Social Psychology
17 Social Psychology
· Learning Objectives
· Chapter Outline
· Key Concepts
· Key Contributors
· Teaching the Chapter
· Lecture/Discussion Suggestions
· Classroom Activities
· Experiencing Psychology
· Critical Thinking Questions
· Video/Media Suggestions
· References
· Sources of Biographical Information
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, the student should be able to:
17.1 Describe the domain of social psychology. (p. 479)
17.2 Explain what is meant by social cognition, distinguish between dispositional and situational attributions, and explain three dimensions that have been offered to explain the attributional process. (p. 480)
17.3 List and describe two biases that enter into the attribution process. (p. 480-481)
17.4 List and describe three factors that influence the process of person perception. (p. 481-483)
17.5 List and describe four factors that influence our liking for another person. (p. 483-484)
17.6 Distinguish between the important features of two theories of romantic love, briefly summarizing any research that supports them. (p. 484-486)
17.7 Summarize the scientific evidence in support of the factors that promote romantic love. (p. 486)
17.8 Define attitude and explain the three components of an attitude. (p. 487)
17.9 Describe the ways in which our attitudes influence our behavior and how our behavior influences our attitudes. (p. 487-488)
17.10 Describe the elaboration likelihood model and how the qualities of the source, message, and audience influence the persuasion process. (p. 488-490)
17.11 Distinguish between prejudice and discrimination, and then summarize the factors that have been found to promote and reduce prejudice. (p. 490-492)
17.12 Define group and groupthink, and then summarize the factors that promote groupthink and criticism toward the concept. (p. 492-493)
17.13 Explain the resolution of the controversy that surrounded the concept of social facilitation, and then explain the concept of social loafing. (p. 493-494)
17.14 Describe two types of social influence and explain the significance of the obedience research.
(p 494-498)
17.15 Distinguish between prosocial and altruistic behavior. (p. 498-499)
17.16 Explain the bystander intervention model, describing the five steps. (p. 499-501)
17.17 Define aggression and describe the theories that attempt to account for aggressive behavior, emphasizing the strengths and weaknesses of each theoretical approach. (p. 502-503)
17.18 Explain the role deindividuation plays in group violence. (p. 503)
Extended Chapter Outline
I. Social Cognition
Psychologists who study social cognition are concerned with how we perceive, interpret, and predict social behavior.
A. Causal Attribution
Causal attribution is the cognitive process by which we infer the causes of both our own and other people’s social behavior.
1. Dimensions of Causal Attribution
Weiner identified three dimensions that govern the attribution process: internal-external, stable-unstable, and controllable-uncontrollable.
2. Biases in Causal Attribution
Because humans are somewhat irrational and subjective, we exhibit biases in the causal attributions we make.
a. The Fundamental Attribution Error
This is our tendency to attribute other people’s behavior to dispositional factors.
b. Self-Serving Bias
This is the tendency to make dispositional attributions for one’s successes and situational attributions for one’s failures.
B. Person Perception
Person perception is the process of making judgments about the personal characteristics of others.
1. Stereotypes
A stereotype is a social schema that incorporates characteristics, which may be positive or negative, supposedly shared by almost all members of a group.
2. First Impressions
A first impression functions as a social schema to guide our predictions of a person’s behavior and our desire to interact with that person.
3. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
The self-fulfilling prophecy is the tendency for one person’s expectations to influence another person to behave in accordance with them.
II. Interpersonal Attraction
While forming impressions of other people, we also might develop interpersonal attraction toward some of them.
A. Liking
Several factors influence who we like.
1. Proximity
Research has consistently supported the importance of proximity in the development of friendships.
2. Familiarity
The mere exposure effect states that the more we interact with particular people, the more we tend to like them.
3. Physical Attractiveness
We tend to like physically attractive people more than physically unattractive people.
4. Similarity
Life’s circumstances simply put us in settings where we are likely to associate with people who share our attitudes.
B. Romantic Love
There were few scientific studies of romantic love until the 1970s.
1. Theories of Love
Berscheid and Hatfield distinguish between passionate and companionate love. The two-factor theory of romantic love is based on Schacter and Singer’s two-factor theory of emotion.
2. Promoting Romantic Love
Among the most important factors in promoting romantic love are similarity, sense of humor, equity.
III. Attitudes
An attitude is an evaluation, containing cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components, of an idea, event, object, or person.
A. Attitudes and Behavior
Attitudes may not always accurately predict behavior, and behavior may sometimes affect our attitudes.
1. The Influence of Attitudes on Behavior
Attitudes that are strongly held or personally important are better predictors of behavior. Attitude-behavior consistency is also affected by the specificity of the attitude.
2. The Influence of Behavior on Attitudes
The influence of behavior on attitudes is explained by cognitive dissonance theory and self-perception theory.
B. The Art of Persuasion
Persuasion is the attempt to influence the attitudes of other people. The elaboration likelihood model states that persuasive messages can take a central route or a peripheral route.
1. The Sources and Persuasion
The source of the message is more likely to be persuasive if it is credible, has expertise, is trustworthy, and is attractive.
2. The Message and Persuasion
Simply acknowledging the other side of an issue, while strongly supporting your own, is at times more effective.
3. The Audience and Persuasion
Important audience factors are intelligence and personal importance of the message.
C. Prejudice
Prejudice is a positive or negative attitude toward a person based on her or his membership in a particular group.
D. Factors that Promote Prejudice
Learning plays an important role. People also exhibit favoritism to their own kind.
1. Factors that Reduce Prejudice
Prejudice may be reduced when there is equal status and social contact.
IV. Group Dynamics
A group is a collection of two or more persons who interact and have mutual influence on each other.
A. Groupthink in Decision Making
Groupthink is the tendency of small, cohesive groups to place unanimity ahead of critical thinking in making decisions.
B. Group Effects on Performance
One of the first topics to be studied by social psychologists was the influence of groups on the task performance of their members.
1. Social Facilitation
Social facilitation refers to the improvement in a person’s task performance when in the presence of other people.
2. Social Loafing
Social loafing is a decrease in the individual effort exerted by group members when working together on a task.
C. Social Influence
The groups we belong to influence our behavior in ways that range from subtle prodding to direct demands.
1. Conformity
Conformity is behaving in accordance with group norms with little or no overt pressure to do so.
2. Obedience
Obedience is the following of orders given by an authority.
V. Prosocial Behavior
Prosocial behavior refers to helping others in need.
A. Altruism
Altruism is the helping of others without the expectation of a reward.
B. Bystander Intervention
Bystander intervention refers to the act of helping someone who is in immediate need of aid.
1. Noticing the Victim
To intervene in an emergency, you must first notice the event or the victim.
2. Interpreting the Situation as an Emergency
The same event may be interpreted as an emergency or a nonemergency.
3. Taking Personal Responsibility
As the number of bystanders increases, the likelihood of a bystander intervening decreases.
4. Deciding on a Course of Action
The decisions to intervene depends, in part, on whether the bystander feels competent to meet the demands of the situation.
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5. Taking Action
“Bystander calculus” might explain why bystanders who believe that intervening in an emergency would place them in danger are less likely to intervene.
VI. Aggression
Aggression is verbal or physical behavior aimed at harming another person.
A. Theories of Aggression
Both physiology and experience are important factors in aggression.
1. Aggression as the Product of Physiology
The earliest theories of aggression claimed that it was instinctive. Evolutionary psychology assumes there is a hereditary basis for aggression and other social behaviors.
2. Aggression as the Product of Experience
Most researchers look to life experiences as the main determinants of aggression.
B. Group Violence
Group violence is promoted by deindividuation, the process by which group members become less aware of themselves as individuals and less concerned about being socially evaluated.
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Key Concepts
social psychologySocial Cognition
causal attribution
fundamental attribution error
person perception
self-fulfilling prophecy
self-serving bias
social cognition
social schema
stereotype
Interpersonal Attraction
companionate lovepassionate love /
Attitudes
attitudecognitive dissonance theory
elaboration likelihood model
persuasion
prejudice
self-perception theory
Group Dynamics
conformityfoot-in-the-door technique
group
groupthink
obedience
social facilitation
social loafing /
Prosocial Behavior
altruismbystander intervention
negative state relief theory
prosocial behavior
Aggression
aggressiondeindividuation
frustration-aggression hypothesis
Key Contributors
Social Cognition
Harold KelleyBernard Weiner
Interpersonal Attraction
Ellen BerscheidElaine Hatfield /
Attitudes
Kenneth Clark and Mamie Phipps ClarkLeon Festinger
Group Dynamics
Solomon AschJohn Darley / Irving Janis
Bibb Latané
Stanley Milgram
Robert Zajonc
Aggression
Leonard BerkowitzSigmund Freud
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Teaching the Chapter
One way to begin this chapter is to ask students what they’re doing right now and why. Point out that their behavior is partly determined by situational factors. Are they sitting quietly listening because everyone else is? Because an authority (you) demands it? Ask students to talk about what other factors might be influencing their present behavior.
We try to make sense of our world through causal attributions. When we see someone, something, or some event, we try to make sense of it. We like the world to be predictable. For instance, we want the behavior of others to be dispositional so we know what they’ll do or be like in the future (fundamental attribution error), and we want groups of people to be the same so when we meet other members in the future we’ll know what they’re like (stereotypes). And, of course, we want our behavior to be predictable, to make sense, and we’re uncomfortable if it doesn’t (cognitive dissonance).
The research conducted on uninvolved bystanders, conformity, and obedience holds great interest for students. Many students believe that they would be more willing than other bystanders to get involved, and believe they would be less conforming and obedient than others. This often makes for an interesting class discussion (count the number of students wearing blue jeans to class). Discuss the legal implications that pertain to some forms of bystander involvement. The ethical issues raised by the Asch and Milgram experiments make for lively discussion.
Although Milgram’s experiment is not likely to be replicated, in the recent past Americans have experienced a series of events that may have implications for obedience to authority. These events include the civil disobedience that characterized the early days of the civil rights and the Vietnam War protest movement, the Watergate incident, and the consumerism movement. For example, do we still put medical doctors and professors on a pedestal? Would we still be as obedient as the participants in Milgram’s study?
Students are also fascinated by the details of the Zimbardo prison experiment, but sometimes miss the main point: social situations are a powerful influence on our behavior. Ask students to consider all the roles that they play, e.g., student, friend, partner, employee, athlete. Now ask students to imagine a world where everyone has been destroyed, except for them. They are all alone. Who are they? This is difficult to imagine because so much of our day is taken up with our roles. When we tell adolescents to “be yourself!” what do we mean? Is it possible to be someone devoid of social influence?
The material pertaining to interpersonal attraction is also received with great interest by most students. One approach is to ask the class whether an understanding of the psychology of interpersonal attraction is sufficient to manipulate somebody into “falling in love.” If so, how could this be accomplished? What information relating to interpersonal attraction could be used by computerized dating services?
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Lecture/Discussion Suggestions
1. Functions of Attitudes. Katz has defined the functional approach to attitudes as “. . . the attempt to understand the reasons people hold the attitudes they do… at the level of motivation.” (Katz, 1960). To predict attitude change, one must know what psychological needs are being met. Katz has categorized the major functions of attitudes. The four most commonly used are the following:
· Ego-defensive: protection is offered from real or imagined threats. These threats may be internal or external. Generally speaking, such threats come from feelings of inferiority, i.e., ethnic prejudice. These attitudes are extremely resistant to change.
· Knowledge-based: the result of structuring, organizing, and understanding the world around them. These attitudes help organize what might otherwise be confusing information. Most come directly from cultural roots (stereotypes). These attitudes are usually quite easy to change by giving adequate information.
· Instrumental: usually develop because of their utility in the environment. For example, objects that punish us usually elicit negative attitudes and vice versa. These attitudes are usually learned through direct contact. They are relatively easily changed with relevant experience.
· Value-expressive: allow a person to express basic values or a concept of self. These usually provide self-affirmation and serve to confirm one’s identity. Some examples are political attitudes of liberalism and work attitudes expressing fundamental value of quality. These attitudes are extremely long-lasting and resistant to change through any sources.
2. The Dormitory Environment. Environmental psychologists have found some interesting results when they compared residents of traditionally-styled college dormitories (long corridor, a single lounge, and bathroom located off the corridor) with residents of a suite-design dorm (three or four rooms clustered around a lounge and bathroom shared only by the residents of that suite). According to researchers Baum and Valins (1977), residents of single-corridor dorms spend less time in the dorms, express greater desire to avoid interaction with other residents, and feel that they have less control over what happens in their dormitory than residents of suite-design dorms. Furthermore, when freshmen living in both types of dorms were brought to a laboratory where they were asked to wait with other students, the residents of single-corridor dorm rooms initiated fewer conversations, sat at a greater physical distance from the other students, and spent less time looking at the faces of other students (Baum, Harper, & Valins, 1975).