Social Psychology Social Thinking n Attribution Theory tendency

Social Psychology

Social Thinking n Attribution Theory – tendency to give a causal explanation for someone’s behavior, often by crediting either the situation or… the person’s disposition

Social Thinking n Fundamental Attribution Error –when explaining another’s behavior, we tend to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition

Social Thinking n How we explain someone’s behavior affects how we react to it Tolerant reaction Situational attribution “Maybe that driver is ill. ” (proceed cautiously, allow driver a wide berth) Negative behavior Dispositional attribution “Crazy driver!” Unfavorable reaction (Speed up and race past the other driver, craning to give them a dirty look)

Attribution n Interestingly, people do more the opposite when attributing successes or failures to themselves (we blame the situation more than ourselves).

Social Influence n Normative Social Influence – influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval to……Conformity – adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard n Leads

Social Influence - concepts n Informational Social Influence – influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality n …Leads To Norms – an understood rule for accepted and expected behavior – prescribes “proper” behavior

Social Influence Asch Conformity Experiment click above for a clip! 1 Standard lines 3 2 Comparison lines

Social Influence Percentage of 50 conformity to confederates’ 40 wrong answers Difficult judgments 30 20 10 Easy judgments 0 High Low Importance Slide 1 Slide 2 § Participants judged which person in Slide 2 was the same as the person in Slide 1

Obedience § Stanley Milgram: People conform, but will they simply obey others? 65% of Milgram’s “teachers” did!

A “Shocking Experiment” § Over 400 volts!!

Social Influence n Milgram’s experiment That’s Almost 70%! Percentage 100 of subjects 90 who obeyed 80 experimenter 70 60 50 40 The majority of subjects continued to obey to the end 30 20 10 0 Slight Moderate Strong (15 -60) (75 -120) (135 -180) Very strong (195 -240) Intense (255 -300) Extreme Danger XXX intensity severe (435 -450) (315 -360) (375 -420) Shock levels in volts

Obedience is higher when… n Person giving the orders is perceived as a legit Authority figure. (prof. , cop, etc) n “orderer” supported by a prestigious institute (Yale, Government, etc) n Victim is “depersonalized” or distant (no name, in another room, etc) n No role models for defiance

Stanford Prison Experiment n Philip Zimbardo – The power of the “Situation”

Two-weeks in a simulated prison n sample of 24 college students volunteered for the experiment. $15 per day average group of healthy, intelligent, middle-class males. n arbitrarily divided into two groups by a flip of the coin. Half were randomly assigned to be guards, the other to be prisoners.

Stanford Prison Experiment n n n Basement of Stanford's Psychology Department building converted to “look like” a prison. corridor was "The Yard” Blindfolded to visit the bathroom n Doors removed from some laboratory rooms and replaced with specially made doors with steel bars and cell numbers.

n Nervous Breakdowns n Guards began abusing the prisoners n Experiment was ended after only 6 days!

DO NOT WRITE YOUR NAME ON THIS SHEET – ANSWER COMPLETELY ANONOMOUSLY! If you could be totally invisible for 24 hours and were completely assured that you would not be detected or held responsible for your actions, what would you do? n

Social Influence: somebody’s watching me… – Social Impairment – People tend to perform WORSE on difficult or new tasks in the presence of others n Social Facilitation – People tend to perform simple/well-learned tasks BETTER in the presence of others

Social Influence: somebody’s helping me… n Social Loafing – People in groups exert less effort when working toward a common goal than when working individually

Deindividuation – The loss of self awareness and self restrain – Occurring in group situations

Social Relations n Percentage 90 attempting to help 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1 2 3 Number of others presumed available to help 4 Bystander Effect – tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present

Kitty Genovese Case n Repeatedly stabbed while 38 people watched from their apartments and did nothing!

Social Relations – why prejudice & social bias? n In-group Bias – tendency to favor one’s own group and dislike or blame things on another “outgroup”

n Scapegoat Theory – Taking responsibility often causes people too much “dissonance” – Better to blame others (maybe even an “out-group”) – prejudice provides an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame

n Just-World Phenomenon – tendency of people to believe the world is “just” – people get what they deserve and deserve what they get

Social Relations- What attracts us to others? n Proximity – mere exposure effect- repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them n Physical Attractiveness – youthfulness may be associated with health and fertility n Similarity – friends share common attitudes, beliefs, interests

Attractiveness n Worldwide, men prefer youth and health, women prefer resources and social status

Social Relations n Passionate Love – an aroused state of intense positive absorption in another – usually present at the beginning of a love relationship n Companionate Love – deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined

The key to lasting and satisfying relationships n Equity – a condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it n Self-disclosure – revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others n Altruism – unselfish regard for the welfare of others