Chapter 14 social psychology Pages 556-593

But first some famous people!

Social influences, Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience: In 1936 Muzafer Sherif conducted a study in which participants were shown into a darkened room and exposed to a single point of light. Under those conditions a point of light will see to move because of tiny, involuntary eye movements. The participants were not told of this effect and reported the light moved anywhere from a few inches to several feet. When a confederate (person picked by experimenter to deliberately manipulate the situation) also gave estimates, the original participants began to make estimates of motion that were more and more similar to the confederate.

Asch’s classic study on conformity: Solomon Asch 1951 conducted the first of his classic studies on conformity by having seven people gather in a room. They were told that they were participating in an experiment on visual judgement. They were then shown a white card with three black lines of different lengths followed by another white card with only one line on it. The task was to determine which line on the first card was most similar to the line on the second card. Everyone but the last person in the group was a confederate, what Asch found was that when asking which line was most similar the real person conformed to the confederate.

David Matsumoto: Dr. David Matsumoto, is a renowned expert in the field of micro expressions. Matsumoto worked with The Ekman Group (Paul Ekman), where he provided unique training in the fields of facial expression, gesture, nonverbal behavior, emotion and deception to private and public companies as well as various government agencies. Founder and Director of SFSU’s Culture and Emotion Research Laboratory. The laboratory focuses on studies involving culture, emotion, social interaction and communication.  

Paul Ekman and Micro Expressions: Micro expressions are very brief facial expressions, lasting only a fraction of a second. They occur when a person either deliberately or unconsciously conceals a feeling. Dr. Ekman’s research has revealed that seven emotions have universal signals: anger, fear, sadness, disgust, contempt, surprise and happiness.

John Darley and Bibb Latane bystander effect Social psychologists Bibb Latané and John Darley popularized the concept following the infamous 1964 Kitty Genovese murder in New York City. Genovese was stabbed to death outside her apartment while bystanders who observed the crime did not step in to assist or call the police. Latané and Darley attributed the bystander effect to the perceived diffusion of responsibility (onlookers are more likely to intervene if there are few or no other witnesses) and social influence (individuals in a group monitor the behavior of those around them to determine how to act). In Genovese's case, each onlooker concluded from their neighbors' inaction that their own personal help was not needed.

Kitty Genovese Murder: Catherine “Kitty” Genovese was born on July 7, 1935 in Brooklyn, New York to Vincent and Rachel Genovese. In 1964, Winston Moseley viciously stabbed and raped Kitty Genovese and left her to die near her apartment in Kew Gardens, Queens. Media coverage following her murder spawned a nationwide debate about the disturbing apathy surrounding the events, ultimately leading to the construction of the social psychological phenomenon known as the bystander effect. Kitty Genovese’s murder has been credited with prompting the 1968 nationwide adoption of the 911 system (at the time of her murder, concerned citizens had to dial “O” for operator or the local police station number which was then relayed to a communications bureau and then passed on to the precinct; obviously a time- consuming process that caused severe delays).

Kitty’s killer dies at 81 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmI1uFnF8O8

Leon Festinger:

Stanley Milgram:

Social psychology: The field of social psychology looks at behavior and mental processes but includes the social world in which we exist, as we are surrounded by others to whom we are connected and by whom we are influenced in so many ways.

Social psychology: Social psychology = is the scientific study of how a person’s behavior, thoughts, and feelings are influenced by the real, imagined, or implied presence of others.

It’s not sociology… It is not the same field as sociology, which is the study and classification of human societies. Sociology studies the big picture: how entire groups of people live, work, and play. Although social psychology does look at group behavior, it is more concerned with the individual person within the group and the influence of the group on the person.

What is culture? Culture = is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts. The Center for Advance Research on Language Acquisition goes a step further, defining culture as shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs and understanding that are learned by socialization. Thus, it can be seen as the growth of a group identity fostered by social patterns unique to the group.

Ethnicity:

Prejudice and Stereotype:

How people learn prejudice: pg 579

Overcoming prejudice: pg 580

Discrimination:

In group / out group:

Scapegoat theory:

Just-world phenomenon:

Locus of control:

Bystander effect:

Aggression and prosocial behavior: pg 585

Aggression and biology: pg 585

Prosocial behavior: pg 588

Altruism: 588

Bystander effect: 588

Media influences on aggression: pg 587

Frustration – aggression hypothesis:

Culture-specific:

Ethnocentrism:

Individualism:

Collectivism:

Cross-cultural research:

Social influences, Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience:

Social influences, Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience: People live in a world filled with other people. An infant is born into a world with adults who have an impact on the infant’s actions, personality, and growth. Adults must interact with others on a daily basis. Such interaction provide lots of opportunity for the presence of other people to directly or indirectly influence the behavior, feelings, and thoughts of each individual in a process called social influence.

Social influences, Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience: There are many forms of social influence. People can influence others to follow along with their own actions or thoughts, to agree to do things even when the person might prefer to do otherwise, and to be obedient to authorities. The mere presence of others can even influence the way people preform tasks successfully or unsuccessfully.

Social influences, Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience: What factors influence people to conform to the actions of others?

Social influences, Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience: Have you ever noticed someone looking up at something? Did the urge to look up to see what that person was looking at become so strong that you actually found yourself looking up? This clearly demonstrates the power of conformity: changing one’s own behavior to more closely match the actions of others.

Social influences, Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience:

Social influences, Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience:

Social facilitation:

Social Loafing:

Group polarization:

Self – fulfilling prophecy:

Groupthink: Kind of thinking that occurs when people place more importance on maintaining group cohesiveness than on assessing the facts of the problem with which the group is concerned.

Have you ever seen / done this in your life? Groupthink: Have you ever seen / done this in your life?

Rules of attraction: pg 582

Love is a triangle Robert Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love: pg 583

Passionate Love:

Compassionate love:

Equity:

Self – disclosure:

Attribution Theory:

Fundamental attribution theory:

Behaviors:

Foot-in-door phenomenon:

Door-in-the-face technique

Lowball Technique:

Central/ peripheral route to persuasion:

Cognitive dissonance:

The ABC model of Attitudes:

Affective Component:

Behavior Component:

Cognitive Component:

Attitude formation: pg 568