Psych 202 1st Edition Lecture 12 Social Psychology Online Day 1 In prejudice and stereotyping we see the operation of a confirmation bias wherein social perceivers differentially attend to and then store in memory social information as illustrated next o Experiments are conducted that are in favor of the theory they are testing o Seek confirmation of their own views Prejudices grows stronger when a social perceiver encounters information in their social world that is consistent with their prejudiced attitudes WHY o When you see something that fits your view If you don t you overlook it your prejudice is unaffected you don t pay attention to it you don t use it to challenge your bias In the face of existing attitudes expectations beliefs prejudice consistent information is notices rehearsed and stored in increasingly elaborated however biased semantic networks which include schemas scripts and stereotypes in LTM Prejudice inconsistent information tends NOT to be noticed rehearsed nor therefore stored in LTM o New evidence is thus subject to biased processing Social Identity Theory o A model of why people may be organized in such a way as to reveal biased processing of out groups o We all have a need for self esteem Seek sense of belonging and connection Two routes to achievement to self esteem Top personal identity Achieving individual states of productivity and unique expression that make us feel good and creates self esteem Bottom we tend to belong to social groups that have a strong sense of identity to them and we have a powerful desire to be accepted by the group we feel a part of want to fit it Ex Proud to be a Badger we are better than them Kids are disadvantaged who don t feel like they belong to any group Tend to develop strong feelings in favor of your group If you favor one group you tend to have negative thought toward other groups We feel good putting down other groups even though part of our moral selves know it s wrong The power of social situations is our behavior caused by personal dispositions or social situations These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute o Lean towards situational explanation although it acknowledges that individual differences contribute The classical studies in social situations explanation of behavior o Soloman Asch s 1951 conformity study video clip and discussion which line matches the line length given What are 2 reasons given by research subjects for conforming In private conformity there is a change of behavior and mind demonstrating an informational influence effect subjects conform because they assume majority is correct Person alters what they see and think and change their judgment to fit and conform to situation In public conformity there is outward compliance but no change of mind demonstrating a normative influence effect subjects conform because of fear of social rejection accompanying deviance from a group norm Go along with group but you know you are lying and going along with a falsehood that it more convenient because you don t want to make waves o Stanley Milgram s 1963 Obedience Studies video clip and discussion What of men and women went all the way in Milgram s experiments There is no sex difference for how long they went on to give shocks 65 of people giving shocks delivered the highest level of shocks in complete opposition to all professional guesses of what the teachers would be willing to do Personality had nothing to do with the outcome of how many shocks a person gives Maybe personality isn t as powerful as they thought it was maybe it has to do more with situational environments now What are the effects of Varying authority Yale vs rundown office experimenter physically present vs orders by phone professor type vs ordinary person Victim proximity separated vs in same room vs in same room with physical touching putting electrodes on person Inversely associated with likelihood of acting out Dehumanizing labels Bandura 1975 Groups of various sizes of students shock others a la Milgram 3 groups accidentally overhear an assistant speak about the other students who are supposedly going to receive the shocks on intercom seems like nice guys 3 no label 5 seem like a bunch of animals 8 dehumanizing label they become objects something diminished 1 People deliver more shocks to this group 2 Teacher vs learner created another dehumanizing factor because one has higher role than other Experimenter assuming responsibility When experimenter s don t constantly produce Ss to increase voltage most Ss stop Much earlier So excuse of aggression being due to experimenter assuming responsibility is common CAN this really be a valid excuse for going ahead with actions that appear to be rooted in questionable moral ground What stage of moral development might this represent in Kohlberg s theory 1 Theory of moral development people go through stages 1 In preconventional stage people are like young children and just operate through reward and punishment good and bad will I be reinforced or punished 2 Conventional behaving according to rules right and wrong system of belief 1 Most in study are here 2 Nature of social rules and expectations 2 Post conventional moral thinking have a reason for your actions Who is responsible in the following situations International Law Subtext the fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law It s not an excuse that you just did what you were supposed to because President or your command officer told you to Adolf Eichmann chief of the Jewish Office of the Gestapo entrusted to implement the Final Solution At Nuremberg Eichmann used the following orders defense 1 BUT also 1 to sum it all up I must say that I regret nothing 1 He just did what he was told to do isn t a legitimate excuse What about the behavior of Nazi concentration camp guards They were normal people living in Germany in a bad situation My Lai Vietnam March 16 1968 Lieutenant Calley ordered his troops to go into this village and nothing and no one is coming out standing 1 This is how he interpreted order he was given 1 He gave the orders to kill all the people but he was just following his own order 2 It was ambiguous if he did get the orders he executed 2 Hugh Thompson was a pilot flying around My Lai and saw what was going on and knew