Andy Lopez

AP PSYCH Notes Chapter 18

Social Psychology
I. Social psychology pg 723
a. The three main focuses of social psychology are: how people think about, influence, and
relate to one another
II. Attributing Behavior to Persons or to Situations pg 724-726
a. Attribution theory: suggests how we explain someone’s behavior – by crediting either
the situation or the person’s dispositions
b. Situational attributions: stressing the influence of external events that may explain our
own behavior. Dispositional attributions: assumption of behavior because of personal
traits (e.g. a teacher may wonder whether the behavior of a child is caused by either
aggressive personality (dispositional attribution) or stress or abuse.
c. Fundamental attribution error: the tendency to underestimate the impact of the
situation and to overestimate the impat of personal disposition (e.g. A person may be
quiet in class but maybe at a party this person may not be so quiet)
d. Our attributions – to individual’s dispositions or to their situations – have consequences
III. Attitudes and Actions pg 726- 730
a. Attitudes: feelings, often based on belief that predispose us to respond in a particular
way to objects, people, and events (e.g. if we believe someone is mean, we may feel
dislike towards the persona and therefore act unfriendly towards them
b. Attitudes are most likely to have an affect towards behaviors when social pressure is
minimal, when the attitude is specific to the behavior and when we are keenly aware of
our attitudes. (e.g. cooperative actions on sports team leads to mutual liking which then
leads to positive behavior)
c. Foot in the door phenomenon – the tendency for people who have first agreed to a
small request to comply later with a larger request. “start small then gradually buildup”.
This phenomena has helped increase the good deeds such as desegregation, charity
work, and
d. Role playing- people who behaved in certain ways in scripted scenarios have adopted
attitudes in keeping with those roles. (e.g. would be Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford
Experiment where the people who acted as guards developed an aggressive behavior
and cruel punishments where as the prisoners broke down, rebelled or became
passively resigned. This two week experiment was reduced to six days. Another example
would be soldiers returning home from war)
e. Cognitive dissonance theory: we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when we act in
ways that conflict with our feelings and beliefs, and we reduce this discomfort by
revising our attitudes to align them moer closely with behavior. (e.g. when our
awareness of our attitudes and of our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting
disagreement by changing our attitudes. )
f. All three instances attitudes adapt behavior, rather than driving it.
IV. Social Influence
a. Conformity and obedience pg 731-734
i. Conformity – adjusting your thinking to fit into a groups standard
ii. Chameleon effect – our tendency to unconsciously mimic those around us (e.g.
when a person yawns, others yawn as well) Automatic mimicry is an ingredient
in the ability to empathize with others
iii. Conditions that strengthen conformity: one is made to feel incompetent or
insecure, the group has at least three people, the group is unanimous, one
admires the group’s stats and attractiveness etc.
iv. Reasons for conformity: normative social influence (we are sensitive to social
norms and want approval and avoid disapproval) and informational social
influence (influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions
about reality).
v. Obidience- In Stanley Milgram’s experiment, people were torn between obeying
the orders of the observer or responding to another’s pleas to stop the shocks.
Usually they chose to follow the orders even though it was harming the other
 person. The conditions were at the highest when the person giving orders was
nearby, the experimenter seemed as an authority figure, the observer was from
a prestigious institution, the victim was at a distance and when no other person
modeled defiance by disobeying.
vi. The conformity and obedience studies help us by helping us become less
suspectible to powerful social influences in real-life situations in which we must
choose between adhering to our own standards or being responsibe to others
b. Group Influence pg 736
i. Social facilitation- improved performance on easy or well-learned tasks but
decrease on difficulty or newly learned tasks.
ii. Social loafing – tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when in a
group toward attaining a common goal rather than working alone.
iii. Deindividuation – people become less self-aware and self-restrained which may
result from when a group experience arouses people and which occurs when a
group experience arouses people or makes them feel anonymous or annoyed
V. Social Relations
a. Prejudice- an unjustiflable attitude toward a group and its members.
i. Composed of three components: belief (often stereotypes, a belief of a group of
people), emotions (often negative), and predispositions to action (usually
discrimination)
ii. Overt Prejudice- (e.g.) denies a particular ethnic group the right to vote, is
discrimination that explicitly expresses negative beliefs and emotions. Subtle
prejudice – implicit (often unconscious) expression of negative beliefs and
emotions. (e.g. feeling fearful in the presence of a stranger with a particular
ethnic background.
iii. Social Roots of Prejudice
1. Social inequalities – unequal distribution of money, power, and
prestige. This occurs within a group and the people who “have” it al
usually develop a negative attitude towards those who “have not” to
show their privileged position.
2. In-group (“us” people with whom one shares a common identity) and
out-group (“them” those who perceived as different or apart from the
one’s in-group). Social identity (“we” the in-group versus “they” the
out-group) are another source of prejudice because they promote in-
group bias and discrimination.
iv. Scapegoat theory – tendency for us to blame someone else for a troubling event,
which is causes fear and anger within us. People begin to search for this once
in-group loyalty and out-group prejudice intensifies.
v. Cognitive Roots of Prejudice
1. Categorization – often characterized by stereotype, we over generalize
their characteristics and underestimate their differences.
2. Vivid Cases – violent cases are readily available to our memory and
therefore influence our judgements of a group. More violent things are
remembered rather than other key events involving the same group
(e.g. attack on 9/11 and its effect on muslim terrorist attack)
3. Just World Phenomenon – tendency to believe the world is just and
that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get.
Hindsight bias (knowing the outcome and saying we would have
predicted easily) contributes to blame the victim
b. Aggression pg 749- 756
i. Any physical or verbal behavior intended for hurting or destroying. This is
more precise than the everyday definition and includes the behavior that might
not include everyday usage. Emerges from the interaction of biology and
experience
ii. Biology Aggressions
1. Genetic Influences – influences aggression for example by influencing
the temperate.
 2. Neural Influences – experiments stimulating portions of the brain (e.g.
amygdala or frontal lobe) demostrate that the brain has a neural
system that controls aggression
3. Biochemical Influences- studies show that hormones, alcohol, and
other substances show that biochemical influeces also contribute to
aggression
iii. The psychology of aggression
1. Aversive events: frustration-aggressive principle that states that
frustration leads to anger which leads to aggression. (fight or flight).
Also if the temperature is up, then the aggression is up as well
2. Knowing aggressive behavior is rewarding: can estrablish learned
patterns of aggression that are difficult to change. (e.g. gaining a treat
from another student by bullyinh)
3. Observing models of aggression – people can learn aggression and
become desensitized to violence in person (fight within family) or
media (violence or sexual aggression on television)
4. Media depictions of violence can trigger aggression in another way: by
provoking social scripts. (e.g. be a man)
iv. Does video games teach or release violence?
1. It can heighten aggressive behavior by providing social scripts and
opportunities to observe modeled aggression and to role play
aggression.
2. Can increase arousal and feelings of hostility, prime aggressive
thoughts and increase aggression, and lead to icreased participation in
arguments and fights
3. Video games may heighten these effects
c. Conflict – perceived incompatibility of actions, goals or ideas pgs 756- 758
i. Social traps: each party pursues own interest and ends up in a mutually
destructive behavior
1. Helping people to agree on regulations, comminicate better and be
more aware of responsibilities toward others can foster cooperation
and avoid social traps
ii. Enemy Perceptions: people in conflict tend to perceive the worst in each other
1. Mirror Image Perception – As we see “them” as untrustworthy and evil
intentioned, so “they” see us. Each demonizes the other
2. self-fulfilling prophecy
a. perceptions confirm themselves by influencing the country to
react in ways that justify them
b. triggers reaction that confirms image
d. Attraction pgs 758-764
i. The Psychology of Attraction: there are three ingredients that influence our
liking for one another: proximity, physical attractiveness and similarity
1. Proximity: (geographical nearness) promotes attraction because it
increases the opportunity for interaction and in part because of the
mere exposure effect (repeated exposure to novel stimuli enhances
liking)
2. Physical attractiveness: people prefer being with attractive people and
perceive them as healthier, happier, more sensitive, more successful,
and more socially skilled.
a. Predicts frequency of dating, feelings of popularity, and
others' initial impressions of their personalities
b. Attractiveness varies by culture and by person
3. Similarity
a. Greatly increases liking after people make it past the first
impression.
b. Reward theory of attraction: we tend to like people whose
behavior is rewarding to us and we will continue
relationships that offer more rewards than costs
 ii. Romantic Love: distinguishes two types of love: temporary passionate love and
enduring companionate love
1. Passionate Love: an aroused state of intense positive absorption in
another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship
(arousal=key ingredient). Adrenaline makes the heart grow fonder
2. Companionate Love: deep affectionate attachment. Equity is the key to
a surviving relationship. Self-disclosure- revealing of intimate details
about ourselves
e. Altruism: pgs 764-767
i. Defined as unselfish regard for the welfare of others (e.g. helping victims of a
natural disaster, giving blood, or donating to local food pantries with no
expectation of personal reward)
ii. Bystander Intervention: then tendency identified by John Darley and Bibb
Latane for any given observer to be less likely to help if others are present
1. Steps are: Notice accident, interprets incident as emergency, assumes
responsibility and then attempts to help. If one of them is no, then no
help will be given
2. Bystander effects: tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to
give aid if other bystanders are present
3. Best odds of our helping someone: victim appears to need and deserve
help, victim is in some way similar to us, we have just observed
someone else being helpful, we are not in a hurry, we are in small
town, guilt, focused on others and not preoccupied, and in a good
mood
iii. Norms of helping
1. Social exchange theory: proposes that our social behaviors, even
altruistic, helpful acts – are based on self interest: maximizing our
benefits and minimize our costs
2. Social norms: influence altruistic behaviors by telling us how we
should behave
3. Reciprocity form: the expectation that we will help those who help us
4. Social Responsibility: The expectation that we will help those who are
dependent of us
f. Peacemaking pgs 767-769 (encourage peaceful cooperation and reducing social conflict)
i. Friendly contact between prejudiced people can change attitudes.
ii. Social conflict is most likely to be reduced when the circumstances favor
cooperation to achieve superordinate goals (shared goals that override
differences among people and require their cooperation), understanding
through communication (sometimes with the help of a third party), and
reciprocated conciliatory gestures (such as GRIT strategy which stands for
Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction- a strategy
designed to decrease international tensions)