4/23/2015

Social Psychology

Social Psychology
Social Psychology is the attempt to
understand and explain how thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors of individuals
are influenced by actual, implied, and
imagined presence of others
-Gordon Allport

Both personal and situational

factors contribute to behavior:

B = f ( P + E)

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The Two Fundamental Axioms of

Social Psychology

Constructivism
The Power of the Situation

Constructivism
People create much of what they
perceive and remember
Each persons view of reality is a
construction, shaped both by:
cognitive processes
social processes

Constructivism
16 seconds leftAFC Divisional
Championship game
The Buffalo Bills are leading 16-15
Titans returned the kickoff 75 yards
Wycheck throws a
30-yard lateral pass to
Dyson
Titans win 22-16

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Constructivism
social processesenable us to
influence and to be influenced by the
views of other

Constructivism
Influence of Others Reactions

Constructivism
a persons view of the world is at least
in part a reflection seen in the eyes of
others

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Constructivism
perceptionnot a passive process in
which people objectively take in
information about the world
people construct their experiences
based on:
recent experiences
past learning
current motives

The Power of the Situation

The primary determinant of behavior
is the nature of the social situation in
which that behavior occurs

The Power of the Situation

The Stanford Prison Study (1971)
Why prisons tend to become abusive,
degrading, violent environments?
24 participantsstudy of prison life
(newspaper ad)

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The Power of the Situation

social situations are characterized by
the operation of social roles

The Power of the Situation

social role

a socially defined pattern of

behavior that is expected of a
person when functioning in a
given setting or group

The Power of the Situation

social situations are characterized by
the operation of rules
rules

behavioral guidelines for

specific settings

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The Power of the Situation

usually not aware of effects of social
roles and rules

The Power of the Situation

specific expectations for socially
appropriate attitudes and
behaviors that are embodied in
the stated or implicit rules of a
group

social norms

The Power of the Situation

Yielding to Influence

Resisting Influence

Compliance
Obedience

Conformity

Assertiveness
Independence

Defiance

Continuum of Social Influence

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The Power of the Situation

social influence
conformity

the tendency to change our

perception, opinions, or
behaviors in ways that are
consistent with group norms

The Power of the Situation

social influence
compliance

yielding to a direct request from

a person of equal or lower
status

The Power of the Situation

social influence
obedience

yielding to a direct request from

a person in a position of
authority (high social status)

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The Power of the Situation

Conformity
Asch (1951) lines study

The Power of the Situation

Conformity
Why do people conform?

informational
influence
normative
influence

influence that produces conformity

when a person believes others are
correct in their judgments.
influence that produces conformity
when a person fears the negative
social consequences of appearing
deviant.

The Power of the Situation

Conformity
Why do people conform?

private
acceptance
public
compliance

the change of beliefs that occurs

when a person privately accepts the
position taken by others.
a superficial change in overt
behavior, without a corresponding
change of opinion, produced by real
or imagined group pressure.

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The Power of the Situation

Obedience
The Milgram Experiment (1963)

The Milgram Experiment

Factors influencing Milgrams results
Authority
legitimate setting (Yale University)
authority figure

Victim
proximity

Procedure
lack of responsibility
shocks gradual escalation

Constructivism
How do social situations obtain
significance?

selective encoding
we expect to see what we want to see

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Social Perception
Social
Perception

the process by which people

come to understand and
categorize the behaviors of others

causal attributionsjudgments about forces

influencing other peoples behaviors
expectations and self-fulfilling prophecies

Social Perception
attribution
theory

a general approach to describing

the ways the social perceiver uses
information to generate causal
explanations

what caused an eventWHY?

Social Perception
Fritz Heider (1958)people are nave
scientists
take into account behavior and
situation

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Social Perception

internal or dispositional attributionsthe

cause of the behavior is found in the person
external or situational attributionsthe
cause of the behavior is found in the
situation

Social Perception

fundamental
attribution
error

represents the dual tendency for people

to overestimate dispositional factors
(blame or credit people) and to
underestimate situational factors (blame
or credit the environment) when
searching for the cause of some behavior
or outcome

Social Perception
actor-observer
bias

the tendency for people to make

more dispositional attributions for
other peoples behavior than they
make for their own behavior

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Social Perception
self-serving
bias

the tendency to attribute ones

success to personal factors and
ones failures to situational factors

Social Perception
self-fulfilling
prophecies

predictions made about some

future behavior or event that
modify behavioral interactions so as
to produce what is expected

Social Perception
What are consequences of the
predictions or expectations we hold of
others
Climate Warmer climate for
students whom teachers have
favorable expectations
Input Teachers teach more
material to students they think are
brighter
Opportunity To ask questions
Feedback Reinforcement for
positive answers and differentiated
feedback for wrong answers

self-fulfilling prophecy

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Attitudes

Attitudes

feelings and beliefs about an object

that presumably influence how we
behave toward that object.

Attitudes
What determines when attitudes are
more likely to predict behavior?
accessibility
based on direct experience
rehearsed more often

Attitudes
What determines when attitudes are
more likely to predict behavior?
specificity
attitudes and behaviors measured at the
same level of specificity

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Attitudes
What determines when attitudes are
more likely to predict behavior?
specificity
attitudes and behaviors measured at the
same level of specificity

Attitudes
What determines when attitudes are
more likely to predict behavior?
specificity
exemplars you call to mind

Attitudes
cognitive
dissonance

an unpleasant state that arises

when a person recognizes the
inconsistency between his or her
actions and his or her attitudes, or
beliefs

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Attitudes
selfperception

you infer what your internal states

(beliefs, attitudes, motives, and
feelings) are or should be by
perceiving how you are acting now
and recalling how you have acted in
the past in a given situation

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