Definition: The scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings, attitudes or behavior are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other peopleWhat social psychology is not:It is not sociologyGroups vs. individualsRarely do experimentsIt is not personality psychologyIndividual differences vs. the situationIt is not clinical psychologyAbnormal behavior vs. typical behaviorWhy do we study it:Need to understand the importance and consequences of group livingUse this to help reduce social problemsFun examples of social psychology findings: Social Psych is NOT common senseIf you give children a reward for doing something they already enjoy doing, they will subsequently like the activitymorethe samelessAnswer: lessSeeing someone you admire do something rather clumsy or stupid, such as spilling a cup of coffee, will make you like him or hermorethe samelessMore: humanizes the personRepeated exposure to a stimulus, such as a person or a painting, will make you like itmorethe samelessless, example: over playing a songEating sweets can actually make you not only seem more sweet, but also lead you to behave in more caring ways.TrueThe greater the cohesiveness or solidarity of a group, the better its decisions will be.TrueFalseFalse: people start jumping on the bandwagon and stop expressing their opinionsSocial Thinking: Involves thinking about others, especially when they engage in doing things that are unexpected.Attribution Theory (Fritz Heider): we have a tendency to give causal explanations for someone’s behavior, often by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition.The theory of how people explain others’ behavior; for example, by attributing it either to internal dispositions (enduring traits, motives, and attributions) or to external situationsdispositional attributions – attributing behaviors to a person’s disposition and traitsDispositions are enduring personality traits. So, if Joe is a quiet, shy, and introverted child, he is likely to be like that in a number of situationssituational attributions – attributing behavior to the environmentSituational inferences: attributing behavior to the environmentDispositional Inferences: attributing behavior to the person’s disposition and traitsFundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to overestimate the impact of personal disposition and underestimate the impact of the situations in analyzing the behaviors of others leads to the fundamental attribution error (FAE)Ex: road rage= we think that the person cutting us off is doing it because he/she is a bad person, without considering environment (bad day)FAE has a powerful influence on our perceptions of other people.Occurs more often with strangers than close othersLeads to tolerant attitude or defensive oneAttitudes: is a positive or negative evaluation of people, objects, issues, or ideasAttitudes are affected by our actions; the way you behave can influence the way you feel; not only do they stand for what they believe in, they begin to believe what their standing for.Foot in the door technique: Process of getting someone to agree to a smaller request/behavior in order to subsequently ask for a bigger request/behavior; Performing a trivial act makes the next task easier to agree toIf you donate 25 cents to a charity one time you are more likely to donate 50 cents the next time because you feel your already invested in itRole Playing: Prison Experiment Zimbardo (1972)- how role playing affects attitudesassigned the roles of guards and prisoners to random students and found that guards and prisoners developed role- appropriate attitudes.Took average undergraduate studentsWent through a battery of mental health assessments (made sure everyone was at “normal” as possibleStudy was meant to last for 2 weeksSet up a Prison in the Stanford Psychology Building basementParticipants were recruited as guards and prisonersVIDEO: people begin to believe the roles they were assigned; completely average people, later assigned roles, became cruel (if guards), rebellious, riotous, afraid, submissive (prisoners), even experimenter begins to take up the attitude of a prison wardenImportant to know that BOTH person factors and situations factors are involved herePerson: Features or characteristics that individuals carry into social situationsSituation: Environmental events or circumstances outside the personWhy do actions affect your attitude? Cognitive Dissonance: When our actions and attitudes are opposed, we eperience tension= cognitive dissonanceOne route to attitude change can occur when we act in ways that are counter to an attitude we hold.Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory: when one cognition is inconsistent with another cognition (or behavior or self-view), the resulting discomfort motivates us to find a way to restore cognitive balance or consistencyDissonance - the unpleasant state of psychological arousal resulting from an inconsistency within one's important attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors.Counterattitudinal action - A behavior that is inconsistent with an existing attitudeWhen a person performs a counterattitudinal action, he or she often attempts to reconcile these inconsistencies by justifying the action or changing their attitudeSimpsons: Homer wants cable, but he has to steal, so he changes the way he thinks about it: cable is a faceless coorperation, everyone does it=justifiedCognitive Dissonance Theory:1. Students performed a boring task (turning pegs in holes for an hour)2. Then were asked to tell another student it was interesting – and for this, they were paid either $1 or $20Under which condition are you most likely to believe your little lie and say the experiment actually was interesting...A. when paid $1B. when paid $20A: you will BELIEVE the task was INTERESTING because if your paid $20 you have a sufficient justification for why you do the entire boring experiment (it sucked, but I got paid $20), whereas if your paid $1, there is no powerful external source and person was not forced (I wasn’t forced to do it, there was no powerful external source like a large monetary compensation- I must have liked it a little to have stayed the whole time)Conformity:We are more likely to conform when:Are made to feel incompetentAre in a group with a least three peopleAre in a group in which everyone else agreesAdmire the group’s status and attractivenessHave not made a prior commitment to any responseKnow that others