Topic: Autobiographical Psychosocial History

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

PSY 150 MCALHANEY

Everybody has heard of peer pressure, but most people argue that they are not affected by it, or at least not affected as 'most people.' The truth is, we are all affected by the people we interact with, many of whom we don't even know personally. Our social environments play a significant role in how we view ourselves, and conversely, how we see ourselves impacts our view of the world.

This week we will discuss the various aspects of social psychology and the role these play in our everyday lives. We will emphasize the interaction between our view of self and others, the role of power in social interactions, and how groups, or the people with whom we interact, affect our decision making process.

OPENING QUESTIONS?

What is it that shapes our attitudes?
Why are some people such great leaders?
How does prejudice develop and how can we overcome it?
What exactly is social psychology and what do social psychologists do?

These are just a few of the big questions of interest in the field of social psychology.

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY DEFINED

According to psychologist Gordon Allport, social psychology is a discipline that uses scientific methods "to understand and explain how the thought, feeling and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of other human beings" (1985).

Social psychology looks at a wide range of social topics, including group behavior, social perception, leadership, nonverbal behavior, conformity, aggression, and prejudice. It is important to note that social psychology is not just about looking at social influences. Social perception and social interaction are also vital to understanding social behavior.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

While Plato referred to the idea of the "crowd mind" and concepts such as social loafing and social facilitation were introduced in the late-1800s, it wasn't until after World War II that research on social psychology began in earnest.
The horrors of the Holocaust led researchers to study the effects of social influence, conformity and obedience.
The U.S. government also became interested in applying social psychological concepts to influencing citizens. Social psychology has continued to grow throughout the twentieth century, inspiring research that has contributed to our understanding of social experience and behavior.
Our social world makes up such a tremendous part of our lives, so it is no wonder that this topic is so fascinating.

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OR SOCIOLOGY?

Sociologists are interested in the institutions and cultures that influence how people behave.
Psychologists instead focus on situational variables that affect social behavior.
While psychology and sociology both study similar topics, they are looking at these topics from different perspectives.

It is important to distinguish between social psychology and sociology. While there are many similarities between the two, sociology tends to looks at social behavior and influences at a very broad-based level.

WHAT ARE THE MAJOR PERSPECTIVES IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?

SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

Stresses the importance of social norms and culture.

Proposes that children learn behavior through problem-solving interactions with other children and adults.

Through these interactions, they learn the values and norms of their society.

EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE

Argues that social behaviors developed through genetics and inheritance.

Emphasizes the role of biology and gene transmission across generations to explain current behavior.

SOCIAL LEARNING PERSPECTIVE

Stresses the importance of unique experiences in family, school, community, etc.
According to this viewpoint, we learn behaviors through observing and mimicking the behavior of others

SOCIAL COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

Supports an information processing model of social behavior, where we notice, interpret, and judge the behavior of others.
New experiences can either be assimilated (using already held beliefs to interpret the event), or accommodated (which involves changing existing beliefs in response to the event.)
By understanding how information is processed, we can better understand how patterns of thoughts impact behavior.

SOCIAL COGNITION

Social cognition is concerned with the processing, storage and application of social information. This research area is closely related to the field of cognitive psychology, this research area focuses largely on the concept of schemas.

Schemas are our general ideas about the world, how things are and how things work. These mental shortcuts allow us to function without constantly stopping to interpret everything around us. We also develop associations between related schemas, which plays an important role in the thought process and social behavior.

SOCIAL COGNITION GROUP DISCUSSION

"You and some friends are renting an apartment. The knobs on the kitchen cupboards need replacing. You have phoned the landlords to ask them to buy some new knobs, so you say to them:

"You are going to a party. Since you don't expect to be home until late, you want to borrow your parent's car. So you say:

Participants complete each scenario with what they would say

Also provide ratings on happy/content and sad/disappointed

Scenarios are rated on 5 point scale, from nonrisky to risky communications.

Examples:

1. Hinting, indirect requests, nonconfrontational

I've been noticing the knobs on the cupboards are cracked.

I was wondering how I was going to get to that party tonight.

3. Suggesting or Questioning

May I borrow the car? I was hoping you might replace the knobs on the cupboards.

5. Direct approach or request

Dad, I'm borrowing the car.

We need new knobs on the cupboards

Forgas, J. P. (1999). Feeling and speaking: Mood effects on verbal communication strategies. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 850-863.

RESEARCH AREAS IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Let’s look at some of the major topics that social psychologists investigate in their research. Many of these topics are related to social influence, social perception and social interaction.

The following are just a few of the areas of interest within social psychology.

ATTITUDES AND ATTITUDE CHANGES

Another major research area in social psychology involves the study of attitudes.
Social psychologists are interested in the components of attitudes, how attitudes develop and how attitudes change.
Researchers have described three core components of attitude: an affective component, a behavioral component and a cognitive component.
Often referred to as the "ABC's of attitude," these elements describe how we feel, behave and understand.

VIOLENCE AND AGGRESSION

What causes violence and aggression?
Researchers often look at the role social learning plays in producing aggressive behaviors and actions.

Social psychologists are interested in how and why people engage in violence or act aggressively. Research in this area looks at numerous factors that may cause aggression including social variables and media influences.

PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION

Prejudice, discrimination and stereotypes exist in any social group.

Social psychologists are interested in the origins, causes and effects of these types of attitudes and social categorizations.

How does prejudice develop? Why are stereotypes maintained in the face of contrary evidence?

These are just a few of the questions social psychologists seek to answer.

SELF AND SOCIAL IDENTITY

Our perceptions of social identities and ourselves are another important research area in social psychology.
Social psychologists are interested in learning more about how this inner life influences our outer lives and social world.
Self-awareness, self-esteem and self-expression are just a few of the factors that influence our social experience.
How do people come to know and understand themselves?
How do these self-perceptions affect our social interactions?

The way we look at ourselves plays an important role in how we see the world. The way we see the world plays an important role in how we see ourselves. In this sense, our view of self and others is an ever-changing circle of influence.

We know that those who are happy see more positive aspects of the world than those who are depressed.

We also know that living in an abusive household or an overly restrictive environment can both lead to depression.

In this section of our class, will explore the social areas of attribution (how we interpret those around us) and attraction (what we seek in a friend or partner).

I AM…..

Take out a piece of paper and complete twenty statements that begin with “I am

Trafimow and his colleagues (1991) have used a measure developed by Kuhn & McPartland (1954) to examine cultural differences in the self-concept. This measure simply asks participants to complete twenty statements that begin with “I am.” They found that North American students tended to describe themselves with trait descriptions whereas Chinese students tended to identify themselves by group affiliations. You might want to have your students complete this measure by having them write twenty sentences that each begin with “I am.” Afterward, have students count the number of trait descriptions and group affiliation descriptions they made. Point out that there might be a subtle effect of culture on how they described themselves.

ATTRIBUTION THEORY

We tend to explain our own behavior and the behavior of others by assigning attributes to these behavior.

An attribute is an inference about the cause of a behavior.

According to the Attribution Theory, we tend to explain our own behavior and the behavior of others by assigning attributes to these behavior.

There are basically two sources for our behavior; those influenced by Situational (external) factors and those influenced by Dispositional (internal) factors. Imagine walking into your boss's office and he immediately tells you, in an angry tone, not to bother him. An external explanation of this behavior might be, "He's really a nice guy but the stress is overwhelming. He needs a vacation." On the other hand, you might see the same behavior and say, "What a jerk, I don't know why is is so angry all the time." The same behavior is given two very opposite explanations.

Many factors play a role in how we assign attributes to behaviors. Obviously our view of the world, our previous experience with a particular person or situation, and our knowledge of the behavior play an important role. Other factors can influence our interpretation as well, and there are two important errors or mistakes we tend make when assigning these attributes.

FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR

This refers to the tendency to over estimate the internal and underestimate the external factors when explaining the behaviors of others.

This refers to the tendency to over estimate the internal and underestimate the external factors when explaining the behaviors of others. This may be a result of our tendency to pay more attention to the situation rather than to the individual (Heider, 1958) and is especially true when we know little about the other person.

For example, the last time you were driving and got cut off did you say to yourself "What an idiot" (or something similar), or did you say "She must be having a rough day." Chances are that this behavior was assigned mostly internal attributes and you didn't give a second thought to what external factors are playing a role in her driving behavior.

SELF-SERVING BIAS

We tend to equate successes to internal and failures to external attributes (Miller & Ross, 1975).

Imagine getting a promotion. Most of us will feel that this success is due to hard work, intelligence, dedication, and similar internal factors. But if you are fired, well obviously your boss wouldn't know a good thing if it were staring her in the face. This bias is true for most people, but for those who are depressed, have low self-esteem, or view themselves negatively, the bias is typically opposite. For these people, a success may mean that a multitude of negatives have been overlooked or that luck was the primary reason. For failures, the depressed individual will likely see their own negative qualities, such as stupidity, as being the primary factor.

ATTRACTION

Why are we attracted to certain people and not others?

Why do our friends tend to be very similar to each other?

And what causes us to decide on a mate?

Many of these questions relate to social psychology in that society's influence and our own beliefs and traits play an important role. Research has found five reasons why we choose our friends.:

ATTRACTION

Proximity - The vast majority of our friends live close to where we live, or at least where we lived during the time period the friendship developed (Nahemow & Lawton, 1975). Obviously friendships develop after getting to know someone, and this closeness provides the easiest way to accomplish this goal. Having assigned seats in a class or group setting would result in more friends who's last name started with the same letter as yours (Segal, 1974).

Association - We tend to associate our opinions about other people with our current state. In other words, if you meet someone during a class you really enjoy, they may get more 'likeability points' then if you met them during that class you can't stand.

Similarity - On the other hand, imagine that person above agrees with you this particular class is the worse they have taken. The agreement or similarity between the two of you would likely result in more attractiveness (Neimeyer & Mitchell, 1988)

Reciprocal Liking - Simply put, we tend to like those better who also like us back. This may be a result of the feeling we get about ourselves knowing that we are likable. When we feel good when we are around somebody, we tend to report a higher level of attraction toward that person (Forgas, 1992; Zajonc & McIntosh, 1992)

Physical Attractiveness - Physical attraction plays a role in who we choose as friends, although not as much so as in who we choose as a mate. Nonetheless, we tend to choose people who we believe to be attractive and who are close to how we see our own physical attractiveness.

This last statement brings up an important factor in how we determine our friends and partner. Ever wonder why very attractive people tend to 'hang around' other very attractive people? Or why wealthy men seem to end up with physically attractive, perhaps even much younger, women? There is some truth to these stereotypical scenarios because we tend to assign "social assets" or "attraction points" to everyone we meet.

These points are divided into categories such as physical attractiveness, sense of humor, education, and wealth. If we view education as very important, we may assign more points to this category making it more likely that our friends or our mate will have more education. If we view wealth as more important then we will be more likely to find a mate who has more money.

We rate ourselves on these same categories and, at least at some level, know our score. We tend to then pick friends and partners who have a similar score that we do. Hence an attractive person hangs with other attractive people; or a wealthy older man gets the beautiful younger woman. Think about your friends and how you would rate them in these categories to find out what is important to you.

OBEDIENCE AND POWER

Why do we obey some people and not others?

Why are you able to influence your friends?

What attributes cause a person to be more influential?

These questions are paramount in understanding social order.

The answers to these questions also play an important role in many professions, such as sales and marketing and of course politics.

Lets start with a closer look at what 'power' is. Power is typically thought of has having a certain attribute which gives one person more influence over another. This attribute could be intelligence or experience, it could be job title, or perhaps money. According to most social psychologists, there are five types of power: coercive, reward, legitimate, expert, and referent. We will look at two in particular.

POWER

Coercive power means the power punish.
Reward power is almost the opposite; it is the power to reward. In that sense parents and bosses have this type of power as well, as do many others in our lives.
Legitimate power refers to the power granted by some authority,.
Expert power results from experience or education. Those individuals with more knowledge tend to have more power in situations where that knowledge is important.
Referent power refers to admiration or respect.

Coercive power means the power punish. Parents are said to have coercive power because they can place their child in time-out, for example; bosses have coercive power because they can fire an employee or assign an employee a less pleasing job. Reward power is almost the opposite; it is the power to reward. In that sense parents and bosses have this type of power as well, as do many others in our lives. Legitimate power refers to the power granted by some authority, such as the power a police officer has due to the local or state government or the power a professor has due to the rules of a college or university.

Expert power results from experience or education. Those individuals with more knowledge tend to have more power in situations where that knowledge is important. For instance, the physician will have more power in a medical emergency than the plumber. But, when the pipes explode and the house is being flooded, the physician is not the person to call. Finally, referent power refers to admiration or respect. When we look up to people because of their accomplishments, their attitude, or any other personal attribute, we tend to give them more power over us. Imagine being asked to do something by your "hero" or your favorite movie star; we are very likely to comply out of admiration or respect.

GROUP BEHAVIOR

The behavior of groups is one of the largest research areas in social psychology.
Most people realize that groups tend to behave differently than individuals. These group behaviors are sometimes beneficial and positive, but they can also be detrimental and negative.
Social psychologists often look at topics such as group dynamics, leadership, group decision-making, conflicts, cooperation and group influence.

Do you think you act differently when alone than when other people are around? The answer to this question is typically a resounding 'yes.' We are concerned with our social image or how other people see us; some more than others, but very few people see no difference in their behavior. This section will discuss various theories relating to our behavior in group settings or when others are present.

SOCIAL FACILITATION

Research has found that when others are present, our level of arousal is increased (Zajonc, 1965).

In other words, we are suddenly more aware of what's going on around us. Because of this, we tend to perform better at tasks that are well learned or simple (Guerin, 1993).

When completing a difficult or new task, however, our performance level decreases and we tend to do more poorly.

This phenomenon is called Social Facilitation (Guerin, 1993) , and as we try harder due to the presence of others, our performance actually decreases for difficult or unlearned tasks.

For example: Think about learning to play basketball for the first time. If you are alone, you will likely be more relaxed, and better able to concentrate. When others are watching you, however, you are more likely to be self-conscious, and therefore make more mistakes. Professional basketball players, however, because the task is so well learned, perform better when others are watching and they are able demonstrate their confidence and ability.

GROUP THINK

Group Think can lead to impulsive decisions and a failure to identify and/or consider all sides of an argument.

If you've ever been involved in a group decision making process, you've probably seen one of two things happen: either the group agrees on all of the major issues, or there is significant dissent that splits the group. If the group is cohesive; if they agree on most issues, they tend to stifle dissent because group harmony is the anticipated outcome (Janis, 1972). When we all agree, and are happy with that agreement, we typically do not want to hear opposing arguments. This phenomenon is referred to as Group Think. It can lead to impulsive decisions and a failure to identify and/or consider all sides of an argument. Some classic examples of group decisions going bad include lynch mobs, actions of the Ku Klux Klan, discrimination among hate groups, and mass riots.

GROUP POLARIZATION

Group polarization refers to a groups tendency to talk itself into extreme positions

In this case, a group gets so focused and energized about a decision that it creates an internal fuel, so to speak, which pushes itself forward faster than originally intended.

For example: Imagine a group of protesters, all agreeing and deciding to picket. You can see how this could get out of hand because opposing views (Group Think) are not considered and the push to move forward for the cause is fueled internally (Group Polarization).

SOCIAL LOAFING

This theory states that as a group gets larger, the individual contribution decreases disproportionate to the group size . (Everett, Smith, & Williams, 1992; Hardy & Latane, 1986; Ingham et al., 1974)

This is due to the diffusion of responsibility created as the size of the group increases.

For example: Imagine being assigned a project to complete by yourself. Most likely you would complete 100% of it. Now if two people are involved, the percentage will typically not be 50/50. As more people are added to the group, you will end up with a small percentage doing a large portion of the work and a large percentage doing a much smaller proportion.

BYSTANDER EFFECT

This last phenomenon is an unfortunate reality which has been observed far to many times in groups and in larger cities. We've all heard stories of people getting mugged, or beaten, or raped in broad daylight while people around offered no assistance. We have found that the internal push to help a person in need decreases as the group gets larger, very similar to Social Loafing. In this instance, however, people tend to be followers and will only get involved if they witness another person getting involved. What results is a group of people witnessing a crime and wondering why nobody is helping. This does not occur if you are the only person witnessing the crime. If nobody else is around, a person will tend to help the victim. The more people, however, the less likely someone will offer assistance.

SOCIAL INFLUENCE

Social psychologists are also interested in the role that social influence has on behavior and decision-making.
Topics such as the psychology of persuasion, peer pressure, conformity and obedience are just a few of those studied in this area of social psychology.
Research has helped reveal the power of social influence and has uncovered ways to help people resist influence.