PSYCHOLOGY: Perspectives & Connections 2 nd Edition GREGORY J. FEIST ERIKA L. ROSENBERG Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Social Behavior Chapter Fourteen Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Social Psychology Study of how living among others influences thought, feeling, and behavior Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Group Living and Social Influence Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Group Living and Social Influence Social facilitation – –Phenomenon in which the presence of others improves one’s performance Social loafing – –Phenomenon in which the presence of others causes one to relax one’s standards and slack off – –Have you ever been assigned to a group project where one member didn’t pull their weight? Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Conformity Social norms – –Rules about acceptable behavior imposed by the cultural context in which one lives Conformity – –Tendency of people to adjust their behavior to what others are doing or to adhere to the norms of their culture Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Conformity Study by Solomon Asch (1951) – –Groupthink Occurs when the thinking of the group takes over Can lead to detrimental, even disastrous, outcomes Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Minority Social Influence In order to change the majority view the minority, one must present a logical argument Usually by means of informational social influence – –How might a single jury member convince 11 other people that she is right and they are wrong? Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Obedience Type of conformity in which a person yields to the authority of another person – –Stanley Milgram’s obedience study Showed how powerful situations can make reasonable people do things that seem cruel and unusual As with other classic studies, Milgram’s research led to an ongoing debate over what is and what is not ethical treatment of research participants Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Milgram’s Obedience Study Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Exclusion and Inclusion In-group/out-group bias – –Tendency to show positive feelings toward people who belong to the same group as we do, and negative feelings toward those in other groups Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Exclusion and Inclusion Out-group homogeneity – –Tendency to see all members of an out- group as the same – –Social rejection Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Prejudice and Discrimination Discrimination – –Preferential treatment of certain people, usually driven by prejudicial attitudes Can result from institutionalized rules – –“Flight attendants must not be excessively overweight” Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Nature and Nurture of Attitudes Nature – –Some attitudes, like in-group bias, made sense, because humans evolved in small social groups, and it made sense for people to trust those who are most like them Nurture – –Exposure increases our preference for different things and people Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Attitude Change Cognitive dissonance – –Feeling of discomfort caused by information that is different from a person’s conception of himself as a reasonable and sensible person Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Social Relations Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Nature and Nurture of Aggression Aggression – –Violent behavior that is intended to cause psychological or physical harm, or both, to another being Hostile aggression Instrumental aggression – –Influenced by brain structures and hormones Hypothalamus, prefrontal cortex, and amygdala Testosterone and serotonin Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Nature and Nurture of Aggression Social influences on aggression – –The closer we are to our goal when we become frustrated, the more aggressive we are likely to be Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Nature and Nurture of Aggression Social influences on aggression – –Albert Bandura Social learning theory – –Bobo Doll experiment – –Experiments strongly suggest that watching TV violence leads to aggressive behavior in children Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Prosocial Behavior Behaviors that benefit others Bystander Effect (Latané and Darley, 1968) – –The greater the number of bystanders who witness an emergency, the less likely any one of them is to help Diffusion of responsibility – –Case of Kitty Genovese Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Prosocial Behavior Altruism – –Selfless attitudes and behavior toward others Kin selection – –Evolutionary favoring of genes that prompts individuals to help their relatives or kin Reciprocal altruism – –Act of helping others in the hope that they will help us in the future Social exchange theory – –We help others when the benefits to ourselves are likely to outweigh the costs Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Prosocial Behavior Empathy – –Ability to share the feelings of others and understand their situations Empathy-altruism hypothesis – –Idea that people help others selflessly only when they feel empathy for them Egoistic motivation Empathetic motivation Copyright 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.