Thought to Consider in Social Psychology

•“We cannot live for ourselves alone.”

• Herman Melville

Examples Discussed so far…

• 1. Prosocial Behavior (Good v. Evil)

• 2. Bystander Effect (Kitty Genovese)

• 3. Obedience (Milgram)

• 4. Conformity (Cults: Jeffrey Lundgren and David Koresh)

Focuses in Social Psychology

Social psychology scientifically studies how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.

1. Does his absenteeism signify illness, laziness, or a stressful work atmosphere?

2. Was the horror of 9/11 the work of crazed evil people or ordinary people corrupted by life events?

Social Thinking

Social thinking involves thinking about others, especially when they engage in

doing things that are unexpected.

Attributing Behavior to Persons or to Situations

Attribution Theory: Fritz Heider (1958) suggested that we have a tendency to

give causal explanations for

someone’s behavior, often by crediting

either the situation or the person’s disposition.

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Fritz Heider

Attributing Behavior to Persons or to Situations

A teacher may wonder whether a child’s hostility reflects an aggressive personality

(dispositional attribution) or is a reaction to stress or abuse (a situational attribution).

Dispositions are enduring personality traits. So, if Joe is a

quiet, shy, and introverted child, he is likely to be like that in a number of situations.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overestimate the impact of personal disposition and underestimate the impact of the

situations in analyzing the behaviors of others leads to the fundamental attribution error.

Mrs. Cavell’s Example:

Effects of Attribution

How we explain someone’s behavior affects how we react to it.

Influencing attitudes

• Many things can influence our attitudes; in good and bad ways.• We will be looking at how the media and other things can have a

powerful influence on our attitudes.• We will also discuss why it’s important to make our own informed

opinions, based on good understanding and fact.

• Today’s learning TARGETS:– Understand that our attitudes can be affected by external

influences.– Be able to recognize how my attitudes and opinions are

influenced.

Two minute challenge

• List as many things as you can that influence people to think or do something.

• We will go around and share our top 2 items, and no repetition is allowed.

• Who will come up with the most?

• EXAMPLES: In 1991, Terri, a flight attendant for Continental Airlines was fired for not complying the company’s 45 page dress code manual which expected all flight attendants (female) to wear make-up. She had never worn make up in the eleven years she had worked there and did an excellent job. Why was she fired and why did she not comply? (*She did get her job back)

Attitudes & Actions

Attitude: A belief and feeling that predisposes a person to respond in a particular way to

objects, other people, and events.

If we believe a person is mean, we may feel dislike for the person and act in an

unfriendly manner.

Social Pressures and Attitudes

Strong social pressure can weaken the attitude –behavior connection, such

as when Democratic leaders supported Bush’s attack on Iraq under public pressure. However,

they had their private reservations.

Small Request – Large Request

In the Korean War, Chinese communists solicited cooperation from US army

prisoners by asking them to carry out small errands. By complying to small errands they

were likely to comply to larger ones.

Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon: The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small

request to comply later with a larger request.

Role Playing Affects Attitudes

In what has become known as the Stanford Prison experiment, Zimbardo (1972) assigned the roles of guards and prisoners to random

students and found that guards and prisoners developed role- appropriate attitudes.

Stanford Prison Experiment

Actions Can Affect Attitudes

Why do actions affect attitudes? One explanation is that when our attitudes and

actions are opposed, we experience tension. This is called cognitive

dissonance.Cognitive Dissonance: To relieve ourselves of this tension we bring our attitudes closer

to our actions (Festinger, 1957). Mrs. Cavell’s Example: I know when students swear I should impose some type of discipline, but I justify not imposing said discipline because occasionally I swear.

Cognitive Dissonance

Social Influence

The greatest contribution of social psychology is its study of attitudes, beliefs, decisions, and actions and the way they are

molded by social influence.

Conformity & ObedienceBehavior is contagious, modeled by one

followed by another. Conformity is adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to

coincide with a group standard.

Conformity Obedience

Other behaviors may be an expression of

compliance (obedience) toward authority.

The Chameleon Effect

Elevator Conformity

Humans are natural mimics. Unconsciously mimicking others’ expressions, postures, and voice tones helps us feel what

they are feeling.

Conditions that Strengthen Conformity

1. One is made to feel incompetent or insecure.

2. The group has at least three people.3. The group is unanimous.4. One admires the group’s status and

attractiveness.5. One has no prior commitment to a response.6. The group observes one’s behavior.7. One’s culture strongly encourages respect

for a social standard.

Obedience

People comply to social pressures. How would they respond to

outright command?

Stanley Milgram designed a study that

investigates the effects of authority on

obedience.Stanley Milgram

(1933-1984)

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Prejudice

Simply called “prejudgment,” a prejudice is an unjustifiable (usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members. Prejudice is often directed towards different cultural,

ethnic, or gender groups.

1. Beliefs (stereotypes)2. Emotions (hostility, envy, fear)3. Predisposition to act (to discriminate)

Components of Prejudice

Social Roots of Prejudice

Why does prejudice arise?

1. Social Inequalities2. Social Divisions3. Emotional Scapegoating

Stereotypes

• Stereotype: a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing

• List 3 Examples of TEEN stereotypes:• 1.• 2.• 3.

How Prejudiced are People?Over the duration of time many prejudices

against interracial marriage, gender, homosexuality, and minorities have decreased.

Emotional Roots of Prejudice

Prejudice provides an outlet for anger [emotion] by providing someone to blame. After 9/11 many people lashed out against

innocent Arab-Americans. According to the scapegoat theory of prejudice, finding someone to blame when things go wrong can

provide a target for one’s anger.

To boost our own sense of status, it helps to have others to denigrate.

Bystander InterventionThe decision-making process for

bystander intervention.

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Bystander Effect

Tendency of any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if

other bystanders are present.