Module 25 Social Psychology INTRODUCTION Social Psychology broad

Module 25 Social Psychology

INTRODUCTION • Social Psychology – broad field whose goals are to understand explain how our thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and behaviors are influenced by the presence of, or interactions with, others • Cognitive Social Psychology – subarea of social psychology that focuses on how cognitive processes, such as perceiving, retrieving, and interpreting information about social interactions and events, affect emotions and behaviors and how emotions and behaviors affect cognitions

PERCEIVING OTHERS • Person perception – refers to seeing someone and then forming impressions and making judgments about that person’s likeability and the kind of person he or she is, such as guessing his or her intentions, traits, and behaviors – physical appearance • initial impressions and judgments of a person are heavily influenced and biased by a person’s physical appearance – need to explain • explain why a person looks, dresses, or behaves in a certain way

PERCEIVING OTHERS (CONT. ) • Person perception – influence on behavior • first impressions will influence how you would like or interact with a person – effects of race • members of one race generally recognize faces of other races • Physical appearance – Attractiveness • for better or for worse, a person’s looks matter, since people who are judged to be more physically attractive, generally make more favorable impressions

PERCEIVING OTHERS (CONT. ) • Social Neourscience – an emerging area of research that examines social behaviors, such as perceiving others, by combining biological and social approaches – focuses on the understanding of how social behavior influences the brain, as well as how the brain influences social behavior

PERCEIVING OTHERS (CONT. ) • Stereotypes – widely held beliefs that people have certain traits because they belong to a particular group – often inaccurate and frequently portray the members of less powerful, less controlling groups more negatively than members of more powerful or controlling groups • Development of stereotypes – Prejudice • refers to an unfair, biased, or intolerant attitude toward another group of people – Discrimination • refers to specific unfair behaviors exhibited toward members of a group

PERCEIVING OTHERS (CONT. ) Schemas – mental categories that, like computer files, contain knowledge about people, events, and concepts Kinds of schemas: Social cognition – studies how and what people learn about social relationships Person schemas – include our judgments about the traits that we and others possess

PERCEIVING OTHERS (CONT. ) • Kinds of schemas: – Role schemas • based on the jobs people perform or the social positions they hold – Event schemas, also called scripts, • contain behaviors that we associate with familiar activities, events, or procedures – Self-schemas • contain personal information about ourselves, and this information influences, modifies, and distorts what we perceive and remember and how we believe

PERCEIVING OTHERS (CONT. ) • Schemas: advantages and disadvantages – Disadvantages • schemas may restrict, bias, or distort what we attend to and remember and thus cause us to overlook important information • are highly resistant to change because we generally select and attend to information that supports our schemas and deny any information that is inconsistent with them

PERCEIVING OTHERS (CONT. ) • Schemas: Advantages and disadvantages – Advantages • contain information about how people think and behave • help people analyze and respond appropriately in a particular social situation • provide guidelines for how to behave in various social events (event schemas) and help us explain the social behavior of others (role schemas)

ATTRIBUTIONS • Definition – things we point to as the cause of events, other people’s behaviors, and our own behaviors • Internal versus external – Internal attributions • explanations of behavior based on the internal characteristics or dispositions of the person performing the behavior – External attributions • explanations of behavior based on the external circumstances or situations

ATTRIBUTIONS (CONT. ) • Kelley’s model of covariation – social psychologist Harold Kelley – Covariation model • says that, in making attributions, we should look for factors that are present when the behavior occurs and factors that are absent when the behavior does not occur – Consensus • determining whether other people engage in the same behavior in the same situation – Consistency • determining whether the person engages in this behavior every time he or she is in a particular situation

ATTRIBUTIONS (CONT. ) • Kelley’s model of covariation – Distinctiveness • determining how differently the person behaves in one situation when compared to other situations – Biases and errors – Fundamental attribution error • refers to our tendency, when we look for causes of a person’s disposition or personality traits and overlook how the situation influenced the person’s behavior

ATTRIBUTIONS (CONT. ) • Biases and errors – Actor-observer effect • refers to the tendency, when you are behaving (or acting), to attribute your own behavior to situational factors – Self-serving bias • refers to explaining our successes by attributing them to our dispositions or personality traits and explaining our failures by attributing them to the situations

ATTITUDES • Definition – belief or opinion that includes an evaluation of some object, person, or event, along a continuum from negative to positive, that predisposes us to act in a certain way toward that object, person, or event • Components of attitudes – cognitive component • includes both thoughts and beliefs that are involved in evaluating some object, person, or idea – affective component • involves emotional feelings that can be weak or strong, positive or negative

ATTITUDES (CONT. ) • Components of attitudes – behavioral component • involves performing or not performing some behavior • Functions of attitudes – predispose • means that they guide or influence us to behave in specific ways – interpret • means that they provide convenient guidelines for interpreting and categorizing objects and events and deciding whether to approach or avoid them

ATTITUDES (CONT. ) • Functions of attitudes – evaluate • means that they help us stand up for those beliefs and values that we consider very important to ourselves • Attitude change – Cognitive dissonance • refers to a state of unpleasant psychological tension that motivates us to reduce our cognitive inconsistencies by making our beliefs more consistent with each other – Counterattitudinal behavior • involves taking a public position that runs counter to your private attitude

ATTITUDES (CONT. ) • Attitude change – Self-perception theory • we first observe or perceive our own behavior and then, as a result, we change our attitudes • Persuasion – Central route for persuasion • presents information with strong arguments, analyses, facts and logic – Peripheral route for persuasion • emphasizes emotional appeal, focuses on personal traits, and generates positive feelings

SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES • Hazing – part of a group’s initiation ritual, during which individuals are subjected to a variety of behaviors that range from: – humiliating and unpleasant – potentially dangerous – both physically and psychologically • Conformity – refers to any behaviors you perform because of group pressure, even though that pressure might not involve direct requests

SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT. ) • Compliance – kind of conformity in which we give in to social pressure in our public responses but do not change our private beliefs • Obedience – refers to performing some behavior in response to an order given by someone in a position of power or authority – Milgram’s Experiment

SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT. ) • Helping prosocial behavior – also called helping, is any behavior that benefits others or has positive social consequences • Altruism – form of helping or doing something, often at a cost or risk, for reasons other than the expectation of a material or social reward

SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT. ) • Why people help – Empathy • identify with what the victim must be going through – Personal distress • feelings of fear, alarm, or disgust from seeing a victim in need – Norms and values • feel morally bound or socially responsible to help those in need

SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT. ) • Why people help – Decision-stage model of helping – Five stages in deciding to help 1. notice the situation 2. interpret it as one in which help is needed 3. assume personal responsibility 4. choose a form of assistance 5. carry out that assistance – Arousal-cost-reward model of helping • make decisions to help by calculating the costs and rewards of helping

SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT. ) • Group dynamics – Groups • collections of two or more people who interact, share some common idea, goal, or purpose, and influence how their members think and behave • Group cohesion and norms – Group cohesion • group togetherness, which is determined by how much group members perceive that they share common attributes – Group norms • formal or informal rules about how group members should behave

SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT. ) • Group dynamics – Group membership – Task-oriented group • members have specific duties to complete – Socially oriented group • members are primarily concerned about fostering and maintaining social relationships among the members of the group • Behavior in crowds – Crowd • large group of persons who are usually strangers, can facilitate or inhibit certain behaviors

SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT. ) • Behavior in crowds – Facilitation and inhibition – Social facilitation • increase in performance in the presence of a crowd – Social inhibition • decrease in performance in the presence of a crowd – Deindividuation in crowds • refers to the increased tendency for subjects to behave irrationally or perform antisocial behaviors when there is less chance of being personally identified

SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT. ) • Behavior in crowds – The bystander effect • individual may feel inhibited from taking some action because of the presence of others – Informational influence theory • we use the reactions of others to judge the seriousness of the situation – Diffusion of responsibility theory • says that, in the presence of others, individuals feel less personal responsibility and are less likely to take action in a situation where help is required

SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT. ) • Group decisions – Group polarization • phenomenon in which group discussion reinforces the majority’s point of view and shifts that view to a more extreme position – Groupthink • refers to a group making bad decisions because the group is more concerned about reaching agreement and sticking together, than gathering the relevant information and considering all the alternatives

SOCIAL & GROUP INFLUENCES (CONT. ) • Group decisions – Ingroup • includes only the immediate members of the group – Outgroup • includes everyone who is not a part of the group

AGGRESSION • Genes and environment – Aggression • is any behavior directed toward another that is intended to cause harm – Social cognitive and personality factors – Social cognitive theory • says that much of human behavior, including aggressive behavior, may be learned through watching, imitating, and modeling and does not require the observer to perform any observable behavior or receive any observable reward

AGGRESSION (CONT. ) • Sexual harassment and aggression – Characteristics and kinds of rapists – Power rapist • 70% of all rapes • not to hurt physically but to possess – Sadistic rapist • fewer than 5% • most dangerous because, for him, sexuality and aggression have become fused and using physical force is arousing and exciting

AGGRESSION (CONT. ) • Sexual harassment and aggression – Characteristics and kinds of rapists – Anger rapist • impulsive, savage attack of uncontrolled physical violence – Acquaintance or date rape • knows victim and uses varying amounts of verbal or physical coercion to force his partner to engage in sexual activities