GenPsy L15 Social Psychology PDF

PY200/PY211 General Psychology SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Social Psychology u Scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions are affected by others 14-2 Attitudes and Social Cognition u How do people form impressions of what others are like and of the causes of their behavior? u What are th...

PY200/PY211 General Psychology SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Social Psychology u Scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions are affected by others 14-2 Attitudes and Social Cognition u How do people form impressions of what others are like and of the causes of their behavior? u What are the biases that influence the ways in which people view others’ behavior? 14-3 Social Cognition: Understanding Others (1) u The cognitive processes by which people understand and make sense of others and themselves u Social schemas: Sets of cognitions about people and social experiences u Organize information stored in memory u Provide a framework to recognize, categorize, and recall information relating to social stimuli u Help predict what others are like based on relatively little information 14-4 Social Cognition: Understanding Others (2) u Forming impressions of others u Impression formation - Process by which an individual organizes information about another person to form an overall impression of that person u Central traits: Major traits considered in forming impressions of others u E.G. researchers told a group of students that a guest lecturer was either (Kelley, 1950): u u Condition 1: Warm, industrious, critical, practical, and determined u Condition 2: Cold, industrious, critical, practical, and determined Students in the first condition rated the lecturer more positively 14-5 Social Cognition: Understanding Others (3) u Attribution processes: Understanding the causes of behavior u Attribution theory: Considers how we decide, on the basis of samples of a person’s behavior, what the specific causes of that behavior are u Focuses on why is someone acting in a particular way - Asks the “why” question 14-6 Social Cognition: Understanding Others (4) u Situational causes of behavior: Causes of behavior that are external to a person u Dispositional causes of behavior: Causes of behavior brought about by a person’s traits or personality characteristics 14-7 Attribution Biases: To Err is Human (1) u Halo effect: Phenomenon in which an initial understanding that a person has positive traits is used to infer other uniformly positive characteristics u Assumed-similarity bias: Tendency to think of people as being similar to oneself even when meeting them for the first time 14-8 Attribution Biases: To Err is Human (2) u Self-serving bias: Tendency to attribute success to personal factors and failure to factors outside oneself u Fundamental attribution error: Tendency to overattribute others’ behavior to dispositional causes and minimize the importance of situational causes 14-9 Social Influence and Groups u What are the major sources and tactics of social influence? 14-10 Introduction (1) u Social influence: Social groups and individuals exert pressure on an individual, either deliberately or unintentionally u Group: Two or more people who: u Interact with one another u Perceive themselves as part of a group u Are interdependent u Develop and hold norms 14-11 Conformity: Following What Others Do u Conformity: A change in behavior or attitudes brought about by a desire to follow the beliefs or standards of other people u E.g. Asch study 14-12 Conformity Conclusions: Significant Findings Focus On u Characteristics of the group u Status: Social standing of someone in a group u Situation in which the individual is responding u Kind of task u Unanimity of the group u Social supporter: Group member whose dissenting views make nonconformity to the group easier 14-13 Conformity to Social Roles u Conformity influences behavior is through social roles u u Social roles: Expectations for people who occupy a given social position Experiment conducted by Philip Zimbardo and colleagues: u Guards vs. prisoners u Conforming to social roles can have a powerful effect on behavior u Can induce people to change behavior in undesirable ways 14-15 Obedience: Following Direct Orders u Obedience: A change in behavior in response to the commands of others u Milgram’s classic obedience study u Teacher: administer electric shock u Learner: (research confederate) ‘receiving’ electric shock u 65% of participants eventually used the highest setting labelled on the shock generator, in response to experimenter’s commands 14-16 Prejudice and Discrimination u How do stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination differ? u How can we reduce prejudice and discrimination? 14-17 Introduction (2) u Stereotype: Set of generalized beliefs and expectations about a specific group and its members u Prejudice: Negative (or positive) evaluation of a group and its members u Discrimination: Behavior directed toward individuals on the basis of their membership in a particular group u Self-fulfilling prophecy: expectations about the occurrence of a future event or behavior that act to increase the likelihood the event or behavior will occur 14-18 The Foundations of Prejudice (1) u Observational learning approaches suggests that children’s feelings about members of various groups are shaped by: u u Stereotyping and prejudice, the behavior of parents, other adults, and peers Mass media provides information about stereotypes for children and adults 14-19 The Foundations of Prejudice (2) u Social identity theory suggests that people tend to be ethnocentric u Ethnocentric: Viewing the world from their own perspective and judging others in terms of their group membership u Ingroups and outgroups 14-20 Measuring Prejudice and Discrimination: The Implicit Association Test u Measure of prejudice that permits a more accurate assessment of people’s discrimination between members of different groups u Criticism of the test u Having an implicit bias does not mean that people will overtly discriminate 14-21 Reducing the Consequences of Prejudice and Discrimination u Increase contact between the target of stereotyping and holder of the stereotype u Make values and norms against prejudice more conspicuous u Provide information about the targets of stereotyping u Reducing stereotype threat u Increasing the sense of social belonging of ethnic minority students 14-22 Positive & Negative Social Behavior u Why are we attracted to certain people, and what progression do social relationships follow? u What factors underlie aggression and prosocial behavior? 14-23 Interpersonal Attraction and the Development of Relationships (1) u Interpersonal attraction: Positive feelings for others; liking and loving u Factors that attract people to each other: u Proximity: Tendency to like those that are near us u Familiarity: Mere-exposure-effect: Tendency to like those we see often u Similarity: Tendency to like those who are like us u Reciprocity: Tendency to like those who like us u Physical attractiveness: Tendency to like those who look attractive 14-24 Interpersonal Attraction and the Development of Relationships (2) u Differentiation between types of love by psychologist Robert Sternberg u Commitment (decision to commit) - Initial thoughts that one loves someone and the longerterm feelings of commitment to maintain love u Intimacy component - Feelings of closeness and connectedness u Passion component - Motivational drives relating to sex, physical closeness, and romance 14-25 Interpersonal Attraction and the Development of Relationships (3) u Types of love u Romantic love: State of intense absorption in someone that includes intense physiological arousal, psychological interest, and caring for the needs of another u Companionate love: Strong affection we have for those with whom our lives are deeply involved 14-26 Aggression and Prosocial Behavior: Hurting and Helping Others (1) u Hurting others: Aggression u u Aggression: Intentional injury of, or harm to, another person. The other person must want to avoid this Instinct approaches: Aggression as a release u Freudian theory u Catharsis: Process of discharging built-up aggressive energy 14-28 Aggression and Prosocial Behavior: Hurting and Helping Others (2) u Biological and biochemical approaches u Evolutionary u u Daly & Watson (1988, 1996, 2005) u Birth parents less likely to abuse or murder own offspring than stepparents are to harm stepchildren u Preschool children living with stepparent or foster parent 70 -100 times more likely to be fatally abused than those living with both biological parents Testosterone u Berthold (1949): Castrated roosters without transplanted testicles displayed less aggression than castrated roosters with transplanted testicles 14-29 Aggression and Prosocial Behavior: Hurting and Helping Others (3) u u Frustration-aggression approaches: Aggression as a reaction to frustration u Explains aggression in terms of reactions to frustration u Frustration: Reaction to the blocking of goals Weapon’s effect: tendency for presence of weapons to increase aggression u E.G. Klinesmith et al. (2006) hotsauce study 14-30 Aggression and Prosocial Behavior: Hurting and Helping Others (4) u Observational learning approaches: Learning to hurt others u Emphasizes that social and environmental conditions can teach individuals to be aggressive u Suggests that people learn to be aggressive by viewing the rewards and punishments that models provide u Models: Individuals who provide a guide to appropriate behavior through their own behavior 14-31 Helping Others: The Brighter Side of Human Nature (1) u Prosocial behavior: Helping behavior u Bystander effect: the presence of others inhibits helping behavior (e.g. Darley & Latane, 1968) 14-32 Helping Others: The Brighter Side of Human Nature (2) u Diffusion of responsibility: the belief that responsibility for intervening is shared, or diffused, among those present u Pluralistic ignorance: the erroneous inference that others accept a norm, therefore causing the person to go along with it u Rewards-costs analysis u Suggests that individuals tend to use the least costly form implementing help u Altruism: Helping behavior that requires self-sacrifice u Altruism is based on temporary situational factors 14-33