Social Psychology - Purdue

1 Announcements This is the last week for experiments Monday 13th at 9am is deadline for alternative papers (contact Sue Phebus if you plan on doing this). Social Psychology For only those on the list with 3 or more exams on same day, you must contact Mary Ann Honors by this Thursday to Chapter 16 reschedule. Top Cumulative Score = 192. Exam 5 Study Session: PSY Thursday, Dec 16th, 5:00-6:00pm, PRCE 277. Fall, 2010 Exam 5: Friday, Dec 17th, 10:20am 12:20pm, CL50, Rm 224 (here). 1 2. Group Pressure &. Focuses in Social Psychology Conformity An influence resulting from one's We cannot live for ourselves alone. willingness to accept others' opinions Herman Melville about reality. qlJqR4 GmKw Social Psychology scientifically studies how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.

2 William Vandivert/ Scientific American 3 4. Conditions that Strengthen Conformity Reasons for Conformity Normative Social Influence: Influence resulting from a One is made to feel incompetent or insecure. person's desire to gain approval or avoid rejection. A person The group has at least three people. may respect normative behavior because there may be a The group is unanimous. severe price to pay if not respected. One admires the group's status and attractiveness. Informative Social Influence: The group may provide One has no prior commitment or response. valuable information, but stubborn people will never listen to The group observes one's behavior. others. One's culture strongly encourages respect for a Social standard. Mindless conformity: Using others as cues to behavior without thinking or dealing with the dilemma of perception/.

3 Thoughts and others' perceptions and thoughts. 5 6. 1. Informative Social Influence Informative Social Influence Baron and colleagues (1996) made students do an eyewitness identification task. If the task was easy (lineup exposure 5 sec.), conformity was low in comparison to a difficult (1/2 sec. exposure) task. 7. Baron et al., (1996) 8. Obedience Obedience to Authority People comply to Social pressures. How would they Courtesy of CUNY Graduate School and University Center respond to outright command? Stanley Milgram designed a study that investigates the effects of authority on obedience. Stanley Milgram (1933-1984). 9 10. Milgram's Study Milgram's Study: Results Both Photos: 1965 By Stanley Miligram, from the film Obedience, dist. by Penn State, Media Sales 11 12.

4 2. Lessons from the Conformity and Factors that Increase Obedience Studies Obedience In both Asch's and Milgram's studies, participants were pressured against following their standards and Authority is physically closer to participant be responsive to others. Victim is physically further from participant Having Co-Participants who willingly (and without question) obey. In Milgram's study, participants were torn between hearing the victims pleas, their own values, and the experimenter's orders. 13 14. Power of the Situation: Role Playing Affects attitudes Stanford Prison Study Zimbardo (1972) assigned the roles of guards and prisoners to random students and found that guards and prisoners developed role- appropriate attitudes . v=rmwSC5fS40w&feature=related Originally published in the New Yorker Phillip G.

5 Zimbardo, Inc. 15 16. The Chameleon Effect or Conformity & Obedience Nonconscious Mimicry Behavior is contagious, modeled by one followed by Conformity: Adjusting one's behavior or thinking another. We follow behavior of others to conform. to coincide with a group standard (Chartrand &. Bargh, 1999). Other behaviors may be an expression of compliance (obedience) toward authority. Conformity Obedience 17 18. 3. Group Pressure & Conformity What Happens When We Don't Conform? Suggestibility is a subtle type of conformity, adjusting our behavior or thinking toward some Reactions to a Deviate group standard. Groups create pressures toward uniformity Pressures to change deviate Pressure to reject/exclude deviate 19 20. Bystander Intervention Reasons for Bystander Effect Pluralistic Ignorance Others aren't helping, so help is probably not needed (similar to conformity).

6 Social Inhibition Fear of standing out, making a mistake, overblowing the situation, etc. Diffusion of Responsibility 21 22. Just six months ago Social Inhibition Social Inhibition (Petty, Williams, Harkins, & Latan , 1977: Bystander Response to a Cheeseburger . How are Conformity and Social Inhibition Similar? Free Cheesebur ger 23 24. 4. Actions Can Affect attitudes Cognitive Dissonance Why do actions affect attitudes ? One explanation is We don't like to hold inconsistent thoughts, or that when our attitudes and actions are opposed, we have a thought that is inconsistent with our experience tension. This is called cognitive behavior. dissonance. When faced with an inconsistency (for something relatively important), we experience cognitive dissonance.. We are motivated to reduce this dissonance.)

7 To relieve ourselves of this tension we bring our We change the belief/attitude to come in line with attitudes closer to our actions (Festinger, 1957). the behavior. 1$/$20 Study by Festinger & Carlsmith Severity of initiation by Aronson & Mills 25 26. Attributing Behavior to Persons or to Situations Social Thinking Attribution Theory: Fritz 1. Does his absenteeism signify Heider (1958) suggested illness, laziness, or a stressful work that we have a tendency to atmosphere? give causal explanations 2. Was the horror of 9/11 the work of crazed for someone's behavior, evil people or ordinary people corrupted often by crediting either by life events? the situation or the 3. Why was Derek Anderson smiling when person's disposition. his team was losing so badly? Social thinking involves thinking about others, Fritz Heider especially when they engage in doing things that are watch?

8 V=sZBKer6 PMtM 27 unexpected. 28. Attributing Behavior to Persons or to Fundamental Attribution Error Situations A teacher may wonder whether a child's hostility The tendency to overestimate the impact of personal reflects an aggressive personality (dispositional disposition and underestimate the impact of the attribution) or is a reaction to stress or abuse (a situations in analyzing the behaviors of others leads situational attribution). to the fundamental attribution error. Dispositions are enduring personality traits. So, if Joe is a quiet, shy, and introverted We see Joe as quiet, shy, and introverted most of the child, he is likely to be like that in a number of time, but with friends he is very talkative, loud, and situations. extroverted. 29 30. 5. Effects of Attribution Attitude How we explain someone's behavior affects how we A belief and feeling that predisposes a person to react to it.

9 Respond in a particular way to objects, other people, and events. If we believe a person is mean, we may feel dislike for the person and act in an unfriendly manner. 31 32. attitudes Can Affect Action attitudes Can Affect Action Our attitudes predict our behaviors imperfectly Not only do people stand for what they believe in because other factors, including the external situation, (attitude), they start believing in what they stand for. also influence behavior. Democratic leaders supported Bush's attack on Iraq under public pressure. However, they had their private D. MacDonald/ PhotoEdit reservations. 33 34. Cooperative actions can lead to mutual liking (beliefs). Small Request Large Request Social Influence In the Korean War, Chinese communists solicited The greatest contribution of Social Psychology is its cooperation from US army prisoners by asking them study of attitudes , beliefs, decisions, and actions and to carry out small errands.

10 By complying to small the way they are molded by Social influence. errands they were likely to comply to larger ones. Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon: The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request. 35 36. 6. Individual Behavior in the Presence of Group Influence Others How do groups affect our behavior? Social Social facilitation: Refers psychologists study various groups: to improved performance on tasks in the presence of others. Triplett (1898). noticed cyclists' race times One person affecting another were faster when they competed against others Families Michelle Agnis/ NYT Pictures than when they just raced Teams against the clock. Committees 37 38. Social Loafing Deindividuation The tendency of an individual in a group to exert less The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in group effort toward attaining a common goal than when situations that foster arousal and anonymity.