WHS AP Psychology Unit 12: Social Pyschology Essential Task 12-1:Apply attribution theory to explain the behavior of others with specific attention to the fundamental attribution error, self-serving bias, just-world hypothesis and differences between collectivistic and individualistic cultures

Attribution Attitudes and Persuasion Impact of Others on You Group Behavior Fundamental Attribution Error Self-Serving Bias Just-World Hypothesis Individualistic vs. Collectivistic Culture Schema ConformityCompliance Group Polarization Group Think In- Group/Out- Group Attraction Cognitive Dissonance Routes to Persuasion Unit 12: Social Psychology Unit 12: Social Psychology We are here

Social Psychology Social Psychology – The scientific study of the ways in which the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of one individual are influenced by the real, imagined, or inferred behavior or characteristics of other people

Culture, Norms, & Deviance Culture enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to another –Subculture—a cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture. Social norms are the rules of behavior that are considered acceptable in a group or society. Deviance refers to any action or behavior that violates social norms –Sexual acts, Personal space, and anything not accepted in a group

Roles Social role – Patterns of behavior expected of people in various social position Ascribed role – Roles assigned to a person, without any effort or choice –Your gender, your parents, your caste Achieved role – Roles attained voluntarily by special effort –Honor roll, Bachelors Degree, hired as a teacher Role conflict – When two or more roles lead to conflicting demands or behavior. –What kind of roles do you have as a student?

Are we all equals in our groups? In our society?

Stanford Prison Study Phillip Zimbardo College students were given either the role of playing prisoners or prison guards. –guards enforced authoritarian measures and ultimately subjected some of the prisoners to psychological torture. –prisoners passively accepted psychological abuse and, at the request of the guards –Experiment was forced to end in 6 days

OA Take notes from watching the video on Stanford Prison experiment wfNs1pqG0

watch?v=sZwfNs1pqG0

Iraqi Prison Abu Ghraib prison

Groups Group Structure – Network of roles, communication, pathways, and power in a group Group Cohesiveness – Degree of attraction among group members or their commitment to remaining in the group. –Do you get along with your group? Do you like them? In group – group with which an individual identifies with –Perceived as being special Out group – group with which an individual doesn’t identify with –Perceived as being normal and average

OA 1.What is an in-group and outgroup? (669) 2.What is the in-group bias? 3.Explain Attribution theory (664) 4.What is the attribution error?

In-group bias In Group bias is a simple, but powerful concept. It is the tendency to favor one’s own group. Not one particular group, but whatever group you are associated with at that particular time. –If we believe someone else is in the same group to which we belong, we will have positive views of them. –We build our self esteem through belonging, and the presence of someone from the same group reminds of us belonging. Ex: You side with the sports team that you like. Outline

Out-group bias We view members of the out-group as less similar causing us to have biases against them. Therefore, the out-group bias includes negative views about people that aren't in our in-group. Example: Celtics fans hate Lebron, because he is not on the Celtics.

Attribution: Why did he do that? Attribution Theory: tries to explain how people make judgments about the causes of other people’s behavior Three criteria used to judge behavior –Distinctiveness: Is this how the person treats everyone or are you different? –Consistency: Has the person always treated you this way or is this different? –Consensus: Do other people do this same thing or is this really different?

Attribution: Why did he do that? Bob walks past you without saying hi. –Distinctiveness: Your explanation as to why Bob did this will be different if he does this to everyone in the hall or just you –Consistency: Your explanation as to why Bob did this will be different if he always says hi to you or if you don’t really know each other. –Consensus: Whether you’re in New York vs. a college of 600 will change how you explain Bob’s behavior.

Attribution Dispositional Attribution – assumes that the cause of a behavior or outcome is internal Situational Attribution – assumes that the cause of a behavior is due to environmental or external conditions

Attribution Successful / Positive Outcomes Unsuccessful/ Negative Outcomes Similar (Or we like them) Dispositional (Personal Traits) He is a hard worker She is strong person External / Situational Factors It was bad timing It was bad luck Different (Or we dislike them) External / Situational Factors He got lucky She cheated Dispositional Lazy Untalented Stupid

Examples Sports Team –if our team wins (we are the best!) –If our team loses (the other team cheated! The other team was lucky!) Parents –Child is doing well (My Jonny is a genius!) –Child is not doing well (It’s the friends and teachers! They are awful!)

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

Biases in Attribution: The errors to which your guesses will succumb Actor-Observer Effect: attribute actions of others to internal factors and the actions of yourself to external factors Fundamental attribution error: the tendency to overemphasize personal (internal) causes for others’ behavior and underemphasize personal causes for our own behavior

Biases in Attribution: The errors to which your guesses will succumb Defensive attribution –Self-Serving Bias: Tendency to attribute our successes to our own efforts and our failures to external factors –Just-world hypothesis: Assumption bad things happen to bad people and good things happen Attribution across cultures varies dramatically –to good people

Collectivistic vs. Individualistic