Lecture 10 – Ch.

13 Social Psychology
Social Psychology
 The study of how the real or imaginary presence of other people influences our
thoughts, feelings, and actions.
 We cannot survive in isolation.
o Children are dependent.
o Loneliness & Depression.
 Throughout your life, you will be around others.
o How will that affect your behavior?
o How does that affect your behavior of others?

Our Thoughts
 When something happens:
o A relationship dissolves.
o A friend is unhappy.
o You receive a bad grade.
o You are not hired for a job.
 Do you try to figure out “why” it happened?

Person vs. Situation

 Attribution Theory:
o Fritz Heider (1958) suggested that we have a tendency to give causal
explanations for someone’s behavior, often by crediting either the situation or
the person’s disposition.

Fundamental Attribution Error

 The tendency to:
o Underestimate the role of situations.
o Overestimate the role of dispositions.
 We assume behavior is due to people’s personalities too much and we fail to realize how
much of an influence situations and circumstances can have on a person.
Effects of Attribution
 How we explain someone’s behavior affects how we react to it.

Attitudes

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
 There is a “beauty is good” stereotype.
o We falsely assume attractive people are nicer and better.
Role Playing Affects Attitudes
 Zimbardo (1972) assigned the roles of guards and prisoners to random students and
found that guards and prisoners developed role-appropriate attitudes.

Cognitive Dissonance

Group Pressure & Conformity

 Conformity involves adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group
standard.

Asch’s Conformity Study

 Participants were asked to select the line closest in length to the standard.
 When confederates gave obviously wrong answers.
o More than 1/3 conformed and agreed with the incorrect choices.
Conditions that Strengthen Conformity
1. One is made to feel incompetent or insecure.
2. The group has at least three people.
3. The group is unanimous.
4. One admires the group’s status and attractiveness.
5. One has no prior commitment to a response.
6. The group observes one’s behavior.
7. One’s culture strongly encourages respect for a social standard.

Reasons for Conforming

 Normative Social Influence
o Influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid
rejection/disapproval.
 Informational Social Influence.
o Influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about
reality.

Obedience
 People comply to social pressures. How would they respond to outright command?
 Stanley Milgram designed a study that investigates the effects of authority on
obedience.

Milgram’s Study
Milgram’s Study: Results

Influence of Others
 Social Facilitation
o Refers to improved performance on tasks in the presence of others.
 Social Loafing
o The tendency of an individual in a group to exert less effect toward attaining a
common goal than when tested individually.

Deindividuation
 The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in group situations that foster arousal and
anonymity.
Summary: Behavior in the Presence of Others

Effects of Group Interaction

 Group Polarization enhances a group’s prevailing attitudes through a discussion. If a
group is like-minded, discussion strengthens its prevailing opinions and attitudes.

Groupthink
 A mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group
overrides the realistic appraisal of alternatives.
Bystander Intervention
 The decision-making process for bystander intervention.

Bystander Effect
 Diffusion of Responsibility
o Tendency of any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders
are present.

The Psychology of Attraction

1. Proximity: Geographic nearness is a powerful predictor of friendship. Repeated
exposure to novel stimuli increases their attraction (mere exposure effect).
Online Matchmaking

Psychology of Attraction
2. Physical Attractiveness: Once proximity affords contact, the next most important thing
in attraction is physical appearance.

3. Similarity: Similar views among individuals causes the bond of attraction to strengthen.

Romantic Love
 Passionate Love: An aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually
present at the beginning of a love relationship.

Two-Factor Theory of Emotion

1. Physical arousal plus cognitive appraisal.
2. Arousal from any source can enhance one emotion depending upon what we interpret
or label the arousal.

Romantic Love Cont …

 Companionate Love: A deep, affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our
lives are intertwined.
Prejudice
 Prejudice – An unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its
members. Prejudice generally involves: (1) stereotyped beliefs, (2) negative feelings, and
(3) a predisposition to discriminatory action.
 Stereotype – A generalized (sometimes accurate, but often overgeneralized) belief about
a group of people.
 Discrimination – Unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members.
 Just-world phenomenon – The tendency for people to believe the world is just and that
people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get.
 Ingroup – “Us” – People with whom we share a common identity.
 Outgroup – “Them” – Those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup.
 Ingroup bias – The tendency to favor our own group.
 Scapegoat theory – The theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing
someone to blame.
 Other-race effect (also known as cross-race effect or own-race bias) – The tendency to
recall faces of one’s own race more accurately then faces of other races.