Chapter 16: Social Psychology
Chapter Summary
I. OUR THOUGHTS ABOUT OTHERS
A. Attribution - Attributions are statements that are designed to explain why people behave as they do. The basic question is whether their actions are due to internal dispositions (derived from their own traits and motives) or external situations (derived from the environment or situation).
Attribution is subject to several forms of error and bias. The fundamental attribution error reflects our tendency to overestimate internal, personality influences and underestimate external influences when judging the behavior of others. The saliency bias is the tendency to focus on the most noticeable factors when explaining the causes of behavior. The self-serving bias occurs when we attempt to find reasons for our own behavior, as we tend to take undue credit for positive outcomes and attribute negative outcomes to external causes. The self-serving bias may be partially an artifact of western society due to the strong emphasis on the self and individuality. More collectivist cultures (such as Asian and certain Native American societies) do not define themselves as much in terms of individual traits.
B. Attitudes - Attitudes are learned pre-dispositions to respond cognitively, affectively, and behaviorally to a particular object. The three components of all attitudes are the cognitive response (thoughts and beliefs), affective response (feelings), and behavioral tendencies (pre-dispositions to actions).
We sometimes change our attitudes because of cognitive dissonance, which is the state of tension or anxiety we feel when there is a difference between two or more attitudes or when our attitudes do not match our behaviors. This mismatch and tension motivate us to change our attitude to restore balance. Self-perception theory, which suggests that people infer their attitudes from watching their behavior, developed in response to cognitive dissonance theory. Cognitive dissonance may reflect a particular way of evaluating the self that is distinctively western. Bad decisions have strong negative effects on individual self-esteem and so motivate attitude change. Collectivist cultures (such as Asians) are not as threatened by losses to individual self-esteem, so this may not be as strong a motivator for attitude change.
II. OUR FEELINGS ABOUT OTHERS
A. Prejudice and Discrimination - Prejudice is a generally negative attitude directed toward people solely on the basis of their membership in a specific group. It contains all three components of attitudes (cognitive, affective, and behavioral elements). Discrimination is not the same as prejudice. It refers to the actual negative behavior directed at members of a group. People do not always act on their prejudices.
The major sources of prejudice are learning (classical and operant conditioning and social learning); cognitive processes (in-group favoritism, out-group negativity, out-group homogeneity effect, and blaming-the-victim); economic and political competition; and displaced aggression (scape-goating).
Cooperation, superordinate goals, increased contact, cognitive retraining, and cognitive dissonance are five major methods for reducing prejudice and discrimination.
B. Interpersonal Attraction - The degree of positive or negative feelings we have toward each other account for a variety of social experiences including admiration, liking, friendship, intimacy, lust, and love. There are three factors that influence interpersonal attraction – physical attractiveness, proximity, and similarity.
Physical attractiveness is very important to initial attraction. Physically attractive people are often perceived as more intelligent, sociable, and interesting than less attractive people. Proximity is also very important to initial attraction. People who are in the same place at the same time are more likely to become friends just due to mere exposure. Similarity is the most important factor in holding together long-term relationships over time. There are two ways in which this factor acts. One is need compatibility, we need others who are like us to share interests, attitudes, and so on. Another is by need complementarily, we also need others who have very different qualities, and so each provides important resources for the other.
Gender and Cultural Diversity: Is Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder? - Standards for physical attractiveness vary across cultures and historically. Physical attractiveness is generally more important to men than to women. Physical proximity increases one's attractiveness. The nearer you live to or work with someone, the more likely it is you will like that person. Although people commonly believe that “opposites attract,” research shows that similarity is a much more important factor in attraction.
Applying Psychology to Relationships: The Art and Science of Flirting – Monica Moore, a scientist from the University of Missouri, has observed and recorded many scenes, of what she calls “nonverbal courtship signaling” – flirting. A scene between a man and a woman at a singles bar is used to show what can happen with flirting behavior.
Loving others is more of a mystery. Often love relationships develop from initial feelings of liking, and it is not always clear when one gives way to the other. Rubin's research on liking and loving found that love can be defined in terms of caring, attachment, and intimacy. Romantic love is highly valued in our society, but because it is based on mystery and fantasy, it is hard to sustain in long-term relationships. Companionate love relies on mutual trust, respect, and friendship and seems to grow stronger with time.
III. OUR ACTIONS TOWARD OTHERS
A. Social Influence - Through the process of social influence, we are taught important cultural values and behaviors that are essential to successful social living. Two of the most important forms of social influence are conformity and obedience. Conformity refers to changes in behavior in response to real or imagined pressure from others. Asch's classic study of conformity demonstrated that people will often conform to group opinion even when the group is clearly wrong. People conform for approval and acceptance (normative social influence), out of a need for more information (informational social influence), and to match the behavior of those they admire and feel similar to (their reference group). People also conform because it is often adaptive to do so.
Obedience involves giving in to a command from another. Milgram's experiment with obedience to authority demonstrated that a large number of people will follow orders even when another human being is physically threatened. Assignment of responsibility and the presence of disobedient models are the two most important factors in reducing destructive forms of obedience.
Critical Thinking/Active Learning: Would You Have Obeyed Milgram? – Students are presented several opportunities to explore ethical considerations that surround obedience and to develop critical thinking skills that might reduce future unethical situations.
B. Group Processes - Groups differ from mere collections of people if members share a mutually recognized relationship with one another.
Group membership is the basic relationship members of a group immediately recognize and share. As a member of a group we then play various roles. The importance of these roles in determining and controlling behavior was dramatically demonstrated in Philip Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Study. College students who were assigned to play the role of either a prisoner or guard in a simulated prison became so completely and dangerously immersed in acting out their roles that the experiment was prematurely ended.
Deindividuation occurs when one is less self-conscious and less inhibited, and less personally responsible as a member of a group than when alone especially under conditions of anonymity.
Group decision-making is influenced by how group discussions affect individual (group polarization) and how group membership affects access to information (group-think). Groups are often trusted with decisions because we believe their response will be more conservative and "middle of the road" than the potentially extreme decisions of individuals. Research shows, however, that groups are actually more extreme in their decisions. Sharing ideas with "like-minded" others often reinforces the group's preexisting and dominant tendencies, resulting in group polarization. Group-think is a dangerous type of thinking that occurs when the group's desire for agreement overrules its tendency to critically evaluate information. The decision to marry can be a form of group-think.
C. Aggression - Aggression is any deliberate attempt to harm another living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment. Research points to both internal and external factors leading to aggression.
In the search for internal factors leading to aggression, some researchers have focused on inborn instinctual factors and the role of genetic pre-dispositions toward aggression. Others have done research on the brain (primarily on the hypothalamus and other parts of the limbic system). Substance and mental disorders are also recognized as sources of aggression. Biological investigations have also explored the role of hormones (elevated levels of testosterone) and neurotransmitters (lowered levels of serotonin and GABA).
Psychosocial factors also play a role in aggression. Aversive stimuli, frustration (and displaced aggression), social learning (observation of models who are rewarded for aggression), and media violence may be the most important external factors.
Releasing aggressive feelings through violent acts or watching violence has not been shown to be an effective way to reduce aggression. More effective ways are to produce incompatible responses (such as humor), and to improve social and communication skills.
Research Highlight: America’s Anger Epidemic– While some experts our nation is in the middle of an anger epidemic. Researchers Loeber and Stouthamer–Loeber have identified five major misconceptions and controversies that they believe block an understanding of the problem aggression and future research. Following the Columbine tragedy, the media offered standard answers, such as violence on TV and in the movies, availability of guns, divorce, and “no-parent” households, while Loeber and Stouthamer-Loeber demonstrate that the problem is more complex and requires much more research.
D. Altruism - Altruism refers to actions designed to help others with no obvious benefit to oneself.
Why do we help? Evolutionary theorists believe altruism is innate and has survival value. Psychological explanations for altruism emphasize the egoistic model, which suggests that helping is motivated by anticipated gain, or the empathy-altruism hypothesis, which proposes that helping is activated when the helper feels empathy for the victim.
Why don't we help? Whether or not someone helps depends on a series of interconnected events, starting with noticing the problem and ending with a decision to help. Altruism is inhibited by the fact that many emergency situations are ambiguous and the potential respondent is unsure of what to do. Inhibition also comes from not taking personal responsibility and assuming someone else will respond (the diffusion of responsibility phenomenon).
To increase the chances of altruism, we should increase the rewards and decrease the costs. We can also reduce ambiguity by giving clear directions to those who may be watching.
IV. APPLYING SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY TO SOCIAL PROBLEMS
A. Reducing Prejudice and Discrimination – Five major approaches to combat prejudice are explored: cooperation, subordinate roles, increased contact, cognitive retraining, and cognitive dissonance.
B. Overcoming Destructive Obedience – Five areas are discussed that may explain and perhaps reduce destructive obedience: socialization, power of the situation, groupthink, foot-in-the-door, and relaxed moral guard.