1. 8
Behavior in Social and Cultural Context

2. Roles and Rules LO8.1 Compare social norms and social roles, and note how each contributes to the social rules that govern a culture.
Norms: Rules that regulate social life, including explicit laws and implicit cultural standards.
Role: A given social position that is governed by a set of norms for proper behavior.
Culture: A program of shared rules that governs the behavior of people of a community or society, and a set of values, beliefs, and customs shared by most members of that community.

3. Roles and Rules, cont’ LO8
Roles and Rules, cont’ LO8.2 Outline the basic procedures and findings of the Milgram obedience experiments.
The obedience study
Stanley Milgram and coworkers investigated whether people would follow orders, even when the order violated their ethical standards.
Most people were far more obedient than anyone expected.
Every single participant complied with at least some orders to shock another person.
Two-thirds shocked the learner to the full extent.
Results are controversial and have generated further research on violence and obedience.

4. Roles and Rules, cont’ LO8
Roles and Rules, cont’ LO8.3 Discuss five conditions that make disobedience to authority more likely.
Factors leading to disobedience
When the experimenter left the room
When the victim was right there in the room
When the experimenter issued conflicting demands
When the person ordering them to continue was an ordinary man
When the participant worked with peers who refused to go on

5. Roles and Rules, cont’ LO8
Roles and Rules, cont’ LO8.4 Outline the basic procedures and finding of the Zimbardo prison study.
The Stanford prison study
Subjects were ordinary college students.
They were randomly assigned to be prisoners or guards.
Those assigned the role of prisoner became distressed and helpless.
Those assigned the role of guards became either nice, “tough but fair,” or tyrannical.
Study had to be ended after six days.

6. Roles and Rules, cont’ LO8
Roles and Rules, cont’ LO8.5 Explain how feelings of entrapment contribute to destructive obedience.
Why people obey
Entrapment
A process in which individuals escalate their commitment to a course of action to justify their investment of time, money, or effort
The first stages of entrapment pose no difficult choices. But as people take a step, or make a decision to continue, they will justify that action in order to feel that it is the right one and that they haven’t done anything foolish or unethical.

7. Roles and Rules, cont’ LO8
Roles and Rules, cont’ LO8.5 Explain how feelings of entrapment contribute to destructive obedience.
Social influences on beliefs and behavior
Social cognition
An area in social psychology concerned with social influences on thought, memory, perception and beliefs.
Current approaches draw on evolutionary theory, neuroimaging studies, surveys, and experiments to identify universal themes in how people perceive and feel about each other.

8. Social Influences on Beliefs and Behavior LO8
Social Influences on Beliefs and Behavior LO8.6 Contrast situational dispositional attributions, and explain how and why the fundamental attribution error takes place.
Attributions
Attribution theory
Theory that people are motivated to explain their own and others’ behavior by attributing causes of behavior to a situation or a disposition.
Fundamental attribution error
Tendency to overestimate personality factors and underestimate the influence of the situation.

9. Social Influences on Beliefs and Behavior LO8
Social Influences on Beliefs and Behavior LO8.6 Contrast situational dispositional attributions, and explain how and why the fundamental attribution error takes place.

10. Social Influences on Beliefs and Behavior, cont’ LO8
Social Influences on Beliefs and Behavior, cont’ LO8.7 Describe three biases that are based on attributions people make about themselves and others.
Biases
The bias to choose the most flattering and forgiving attributions of our own lapses
The bias that we are better, smarter, and kinder than others
The bias to believe that the world is fair
Just-world hypothesis: attributions are also affected by the need to believe that justice usually prevails, that good people are rewarded and bad guys punished.

11. Social Influences on Beliefs and Behavior, cont’ LO8
Social Influences on Beliefs and Behavior, cont’ LO8.8 Explain how the validity effect and the familiarity effect shape our attitudes.
Attitudes: A relatively stable opinion containing beliefs and emotional feelings about a topic
Explicit: Attitudes we are aware of and that shape our conscious decisions and actions
Implicit: Attitudes about which we are unaware and that influence our behavior in ways we do not recognize

12. Social Influences on Beliefs and Behavior, cont’ LO8
Social Influences on Beliefs and Behavior, cont’ LO8.8 Explain how the validity effect and the familiarity effect shape our attitudes.
Cognitive dissonance
A state of tension that occurs when a person simultaneously holds two cognitions that are psychologically inconsistent or when a person’s belief is incongruent with his or her behavior

13. Shifting opinions and bedrock beliefs
Social Influences on Beliefs and Behavior, cont’ LO8.8 Explain how the validity effect and the familiarity effect shape our attitudes.
Shifting opinions and bedrock beliefs
Familiarity effect
The tendency of people to feel more positive toward a person, item, product, or other stimulus the more familiar they are with it.
Validity effect
The tendency of people to believe that a statement is true or valid simply because it has been repeated many times.

14. Social Influences on Beliefs and Behavior, cont’ LO8
Social Influences on Beliefs and Behavior, cont’ LO8.8 Explain how the validity effect and the familiarity effect shape our attitudes.
The genetics
of belief

15. Social Influences on Beliefs and Behavior, cont’ LO8
Social Influences on Beliefs and Behavior, cont’ LO8.8 Explain how the validity effect and the familiarity effect shape our attitudes.
Genes and Attitudes
Ideological belief systems may have evolved in human societies to be organized along a left-right dimension, consisting of two core sets of attitudes:
Whether a person advocates social change or supports the system as it is
Whether a person thinks inequality is a result of human policies and can be overcome, or is inevitable and should be accepted as part of the natural order

16. Methods of indoctrination
Social Influences on Beliefs and Behavior, cont’ LO8.9 Summarize four elements that contribute to indoctrination.
Methods of indoctrination
The person is subjected to entrapment.
The person’s problems, personal and political, are explained by one simple attribution.
The person is offered a new identity and is promised salvation.
The person’s access to disconfirming (dissonant) information is severely controlled.

17. Social Influences on Beliefs and Behavior, cont’ LO8
Social Influences on Beliefs and Behavior, cont’ LO8.9 Summarize four elements that contribute to indoctrination.
Individuals in groups
The need to belong may be the most powerful of all human motivations.
This need explains why solitary confinement is considered torture and social pain of being rejected equates to physical pain.

18. Individuals in Groups LO8
Individuals in Groups LO8.10 Outline the basic procedures and finding of the Asch line-judging study.
Conformity
Subjects in group asked to match line lengths.
Confederates picked wrong line.
Subjects went with wrong answer in
one-third of trials.

19. Individuals in Groups, cont’ LO8
Individuals in Groups, cont’ LO8.11 List four symptoms of groupthink, and give an example from history, politics, or business to illustrate them.
Groupthink: The tendency for all members of a group to think alike for the sake of harmony and to suppress disagreement.
Symptoms
Illusion of invincibility
Self-censorship
Pressure on dissenters to conform
Illusion of unanimity
Counteracted by
Creating conditions that reward dissent
Basing decision on majority rule

20. Individuals in Groups, cont’ LO8
Individuals in Groups, cont’ LO8.12 Explain how diffusion of responsibility, deindividuation, and anonymity contribute to the madness of crowds.
The wisdom and madness of crowds
Diffusion of responsibility
The tendency of group members to avoid taking action because they assume that others will.
Deindividuation
In groups or crowds, the loss of awareness of one’s own individuality.
Bystander apathy
Individuals often fail to take action or call for help when they see someone in trouble because they assume that someone else will do so.

21. Individuals in Groups, cont’ LO8
Individuals in Groups, cont’ LO8.13 Discuss four situational factors that increase one’s likelihood to offer help to others.
Altruism and dissent
Situational factors in nonconformity
You perceive the need for intervention or help.
Cultural norms encourage you to take action.
You have an ally.
You become entrapped.

22. Individuals in Groups, cont’ LO8
Individuals in Groups, cont’ LO8.13 Discuss four situational factors that increase one’s likelihood to offer help to others.
Us vs. them: Group identity
Social identities
The part of a person’s self-concept that is based on his or her identification with a nation, religious or political group, occupation, or other social affiliation.

23. Us vs. Them: Group Identity LO8
Us vs. Them: Group Identity LO8.14 Contrast ethnic identity, acculturation, and ethnocentrism, and offer examples of each concept.
Ethnic identity
A person’s identification with a racial or ethnic group.
Acculturation
The process by which members of minority groups come to identify with and feel part of the mainstream culture.

24. Us vs. Them: Group Identity LO8
Us vs. Them: Group Identity LO8.14 Contrast ethnic identity, acculturation, and ethnocentrism, and offer examples of each concept.
Ethnocentrism
The belief that one’s own ethnic group, nation, or religion is superior to all others.
Aids survival by making people feel attached to their own group and willing to work on group’s behalf

25. Us vs. Them: Group Identity LO8
Us vs. Them: Group Identity LO8.14 Contrast ethnic identity, acculturation, and ethnocentrism, and offer examples of each concept.
Robbers cave
Boys randomly separated into two groups
Rattlers and Eagles
Competitions fostered hostility between groups.
Experimenters contrived situations requiring cooperation for success.
Result: cross-group friendships increased.

26. Group Identity, cont’ LO8
Group Identity, cont’ LO8.15 Define what a stereotype is, and discuss three ways in which stereotypes distort reality.
Stereotypes
A summary impression of a group, in which a person believes that all members of the group share a common trait or traits.
Traits may be positive, negative, or neutral.
Allow us to process quickly new information and retrieve memories
Distort reality
Exaggerate differences between groups
Produce selective perception
Underestimate differences within groups

27. Group Identity, cont’ LO8
Group Identity, cont’ LO8.15 Define what a stereotype is, and discuss three ways in which stereotypes distort reality.
Group conflict and prejudice
Prejudice
A strong, unreasonable dislike or hatred of a group, based on a negative stereotype.
Central feature of a prejudice is that it remains immune to evidence.

28. Group Conflict and Prejudice LO8
Group Conflict and Prejudice LO8.16 Describe four sources of the origins of prejudice.
The origins of prejudice
Psychological causes: People inflate own self- worth by disliking groups they see as inferior
Social causes: By disliking others we feel closer to others who are like us
Economic causes: Legitimizes unequal economic treatment
Cultural and national causes: Bonds people to their own ethnic or national group and its ways

29. Group Conflict and Prejudice, cont’ LO8
Group Conflict and Prejudice, cont’ LO8.17 Describe five ways of measuring prejudicial attitudes.
Defining and measuring prejudice
Measures of social distance and “microaggressions”
Measures of unequal treatment
Measure of what people do when they are stressed or angry
Measures of brain activity
Measures of implicit attitudes

30. Group Conflict and Prejudice, cont’ LO8
Group Conflict and Prejudice, cont’ LO8.17 Describe five ways of measuring prejudicial attitudes.
Typical stimuli used in the Implicit Association Test

31. Group Conflict and Prejudice, cont’ LO8
Group Conflict and Prejudice, cont’ LO8.18 Describe four situations that can help reduce prejudice and intergroup conflict.
Reducing conflict and prejudice
Both sides must have equal legal status, economic opportunities, and power.
Authorities and community institutions must provide moral, legal, and economic support for both sides.
Both sides must have many opportunities to work and socialize together, formally and informally.
Both sides must cooperate, working together for a common goal.

32. The Question of Human Nature LO8
The Question of Human Nature LO8.19 Explain the phrase “the banality of evil,” and discuss how it contributes to otherwise-good people behaving badly.
The question of human nature
Human nature contains the potential for unspeakable acts of cruelty and inspiring acts of goodness.
Most people believe that some cultures and individuals are inherently evil and therefore not fully human; if we can just get rid of them, everything will be fine.
From the standpoint of social and cultural psychology, all human beings, like all cultures, contain the potential for both good and evil.