module 3 discussion
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myersep11e_lectureslides_ch12.pptxSocial Psychology
Chapter 12
EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY
DAVID G. MYERS | C. NATHAN DEWALL
Chapter Overview
Social Thinking and Social Influence
Antisocial Relations
Prosocial Relations
Social Thinking and Social Influence (part 1)
Social thinking
Social psychology
Focus on social influences that explain why the same person acts differently in different situations
Attribution theory
Behavior of others explained by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition
Fundamental attribution error
Tendency for observers, when analyzing others’ behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition
Social Thinking and Social Influence (part 2)
Factors that affect attributions
Culture
Whose behavior
Exceptions
Our deliberate, admirable actions are attributed to our own good reasons, not to the situation
With age, younger selves’ behaviors are attributed to our traits
Attributions matter
Attributions to a person’s disposition or to the situation have real consequences
Social Thinking and Social Influence (part 3)
Dispositional versus situational attributions: Should the 2015 slaughter of nine African-Americans attending a church Bible study in Charleston, South Carolina, be attributed to the shooter’s disposition?
Social Thinking and Social Influence (part 4)
Attitudes and actions
Attitudes affect actions
Attitude
Peripheral route persuasion
Central route persuasion
Actions affect attitudes
Food-in-the-door phenomenon
Social Thinking and Social Influence (part 5)
Attitudes and actions
Role playing affects attitudes
Role
Zimbardo’s prison study
Cognitive dissonance theory
Attitudes-follow-behavior principle
People can act themselves into a way of thinking as easily as they can think of themselves acting in a certain way
Social Thinking and Social Influence (part 7)
Social influences
Norms: Rules for expected and acceptable behavior
Influence and power of norms
Cultural influences
Culture: Behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by group of people and transmitted from one generation to next
Preservation of innovation; division of labor
Social Thinking and Social Influence (part 8)
Cultural influences
Adaptability in cultural variations
Among beliefs and values
In how children are nurtured; how dead are buried; which clothes are worn
Variation over time
Vary, change, evolve, and shape lives
Social Thinking and Social Influence (part 9)
Conformity
Complying with social pressures
Types of conformity
Suggestibility
Social contagion (chameleon effect)
Mood contagion
Natural mimicry
Enable ability to empathize
Mood linkage
Social Thinking and Social Influence (part 10)
Asch’s conformity experiments
Which of the three comparison lines is equal to the standard line?
What do you suppose most people would say after hearing five others say, “Line 3”?
More than one-third of the time, these “intelligent and well-meaning” college students were “willing to call white black” by going along with the group.
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Social Thinking and Social Influence (part 11)
Normative social influence: Conform to avoid rejection or to gain social approval
Informational social influence: Accept others’ opinions about reality
Is conformity good or bad?
Social Thinking and Social Influence (part 12)
Conformity is more likely when people:
Are made to feel incompetent or insecure
Are in a group with at least three people, especially a group in which everyone else agrees
Admire the group’s status and attractiveness
Have not made a prior commitment to any response
Know that others in the group will observe their behavior
Are from a culture that strongly encourages respect for social standards
Social Thinking and Social Influence (part 13)
In a repeat of the earlier experiment, 65 percent of the adult male “teachers” fully obeyed the experimenter’s commands to continue. They did so despite the “learner’s” earlier mention of a heart condition and despite hearing cries of protest after they administered what they thought were 150 volts and agonized protests after 330 volts. (Data from Milgram, 1974.)
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Social Thinking and Social Influence (part 14)
Conditions that influenced obedience (Milgram)
Person giving orders was close at hand and perceived to be a legitimate authority figure
Authority figure was supported by powerful or prestigious institution
Victim was depersonalized or at distance
No role models displayed defiance
Social Thinking and Social Influence (part 14)
What do social influence studies teach us about ourselves?
Strong social influences induce many people to conform to falsehoods or capitulate to cruelty
Great evils often grow out of compliance with lesser evils
After the first acts of compliance or resistance, attitudes begin to follow or justify the behavior
Minority influence is more likely when a position is held firmly
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Social Thinking and Social Influence (part 15)
Group behavior
Social facilitation (Triplett)
Social loafing
Deindividuation
Groupthink (Janis)
Mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides realistic appraisal of the alternatives
See table 12.1 for additional information
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Social Thinking and Social Influence (part 16)
If a group is like-minded, discussion strengthens its prevailing opinions.
Talking over racial issues increased prejudice in a high-prejudice group of high school students and decreased it in a low-prejudice group.
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The Internet as Social Amplifier
The internet connects like-minded people
These connections can bring emotional healing
Online sharing can also strengthen social movements
Electronic communication and social networking can encourage people to isolate themselves from those with different opinions
On social media, we often share political content with like-minded others
Like-minded separation + conversation = group polarization
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Antisocial Relations (part 1)
Prejudice
Prejudgment; unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members
Components
Negative emotions
Stereotypes
Predisposition to discriminate
Antisocial Relations (part 2)
Explicit and implicit prejudice
Explicit: Clear awareness
Implicit: Unthinking response
Focus of implicit research studies
Testing for unconscious group associations
Considering unconscious patronization
Monitoring reflexive bodily responses
Antisocial Relations (part 3)
Targets of prejudice
Racial and ethnic prejudice
Overt interracial prejudice wanes; subtle prejudice lingers
Implicit Association Test findings
Perceptions
Antisocial Relations (part 4)
In experiments by Keith Payne (2006), people viewed (a) a White or Black face, instantly followed by (b) a flashed gun or hand tool, which was then followed by (c) a masking screen. Participants were more likely to misperceive a tool as a gun when it was preceded by a Black face rather than a White face.
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Antisocial Relations (part 5)
Targets of prejudice
Gender prejudice: Sharp decline of overt gender prejudice; implicit prejudice still exists
LGBTQ prejudice: Cultural variation, but explicit prejudice in most of the world; higher negative mental health consequences
Belief systems prejudice: Explicit prejudice; Muslims
Antisocial Relations (part 6)
Roots of prejudice
Social inequalities and divisions
Just-world phenomenon
Ingroup
Outgroup
Ingroup bias
Antisocial Relations (part 7)
Roots of prejudice
Negative emotions
Scapegoat theory and research evidence
Economically frustrated people tend to express heightened prejudice
Experiments that create temporary frustration intensify prejudice
Schadenfreude
Antisocial Relations (part 8)
Roots of prejudice
Cognitive shortcuts
Categorization by gender, ethnicity, race, age, and other factors may lead to stereotype
Outgroup homogeneity
Other-race effect (cross-race effect/own-race bias)
Categorizing Mixed-Race People
When New Zealanders quickly classified 104 photos by race, those of European descent more often than those of Chinese descent classified the ambiguous middle two photos as Chinese (Halberstadt et al., 2011).
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Antisocial Relations (part 9)
Roots of prejudice
Remembering vivid cases: Availability heuristic
Victim blaming: Hindsight bias
Vivid Cases Feed Stereotypes
Global terrorism has created, in many minds, an exaggerated stereotype of Muslims as terrorism-prone. Actually, reported a U.S. National Research Council panel on terrorism, when offering this inexact illustration, most terrorists are not Muslim and “the vast majority of Islamic people have no connection with and do not sympathize with terrorism” (Smelser & Mitchell, 2002).
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Antisocial Relations (part 10)
Aggression
Any physical or verbal behavior intended to harm someone, whether done out of hostility or as a calculated means to an end
Emerges from the interaction of biology and experience
Antisocial Relations (part 11)
Biology of aggression
Genetic influences
Twin studies
Genetic markers (Y chromosome; monoamine oxidase [MAO])
Neural influences
Animal and human brains have neural systems that, given provocation, will either inhibit or facilitate aggression (amygdala; frontal lobes)
Biochemical influences
Hormones (testosterone)
Alcohol
Antisocial Relations (part 12)
Psychological and social-cultural factors in aggression
Aversive events
Frustration–aggression principle
Reinforcement and modeling
Differences in how cultures model, reinforce, and evoke violent tendencies
Media models for violence
Television, films, music, video games, and internet
Social scripts
Antisocial Relations (part 13)
Biopsychosocial Understanding of Aggression
Because many factors contribute to aggressive behavior, there are many ways to change such behavior, including learning anger management and communication skills, and avoiding violent media and video games.
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Antisocial Relations (part 14)
Do violent video games teach social scripts for violence ?
Which evidence supports your answer?
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Prosocial Relations (part 1)
Attraction
Psychology of attraction
Proximity and mere exposure effect
Modern matchmaking
Online matchmaking
Speed dating
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Prosocial Relations (part 2)
Attraction
Physical attractiveness
Predicts dating frequency and feeling of popularity
Affects initial personality impressions
Is unrelated to self-esteem and happiness
Is influenced by culture
Similarity
Influences the likelihood that a relationship will endure
Reward theory of attraction
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Prosocial Relations (part 3)
Romantic love
Passionate love
Aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a romantic relationship
Two-factor theory of emotion
Two ingredients of emotion: Physical arousal plus cognitive appraisal
Arousal from any source can enhance one emotion or another, depending on how arousal is interpreted or labeled
Prosocial Relations (part 4)
Romantic love
Companionate love
Deep, affectionate attachment; adaptive value
Testosterone, dopamine, and adrenaline levels subside; oxytocin remains
Equity
Self-disclosure
Self-disclosing intimacy + mutually supportive equity = enduring companionate love
Prosocial Relations (part 5)
Altruism
Unselfish concern for the welfare of others
Bystander intervention
Situational factor influence: Presence of others
The Decision -Making Process for Bystander Intervention
Before helping, one must first notice an emergency, then correctly interpret it, and then feel responsible. (Adapted from Darley & Latane, 1968b.)
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Prosocial Relations (part 6)
Responses to a simulated emergency
When people thought they alone heard the calls for help from a person they believed to be having an epileptic seizure, they usually helped.
When they thought four others were also hearing the calls, fewer than one-third responded. (Data from Darley & Latane, 1968a.)
Prosocial Relations (part 7)
Bystander intervention
Helping someone depends on the characteristics of the person, situation, and internal state
What contributes to the likelihood that a person will help another in need?
The odds of helping are highest in the following situations:
• The person appears to need and deserve help.
• The person is in some way similar to us.
• The person is a woman.
• We have just observed someone else being helpful.
• We are not in a hurry.
• We are in a small town or rural area.
• We are feeling guilty.
• We are focused on others and not preoccupied.
• We are in a good mood.
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So…
Happiness breeds helpfulness and
Helpfulness breeds happiness
Prosocial Relations (part 8)
From conflict to peace
Conflict
Involves perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas
May create either a positive change or a destructive process
Prosocial Relations (part 9)
From conflict to peace
Social traps
Involve the right to pursue personal well-being versus responsibility for the well-being of all
Mitigated with effective regulations, communication, and awareness
Enemy perceptions
Mirror-image perceptions
Self-fulfilling prophecies
Prosocial Relations (part 10)
How can we make peace?
Contact
Cooperation
Sherif: Superordinate goals
Communication
Third-party mediator; win-win orientation
Conciliation
Osgood: Graduated and reciprocated initiatives in tension-reduction (GRIT)
