Introductory Psychology

Module 10:

Social Psychology

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Affirmations

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• I am always open to learning in a better way
• I am a good role model for others
• My self-worth is not determined by any number or grade

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Recall

• Can you name all of Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development?
• Can you name all of Piaget’s stages?
• How about the 5 stages of grief?

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Key Integrative Theme

Theme G: Ethical principles guide psychology research and practice

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The Stanford Prison Experiment

Stanford University conducted an experiment in a mock prison that demonstrated the power of social roles, social norms, and scripts

• 24 healthy college students with no psychiatric problems were randomly assigned to be prisoners or guards
• Guards became authoritarian and sadistic
• Prisoners became subservient, anxious, and hopeless

But, how was the study conducted, and are the results valid?

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Two Truths and a Lie

Which of these is the lie?

C. Ordinary citizens are unlikely to “blindly obey” the orders of an authority figure when told to do something

B. Online dating is a topic that would be studied by a social psychologist.

A. People are generally more willing to speak up if they have a differing opinion when they feel comfortable in a group.

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©2022 Lumen Learning

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Section 1 Learning Goals

1 Describe situational versus dispositional influences on behavior

2 Give examples of the fundamental attribution error and other common biases

3 Describe social roles, social norms, and scripts and how they influence behavior

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Deepen your understanding and form connections within these skills:

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Social Psychology

Social Psychology: examines how people impact or affect each other, with particular focus on the power of the situation

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Dispositionism vs. Situationism

Dispositionism

Asserts that behavior is determined by internal factors, such as personality traits and temperament

Promoted by personality psychologists

Situationism

Perspective that behavior and actions are determined by the immediate environment and surroundings

Promoted by social psychologists

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Fundamental Attribution Error

• Tendency to overemphasize internal factors as attributions for behavior and underestimate the power of the situation
• In the quizmaster study, people tended to disregard the influence of the situation and wrongly concluded that a questioner’s knowledge was greater than their own

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Fundamental Attribution Error

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Characteristics of Individualistic and Collectivistic Cultures

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Actor-Observer Bias

Phenomenon of explaining other people’s behaviors are due to internal factors and our own behaviors are due to situational forces

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Self-Serving Bias

• Tendency for individuals to take credit by making dispositional or internal attributions for positive outcomes and situational or external attributions for negative outcomes
• Protects self-esteem
• We emphasize internal, stable, and controllable explanations for our success

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Just-World Hypothesis

• Ideology common in the United States that people get the outcomes they deserve
• Can lead to victim-blaming

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Norms, Roles, and Scripts

• Social norm: group expectations regarding what is appropriate for the thoughts and behavior of its members
• Social role: socially defined pattern of behavior that is expected of a person in a given setting or group
• Script: person’s knowledge about the sequence of events in a specific setting

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Apply It

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1 Which seems more salient or important to behavior, choices, and life outcomes—personality or a specific situation?

2 What contexts or social roles might be more influenced by personality? Which might be more influenced by a situation?

3 What examples do you have from your own lives when you acted in conflict with how you understand your personality? How might you explain this?

4 How does culture influence personality development and expression?

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Section 2 Learning Goals

1 Describe attitudes and ways they can be influenced or changed

2 Explain cognitive dissonance

3 Compare the peripheral and central routes to persuasion

4 Describe common tricks of persuasion

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Deepen your understanding and form connections within these skills:

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Attitude and Cognitive Dissonance

• Attitude: evaluations of or feelings toward a person, idea, or object that are typically positive or negative
• Cognitive dissonance: psychological discomfort that arises from a conflict in a person’s behaviors, attitudes, or beliefs that runs counter to one’s positive self-perception

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How Cognitive Dissonance Works

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Cognitive Dissonance Example: Initiation Effect

A difficult initiation into a group influences us to like the group more, due to the justification of effort

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Attitude and Persuasion

Process of changing our attitude toward something based on some form of communication

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Make a Persuasive Infomercial

Incorporate at least 2 of the following “tricks” of persuasion into the presentation:

• Celebrities
• Presenting the message as education
• Word of mouth
• Influences/the maven
• Free gifts and reciprocity
• Social proof
• Door-in-the-face
• And that’s not all
• Sunk cost trap
• Scarcity

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Section 3 Learning Goals

1 Understand the concept of conformity and the difference between normative and informational social influence

2 Describe Stanley Milgram’s experiment and its implications

3 Describe group dynamics such as groupthink, group polarization, deindividuation, or social loafing

4 Describe aggression and bullying

5 Explain the bystander effect and reasons people may not choose to help others

Deepen your understanding and form connections within these skills:

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Types of Social Influence

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Social Influence: Conformity and the Asch Effect

Conformity is when individuals change their behavior to go along with the group even if they do not agree with the group

In the Asch effect a group majority influences an individual’s judgment, even when that judgment is inaccurate

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Factors affect the Asch effect:

• The size of the majority
• The presence of another dissenter
• The public or private nature of the
• responses

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Social Influence: Conformity and the Asch Effect

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Social Influence: Obedience

Obedience: change of behavior to please an authority figure or to avoid aversive consequences

Stanley Milgram’s Experiment:

• Researchers told the participants to give electric shock.
• 65% of the participants continued the shock to the maximum voltage

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Social Influence: Groupthink

Modification of the opinions of members of a group to align with what they believe is the group consensus. Symptoms include:

• Perceiving the group as invulnerable or invincible
• Believing the group is morally correct
• Self-censorship by group members
• Quashing of dissenting group members’ opinions
• Shielding of the group leader from dissenting views
• Perceiving an illusion of unanimity among group
• Holding stereotypes or negative attitudes toward the out-group or others’ with differing viewpoints

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Conformity Today

Imagine that you a researcher who wants to know if the results would be the same today as they were 50 years ago. In your group, pick a context where you might test either conformity or obedience (e.g., criminal behavior, texting while driving, drunk driving, college student alcohol use, cheating on exams, hazing, gang related behavior, work behavior, being on an athletic team, police officers, etc.).

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Social Influence: Social Facilitation and Loafing

Social facilitation occurs when an individual performs better when an audience is watching than when the individual performs the behavior alone.

Social loafing is the exertion of less effort by a person working together with a group.

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Bullying

A person, often an adolescent is treated negatively repeatedly and over time. Involves three parties:

• the bully - experiences power and increased self-esteem
• the victim – has increased risk of anxiety and depression
• witnesses or bystanders

Cyberbullying happens online.

Bystander effect: situation in which a witness or bystander does not volunteer to help a victim or person in distress

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Food for Thought

• People are sometimes advised to yell “fire” instead of “help” if they are attacked
• Based on what you learned about bystander intervention and the bystander effect, why might this make a difference?

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Apply It

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Section 4 Learning Goals

1 Explain the factors that influence human altruism

2 Describe attraction and the triangular theory of love

3 Explain social exchange theory

4 Discuss research on the link between love and the experience of pain or pleasure

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Deepen your understanding and form connections within these skills:

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Altruism: When do people help others?

Bystander intervention is when people intervene to help a stranger even if the intervention puts the helper at risk

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Three factors shape whether people will help:

1. Pluralistic ignorance
2. Diffusion of responsibility
3. Cost–benefit analysis

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Altruism: Why do people help others?

• Reciprocal altruism: according to evolutionary psychology, a genetic predisposition for people to help those who have previously helped them
• Empathy–altruism model: people who put themselves in the shoes of a victim and imagining how the victim feel will experience empathic concern that evokes an altruistic motivation for helping
• Arousal: cost–reward model and egoistic theory claims that seeing a person in need leads to the arousal of unpleasant feelings, and observers are motivated to eliminate that aversive state, often by helping the victim

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Triangular Theory of Love

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Social Exchange Theory

Social exchange theory: humans act as naïve economists in keeping a tally of the ratio of costs and benefits of forming and maintain a relationship, with the goal to maximize benefits and minimize costs

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Section 5 Learning Goals

1 Understand what prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination are

2 Define the self-fulfilling prophecy and confirmation bias

3 Explain reasons for the existence of prejudice and discrimination

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Deepen your understanding and form connections within these skills:

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Aggression

Aggression: seeking to cause harm or pain to another person.

• Hostile aggression: aggression motivated by feelings of anger with intent to cause pain
• Instrumental aggression: aggression motivated by achieving a goal and does not necessarily involve intent to cause pain

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Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination

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Types of Prejudice and Discrimination

• Ageism: prejudice and discrimination toward individuals based solely on their age
• Homophobia: prejudice and discrimination against individuals based solely on their sexual orientation
• Racism: prejudice and discrimination toward individuals based solely on their race
• Sexism: prejudice and discrimination toward individuals based on their sex

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Why Do Stereotypes and Prejudice Exist and Persist?

1. Confirmation bias
2. Self-fulfilling prophecy
3. In-group bias
4. Scapegoating

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Question

1 A manager tends to hire employees who graduated from her alma mater because she believes they are more reliable. After hiring, she pays more attention to their successes and overlooks their mistakes, further confirming her belief. This scenario is an example of which psychological concept?

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A) Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

B) In-Group Bias

C) Confirmation Bias

D) Scapegoating

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Stereotype Threat

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Aggression

Aggression: seeking to cause harm or pain to another person.

• Hostile aggression: aggression motivated by feelings of anger with intent to cause pain
• Instrumental aggression: aggression motivated by achieving a goal and does not necessarily involve intent to cause pain

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Apply It: IAT, Identity, and Prejudice

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Quick Review

• What are situational and dispositional influences on behavior?
• What are the fundamental attribution error and other biases, including the actor-observer bias, the self-serving bias, and the just world phenomenon?
• What are social roles, social norms, and scripts and how do they influence behavior?
• What is cognitive dissonance?

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More Quick Review

• What is conformity?
• What is the difference between normative and informational social influence?
• What was Stanley Milgram’s experiment and what did the results suggest?
• When is the presence of others likely to result in groupthink, social facilitation, or social loafing?
• What factors influence human altruism? Why are humans altruistic?
• What is the triangular theory of love?
• How does social exchange theory apply to relationships?

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Attributions

• Illustrations are from Storyset
• Images from Pexels & Unsplash
• Add additional attributions here……
• Remember to add image alt text

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