SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

DEFINITION

 Social Psychology
 Branch of psychology concerned with the way individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by others

PERSON PERCEPTION

 The process of forming impressions of others

 Effects of Personal Appearance
 Ascribe desirable personality to those who are attractive
 linking beautiful with good
 little correlation between attractive and good personality traits although attractive people do tend to have more
friends and better social skills
 In a study by Dion, not only attributed good qualities but they were also expected to have better lives, spouses and
careers
 Association starts at 6 1/2 years old
 more attractive people are viewed more competent
 make inferences about extraversion openness personality based on a photograph
 Cognitive schemas
 Social schemas
 Organized cluster of ideas about categories of social events and people
 we depend on schemas because they help to efficiently process and store a wealth of information that they take
in about other people
 Self-schemas
 integrated set of memories, beliefs and generalizations about one’s behavior in a given domain
 operate the same way as any other schema
 (self-schemas in a particular domain (athletic) would show differences in how they remember info about
themselves in that domain
 Affects how you process info about other people in terms of that domain
 If you do not have a self-schema relevant, you are referred to as being aschematic
 Stereotypes
 Widely held beliefs that people have certain characteristics because of membership in a group
 Gender stereotypes – women submissive
 Age stereotypes Jews – mercenary, Germans-methodical Occupational stereotypes – lawyers – manipulative
 Cognitive process that is automatic and saves on the time and effort required to get a handle on people
 Save energy by simplifying our social world
 Overgeneralizations, think “slanted probabilities”
 Subject to self-fulfilling prophecy
 If you hold strong beliefs you behave in a way to bring about these characteristics
 Van have affect behavior

 Subjectivity in Person Perception

 Illusory correlation – occurs when people estimate that they have encountered more confirmation
 Over estimate how often they’ve seen a trait
 Evolutionary Perspective
 Adaptive in ancestral environment -person perception is swayed by attractiveness – bc of reproductive health
 In-group – humans immediately identify with a group
  favorable
 Out-group – does not belong
 Inferior negative stereotypes

ATTRIBUTION PROCESSE S: EXPLAINING BEHAVIOUR

 Attributions
 Inferences that people draw about the causes of events, other’ behavior and their own behavior
 Internal vs. External
 Internal attributions – ascribe the causes of behavior to personal dispositions, traits, abilities and feelings
 External attributions – ascribe causes of behavior to situational demands and environmental constraints
 Attributions for success and failure
 Stability
 Stable-unstable dimension cuts across internal-external dimensions in creating the attributions for success and
failure
 Stable – permanent Unstable-temporary
 Situation: failure in getting a job
 Internal-stable – your excellent ability
 Internal-unstable – hard work on a resume
 External-stable – lack of competition
 External-unstable – luck
 Bias in Attribution
 Inaccurate explanations of their own behavior
 “guesswork” because guesses tend to be slanted
 The Fundamental Attribution Error and Actor Observer Bias
 Observer’s bias in favor of internal attributions in explaining behavior
 Observers have a curious tendency to overestimate the likelihood that an actor’s behavior reflects
personality rather than situational factors
 Situational factors aren’t readily apparent to observer
 Few situations are so coercive that they negate all freedom of choice
 In contrast, actor-observer bias says, actors favor external attributions for their behaviors while observers
are more likely to explain the same behavior with internal attributions
Personal (Internal) Situational (external)
Behaviour
Attribution Attribution

Automatic first step Effortful second step

 Defensive Attribution
 Tendency to lame victims for their misfortune so that one feels less likely to be victimized in a similar way
 Attribute friend’s mugging to carelessness and stupidity
 Hindsight bias - helps people maintain their belief that they live in a just world where they’re unlikely to
experience similar troubles
 The belief in a just world theory
 Culture and Attributional Tendencies
 Individualism vs Collectivism influence attributional tendencies
 Individualism – putting personal goals ahead of group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal
attributes
 Recognize the importance of independence, self-esteem, and self-reliance North America West European)
 Collectivism – group goals ahead of personal goals and defining identity in terms of group one belongs too

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  Collectivist cultures place high priority on shared values and interdependence (importance of obedience,
reliability, and proper behavior) (Asian African and Latin)
 People from collectivist are less prone to the fundamental attribution error!!!
 More likely to believe that one’s behavior reflects adherence to group norms
 Self-serving bias – one’s success to personal factors and one’s failures to situational factors
 Western – competition and high self-esteem
 Self0effacing bias – explaining success to help they receive from others and downplaying the importance of
their ability – Japanese subjects ted to be more self-critical
 Recognizing Bias in Social Cognition
1. Fundamental attribution error = assuming that arriving late reflects personal qualities
2. Illusory correlation effect - overestimating how often one has seen confirmations of the assertion that
young female profs get pregnant so soon
3. Stereotyping - assuming all lawyers have negative traits
4. Defense Attribution - derogating the victims of misfortune to minimize the likelihood of similar mishap

LIKING AND LOVING

 Interpersonal Attraction – positive feelings toward another including liking, friendship, admiration, lust and love
 Key Factors in attraction
 Attractiveness
 Key determinant of romantic attraction for both was physical attractiveness rather than communication
 Attractive people of both sexes enjoy greater mating success than less attractive peers
 Matching Hypothesis – males and females of approximately equal physical attractiveness are likely to select
each other as partners
 Attractive people – expect to date more attractive people Less attractive people expect to date less attractive
partners
 Similarity
 Couples tend to be similar in age, race, religion, social class, personality, education, intelligence and attitudes
 Both in friendship and romantic relationships
 Perspectives on the Mystery of Love
 Passionate and Companionate love
 Passionate – sexual feelings and the agony and ecstasy of intense emotion
 Companionate love – warm trusting tolerant affection for another whose life is deeply intertwined with one’s
own
 Companionate love is more strongly related to relationship satisfaction than passionate love
 Intimacy – warmth, closeness, and sharing in a relationship
 Commitment – intent to maintain a relationship in spite of difficulties
 When we are satisfied with our relationship we have positive bias (increased dopamine levels when
thinking about person we love
 Love as Attachment
 Attachment relationships in infancy – infant-caretaker bonding emerges in the first year of life
 Secure, Anxious-ambivalent attachment, Avoidant attachment
 Love is an attachment process
 Anxious-ambivalent attachment in infancy tend to have romantic relationships marked by anxiety and
ambivalence
 In adults – Styles are relatively stable over time
 Secure adults 56% – easy to get close to others, trusting, do not worry about being abandoned (fewest
divorce rates9
 Anxious -ambivalent adults 20%– preoccupation with love accompanied with expectations of rejection and
relationships as volatile and jealousy
 Avoidant adults (26%)- difficult to get close to theirs and lack intimacy and trust
Excessive reassurance seeking.

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  Attachment anxiety- worry when partners are available when needed, merge completely with another
person and this scares people away
 Attachment-avoidance - the degree w/c people feel
 uncomfortable with closeness and maintain emotional distance
 High or low on 2 dimensions secure vs. preoccupied
 Avoidant-dismissing and avoidant fearful
 People with different attachment styles behave differently
 Culture and Closeness
 Universal priorities: males-beauty females-social status and success
 Love as the basis for marriage is western culture
 Other Cultures arranged marriages
 Eastern countries – love is less important for marriage
 Evolutionary Perspective
 Physical appearance because looks indicate sound health, good genes, and high fertility
 Facial Symmetry- key element
 Environmental insults and abnormalities are associated with physical symmetries
 Men prefer waist to hip ratio or hourglass figure (healthy, young, not pregnant)
 Women value attractiveness in a short-term partner like men
 Also affected by menstrual cycle
 When most fertile (before ovulation) preferences shift to bodily features and masculinity

ATTITUDES: MAKING SO CUAL JUDGEMENTS

 Attitudes- positive or negative evaluations of objects of thought (social issues, groups, institutions, consumer products,
and people)
 Components and Dimensions
 Cognitive component – beliefs that people hold about the object of attitude
 Affective component – emotional feelings stimulated by the object of thought
 Behavioral component- predispositions to act in a certain way toward an attitude object
 Dimensions
 Ambivalence – conflicted emotions (ambivalence is high, less predictive of behavior)
 Accessibility – how often one thinks about it and how quickly it comes to mind
 attitude strength – firmly held and durable over time
 Attitudes and Behavior
 Attitude-behavior relationships are not consistent
 Variations in attitude strength, accessibility and ambivalence
 String attitudes that are highly accessible are stable over time and more predictive
 Implicit Atticus: Looking beneath the surface
 Explicit: consciously and can readily describe
 Implicit aptitudes – covert attitudes expressed in automatic responses
 Implicit association Test – higher scores in white subjects
 Persuasion
 Source and Receiver
 Message is the information transmitted
 Source Factors
 Credibility- expertise
 Trustworthiness – goes up when argue against their own interest
 Likability – physical attractiveness and similarity
 Message Factors
 One-sided argument vs. Two-sided argument – increase credibility
 Arouse Fear
 Truth effect or Validity effect

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  Mere exposure effect – repeated exposures to a stimulus promotes greater liking
 Receiver Factors
 Forewarning – expect to be persuaded and reduces the impact
 Strong attitudes- resistance to change and promote stronger resistance
 Theories of Attitude Formation and Change
 Learning Theory
 Learned from parents, peers, the media, traditions and other social influences
 Affective component from Classical conditioning
 Emotional responses are from evaluative conditioning which involves transferring the emotion attached to a
UCS to a new CS
 Operant conditioning -disagreement w/ views punished
 Observational Learning
 Dissonance Theory
 Inconsistency among attitudes propels people in the direction of attitude change
 High dissonance had an attitude change
 Dissonance about counter attitudinal behavior does cause attitude change
 Cognitive dissonance existence – related cognitions are inconsistent and contradictory
 Effort Justification – attitudinal somersaults to justify efforts that haven’t panned out
 Self-perception – people infer their attitudes from their behavior
 When subjects do not have well-defined attitudes
 Elaboration Likelihood model
 2 basics Routes to Persuasion
 Central route – ponder the content
 More durable to attitude change
 Peripheral route – no message factors like attractiveness, credibility, or conditioned emotional response
 Less durable attitude change

CONFORMITY AND OBEDI ENCE

 Key Terms:
 Social roles – shared expectations about how people in certain positions are supposed to behave
 Stanford Prison Experiment by Philip Zimbardo
 Conformity
 How social influence makes techniques for inducing compliance
 Does not need authority
 Study by Asch
 Results - group size and group unanimity are key determinants of conformity
 Normative influence
 when people conform to social norms for fear of negative social consequences
 Informational influence
 when people look to others for guidance about how to behave in ambiguous situations
 Cialdini’s principles of persuasion and compliance
 Cialdini used naturalistic observation
 Included himself in the experiment
 Posed as a trainee and observed the way employees are trained to self
 Principles of Compliance
 Reciprocation
 Recognizes how we feel indebted
 Want 2 reciprocate
 Social Proof
 Round of applause
 Commitment and Consistency

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  Don’t like to back out on their word
 Either verbally or in writing
 Liking
 Say yes to people we like
 What is beautiful is good?
 Authority
 Convinced by authority (impression)
 Men and watches?
 Scarcity
 When something is hard to get
 Techniques for Inducing Compliance
 Foot-in-the-door technique
 Asking for a small commitment
 More likely to comply with a second larger request
 Could you cover my shift? -> cover 2 more
 Door-in-the-face technique
 Real big request
 Get rejected
 Smaller request
 Low-ball technique
 Obtaining a commitment then
 Hidden costs
 Cell phone plans -

OBEDIENCE

 Definition
 Compliance with explicit demands of an individual in authority
 “a person comes to view himself as the instrument for carrying out another person’s wishes and no longer regards
himself as responsible for his actions”
 Stanley Milgram: classic studies of obedience
 Troubled by how Germans followed the orders of the dictator
 Find out how people comply to outright commands
 Administer electric shock to a “learner,” but in reality, the “learner” was a confederate
 The Milgram Experiment
 Nature of human obedience
 How the Germans could permit the extermination of the Jews
 How can we get normal people to do evil things w/o conscience?
 Obedience – necessary for society but focused on darker side
 Give people a sense of responsibility
 Experiment Design
 “Teacher “– 40 volts gets a sample shock
 “Learner” - confederate
 Administrate shock – volts
 Shock generator - XXX
 Procedure
 Pretend they were in an experiment about learning and punishment
 Accomplice purposely gives wrong answers
 If he gets an answer wrong give electrical shock and increase
 Told to continue even if the accomplice would plead to stop
 “It is absolutely essential that you continue” “you have no other choice you must go on”
 Results

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  Some found in uncomfortable
 Laughing inappropriately
 40 psychiatrists predicted:
 most teachers would go no further than 150 volts
 fewer than 1 in 25 would go as far as 300 volts
 only 1 in 1000 would deliver the full 450 volts
 Results:
 majority of teachers obeyed the experimenter
 almost 2/3 delivered the full 450 volts
 65% of all participants could be coaxed to deliver every level of shock
 Questions raised
 Is high obedience connected to using volunteers?
 Is obedience specific to Western culture?
 Milgram’s study raised ethical concerns
 Participants were debriefed
 None showed long-lasting effects from participation
 Thomas Blast has made a career out of studying obedience and the Milgram experiments
 see: http://www.stanleymilgram.com/ (if interested)
 Meta-analysis results revealed percentage of participants who administered fatal voltages remained consistent
(61-66%), across time, place, country
 Who are more obedient: men or women?
 (only 1) Women more stress
 Would Milgram find LESS obedience if he ran his experiments today?
 Cultural Variations
 Individualism vs. collectivism
 Behaviour in Groups
 Have roles, norms, and communication structure
 Behaviour alone and in groups
 “safety in numbers”
 Bystander effect – less likely to provide help
 Diffusion of responsibility
 Group productivity and Social Loafing
 Social Loafing - Reduction in effort by individuals when working in a group
 Less likely when individual’s contributions are identifiable
 Collectivist cultures – less likely bc they value group gals
 Decision Making in Groups
 Group Polarization
 Group discussion strengthens a group’s dominant point of view and produces a shift toward a more
extreme decision in that direction
 Exposes arguments that they did not think about before
 Groupthink
 Emphasize concurrence at the expense of critical thinking
 Overestimate ingroup’s unanimity
 Group cohesiveness – strength of the liking relationships linking group members to each other (Close-knit)
 More likely when group works in isolation, dominated by a leader, or stress

SOCIAL NEUROSCIENCE

 Social Neuroscience
 Integrates models of neuroscience and social psych using PET, fMRI, ERP’s
 Explore amygdala in seeing white and black faces

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  Cunningham’s research suggests implicit associations to a social group result in automatic emotional responses
when encountering members of that group

UNDERSTANDING PREJUD ICE

 Prejudice – negative attitude held towards members of a group

 Discrimination – behaving differently towards members of a group
 Stereotyping
 We carefully avoid overt expressions of prejudicial attitudes but covertly continue to harbor negative views of racial
minorities
 Exists because of subjectivity
 Biases in Attribution
 Biased attributions for success and failure
 Women succeed “luck, because task is easy”
 Fundamental attribution error - explaining toward personal characteristics
 People are likely to make this error when evaluating targets of prejudice
 Forming and Preserving Prejudice
 Observational learning – father’s attitudes
 Operant conditioning – stereotypic portrayals in the media
 Implicit Prejudice
 Social inferences without awareness negative associations to an outgrip
 Competition between groups
 Realistic group conflict theory – intergroup hostility and prejudice are a natural outgrowth of fierce competition
between groups
 Mere perception of competition breeds prejudice
 Dividing the world into ingroups and outgroups
 Ethnocentrism – view one’s group as superior to others and as standarsd to judging foreign ways
 Remedial and Affirmative Action by the disadvantaged


Distortion of Judgement
Distortion of level of response – I know I’m not wrong
Informational Conformity
Normative Conformity

Social Facilitation
-When people are in the presence of others