CHAPTER 14: Social Behavior  LECTURE NOTES- Social Psychologyo The study of how individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by others- Person Perceptiono Forming impression of otherso Often influenced and distorted by: Physical appearance- No real correlation- Why?- Media Handshake- Firm, vigorous- Favorable first impressiono Cognitive Schemas Although people are unique, we tend to categorize them in some way Cognitive structures that guide information processingo Social Schemas Reflect the use of cognitive schemas- Organized clusters of ideas about categories of social events and peopleo 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 Perspectiveo Person’s perception is heavily biased. Why?o Adaptive Example: Attractiveness- Fertility in women- Wealth and vigor in meno Categorization comes from the need to distinguish friend from foeo In-group: a group that one identifies with and belongs too Out-group: a group that one does not identify with or belong to- Attribution Processes- Inferences that people draw about the causeso Eventso Others’ behaviorso Their own behaviors- Internal Attributionso Ascribe causes to personal feelings, traits, or abilities- External Attributionso Ascribe causes to situational demands or environmental constraints- Bias in Attributionso Attributions are only inferences and prone to errorso Actor-Observer Bias Own behaviors vs. other’s viewo Fundamental Attribution Error Internal causes for someone else’s behaviors External causes for our behavioro Defensive Attribution Tendency to blame the victim for misfortune  Why? Feel less likely to be victimized ourselveso 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, institutionso 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 dimensionso Strength How firmly held they areo Accessibility How often one thinks about it and how quickly it comes to mindo Ambivalence Conflicting evaluations about a certain topic- Factors in Persuasiono Attitudes do not always predict behavior Messages designed to influence our attitudes and trigger a behavioro Process of persuasion has 4 basic componentso Source Person who sends a communicationo Receiver Person to whom the message is sento Message Information transmitted by a sourceo 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 Factorso Two sided arguments are most effective o Concentrate on only your strong points, not every argumento Repetitiono Appeal to fear But only if it really arouses fear- Receiver Factors- Forewarningo If you expect to be persuaded, it is less effectiveo Persuasion will not work if the argument is opposite of the beliefs of the receiver- Stronger attitudes are more resistant- Attitude Formationo Learning Theory Evaluating conditioning- Efforts to transfer the emotions attached to a UCS to a new CSo Pairing good looking people with products on commercials Operant Conditioningo If other agree with you, it can be a reinforce to an attitude Observational Learning- Attitude Changeo Dissonance Theory Inconsistencies among attitudes propels people to change themo Self-Perception Theoryo People infer their attitudes from their behavior Experiment: “$1 is not enough to get me to lie, so I must have enjoyed the task”- Conformityo 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 componentso The bigger the group, the higher the conformity- The presence of just 1 other dissenter lowered conformity in the subject- Obedienceo 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 learnermade 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- Obedienceo 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 Roleso Expectations about how people are supposed to behaveo Power of situation- Group Behaviorso Bystander Effect People are less likely to provide needed help if they are in groups versus ifthey 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- Productivityo 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 Makingo 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-