Unit XIV - Social Psychology Flashcards
What is social psychology?
Exploring SOCIAL connections by scientifically STUDYING how we THINK about,
INFLUENCE, and RELATE to one another.
What do social psychologists study?
social INFLUENCES that explain why
the SAME person
acts differently in DIFFERENT situations.
Subjects social psychologists can study
Home team advantage
Racism & discrimination
Driving motivation in gangs
Explanations for behaviors
What is attribution theory?
We can attribute behavior to person’ INTERNAL stable, enduring traits, or to EXTERNAL situation
Attribution theory in Jack eating an entire cake
SITUATIONAL -> Jack has not eaten in days
DISPOSITIONAL -> Jack is greedy & glutinous
What is the fundamental attribution error?
the tendency for OBSERVERS, when ANALYZING OTHERS’ behavior, to UNDERESTIMATE the IMPACT of the
SITUATION and to OVERESTIMATE the IMPACT of personal DISPOSITION
fundamental attribution error example homeless man
more likely to attribute their homelessness to their own PERSONALITY rather than to the SITUATION
What factors affect our attributions?
CULTURE
Individualist -> more prone to attribute to disposition
Collectivist -> more prone to attribute to situation
Explaining OWN behavior -> sensitive to how behavior changes with situation
Why do attributions matter?
Whether we attribute poverty and homelessness to social circumstances or to personal dispositions affects and reflects our political views.
What are attitudes?
FEELINGS, often influenced by our beliefs, that PREDISPOSE us to respond in a PARTICULAR way to
objects, people, and events
Relationship between attitudes and actions is
two way
What research has been done on the impact of attitudes on actions?
One experiment used vivid, easily recalled information to persuade White sun tanning college students that repetitive tanning put them at risk for future skin cancer.
One month later, 72% of the participants had lighter skin compared to 16% of those in a control group.
What is peripheral route persuasion?
occurs when people are influenced by INCIDENTAL CUES, such as a speaker’s attractiveness
emotion-based snap judgments
peripheral route persuasion example
Endorsements by beautiful or famous people
What is central route persuasion?
occurs when people are influenced by ARGUMENTS and respond with FAVORABLE thoughts
careful thinking
central route persuasion example
To increase support for climate change intervention, effective arguments have focused on accumulating greenhouse gases, melting Arctic ice, rising world temperatures and seas, and extreme weather
Can actions impact attitudes?
we will more STRONGLY believe in what we have STOOD up FOR.
Can attitudes follow behavior?
Cooperative actions feed MUTUAL liking which in turn PROMOTE positive behavior.
What is the foot-in-the-door phenomenon?
the tendency for people who have first agreed to a SMALL request to comply later with a LARGER request
foot-in-the-door phenomenon temptation
Succumb to a temptation and you will find the next temptation harder to resist.
What research has been conducted on the foot-in-the-door phenomenon?
In one experiment, researchers sought permission
to place a large “Drive Carefully” sign in
people’s front yards.
The 17% rate of agreement soared to 76% among those who first did a small favor—placing a 3-inch-high “Be a Safe Driver” sign in their window.
What is a role?
a set of EXPECTATIONS (norms) about a social POSITION, defining how those in the position ought to BEHAVE
Role examples
College students
New job
What was the Stanford Prison study?
Role playing morphed into real life in one famous and controversial study in which male college students volunteered to spend time in a simulated prison.
What was the design?
In 1972, Stanford psychologist Philip Zimbardo conducted a study on the effect roles have on behavior. He turned the basement of Jordan Hall into a makeshift prison and recruited volunteers for his study.
He randomly assigned some volunteers to be guards.
He gave them uniforms, clubs, and whistles and
instructed them to enforce certain rules.
What happened in the Stanford Prison study?
Other volunteers became prisoners, locked in barren cells and forced to wear humiliating outfits.
For a day or two, the volunteers self-consciously “played” their roles.
What were the results?
Some guards developed disparaging attitudes and 1/3 “became tyrannical,” devising cruel and degrading routines for the prisoners.
One by one, the prisoners broke down, rebelled,
or became passively resigned.
After only six days, Zimbardo called off the study.
What did the Stanford Prison study demonstrate about roles?
What we DO, we gradually BECOME.
Every time we act like the people around us, we slightly change ourselves to be more like them, and less like who we used to be.
What is cognitive dissonance theory?
Leon Festinger’s theory that we act to reduce the DISCOMFORT (dissonance) we feel when TWO of our THOUGHTS (cognitions) or our THOUGHTS and BEHAVIORS
are INCONSISTENT
What happens when we become aware that our attitudes and actions clash?
we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes or actions
What is an example of cognitive dissonance?
Smoker who enjoys smoking but knows it causes lung cancer -> Disconnect between belief and behavior causes dissonance
Either change behavior or thought to relieve dissonance
What are norms?
understood rules for accepted and expected behavior
Examples of norms
Teacher norms
Students norms -> raising hands/ sleeping in class
What is social contagion?
Fish swim in schools. Birds fly in flocks. And humans, too, tend to go with their GROUP, to think what it thinks and do what it does.
Behavior is …
CONTAGIOUS
What research has been done on social contagion?
Researchers Tanya Chartrand and John Bargh had students work in a room alongside a “confederate” working for the experimenters
Sometimes the confederates rubbed their own face. Sometimes they shook their foot.
What were the results?
students tended to rub their face when with the face-rubbing person and shake
their foot when with the foot-shaking person.
Chameleon effect
Repeating what someone else is doing in order to conform
How does social contagion lead to empathy and fondness?
This natural MIMICRY enables us to EMPATHIZE—to feel what OTHERS are FEELING. This helps explain why we feel HAPPIER around HAPPY people than around DEPRESSED people.
Empathetic MIMICKING fosters FONDNESS.
Is laughter contagious?
YES
“Chewbacca Mom’s” video became viral due to her spontaneous hilarity
How does social networking enable social contagion?
Social networks serve as contagious PATHWAYS for moods, such as happiness and loneliness, drug use, and even the behavior patterns that lead to obesity and sleep loss.
Positive herding
positive ratings generate more positive ratings
What research has been conducted on social contagion by way of Facebook?
In a massive experiment on the 2010 U.S. congressional election day, Facebook showed 61 million people a message that encouraged voting, with a link to a local voting place and a clickable “I voted” button.
For some recipients, the messages also contained pictures of Facebook friends who had already voted.
What were the results?
Those who received “tell your friends you voted” messages were slightly more likely to vote, and
that difference generated an estimated
282,000 additional votes.
What is conformity?
adjusting our behavior or thinking to COINCIDE
with a group STANDARD because of real or imagined PRESSURE to fit in
What research has been conducted on conformity?
Solomon Asch
The subject of the study is given the line test and his accuracy scores are recorded. Then the subject is asked to join five other men in a room to complete the line test together. The five other men in the study are all confederates of Solomon Asch (they know the purpose and intent of the research).
How is the study conducted?
In order around the table, the men are asked for their answers to the line test and in the first few trials, each answers correctly, as does the subject. On the third trial, the confederates begin answering incorrectly. Asch is looking to see whether or not the subject will begin answering incorrectly as well. Will he conform?
What were the results of Asch’s research on conformity?
In Asch’s experiments, college students, answering questions alone, erred less than 1% of the time.
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.
Why do humans conform?
To feel a sense of belonging
Not get judged for own attitudes and beliefs
What is normative social influence
influence resulting from a person’s DESIRE to gain APPROVAL or avoid DISAPPROVAL
Why do we strive to belong?
We are sensitive to social norms because the price we pay for being different can be severe.
We need to belong.
What is informational social influence?
influence resulting from one’s WILLINGNESS to accept OTHERS’ opinions about reality
example of informational social influence
reading online movie and restaurant reviews
Who was Stanley Milgram?
high school classmate of Philip Zimbardo and then a student of Solomon Asch.
Milgram wondered whether or not people would obey commands.
Obedience in WWII
desire to understand why Nazi soldiers followed orders to kill millions of Jewish people in the Holocaust
What research did Milgram conduct on obedience?
Over the course of more than a decade, from 1963
to 1974, Stanley Milgram conducted over twenty replications and trials of his now
famous obedience study.
More than 1000 people participated over the course of the elaborately designed study.
“learners” would attempt to remember a series of paired words. “Teachers” would provide electric shocks to the “learners” when they incorrectly matched the pairs.
The shock generator
Milgram very carefully walked the “teacher” through the details of the shock generator, even giving the “teacher” a small sample shock.
The “learner” is hooked up
Milgram also made certain to show the “teacher” how the “learner” in the adjacent room would be connected to the shock generator.
What was the reality?
The electric shock generator, with shock levels depicted all the way up to 450millivolts, or XXX, was fake.
NO ELECTRIC SHOCK WAS EVER GIVEN
TO THE “LEARNER”
Who was in on it?
The “learner” was actually a confederate (part of the research team) of Milgram’s… he was in on it.
THE “LEARNER’ NEVER RECEIVED ANY
ELECTRIC SHOCK.
What was the real purpose of Milgram’s study?
The elaborate design of the experiment let the “teacher”, the real subject in the experiment, believe he or she was administering shock to the “learner” for incorrect answers.
In reality, Milgram was researching just how far the subject would go in administering electric shock because he or she had been told to do so by an authority figure.
What were the predictions about how far subjects would go?
Before undertaking the experiments, Milgram asked nonparticipants what they would do.
Most were sure they would stop soon after the
learner first indicated pain, certainly before he shrieked in agony.
Forty psychiatrists agreed with that prediction.
What were the results of the experiment?
When Milgram conducted the experiment with other men aged 20 to 50, he found that more than 60% complied fully—right up to the last switch, XXX.
When he ran a new study, with 40 new “teachers”
and a learner who complained of a “slight heart condition,” the results were similar.
What were the results of a later trial?
A full 65% of the new “teachers” in his later trial obeyed the experimenter, right up to 450 volts, XXX.
What were some variations on the initial research design?
Milgram conducted many variations of his research design, modifying the research conditions in many ways
in one trial, the “learner” was seated next to the “teacher” and the “teacher” had to lift the “learner’s” arm to place it on a shock plate?
Obedience was highest when….
the person giving the orders was close at hand and was perceived to be a legitimate authority figure
the authority figure was supported by a prestigious institution
the victim was depersonalized or at a distance
no role models for defiance.
How does evil reveal itself?
In any society, great evils often grow out of people’s COMPLIANCE with LESSER evils. Milgram, using the foot-in-the-door technique, began with a small level of shock, 15 volts, and escalated step by step.
In the minds of those throwing the switches, the small action became justified, making the next act tolerable.
So it happens when people SUCCUMB , gradually, to evil.
How does the situation impact the expression of evil?
Cruelty does not require devilish villains.
All it takes is ORDINARY people CORRUPTED by an EVIL situation.
How can ordinary people be corrupted by evil?
Ordinary students may follow orders to haze initiates into their group.
Ordinary employees may follow orders to produce and market harmful products.
Ordinary soldiers may follow orders to punish and then torture prisoners.
Do some resist obedience and conformity?
Some people do resist.
When feeling pressured, some react by doing
the opposite of what is expected.
Minority influence
The power of one or two individuals to sway majorities
August Landmesser Minority of one
standing defiantly with arms folded as everyone else salutes their allegiance to the Nazi Party and Adolph Hitler, requires extraordinary
courage.
What have social psychologists learned about the power of the individual?
Social control & personal control interact
Social control
power of situation
personal control
power of individual
Rotten situations turn some people into bad apples, as Philip Zimbardo demonstrated in the Stanford Prison study, but
those same situations cause some people to resist and become heroes.
What is social facilitation?
IMPROVED
performance on simple or well-earned
TASKS in the PRESENCE
of OTHERS
How does social facilitation impact performance?
What they do well, they do even better when people are watching.
How does the presence of others amplify our reactions?
presence of others strengthens our most likely response
Correct response on easy task
incorrect response on challenging task
amplified reactions example
For example, expert pool players who made 71% of their shots when alone made 80% when four people came to watch them.
What if our skill or ability is lacking?
The flip side to social facilitation is that if our likely response is poor…that, too will be amplified.
Amplified lack of skills
poor shooters, who made 36% of their shots when alone, made only 25% when watched.
What is the home team advantage?
Home teams win about 6 in 10 games,
with the home advantage being greatest for teamwork-centered sports, such as soccer and basketball.
What is social loafing?
the tendency for PEOPLE in a GROUP to exert LESS
EFFORT when POOLING their EFFORTS toward attaining a COMMON goal than when INDIVIDUALLY
ACCOUNTABLE
Social loafing in different cultures
Experiments in the United States, India, Thailand, Japan, China, and Taiwan have found social loafing on various tasks, though it was especially common among men in individualist cultures.
Social loafing in group projects
group projects, social loafing often occurs, as individuals FREE RIDE on the efforts of others.
What causes social loafing in a group?
Less ACCOUNTABILITY
Ind. contributions as DISPENSABLE
OVERESTIMATING own contributions
EQUAL benefits in the end
What is deindividuation?
the loss of SELF-AWARENESS and SELF-RESTRAINT
occurring in group situations that foster AROUSAL and ANONYMITY
What is an example of deindividuation?
During England’s 2011 riots and looting, rioters were
disinhibited by social arousal and by the anonymity provided by darkness and their hoods and masks.
Does deindividuation always result in violence?
May also result in PROSOCIAL actions
Dancing wildly/ singly wildly/ expressing themselves
When we shed self-awareness and self-restraint, we become …
more responsive to
the group experience—bad or good.
What is group polarization?
the ENHANCEMENT of a group’s PREVAILING INCLINATIONS through DISCUSSION within the group
How can group polarization have both positive and negative results?
Talking over racial issues increased prejudice
in a high-prejudice group of high school students and decreased it in a low-prejudice group.
How does the internet increase group polarization?
provides an easily accessible medium
ENABLES opinion BUBBLES
Like-minded individuals will more likely make connection
How is the Internet a social amplifier?
Individuals visit websites that reflect their interests
and concerns and are supported by others with the
same views.
What are some pro-social ways in which the Internet impacts ideas?
Peacemakers grow stronger in convictions. Cancer survivors and bereaved parents strength resilience
Social justice promoters become more committed
Political independence
What are some anti-social ways in which the Internet impacts ideas?
Bullies become more abusive
Militia members become more violence
White supremacists become more racist
What is groupthink?
the MODE of THINKING that occurs when the DESIRE for
HARMONY in a decision-making group OVERRIDES a REALISTIC APPRAISAL of alternatives
How does the 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco illustrate groupthink?
In 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy and his advisers decided to invade Cuba with
1400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles.
When the invaders were easily captured and quickly linked to the U.S. government, Kennedy wondered aloud, “How could I have been so stupid?”
What conclusions were arrived at regarding groupthink?
He discovered that the soaring morale of the recently elected president and his advisers fostered undue confidence.
To preserve the good feeling, group members
suppressed or self-censored their dissenting views, especially after President Kennedy voiced his enthusiasm for the scheme.
What is culture?
the ENDURING behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and
traditions shared by a group of people and TRANSMITTED from one generation to the next
What is culture shock?
When we DON’T understand what’s EXPECTED or ACCEPTED
Culture shock example
Greeting people by shaking hands, bowing, or kissing each cheek
How does culture vary over time?
Technology and increased personal income caused expanded human rights
What is prejudice?
an UNJUSTIFIABLE (and usually negative) ATTITUDE toward a GROUP and its members
What are the factors involved in prejudice?
negative emotions
stereotypes
predisposition to discriminate
negative emotions
Holding emotions such as hostility or fear.