1

Focuses in Social Psychology 2 Social psychology scientifically studies how we think about, influence, and relate to one another. “We cannot live for ourselves alone.” Herman Melville indradestianaputra.blogspot.c om xtracash.net.au

3 Food Court Musical

4

Social Psychology Social Thinking  Attribution of Behavior to Persons or Situations  Attitudes and Action 5

Social Thinking Social thinking involves thinking about others, especially when they engage in doing things that are unexpected. 6 1.Does your failure on a test signify lack of understanding, illness, laziness, or a stressful home atmosphere? 2.Was the horror of 9/11 the work of crazed evil people or ordinary people corrupted by life events? teachers.net

Attributing Behavior to Persons or to Situations Attribution Theory: Fritz Heider (1958) suggested that we have a tendency to give causal explanations for someone’s behavior, often by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition. 7 Fritz Heider

Attributing Behavior to Persons or to Situations A teacher may wonder whether a child’s hostility reflects an aggressive personality (dispositional attribution) or is a reaction to stress or abuse (a situational attribution). 8 Dispositions are enduring personality traits. So, if Joe is a quiet, shy, and introverted child, he is likely to be like that in a number of situations.

Fundamental Attribution Error The tendency to overestimate the impact of personal disposition and underestimate the impact of the situations in analyzing the behaviors of others leads to the fundamental attribution error. 9 We see Joe as quiet, shy, and introverted most of the time, but with friends he is very talkative, loud, and extroverted. qwickstep.com

Fundamental Attribution Error  Attributing others' behavior to their dispositions is a relatively effortless, almost automatic process.  Explaining people's behavior in terms of situational factors requires more thought and effort.  Are people poor because they are uneducated and lazy ?  Are people poor because they are born into poverty and may have faced discrimination? 10

Effects of Attribution How we explain someone’s behavior affects how we react to it. 11

Fundamental Attribution Error 12

Attitude A belief and feeling that predisposes a person to respond in a particular way to objects, other people, and events. 13 If we believe a person is mean, we may feel dislike for the person and act in an unfriendly manner. 4.jpg

Attitudes Can Affect Action Our attitudes predict our behaviors imperfectly because other factors, including the external situation, also influence behavior. 14 Democratic leaders supported Bush’s attack on Iraq under public pressure. However, they had their private reservations. content/uploads/2009/01/imggeorge20w20bush3.jpg p://rhodesscholars.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/russ_fein gold.jpg

Attitudes Can Affect Action 15

Attitudes Can Affect Action Not only do people stand for what they believe in (attitude), they start believing in what they stand for. 16 Cooperative actions can lead to mutual liking (beliefs). D. MacDonald/ PhotoEdit

Attitudes Can Affect Action 17

Small Request – Large Request For example, someone might want you to give to give 5 hours of your time a week for the three months as a volunteer to a charity (a big request). But to get you to agree to this big request, they first ask you to volunteer for 1 hour one time and one time only. After hearing this small request, which you are willing to agree to, they then work their way up asking you to volunteer time until you are willing to agree to the big request. 18 Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon: The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request. es/tcrn107l.jpg Door%20Phenomenon

Role Playing Affects Attitudes Zimbardo (1972) assigned the roles of guards and prisoners to random students and found that guards and prisoners developed role- appropriate attitudes. Abu Ghraib - U.S. military in Iraq – sadistic guards or exhausted, fearful individuals placed under horrendous working conditions 19 Originally published in the New Yorker Phillip G. Zimbardo, Inc.

Stanford Prison Experiment 20

Abu Ghraib 21

Actions Can Affect Attitudes Why do actions affect attitudes? One explanation is that when our attitudes and actions are opposed, we experience tension. This is called cognitive dissonance. 22 To relieve ourselves of this tension we bring our attitudes closer to our actions (Festinger, 1957). kartoen.be

23

Cognitive Dissonance 24

Social Psychology Social influence  Conformity and Obedience  Group Influence 25

Social Influence The greatest contribution of social psychology is its study of attitudes, beliefs, decisions, and actions and the way they are molded by social influence. 26 NON SEQUITER © 2000 Wiley. Dist. by Universal Press Syndicate Reprinted with Permission

Conformity and Obedience  Conformity occurs when people yield to real or imagined social pressure  Obedience is a form of compliance that occurs when people follow direct commands, usually from someone in a position of authority 27

Conformity & Obedience Behavior is contagious, modeled by one followed by another. We follow behavior of others to conform. Other behaviors may be an expression of compliance (obedience) toward authority. 28 Conformity Obedience

The Chameleon Effect Conformity: Adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999) derimam. files.wor dpress.co m/2009/1 1/chamel eon5.jpg

Group Pressure & Conformity 30 Suggestibility is a subtle type of conformity, adjusting our behavior or thinking toward some group standard. William Vandivert/ Scientific American

Asch Experiment 31

Conditions that Strengthen Conformity 1.One is made to feel incompetent or insecure. 2.The group has at least three people. 3.The group is unanimous. 4.One admires the group’s status and attractiveness. 5.One has no prior commitment or response. 6.The group observes one’s behavior. 7.One’s culture strongly encourages respect for a social standard. 32

Conformity 33

Reasons for Conformity Normative Social Influence: Influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid rejection. A person may respect normative behavior because there may be a severe price to pay if not respected. 34 Informative Social Influence: The group may provide valuable information, but stubborn people will never listen to others. :5Lxp3jvtOpGNHM: ahoindo.com/members/maximo- albums-image-for-all-picture45- we-respect.jpg

Conformity 35

Obedience 36 People comply to social pressures. How would they respond to outright command? Stanley Milgram designed a study that investigates the effects of authority on obedience. Stanley Milgram ( ) Courtesy of CUNY Graduate School and University Center

Milgram’s Experiment 37

French Game Show 38

Milgram’s Study 39 Both Photos: © 1965 By Stanley Miligram, from the film Obedience, dist. by Penn State, Media Sales

Milgram’s Study: Results 40

Milgram’s Study: Results  Compliance is strongest when:  The person giving the orders is close at hand and perceived to be a legitimate authority  The authority figure was supported by a prestigious institution  The victim was depersonalized/ at a distance/ in another room  There were no role models for defiance. 41 jewishvirtuallibrary.org gosublogger.com

Individual Resistance A third of the individuals in Milgram’s study resisted social coercion. 42 An unarmed individual single-handedly challenged a line of tanks at Tiananmen Square. AP/ Wide World Photos

Lessons from the Conformity and Obedience Studies 43 In both Ash's and Milgram's studies, participants were pressured to follow their standards and be responsive to others. In Milgram’s study, participants were torn between hearing the victims pleas and the experimenter’s orders.

Group Influence How do groups affect our behavior? Social psychologists study various groups: 44 1.One person affecting another 2.Families 3.Teams 4.Committees

Individual Behavior in the Presence of Others Social facilitation: Refers to improved performance on tasks in the presence of others. Triplett (1898) noticed cyclists’ race times were faster when they competed against others than when they just raced against the clock. 45 Michelle Agnis/ NYT Pictures

Social Facilitation 46

Hazing: Sport or school epidemic? 47

Social Loafing The tendency of an individual in a group to exert less effort toward attaining a common goal than when tested individually (Latané, 1981). 48 csupomona.edu

Deindividuation The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity. This in turn reduces an individual's self-restraint and normative regulation of behavior. 49 Mob behavior

Deindividuation 50