Chapter 13 Social Psychology - study of how people influence others' behavior, beliefs, and attitudes Need to belong theory-

- the need to want to have relationships with other people literally hurts to be isolated or rejected (same areas of the brain) social pain may be more harmful than physical in some cases Social comparison theory- we seek to evaluate our abilities and beliefs by comparing them with those of others' Upward and downward comparisons (comparison to someone superior/comparison to someone inferior) Attributions- assigning causes to behavior Internal attributions - dispositional factors (internal) External attributions - situational factors (external) Fundamental Attribution Error- overestimate internal factors, underestimate external factors Self-Serving Bias- equate success to internal factors, failures to external attributes Social Norms- informal rules that govern behavior in groups and society Conformity- changing one's behavior and opinions because of others actions or beliefs Asch study- 1 participant and 7 confederates (actors), answers out loud, actors are wrong, track whether or not the subject conforms 75% of people conformed at least once in the study (Asian cultures more likely to conform) Obedience- form of compliance where people adhere to orders from those of higher authority Examples that initiated research: German soldiers in WWII, Pledges/Hazing, Milgram study- investigate obedience to authority Participants=teacher with shock machine control. Learner is hooked up to the machine and is an actor. Experimenter tells participant to shock learner when they are wrong with increasingly high voltage. Eventually confederate protests, and stops answering. Experimenter says they must continue. 65% went to max voltage. Obedience drops when: Authority proximity- experimenter is in different room Victim proximity- learner is in same room Credibility- when they told the people the study was no longer Yale University Dissent example- when participants see other participants refuse Stanford Prison Study- recruited normal young men for a two week "psychological study of prison life" Randomly assigned as either a guard or prisoner Prisoners were dressed as such, and given a number rather than name

By the second day, guards began to treat prisoners cruelly and dole out punishment Prisoners started a rebellion, guards became increasingly sadistic The study had to be stopped after 6 days due to nervous breakdowns by prisoners Social Roles- shared expectations of behavior for people in certain positions Power of situation- guards=cruel and abusive; prisoners=apathetic and emotionally disturbed Group- two or more individuals who interact and are independent Social Facilitation- when the mere presence of others enhances our performance Social Disruption- when the presence of others interferes with our performance Groupthink- an emphasis on group unanimity at the expense of critical thinking (ie. Bay of Pigs, Challenger explosion) Appointing a devil's advocate, having an independent expert, or holding follow up meetings can combat Groupthink Group polarization- when a groups views become more extreme due to talking about their ideas Deindividuation- the tendency of people to engage in atypical behavior when stripped of their usual identity become more vulnerable to social influence wearing masks/concealing identity can lead to deindividuation Prosocial behavior- behavior intended to help others Antisocial behavior- aggressive acts against others Humans display both, and situational factors can influence which one is displayed Bystander Nonintervention- when people see someone in need but fail to help them (ie Kitty Genovese's murder) Two factors help explain this: pluralistic ignorance (the error of assuming that no one else perceives things as we do) and diffusion of responsibility (how we respond once we have identified a situation as an emergency, but we don't take responsibility of helping the person because others are around) the percentage of people helping when in groups is markedly lower than percentage of people when helping alone

Final Exam- Tuesday 10 Dec 12:30-2:30 Chapter 10,13, Myths 2, 5, 7 Social Loafing- when people slack off in groups cultural factors- more common in US (individualistic cultures) and less in Asian identification in groups helps fight this and increases productivity Prosocial Behavior- behavior intended to help others Altruism- helping others for unselfish reasons (often when we feel empathetic toward victim)

People are more likely to help others when they: are unable to escape from a situation have adequate time to intervene are in a good mood have been exposed to research on bystander intervention men are more likely to help women rather than men, especially if the woman is attractive Aggression- behavior intended to harm others, either physical or verbal Situational influences: interpersonal provocation frustration media influence aggressive cues arousal alcohol and other drugs temperature Individual, gender, and cultural influences Personality traits: high levels of negative emotions impulsivity lack of closeness to others Sex differences: higher level of physical aggressiveness among males than females females higher than males in relational aggression Cultural differences Southern "culture of honor" (the need to defend one's name, especially when insulted) Attitudes (a belief that includes an emotional component) aren't typically good predictors of behavior Attitudes do predict behavior well when they are: highly accessible firmly held stable over time Cognitive Dissonance Theory- an unpleasant state of tension between two opposing thoughts A discrepancy between two beliefs leads to an unpleasant state of tension that we're motivated to reduce Reduce the unpleasant state by: change the first cognition change the second cognition introduce a third that resolves the conflict Self-Perception Theory: the idea that we acquire our attitudes by observing our own behavior Impression Management Theory:

we don't really change our attitudes, but report that we have so that our behaviors appear consistent with our attitudes

Persuasion Two pathways to persuading others: central route focuses on informational content peripheral route focuses on more surface aspects of the argument Foot-in-the-door technique- starts small then big Door-in-the-face technique- starts big then small Prejudice, stereotypes, discrimination stereotype- belief that is either positive or negative about the characteristics of a group that is applied generally to most members of the group prejudice- drawing negative conclusions about a person, group of people, or situation prior to evaluating the evidence discrimination- negative behavior toward members of outgroups In-group bias- tendency to favor individuals within group over those from outside of group Out-group homogeneity- tendency to view all individuals outside our group as highly similar Scapegoat hypothesis- arises from a need to blame other groups for our misfortunes Just world hypothesis- implies that we have a need to see the world as fair, even if its not conformity- going along with others' ideas Robber's Cave Study Boys randomly selected and sent to camp.Rattlers and Eagles. Competitions fostered hate between the groups Experiments showed that activities with a common goal decreased hostility