CHAPTER 14 Social Behavior LECTURE NOTES Social Psychology o The study of how individuals thoughts feelings and behaviors are influenced by others Person Perception o Forming impression of others o Often influenced and distorted by Physical appearance No real correlation Why Media Handshake Firm vigorous Favorable first impression o Cognitive Schemas Although people are unique we tend to categorize them in some way Cognitive structures that guide information processing o Social Schemas Reflect the use of cognitive schemas Organized clusters of ideas about categories of social events and people o Stereotypes Widely held beliefs that people have certain characteristics because of their membership in a particular group Most common are those based on sex age and ethnicity This is a normal process that happens almost automatically and saves time and energy Comes at a cost of accuracy Misperceive Tend to be broad overgeneralizations An Evolutionary Perspective o Person s perception is heavily biased Why o Adaptive Example Attractiveness Fertility in women Wealth and vigor in men o Categorization comes from the need to distinguish friend from foe o In group a group that one identifies with and belongs to o Out group a group that one does not identify with or belong to Attribution Processes Inferences that people draw about the causes o Events o Others behaviors o Their own behaviors Internal Attributions o Ascribe causes to personal feelings traits or abilities External Attributions o Ascribe causes to situational demands or environmental constraints Bias in Attributions o Attributions are only inferences and prone to errors o Actor Observer Bias Own behaviors vs other s view o Fundamental Attribution Error Internal causes for someone else s behaviors External causes for our behavior o Defensive Attribution Tendency to blame the victim for misfortune Why Feel less likely to be victimized ourselves o Self Serving Bias Tendency to attribute success to internal factor and failures to external factors Attitudes Positive or negative evaluations of objects o Social situations groups institutions o Three components Cognitive Belief that people hold about something Affective Emotions stimulated by the topic Behavioral Predispositions to act in a certain way in response to attitudes Vary across several crucial dimensions o Strength How firmly held they are o Accessibility How often one thinks about it and how quickly it comes to mind o Ambivalence Conflicting evaluations about a certain topic Factors in Persuasion o Attitudes do not always predict behavior Messages designed to influence our attitudes and trigger a behavior o Process of persuasion has 4 basic components o Source Person who sends a communication o Receiver Person to whom the message is sent o Message Information transmitted by a source o Channel The medium through which the message is sent Source Factors Persuasion is more effective when the source is CREDIBLE Expertise or trustworthiness Likeability Attractiveness Similarity Message Factors o Two sided arguments are most effective o Concentrate on only your strong points not every argument o Repetition o Appeal to fear But only if it really arouses fear Receiver Factors Forewarning o If you expect to be persuaded it is less effective o Persuasion will not work if the argument is opposite of the beliefs of the receiver Stronger attitudes are more resistant Attitude Formation o Learning Theory Evaluating conditioning Efforts to transfer the emotions attached to a UCS to a new CS o Pairing good looking people with products on commercials Operant Conditioning o If other agree with you it can be a reinforce to an attitude Observational Learning Attitude Change o Dissonance Theory Inconsistencies among attitudes propels people to change them o Self Perception Theory o People infer their attitudes from their behavior Experiment 1 is not enough to get me to lie so I must have enjoyed the task Conformity o Tendency for people to yield to real or imagined pressure Asch Experiment 7 participants showed a card with lines on it only 1 real participant and 6 confederates 5 trials first 2 trials all 6 of the first people picked the same line during the last 3 trials the first 6 participants picked an obviously wrong answer and instead of going with the correct answer the 7th participant went with the others wrong answer Group size and group unanimity are also important components o The bigger the group the higher the conformity The presence of just 1 other dissenter lowered conformity in the subject Obedience o A form of compliance in which people follow the demands of another usually someone with authority Milgram s experiment A teacher and a learner Separate rooms confederate was the learner participant was teacher every time the learner made a mistake the teacher would shock them the lab coat professor told the teacher to continue and even though the teacher wanted to stop they continued to shock them more than half of the participants continued to give shocks Obedience o Zimbardo and the Stanford Prison Experiment Set up a prison and found that people take on the roles of the situation the prisoners felt like they had to follow the guard s orders the guards became very demeaning Social Roles o Expectations about how people are supposed to behave o Power of situation Group Behaviors o Bystander Effect People are less likely to provide needed help if they are in groups versus if they are alone Subjects who are alone provide help 75 of the time but only 56 of the time if in groups Diffusion of responsibility If you are alone the weight is on your own shoulders if others are around you diffuse the responsibility because you feel someone else can help Productivity o Social Loafing Individual productivity tends to decline in groups Reduced efficiency resulting from the loss of coordination A reduction in effort when working in a group Diffusion of responsibility High achievement motivation Smaller groups Decision Making o Group polarization Group discussion strengthens dominate view Shift towards a more extreme decision in that direction Groups arrive at riskier decisions generated through discussion o Depends on which way the group is leaning to begin with Group Think A process in which a group emphasized concurrence at the expense of critical thinking Group Cohesiveness o Close knit team spirit o The more cohesive the more likely group think is to occur