Social Psychology Chapter 13 People who need people

Social Psychology Chapter 13 • “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world. ” Barbra Streisand • “Hell is other people. ” Jean-Paul Sartre

Social Psychology LOBJ 13. 1 • Social psychology is the scientific study of how the individual is influenced by the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of other people

Attitudes • Attitudes are feelings and beliefs about other people, ideas, or objects that are based on a person’s past experiences, and shape future behaviour LOBJ 13. 2 • The cognitive dimension of an attitude consists of thoughts and beliefs • The emotional dimension of an attitude involves evaluate feelings (such as like or dislike) • The behavioural dimension of an attitude involves how beliefs and evaluations are demonstrated WAR? ABORTION? GAY MARRIAGE?

Does Behaviour Determine Attitudes? • It is possible that behaviour • Within days, “guards” were shapes attitudes • A dramatic demonstration of this was the “Stanford Prison Experiment” in which well-adjusted college students were asked to act and dress as prisoners or guards harassing “prisoners” and prisoners were caving in and becoming obedient • The study showed a person may quickly adopt attitudes consistent with one’s roles Phillip Zimbardo

Persuasion: Changing Attitudes LOBJ 13. 3 • 1. 2. 3. 4. Carl Hovland was one of the first social psychologists in the 1950 s to identify the key components of attitude change (politics & marketing) The Communicator The Communication The Medium The Audience

Persuasion: Changing Attitudes The Communicator • To be persuasive, the communicator must show integrity, credibility, and trustworthiness • Perceived power, prestige, prominence, modesty, celebrity, and attractiveness are also extremely important • Shared characteristics

The Communication • The means by which a communication is presented is called its “medium” – Mass media sources • Openness to attitude change is related in part to age and education, intelligence, self-esteem – The audience • Change is far more likely if the person doing the persuading is a friend

Techniques to Change Attitudes LOBJ 13. 4 • Foot-in-the-Door Technique – Start small • Door-in-the-Face Technique – Start BIG • Ask-and-You-Shall-be. Given Technique – Timing is everything See page 457 • Lowballing Technique – Get you to commit, then raise the bar • Modelling – Do as I do • Incentives Technique – $$$

Coercive Persuasion • Physical or emotional distress • One simple explanation • Unconditional love, acceptance, and attention • New identity is created • Entrapment • Information access is controlled

Cognitive Dissonance LOBJ 13. 5 • Cognitive dissonance is a state of mental discomfort that arises from a discrepancy between two or more of a person’s beliefs, or between beliefs and behaviour – Vegan who is wearing leather, hmm? ? ? • Leon Festinger believed that people try to reduce cognitive dissonance by changing one’s attitudes or behaviours

Figure 13. 3 Cognitive Dissonance

Assessing the World Using Nonverbal Communication (Social Cognition) LOBJ 13. 6 • Impression formation often begins with nonverbal communication, the communication of information by physical cues or actions, facial expressions, body language, and eye contact

Facial Expressions • LOBJ 13. 8 Across cultures, six basic emotions are distinguished in facial expressions – Anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise • When a person smiles, both the muscular activity around the eyes and the smile help determine if the person is happy, or masking another feeling

Body Language LOBJ 13. 8 • Information about moods and attitudes is conveyed through body language • Gestures and aspects of body language have different meanings in different societies

Eye Contact LOBJ 13. 8 • The eyes convey a surprising amount of information about feelings • People tend to judge others based on the eye contact they engage in

Nonverbal Communication: Flirting

Concept Check • Send a nonverbal message to the person sitting next to you. • KEEP IT CLEAN!!!

Inferring the Causes of Behaviour: Attribution • Attribution is the process by which a person infers other people’s motives or intentions • Attribution must take into account internal as well as external causes of behaviour • This is how we try to explain WHY someone did what they did. We make attributes. LOBJ 13. 9

Why People Make Attributions • People use attributions to maintain a sense of control over their environment – Allows you to understand predict • Knowledge about the causes of events helps predict and control similar events in the future LOBJ 13. 9

Errors in Attribution LOBJ 13. 9 • Errors or bias can occur in making attributions about the behaviour of others • Sometimes errors occur because people use mental shortcuts that are not accurate • For example…

#1: The Fundamental Attribution Error • When people commit the fundamental attribution error, they assume people’s behaviour is caused by their internal dispositions and situational influences are underestimated • “She’s a bitch. ” (what if she had a bad day? ) • “That idiot can’t drive. ” (birthday cake on the seat? )

#2: The Actor-Observer Effect • The actor-observer effect is the tendency to attribute the behaviour of others to internal causes • Dispositional: that’s the way they are. They got an F on the exam because they aren’t very smart. • One’s own behaviour is attributed to situational causes • Situational: I acted like this because of the circumstances. I got an F because I was sick that day and didn’t perform well on the exam.

The Self-Serving Bias • • The self-serving bias is the tendency for people to feel their positive behaviours are due to their internal traits (I’m good!) At the same time, they blame their failures and shortcomings on external, situational factors (You messed me up. )

Social Influence • Social influence refers to the ways people alter the attitudes or behaviours of others – Conformity: going along with the crowd – Obedience: doing what you are told to do. What is the name of the researcher most often associated with studies of conformity? Hint: it’s in your book.

Conformity LOBJ 13. 12 • When a person changes her or his attitudes or behaviours so they are consistent with those of other people or norms, the person is exhibiting conformity

Conformity • Solomon Asch found that people in a group adopt its standards • Seven to nine people were asked to judge which of three lines matched a standard line • Only one group member, the “naïve” participant, was really unaware of the purpose of the study • The other “participants” deliberately gave false answers (confederates) • Asch found some naïve participants would go along with the group, even when the answer they gave was obviously wrong Asch & Sharif Conformity and Independence

How Do Groups Cause Conformity? • One factor that leads to • Another important variable conformity is the amount of information available when a decision is made • When people are uncertain of how to behave in an ambiguous situation, they seek the opinions of others is the relative competence of the group • Conformity increases if people feel other group members are more competent

How Do Groups Cause Conformity? • Position within a group also affects behaviour • The more secure one’s status, the more independently one will behave • The public nature of behaviour also determines behaviour • People are more likely to make decisions inconsistent with the group if decisions are private Remember the video?

Why Do People Conform? • The social conformity approach states that people conform to avoid the stigma of being wrong or deviant • Attribution also explains conformity – When a person can identify causes for group behaviour they disagree with, conformity decreases

Why Do People Conform? • Independence can explain conformity (or lack of it) – But, independence can be risky, and be seen as deviant • Conformity can be due to expediency – It is efficient to go along with people one trusts

Not Conforming • Dissenting opinions help counteract group influence and conformity – A consistent opposing voice can exert subtle influence (12 Angry Men) – It can foster a sense of liberation, even when the opposition has little status or power

Obedience is compliance with the orders of another person or group • Classic studies of obedience were performed by Stanley Milgram • Milgram told participants they would be participating in a study of the effects of punishment on learning • Obedience Study - Milgram LOBJ 13. 12

Obedience • Their task was to administer electric shock to a “learner, ” but in reality, the “learner” was a confederate • Milgram found that 65% of all participants could be coaxed to deliver every level of shock – 450 volts max No one really got shocked!

Figure 13. 7 Milgram’s Obedience Study

Explaining Milgram’s Results • Milgram may have found high obedience because his participants were volunteers • Other researchers found that obedience to authority is not specific to Western culture, and that it applies to men and women, and younger and older individuals • Authority – changed results • Peer Behavior – changed results

Ethical Issues • Milgram’s study raised ethical issues • To ensure that there are no long-lasting ill effects from participating in a study, participants are debriefed • Debriefing means informing participants about the true nature of a study after its completion

The Bystander Effect • The bystander effect is that as the number of people present at an emergency increases, people often watch, but do not help • Latané and Darley found that before deciding to help, people must decide if there is actually an emergency

The Bystander Effect • People may also Kitty’s street experience diffusion of responsibility (feeling they cannot be held responsible for not helping) – E. g. Kitty Genovese Murder Kitty Genovese Latane` and Darley

Relationships and Attraction • Interpersonal attraction is the tendency of one person to evaluate another in a positive way LOBJ 13. 17

Proximity • Decades of research show that the closer people are geographically, the more likely they will become attracted to one another – You like what you have access to. Interpersonal attraction

Physical Attractiveness Many studies show that people are romantically attracted to those they find physically attractive • People assume attractive individuals have more positive traits and characteristics • More power, status, and competence is ascribed to physically attractive individuals •

Attitude Similarity and Attraction • If you perceive someone’s attitudes as similar to your own, the probability of liking that person increases

Intimate Relationships and Love Intimacy is a state in which each person in a relationship is willing to self-disclose and express important feelings and information to the other person • The process of disclosure makes each person feel valued and cared for •

Intimate Relationships and Love • Men tend to be more self-disclosing with a woman than another man • Men are less likely to be self-disclosing and intimate

What is love? The night has a thousand eyes, And the day but one; Yet the light of the bright world dies With the dying sun. The mind has a thousand eyes, And the heart but one; Yet the light of a whole life dies When love is done. Francis William Bourdillon