Social Psychology!

Chapter 12!

Procrastination!

!   Avoids anxiety aroused by tough task with activities aimed at repairing mood – i.e., checking Facebook, taking a nap = feel worse later – attempts at mood repair sabotage effort!

!   20% of adults claim to be procrastinators; 70% of students!!   Predicts:!

!   Lower salaries!!   Higher likelihood of unemployment!!   Failing to save for retirement!!   Neglecting preventive healthcare!

!   Men are worse than women – tendency to complete fewer years of education!

Procrastination!Treatment:!

!Negative emotions can derail attempts at self- !!control – emotion is at core!!- Time travel – project self into future – imagine ! !good feelings if finish project; bad !! !feelings if don’t!!- Just get started – Don’t have to do whole !! !project – just first step –do in stages!!- Forgive yourself – Stop beating yourself up – !! !replace negative thoughts with positive ones!!- Easy things first – Take easiest task on list or one ! !you feel most like doing!

Social Thinking!!   Attitudes – feelings based on beliefs!!!   Persuasion -!

!   Central-route processing!!   Peripheral-route processing!

!   Social cognitions – understanding others!

!   Schemas – organizing framework!

!   Impression formation – expectations!

!   Attribution process - causes!

!

Social Cognition!

!  Attribution biases –!!  Halo effect!!  Assumed-similarity bias!!  Self-serving bias!!  Fundamental attribution error!!  Cultural context!

Cognitive Dissonance!

!  Definition!!  Four ways to reduce cognitive

dissonance -!!   ! Modify !!   Change importance of cognition!!   !Add a cognition!!   !Deny!

Cognitive Dissonance!

Cognitive Dissonance!

Power of Situation

Film – Stanford Prison!

Social Influence: Conformity!

!  Conformity variables - !!!  Characteristics of group; status!!   Individual’s response public vs. private!!  Kind of task – ambiguous vs. clear!!  Unanimity – support of even one person!!  Gender differences!!

!  “Display rules”!!

Social Influence: Compliance!

• Foot-in-door • Door-in-face

• That’s not all

• Not-so-free sample

Social Influence: Obedience

!   Obedience !!!   Obedience

based on refusal to take responsibility for actions!

Obedience

Film –Milgram!

Group Influence

!   Social facilitation!!   Social loafing!!   Deindividuation!!   Group polarization!!   Groupthink!!   Affiliation!

Film - Affiliation!

Social Relations:Prejudice and Discrimination!

!  Foundations of prejudice-!!  Social roots!!  Emotional roots!!  Cognitive roots!

!  Reducing consequences of prejudice!

Social Relations: Prejudice and Discrimination!

!   You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear,!!   You’ve got to be taught from year to year!!   It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear.!!   You’ve got to be carefully taught.!!!   You’ve got to be taught to be afraid!!   Of people whose eyes are oddly made,!!   And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade,!!   You’ve got to be carefully taught. !!

Social Relations: Prejudice and Discrimination!

!   You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,!!   Before you are six or seven or eight,!!   To hate all the people your relatives hate,!!   You’ve got to be taught. !

!   Lyrics from “South Pacific”!

Bigotry!

!  Parental influence !  Peer impact !  Community biases !  Geographical history !  Political ramifications !  Legal aspects !  Conscious = unbiased !  Unconscious = bigotry

Aggression!

!  Biological factors –!!  Genetic / Neural / Biochemical!

!  Two types of aggression –!!  Reactive / Instrumental!

!  Psychological theories!!  Frustration – aggression!!  Observational learning –!!  Video games!

!   Importance of intentions!

Attraction - Positive Social Behavior!

!   Interpersonal attraction- important factors!!

!  Love!!  Passionate!!  Companionate!

Decline of Relationships!

!   Assessing relationship!!!   Confronting/ negotiating!!!   Negotiating dissolution!!!   End of relationship!

!   Two common reasons for decline: Perceiving partner’s behavior negatively/ communication breakdown!

Prosocial Behavior!

!  Altruism!

!   Diffusion of !!responsibility!

!

!

Conflict and Peacemaking!

!  Distorted mirror-image perception!!!  Cooperation can lead to peace!

Chapter 14 Review!

Definitions!!Attitudes; central-route processing, schemas, halo effect, compliance, social loafing deindividuation; groupthink, etc.!

Social thinking !!– Fundamental attribution error!!– Attitudes and actions !!!– Cognitive dissonance !

Social influence – main concepts and definitions; conformity, compliance, obedience, bigotry, group, etc. !

Social relations – prejudice; aggression; conflicts; attraction; altruism; mirror- image perception; peace !

Unmarried Pregnancies!!  Very strong correlation between:!

!  Single motherhood and low social mobility!!  High school dropout rates and low social

mobility!!  Level of education and income level over

twenty years!!  Poverty and low education level and teenage

pregnancy!!  Poor sex education in schools and high

teenage pregnancy!!  Quintupled incarceration rates since 1970!

Unmarried Pregnancies!!   Stats:!

!   36% of births were to unmarried women – up 80% since 1980!

!   Majority of high school dropouts having babies are unmarried; only 9% of college graduates are!

!   Two-thirds of black women giving birth are unmarried; just more than a quarter of white women are unmarried!

!   Percentage of births to single mothers has been rising steadily in U.S. – and other countries also!

!   Four out of five teenage pregnancies unintended (80%)!!   Pregnancy prevention curriculum in low-income

schools reduced teen births by half!!   Average age of women at first birth in U.S. is 25.8!