Psych 202 Lecture 3/24/2015- A lot of mental activity occurs implicitly- Cognitive Dissonance:o importance of maintaining view on selfo “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 Dissonanceo 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 Ionly got $1)o Justifying effort (hazing, cults)- reinforces commitmento People who lied for one dollar rated the study as better than people who rated the studyfor 20 dollarso 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 anotherperson’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 studentso 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 expectationso DV: how well they did on the task; welder’s “bloomed” under randomly assigned expectation- Considering Prejudice: How we socially construct prejudiceo 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 Categorieso 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 versao Decreased performance due to physiological stress affecting prefrontal functioningo A tendency to think about their performance, which distracts themo 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 Studieso Tend to conform to social normso Dissent is not encouraged in groupso Strong need to belongo Brain imaging results suggests an activated amygdala during Asch-like conformity test if you are not conformingo Why do people conform? Private Conformity- change mind because group must be right Public Conformity- don’t agree with group but act like they agreeo 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 othero Several factors have been identified that increase conformity Larger group sizes Unanimity of group opiniono 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 drinkersdrinking moreo 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 identifiedo 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 Stanford prison studyo Groups Influence Individual Behavior Group decision making:- Risky shift effect- Group polarizationo 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 Studies- o 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