prophecies. realistic group conflict – the theory that prejudice Prejudice can also undermine people’s performance through arises from competition between groups for scarce stereotype threat, by making people apprehensive that others resources. will view them stereotypically. Social Identity Theory - suggests that individuals experience stereotype threat – a disruptive concern, when facing a collective identity based on their membership in a group, such negative stereotype, that one will be evaluated based on as racial/ethnic and gender identities. a negative stereotype. Unlike self-fulfilling prophecies social identity – the “we” aspect of our self-concept; the that hammer one’s reputation into one’s self-concept, part of our answer to “Who am I?” that comes from our stereotype threat situations have immediate effects. group memberships. Stereotypes, especially when strong, can predispose how we ingroup – “us”; a group of people who share a sense of perceive people and interpret events. belonging, a feeling of common identity. ingroup bias – the tendency to favor one’s own group. outgroup – “them”; a group that people perceive as distinctively different or apart from their ingroup. Conducting a Social Experiment On a more positive note, if people are motivated to avoid prejudice, they can break the prejudice habit. Social Experiment A type of research performed in psychology to investigate how people respond in certain social situations. Industrial Psychology In many of these experiments, the experimenters will include For example, thinking someone is attractive can create a halo confederates who are people who act like regular participants effect that leads people also to believe that a person is kind, but who are actually acting the part. Such experiments are smart, and funny.8 The opposite effect is also true. Negative often used to gain insight into social psychology phenomena. feelings about one characteristic lead to negative impressions of an individual's other features. Robbers Cave Social Experiment When people have a good impression of one characteristic, According to psychologist Muzafer Sherif, intergroup those good feelings tend to affect perceptions of other conflicts tend to arise from competition for resources, qualities. stereotypes, and prejudices. In a controversial experiment, the researchers placed 22 boys between the ages of 11 and 12 in False Consensus Social Experiment two groups at a camp in the Robbers Cave Park in Oklahoma. During the late 1970s, researcher Lee Ross and his colleagues The boys were separated into two groups and spent the first performed some eye-opening experiments.9 In one week of the experiment bonding with their other group experiment, the researchers had participants choose a way to members. It wasn't until the second phase of the experiment respond to an imagined conflict and then estimate how many that the children learned that there was another group, at which people would also select the same resolution. point the experimenters placed the two groups in direct They found that no matter which option the respondents chose, competition with each other. they tended to believe that the vast majority of other people This led to considerable discord, as the boys clearly favored would also choose the same option. In another study, the their own group members while they disparaged the members experimenters asked students on campus to walk around of the other group. In the final phase, the researchers staged carrying a large advertisement that read "Eat at Joe's." tasks that required the two groups to work together. These The researchers then asked the students to estimate how many shared tasks helped the boys get to know members of the other other people would agree to wear the advertisement. They group and eventually led to a truce between the rivals. found that those who agreed to carry the sign believed that the majority of people would also agree to carry the sign. Those The ‘Violinist In The Metro’ Social Experiment who refused felt that the majority of people would refuse as In 2007, acclaimed violinist Josh Bell posed as a street well. musician at a busy Washington, D.C. subway station. Bell had No matter what our beliefs, options, or behaviors, we tend to just sold out a concert with an average ticket price of $100 believe that the majority of other people also agree with us and each. He is one of the most renowned musicians in the world act the same way we do. and was playing on a handcrafted violin worth more than $3.5 The researchers then asked the students to estimate how many million. Yet most people scurried on their way without other people would agree to wear the advertisement. They stopping to listen to the music. When children would found that those who agreed to carry the sign believed that the occasionally stop to listen, their parents would grab them and majority of people would also agree to carry the sign. Those quickly usher them on their way. who refused felt that the majority of people would refuse as The experiment raised some interesting questions about how well. we not only value beauty but whether we truly stop to No matter what our beliefs, options, or behaviors, we tend to appreciate the remarkable works of beauty that are around us. believe that the majority of other people also agree with us and act the same way we do. The Marshmallow Test Social Experiment During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a psychologist named Applying, Presenting and Discussing Results of a Social Walter Mischel led a series of experiments on delayed Experiment gratification. Mischel was interested in learning whether the General considerations: ability to delay gratification might be a predictor of future life It is useful to note that effective scientific writing serves the success. same purpose that your report should. Good scientific writing In the experiments, children between the ages of 3 and 5 were explains: placed in a room with a treat (often a marshmallow or cookie). 1. The goal(s) of your experiment Before leaving the room, the experimenter told each child that 2. How you performed the experiment they would receive a second treat if the first treat was still on 3. The results you obtained the table after 15 minutes. 4. Why these results are important Follow-up studies conducted years later found that the children who were able to delay gratification did better in a Results: The Only Thing Worth Reading? variety of areas, including academically. Those who had been The “results” section is the place to tell your reader what you able to wait the 15 minutes for the second treat tended to have observed. However, don’t do anything more than “tell.” higher SAT scores and more academic success (according to Things like explaining and analyzing belong in your parent surveys). discussion section. If you find yourself using words like The results suggest that this ability to wait for gratification is “because” or “which suggests” in your results section, then not only an essential skill for success but also something that STOP! You’re giving too much analysis. forms early on and lasts throughout life. In your “results” section, you should: 1. Display facts and figures in tables and graphs whenever Halo Effect Social Experiment possible. Follow-up studies conducted years later found that the - Show what happened during each trial of an children who were able to delay gratification did better in a experiment, making the trends visually apparent, variety of areas, including academically. Those who had been and thus saving the experimenter from having to able to wait the 15 minutes for the second treat tended to have explain each trial with words. higher SAT scores and more academic success (according to 2. Identify only the most significant trends. parent surveys). - Don’t try to include every single bit of data in this The results suggest that this ability to wait for gratification is section, because much of it won’t be relevant to not only an essential skill for success but also something that your hypothesis. Just pick out the biggest trends, or forms early on and lasts throughout life. what is most significant to your goals. Industrial Psychology Discussion: “What Does It All Mean?” The “discussion” section is intended to explain to your reader what your data can be interpreted to mean. As with all science, the goal for your report is simply to provide evidence that something might be true or untrue—not to prove it unequivocally. The following questions should be addressed in your “discussion” section: 1. Is your hypothesis supported? - If you didn’t have a specific hypothesis, then were the results consistent with what previous studies have suggested? 2. Was there any data that surprised you? - Outliers are seldom significant, and mentioning them is largely useless. However, if you see another cluster of points on a graph that establish their own trend, this is worth mentioning. 3. Are the results useful? - If you have no significant findings, then just say that. Don’t try to make wild claims about the meanings of your work if there is no statistical/observational basis for these claims— doing so is dishonest and unhelpful to other scientists reading your work. Similarly, try to avoid using the word “proof” or “proves.” Your work is merely suggesting evidence for new ideas. Just because things worked out one way in your trials, that doesn’t mean these results will always be repeatable or true. 4. What are the implications of your work? - Research implications suggest how the findings may be important for policy, practice, theory, and subsequent research. Research implications are basically the conclusions that you draw from your results and explain how the findings may be important for policy, practice, or theory. 5. Any shortcomings of your work? - Were there any flaws in your experimental design? How should future studies in this field accommodate for these complications. Does your research raise any new questions? What other areas of science should be explored as a result of your work? Ethical and Practical Considerations Informed Consent - defined as a subject’s voluntary agreement to participate in research based on a full understanding of the research and of the possible risks and benefits involved. Protection of Identities - promise to maintain either the anonymity or confidentiality of their research subjects. Anonymity - not even the researcher is able to link participants’ data with their identities. Confidentiality - means that some of the subjects’ identifying information is known and may be kept, but only the researcher can link identity to data with the promise to keep this information private. Deception - Investigators may mislead or omit information about the purpose of the research, the role of the researcher, or what procedures in the study are actually experimental. Deception increases ethical concerns because it interferes with the ability of the subject to give informed consent. In case of deception, debriefing is necessary. Physical or Mental Distress – promoting beneficence and non-maleficence of the participants. Beneficence - performing a deed that benefits the participants. Non-Maleficence – means refraining from doing something that harms or injures the participants.
