Psych 202 Lecture 3 24 2015 A lot of mental activity occurs implicitly Cognitive Dissonance o importance of maintaining view on self o The perceptual incongruity that occurs when there is a contradiction between two attitudes or between an attitude and behavior o Dissonance causes anxiety tension and motivated to reduce by changing attitude or behavior attitude and behavior don t match which causes mental tension Happiness is what when you think what you say and what you do are in harmony Discrepancies Lead to Dissonance o Leon Festinger research cognitive dissonance powerful influence on our attitudes 1 dollar vs 20 dollar study lie and say this was an enjoyable study post decisional dissonance change your attitude to justify decision i e there must have been a reason I only got 1 o Justifying effort hazing cults reinforces commitment o People who lied for one dollar rated the study as better than people who rated the study for 20 dollars o People want to alleviate cognitive tension A view of classic research social situations related to social psychology concepts o Self fulfilling prophecy Theory Rosenthal 2002 One person s expectations for another person s behavior comes to serve as a self fulfilling prophecy The behavior expected came to pass because the expecter expected it Self fulfilling Prophecy videoclip give a Harvard test to students o how teacher s expectations impact IQ scores tell teachers which students would get smart during the academic year ahead even though it was actually random students actually got smarter when teachers expected them to get smarter teachers create a warmer climate to students to whom they have higher expectations input factor teachers teach more material to those with whom they have favorable expectations If teacher accepts low quality response they don t have high expectations for the student Response opportunity factor let students they have more expectations for speak longer and call on them more Self fulfilling prophecy Welding videoclip instructor didn t realize he treated some of the welders with higher expectations Robert Rosenthal s Analysis in School Situation o IV manipulating expectations o DV how well they did on the task welder s bloomed under randomly assigned expectation Considering Prejudice How we socially construct prejudice o In prejudice and stereotypes we see the operation of a Confirmation Bias evidence that supports prejudice Videoclip on Prejudice Riceville 3rd grade classroom you shouldn t assume that other people s perceptions are wrong just because they are different inferior brown eyed kids and superior blue eyed people used confirmation bias to confirm that blue eyed people are better kids quickly went into their roles being called brown eyes became a negative thing Confirmation Bias prejudices grow stronger when a social perceiver encounters information in their social world that is consistent with prejudiced attitudes this is easier to do than admit that you are wrong prejudice inconsistent information tends NOT to be noticed rehearsed nor therefore stored in LTM new evidence is this subject to biased processing Stereotyping Drawing Inferences from Categories o Stereotypes can be self perpetuating Perpetual confirmation when observers perceive what they expect to perceive Self fulfilling prophecy when observer causes what they expect to happen Sub typing tendency for people who are faced with disconfirming evidence to think that that behavior is abnormal don t change prejudice though Stereotype threat when facing a negative stereotype people are fostered from doing their best feel a sense of threat of being labeled by that stereotype i e black and white people mark their race before a golf related test conditions become self fulfilling Stereotype threat when whites list race they do better but when blacks DO NOT list race they do better and vice versa o Decreased performance due to physiological stress affecting prefrontal functioning o A tendency to think about their performance which distracts them o Attempts to suppress negative thought and emotions which require a great deal of effort The Power of Social Situations Is our Behavior Caused by Personal Dispositions or Social Situations The Classical Studies in Social Situational Explanation Behavior Asch Conformity Studies o Tend to conform to social norms o Dissent is not encouraged in groups o Strong need to belong o Brain imaging results suggests an activated amygdala during Asch like conformity test if you are not conforming o o Why do people conform Private Conformity change mind because group must be right Public Conformity don t agree with group but act like they agree The Conformity Issue We all try to fit in Normative Influence occurs when another person s behavior provides information about what is appropriate Norm of reciprocity the unwritten rule that people should benefit from each other o o Several factors have been identified that increase conformity Larger group sizes Unanimity of group opinion Universities have attempted to use group norms on drinking to decrease binge drinking A backfire effect can occur when reporting group norms leading to light drinkers drinking more o Social Facilitation diagram ex piano recital amt of practice social presence of others o Social Loafing people work less hard in a group when no one person s efforts are identified o Deindividuation people sometimes lose their individuality when they become part of a group occurs when people are not self aware or when there is diffusion of responsibility o Groups Influence Individual Behavior o Stanford prison study Group decision making Risky shift effect Group polarization Gaining Compliance tendency to agree foot in the door technique Do you care about the water you drink get someone to sign petition when they agree ask them to donate money door in the face technique Are you willing to donate 10 000 makes you more likely to donate 100 Milgram Obedience Studieso Milgram s Obedience Study videoclip administer electric shocks to people when they miss a word that they are learning people obey even though they think that someone is being severely hurt people tend to obey authority Stanford Prison Study Conformity videoclip people told to give wrong answers subject yields to group influence