Social Psychology What influences us

Social Psychology Scientific study of how a person’s behavior, thoughts and feelings are influenced by the real, imagined, or implied presence of others Why study social psychology. We are social creatures now more than ever. We are influenced by those around us. Even those that say they do not care what others think are influenced to not act a fool, think before they speak and dress appropriately Sociology is different – it is the study and classifications of human societies Does not always mean conformity, you are all different but alike

Social Influence The real or implied presence of others can directly or indirectly influence the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of an individual Can occur even when a person may not want to go along with the group Even in the presence of others

Within 7 minutes the mall assigned extra security guards Within 10 minutes they shut down popular stores Regular person Brett Cohen 21 years old wondered what would happen if he hired bodyguards, paparazzis, assistants and a publicist and walked around NYC pretending to be someone famous When asked what was famous song, responded, movie spider man. Gonna be a great movie actor http://learni.st/learnings/34078-normal-guy-pretends-to-be-celebrity-in-times-square-everyone-falls-for-it

Conformity Changing one’s own behavior to match others Asch’s study Seven participants in a room Told study on visual judgment Only one real participant Others were told to pick same wrong answer

What happened? The person gave the same wrong answer An experiment in America now might not get the same results as in 1950’s Other cultures might still conform Hong Kong Japan Online experiment and the cultural different disappears

Groupthink When people of a group find group cohesiveness more important than considering the facts War on Iraq Titanic Challenger Why would group think occur? Group can do no wrong Stereotyped views of those that disagree Exert pressure Bush and his admin decided to find hussain and top him, they believed this needed to be done he had weapons, which no one has seen, there were advisors that did feel this was a good idea, but no one stepped up and said a word No life boats Faulty part Jury is a group think enviro

Compliance Occurs when people change their behavior as a result of the influence of another person or group Consumer Psychology How to get people to buy what you are selling Techniques Foot in the Door Door in the Face Lowball That’s not All Does not even have to be an expert convincing you, doesn’t even typically have any authority or power to command, obedience Info mercials Diet pills Can I volunteer to help you…while hoping to get a job there Will you buy this pricey item, no well how about this smaller version World of sales, once a commitment is made the cost increases. First month is free. Or low cast does not include additional charges Info mercial, but you get two for the same price

Obedience Changing your behavior at the command of an authority figure Police officer Teacher Work supervisor Military officer How far would you go to obey? In the last slide of compliance, a salesperson has no real authority to make you buy a car We talked at the beginning of class and tried to watch a movie on a person being told to shock another person

Milgram’s Experiment Placed add in paper to recruit people Told they were to test the effects of punishment on learned behavior Participants believed that they had been randomly assigned to either the Teacher, which is where they were all put Learner, had a script to follow with each jolt Wanted to push it farther than just lines on a page Crying out with the higher the voltage 150 – 330 being let me out let me out let me out

Milgram’s what happened? Many professionals believed the person would not go over 150 65% went all the way to the final 450 volt shock level None quite before reaching 300 volts Retesting in US and other countries concluded the same results Psychologists, college students

Milgram, Why Those that wen to 450 showed no personality traits to have high levels of obedience Should this type of experiment even be done? Cause self esteem issues with volunteers Psychological stress Milgram stated that 84 percent of the people were happy to be part of the experiment Follow up psych exam of participants showed no harm or trauma

Group Behavior Group polarization Social Facilitation Members take a more extreme position than they would as individuals Social Facilitation Presence of others to have a positive impact on the performance of an easy task Social Impairment Negative impact Social Loafing Person puts in less effort when working with others Social influence is large in a group Outside of a jury the person may want to give a 10 year sentence for a 5-15 year span, then in a group they would go higher, to 15.

Social Cognition The way people think about other people and how those cognitions influence behavior toward those other people First Impressions How we perceive others How we explain the behavior of others This is where we draw conclusions, right or wrong

ABC’s of Attitudes Attitude is a tendency to respond positively or negatively toward a certain person, object, idea or situation You are not born with attitudes, they are learned in the environment that you grow up in We may make up our minds before even trying something new Developed through a persons experiences as they live work Can affect how we behave towards a person idea object and situation even before we have full knowledge about it. Includes opinions, beliefs and biases This is where we just know that IVCC bias,

Components of Attitude Affective Component Affect means emotions feelings How you might feel about certain music, movies Behavior Component Action that you might take in regard to the person, object, or situation Buy certain music, go to movies you like Cognitive Component way you think about yourself, an object or an event. Including beliefs and ideas You might think the music you like is better than any other With this research shows that what people say and what they do are two different things Also parents, doctors professionals may not always walk the walk, do as I say not as a do attitude

Attitude Formation Learning, we learn our attitudes Direct contact with the object, person, or situation Direct instruction by a parent or another individual Interaction with others, we may be influenced by who we spend time with Vicarious Conditioning (observational learning) we may learn our attitudes by watching others in our lives, in the media, in books, at school We may go to a scary movie and not like it, grow up listening to country music and not like it A parent might put in a child’s brain how bad drugs or smoking is. They may also put in head prejudices. We are not born with them If our friends are smoking or into a certain activity we would follow

Attitude Change The art of persuasion What does it take to change your attitude? Attitude is learned and can be changed Source, who is the expert changing it? What is the message? Clear well organized

Cognitive Dissonance When we have a sense of discomfort when our behavior and beliefs do not match When we do something against who we really are How to fix it Change our behavior Change cognition to justify behavior Form new cognitions to justify behavior When attitude and behaviors clash We experience tension and do not like ourselves and feel bad I want to be healthy, I eat at McDonalds once a week, resulting in feeling bad over eating their Do not eat there Eating there is not that bad I will not eat two cheeseburgers just one

Social Categorization Assignment of a person to a category based on characteristics the person has in common with other people you have experienced in the past Stereotypes are when the person is categorized superficially, when it is believed all people who look like that must be… First impressions, you walk into an interview as a girl a short skirt, or a guy with baggy pants, not a good idea they are important All people with many tattoos are druggies and dangerous

Attribution Explaining own behavior and the behavior of others Situational cause, external factors, such as delays, the actions of others, or some other aspect of the situation Dispositional cause, internal factors, such as personality or character We have a need to explain people behavior, we will make up reasons to explain a behavior. The kids or person that shot up places. We need to know why, even if we make up the reson ourselves

Prejudice and Discrimination Prejudice is holding an unsupportive and often negative attitude about member of a particular social group Discrimination is treating people differently because of the prejudice toward the social group to which they belong Treating a person according to their culture is not discrimination. In counseling I had to keep in mind the cultural values and beliefs of my clients. I did not assume, that would be discrimination. Not smart enough, not willing to work, oh you must live in housing or from a single parent home. That would be discrimination Separating blacks and whites at schools was a form of discrimination, the desegregation laws fixed that in 1957 Many forms of discrimination ageism, sexism, racism, religion, sexuality and marriage

Brown Eyes vs. Blue Eyes Small town in Iowa in 1968 two days after the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King See how the kids had discrimination/prejudice in them already How quick the blue eyed kids fell into their “role” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG1v6g7TPX4

Ben Wilson Played for Simeon Voc HS in Chicago First Chicago basketball player to be named the top high school basketball player in the country November 20, 1984, Wilson was shot Family sued hospital for projected earning $10 Million dollars Ben "Benji" Wilson (March 18, 1967 in Chicago, Illinois - November 21, 1984) was a basketball player who was shot to death on the eve of the start of his senior season in high school. Wilson led Simeon Vocational High School (now known as Simeon Career Academy) of Chicago to the Illinois State Championship 1984. His friend and Illinois teammate, former NBA player Nick Anderson, wore the jersey-number 25 during his career in his honor. His story was the focus of a Nike advertisement that aired during the 1997 NBA Playoffs, which featured an aged man stating: "One out of every five black men die before they reach the age of twenty-five. That was Benji's number. Benji was the first in Chicago history to ever be named top high school player in the nation, right before he was gunned down. But you know what? Benji's not dead: Benji's spirit lives on in every jump shot. Remember: Shoot over brothas, not at them." University of Memphis star point guard Derrick Rose graduated from Simeon in 2007. Throughout his high school career he wore jersey number 25 in honor of Wilson. On the afternoon of November 20, 1984, Wilson was shot while walking up Vincennes Avenue with his girlfriend, Jetun Rush. There was a confrontation between Wilson and Billy Moore (aged 17) and Omar Dixon (aged 14), and Wilson was shot by Moore.[5] His aorta was severed and his liver damaged, and he died the next day after surgery at St. Bernard Hospital was unsuccessful.[2][6] Wilson's family later sued the hospital for $10 million, as they felt medical care had been inappropriately delayed

How do we learn it? Social identity theory Stereotype vulnerability We view ourselves as part of a certain group We categorize others into certain groups We compare ourselves to other groups, mostly in a better way Stereotype vulnerability Person’s awareness of the stereotypes associated with their social group So a black person may want to straighten their hair, have lighter skin to not fall to the stereotypes Members of the stereotyped groups are anxious that they are behaving as the stereotype When two groups were tested, the one group was asked to put down race, the other was not which one scored higher?

How do we overcome it? Education!!! Learn about others different than yourself Have contact with other cultures, colleges are a great way to have intergroup contact, no one is an outsider