Social Psychology

CHAPTER 13—SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

I. Social Behavior: Interacting With People

A. Survival: The Struggle for Resources

1. A fundamental task humans are faced with is staying alive when resources are scarce

2. Hurting and helping are two options for addressing survival.

3. Aggression – behavior whose purpose is to harm another

a. Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis – suggests that animals aggress only when their goals

are frustrated

b. Impulsive Aggression – spontaneous, unpremeditated aggression

4. Cooperation – behavior by two or more individuals that leads to mutual benefit

a. Games such as the prisoner’s dilemma illustrate the benefits of cooperation

b. Detecting cheating and noncooperation has evolutionary benefits

c. Groups and Favoritism

i. Coalitions, factions, and blocs increase social power

ii. Prejudice and discrimination can be the ugly outcome of group formation

(a) Prejudice – positive or negative evaluation of another person based on group

membership

(b) Discrimination – positive or negative behavior toward another person based on

their group membership

d. Deindividuation – when immersion in a group causes people to become less concerned with

their personal values

i. Can account for the gruesome behavior of groups

e. Diffusion of responsibility – individuals feel diminished responsibility for their actions

because they are surrounded by others who are acting the same way

5. Altruism – behavior that benefits another without benefiting oneself

a. Behaviors that benefit others may have an evolutionary basis

i. Kin Selection – process by which evolution selects for individuals who cooperate with

their relatives

(a) Reciprocal Altruism – behavior that benefits another with the expectation that

those benefits will be returned in the future

B. Reproduction: The Quest for Immortality

1. A fundamental task humans are faced with is staying alive long enough to pass on one’s genes

2. Selectivity

a. Women are the choosier sex, given their greater biological investment in reproduction

3. Attraction

a. Situational factors

i. Proximity predicts interpersonal attraction

(a) The mere exposure effect – the tendency for the frequency of exposure to a

stimulus to increase liking - is an example

b. Physical factors

i. Physically attractive people reap a range of benefits

ii. Cross-culturally, certain evolutionarily-driven features are found to be attractive

c. Psychological factors

i. Similarity predicts interpersonal attraction

4. Relationships

a. The quest for long-term relationships among humans seems quite strong

b. Love

i. Passionate love – an experience involving euphoria, intimacy, and intense sexual

attraction

ii. Companionate love – an experience involving affection, trust, and concern for a

partner’s well-being

c. Social exchange theory – hypothesis that people remain in relationships only as long as

they perceive a favorable ratio of costs to benefits

i. Comparison Level – cost-benefit ratio people believe they deserve or could attain in

another relationships

ii. Equity – a state of rough equality across a couple’s cost-benefit ratios

II. Social Influence: Controlling People

A. The Hedonic Motive: Pleasure Is Better Than Pain

1. Through observational learning, people recognize the effectiveness of rewards and

punishment

2. Through overjustification, people can be inured to the value of rewards

B. The Approval Motive: Acceptance Is Better Than Rejection

1. Norms – customary standards for behavior widely shared by members of a culture

a. Norm of Reciprocity – we should benefit those who benefit us

2. Normative Influence – behavior is influenced by the behavior of others

a. Door-in-the-Face Technique – compliance strategy based on the norm of reciprocity

3. Conformity – doing what others do simply because they’re doing it

a. Asch line-judging task is a classic example

4. Obedience – doing what authorities tell us to do

a. Milgram obedience studies are classic examples

C. The Accuracy Motive: Right Is Better Than Wrong

1. Informational Influence – occurs when another person’s behavior provides information about

what is good and right

a. Laugh tracks, best-seller lists, recommended products trade on this motive

2. Persuasion – attitudes or beliefs are influenced by communications from others

a. Systematic Persuasion – appeals to reason

b. Heuristic Persuasion – appeals to habit or emotion

c. Either form can be effective, depending on the circumstances

3. Consistency – people desire consistent cognitions

a. Foot-in-the-Door – compliance strategy based on desire for consistency

b. Cognitive Dissonance – an unpleasant state that results when a person recognizes

inconsistency in his/her actions, attitudes, or beliefs

III. Social Cognition: Understanding People

a. the processes by which people come to understand others

A. Stereotyping: Drawing Inferences from Categories

1. Stereotypes Can Be Inaccurate

a. Illusory correlations are an example

2. Stereotypes Can Be Overused

a. Misestimating variability within and across categories is an example

3. Stereotypes Can Be Self-Perpetuating

a. Perceptual confirmation – tendency for people to see what they expect to see

b. Self-fulfilling prophecy – tendency for people to cause what they expect to see

i. Stereotype threat – fear of confirming an observer’s stereotype – also occurs

c. Subtyping – tendency for people who are faced with disconfirming evidence to modify

their stereotypes rather than abandon them

4. Stereotyping Can Be Automatic

a. Stereotypes can be formed unconsciously and automatically

B. Attribution: Drawing Inferences from Actions

1. Attributions are inferences about the causes of a person’s behavior

a. We rely on dispositional (e.g. Is he clumsy?) and situational (e.g. The floor was

slippery.) information in the attribution process

2. The covariation model highlights the importance of consistency, distinctiveness,

consensus

3. Correspondence Bias – tendency to make a dispositional attribution even when a person’s

behavior was caused by the situation

4. Actor-Observer Effect – tendency to make situational attributions for our own behaviors, while making dispositional attributions for the behaviors of others