Psychology Article
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Psychology
Fifth Edition
Saundra K. Ciccarelli
J. Noland White Saundra K. Ciccarelli
J. Noland White
Copyright © 2018, 2015, 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Psychology Fifth Edition
Chapter 1212
Social Psychology
Learning Objectives 1 of 2
12.1 Identify factors that influence people or groups to conform to the
actions of others.
12.2 Explain how our behavior is impacted by the presence of others.
12.3 Compare and contrast three compliance techniques.
12.4 Identify factors that make obedience more likely.
12.5 Identify the three components of an attitude and how attitudes
are formed.
12.6 Describe how attitudes can be changed.
12.7 Explain how people react when attitudes differ from behavior.
12.8 Describe how people form impressions of others.
Learning Objectives 2 of 2
12.9 Describe the process of explaining one’s own behavior and the
behavior of others.
12.10 Distinguish between prejudice and discrimination.
12.11 Describe theories of how prejudice is learned and how it can
be overcome.
12.12 Identify factors involved in interpersonal attraction.
12.13 Describe the different types of love outlined in Sternberg’s
theory.
12.14 Explain how aggressive behavior is determined by biology and
learning.
12.15 Identify the factors influencing why people help others.
12.16 Define social neuroscience.
Conformity 1 of 2 Learning Objective 12.1 Identify factors that influence people or groups to
conform to the actions of others.
• Social psychology: the scientific study of how a
person’s behavior, thoughts, and feelings
influence and are influenced by social groups
– Includes the social world in which we exist, as we are
surrounded by others to whom we are connected and
by whom we are influenced in so many ways
Conformity 2 of 2
• Social influence: the process through which the
real or implied presence of others can directly or
indirectly influence the thoughts, feelings, and
behavior of an individual
• Conformity: changing one’s own behavior to
match that of other people
Figure 12.1 Stimuli Used in Asch’s Study
Participants in Asch’s
famous study on
conformity were first
shown the standard line.
They were then shown
the three comparison
lines and asked to
determine to which of the
three was the standard
line most similar. Which
line would you pick? What
if you were one of several
people, and everyone
who answered ahead of
you chose line 3? How
would that affect your
answer? Source: Adapted
from Asch (1956).
Group Behavior 1 of 4 Learning Objective 12.2 Explain how our behavior is impacted by the presence of
others.
• Groupthink: occurs when people place more
importance on maintaining group cohesiveness
than on assessing the facts of the problem with
which the group is concerned
Table 12.1 Characteristics of Groupthink
Characteristic Description
Invulnerability Members feel they cannot fail.
Rationalization Members explain away warning signs and help each other
rationalize their decision.
Lack of Introspection Members do not examine the ethical implications of their decisions
because they believe that they cannot make immoral choices.
Stereotyping Members stereotype their enemies as weak, stupid, or
unreasonable.
Pressure Members pressure each other not to question the prevailing
opinion.
Lack of disagreement Members do not express opinions that differ from the group
consensus.
Self-deception Members share in the illusion that they all agree with the decision.
Insularity Members prevent the group from hearing disruptive but potentially
useful information from people who are outside the group.
Source: Janis (1972, 1982). Blank cell
Group Behavior 2 of 4
• Group polarization: members involved in a group
discussion tend to take somewhat more extreme
positions and suggest riskier actions when
compared to individuals who have not participated
in a group discussion
Group Behavior 3 of 4
• Social facilitation: positive influence of others on
performance
• Social impairment: negative influence of others on
performance
– Social loafing: people who are lazy tend not to do as
well when others are also working on same task
– Cultural assumptions
Group Behavior 4 of 4
• Deindividuation: a lessening of one’s sense of
personal identity and personal responsibility
– Groups or crowds can offer a sense of anonymity
– Stanford prison experiment
Compliance 1 of 2 Learning Objective 12.3 Compare and contrast three compliance techniques.
• Compliance: changing one’s behavior as a result
of other people directing or asking for the change
• Consumer psychology: branch of psychology that
studies the habits of consumers in the
marketplace, including compliance
Compliance 2 of 2 Learning Objective 12.2 Ways to Gain Compliance
• Foot-in-the-door technique: asking for a small
commitment and, after gaining compliance, asking
for a bigger commitment
• Door-in-the-face technique: asking for a large
commitment and then, after being refused, asking
for a smaller commitment
• Lowball technique: getting a commitment from a
person and then raising the cost of that
commitment
Obedience Learning Objective 12.4 Identify factors that make obedience more likely.
• Obedience: changing one’s behavior at the
command of an authority figure
• Milgram’s shocking research: “teacher”
administered what he or she thought were real
shocks to a “learner”
– Participants consistently follow orders to administer
apparently painful shocks
– Raised ethical questions about how far researchers
should be willing to go
Figure 12.2
Control Panel in Milgram’s Experiment
In Stanley Milgram’s classic study on obedience, the participants were presented
with a control panel like this one. Each participant (“teacher”) was instructed to give
electric shocks to another person (the “learner,” who only pretended to be
shocked). At what point do you think you would have refused to continue the
experiment?
Table 12.2 Sample Script Similar to Those
in Milgram’s Classic Experiment
Voltage
of “Shock” Learner’s Script
120 “Ouch! Experimenter, let me out of here, I’m through! Please, I have
heart trouble, I don’t want to go on.”
150 “That’s it, enough! I will not be part of this experiment, let me out now!”
300 (Scream of pain heard in the background) ”I am not doing this anymore,
you can’t make me stay here. Get me out, get me out!”
330 (Louder and longer scream of pain) ”Get me out, get me out, my heart,
my heart! My chest hurts, get me out of here, let me out of here, you
have no right to do this! Let me out of here!”
Blank cell Source: Milgram (1964a, 1974).
Social Cognition
• Social cognition - the mental processes that
people use to make sense of the social world
around them.
– How we perceive others
– First impressions
– How we explain behavior of others and ourselves
Attitudes 1 of 3 Learning Objective 12.5 Identify the three components of an attitude and how
attitudes are formed.
• Attitude: a tendency to respond positively or
negatively toward a certain person, object, idea, or
situation
• Three components of an attitude:
1. Affective (emotional) component
2. Behavioral component
3. Cognitive component
Figure 12.3
Three Components of an Attitude
Attitudes consist of the way
a person feels and thinks
about something, as well as
the way the person chooses
to behave. If you like country
music, you are also likely to
think that country music is
good music. You are also
more likely to listen to this
style of music, buy this type
of music, and even go to a
performance. Each of the
three components
influences the other two.
Attitudes 2 of 3
• Attitudes are often poor predictors of behavior
unless the attitude is very specific or very strong
Attitudes 3 of 3
• Attitude Formation
– Direct contact with the person, situation, object, or idea
– Direct instruction from parents or others
– Interacting with other people who hold a certain attitude
– Vicarious conditioning: watching the actions and
reactions of others to ideas, people, objects, and
situations
Attitude Change: The Art of Persuasion 1 of 2
Learning Objective 12.6 Describe how attitudes can be changed.
• Persuasion: the process by which one person tries
to change the belief, opinion, position, or course of
action of another person through argument,
pleading, or explanation
– Key elements in persuasion are source of the
message, the message itself, the target audience, and
the medium
Attitude Change: The Art of Persuasion 2 of 2
• Elaboration Likelihood Model
– People will either elaborate on the persuasive message
or fail to elaborate on it
– Future actions of those who do elaborate are more
predictable than those who do not
– Central-route processing: involves attending to the
content of the message itself
– Peripheral-route processing: involves attending to
factors not involved in the message, such as the
expertise of the source of the message, the length of
the message, and other non-content factors
Cognitive Dissonance: When Attitudes
and Behavior Clash
Learning Objective 12.7 Explain how people react when attitudes differ from
behavior.
• Cognitive dissonance: sense of discomfort or
distress that occurs when a person’s behavior
does not correspond to that person’s impression
– Lessened by changing the conflicting behavior,
changing the conflicting attitude, or forming a new
attitude to justify the behavior
Figure 12.4 Cognitive Dissonance:
Attitude Toward a Task
After completing a boring
task, some participants were
paid $1 and some $20 to
convince others waiting to do
the same task that the task
was interesting and fun.
Surprisingly, the participants
who were paid only $1
seemed to change their own
attitude toward the task,
rating it as interesting,
whereas those who were
paid $20 rated the task no
differently than a control
group did. SOURCE:
Adapted from Festinger and
Carlsmith (1959).
Impression Formation 1 of 3 Learning Objective 12.8 Describe how people form impressions of others.
• Impression formation: forming of the first
knowledge a person has about another person
– Primacy effect: the very first impression one has about
a person tends to persist even in the face of evidence
to the contrary
Impression Formation 2 of 3
• Social categorization: the assignment of a person
one has just met to a category based on
characteristics the new person has in common
with other people with whom one has had
experience in the past
– Stereotype: a set of characteristics that people believe
is shared by all members of a particular social category
Impression Formation 3 of 3
• Implicit personality theory: sets of assumptions
about how different types of people, personality
traits, and actions are related to each other
– Implicit Association Test (IAT): measures the degree of
association between concepts
• Schemas: mental patterns that represent what a
person believes about certain types of people
– Schemas can become stereotypes
Attribution 1 of 3 Learning Objective 12.9 Describe the process of explaining one’s own behavior
and the behavior of others.
• Attribution: the process of explaining one’s own
behavior and the behavior of others
• Attribution theory: the theory of how people make
attributions
Attribution 2 of 3
• Situational cause: cause of behavior attributed to
external factors
– Delays
– Action of others
– Some other aspect of the situation
• Dispositional cause: cause of behavior attributed
to internal factors
– Personality
– Character
Attribution 3 of 3
• Fundamental attribution error (actor-observer
bias): the tendency to overestimate the influence
of internal factors in determining behavior while
underestimating situational factors
– Cross-cultural differences in attribution
– Age as factor in attribution
– Motive as factor in attribution
Prejudice and Discrimination 1 of 3 Learning Objective 12.10 Distinguish between prejudice and discrimination.
• Prejudice: negative attitude held by a person
about the members of a particular social group
• Discrimination: treating people differently because
of prejudice toward the social group to which they
belong
Prejudice and Discrimination 2 of 3
• Forms of prejudice include ageism, sexism,
racism, and prejudice against those who are too
fat or too thin
• In-groups: social groups with whom a person
identifies; “us”
• Out-groups: social groups with whom a person
does not identify; “them”
Prejudice and Discrimination 3 of 3
• Scapegoating: tendency to direct prejudice and
discrimination at out-group members who have
little social power or influence
How People Learn and Overcome
Prejudice 1 of 5
Learning Objective 12.11 Describe theories of how prejudice is learned and how
it can be overcome.
• Social cognitive theory: views prejudice as an
attitude acquired through direct instruction,
modeling, and other social influences
• Realistic conflict theory: conflict between groups
increases prejudice and discrimination
How People Learn and Overcome
Prejudice 2 of 5
• Social identity theory: the formation of a person’s
identity within a particular social group is
explained by social categorization, social identity,
and social comparison
– Social identity: the part of self-concept including one’s
view of self as a member of a particular social category
– Social comparison: the comparison of oneself to others
in ways that raise one’s self-esteem
How People Learn and Overcome
Prejudice 3 of 5
• Stereotype vulnerability: the effect that people’s
awareness of the stereotypes associated with
their social group has on their behavior
• Self-fulfilling prophecy: the tendency of one’s
expectations to affect one’s behavior in such a
way as to make the expectation more likely to
occur
How People Learn and Overcome
Prejudice 4 of 5
• Education and intergroup contact
• Equal status contact: contact between groups in
which the groups have equal status, with neither
group having power over the other
– Robber’s Cave study
How People Learn and Overcome
Prejudice 5 of 5
• “Jigsaw classroom”: educational technique in
which each individual is given only part of the
information needed to solve a problem, forcing
individuals to work together to find the solution
Interpersonal Attraction Learning Objective 12.12 Identify factors involved in interpersonal attraction.
• Interpersonal attraction: liking or having the desire
for a relationship with another person
– Physical attractiveness
– Proximity: physical or geographical nearness
– Birds of a feather: people like people who are similar to
themselves
▪ Complementarity is another aspect of this
– Reciprocity of liking: tendency of people to like other
people who like them in return
Love Is a Triangle: Robert Sternberg’s
Triangular Theory of Love 1 of 2
Learning Objective 12.13 Describe the different types of love outlined in
Sternberg’s theory.
• Love: a strong affection for another person due to
kinship, personal ties, sexual attraction,
admiration, or common interests
• Sternberg’s three components of love:
1. Intimacy
2. Passion
3. Commitment
Love Is a Triangle: Robert Sternberg’s
Triangular Theory of Love 2 of 2
• Romantic love: consists of intimacy and passion
• Companionate love: consists of intimacy and
commitment
• Consummate love: ideal love, in which all three
components are present
Aggression 1 of 3 Learning Objective 12.14 Explain how aggressive behavior is determined by
biology and learning.
• Aggression: behavior intended to hurt or destroy
another person
• Frustration–aggression hypothesis: aggression is
a reaction to frustration
• Konrad Lorenz saw aggression as an instinct for
fighting to promote the survival of our species
Aggression 2 of 3
• Biological influences on aggression may include
genetics, the amygdala and limbic system, and
testosterone and serotonin levels
– Alcohol has impact on aggression
Aggression 3 of 3
• Social role: the pattern of behavior that is
expected of a person who is in a particular social
position
– Violent TV, movies, and video games also related to
aggression
Prosocial Behavior 1 of 4 Learning Objective 12.15 Identify the factors influencing why people help others.
• Prosocial behavior: socially desirable behavior
that benefits others
• Altruism: prosocial behavior that is done with no
expectation of reward and may involve the risk of
harm to oneself
– Temporoparietal junction (TPJ) is larger in individuals
who make altruistic choices
Prosocial Behavior 2 of 4
• Bystander effect: the effect that the presence of
other people has on the decision to help or not
help
– Help becomes less likely as the number of bystanders
increases
– Case of Kitty Genovese
Figure 12.5
Elements Involved in Bystander Response
In a classic experiment,
participants were filling out
surveys as the room began
to fill with smoke. As you
can see in the
accompanying graph, the
time taken to report smoke
and the percentage of
people reporting smoke
both depended on how
many people were in the
room at the time the smoke
was observed. If a person
was alone, he or she was
far more likely to report the
smoke and report it more
quickly than when there
were three people. Source:
Latané & Darle (1969).
Prosocial Behavior 3 of 4
• Diffusion of responsibility: a person fails to take
responsibility for action or for inaction because of
the presence of other people who are seen to
share the responsibility
• Researchers Latané and Darley found that people
who were alone were more likely to help in an
emergency than people who were with others
– One bystander cannot diffuse responsibility
Prosocial Behavior 4 of 4
• Five steps in making a decision to help
1. Noticing
2. Defining an emergency
3. Taking responsibility
4. Planning a course of action
5. Taking action
Table 12.3 Help or Don’t Help: Five
Decision Points
Decision Point Description Factors Influencing Decision
Noticing Realizing that there is a situation
that might be an emergency
Hearing a loud crash or a cry for
help.
Defining an
Emergency
Interpreting the cues as signaling
an emergency
Loud crash if associated with a
car accident, people are
obviously hurt.
Taking
Responsibility
Personally assuming the
responsibility to act
A single bystander is much more
likely to act than when others are
present (Latané & Darley. 1969.)
Planning a
Course of Action
Deciding how to help and what
skills might be needed
People who feel they have the
necessary skills to help are more
likely to help.
Taking Action Actually helping Cost of helping (e.g. danger to
self) must not outweigh the
rewards of helping.
Peaking Inside the Social Brain Learning Objective 12.16 Define social neuroscience.
• Social neuroscience: the study of how biological
processes influence social behavior
– Studies use fMRI and other imaging techniques to
discover areas of the brain involved in social actions
– TJP involved in prosocial behavior and competitive
behavior
