Psych Reading for Week of March 25th Pages 492 517 What is Social Psychology Social psychology helps us to understand why many forms of social influence are so powerful Social Psychology The study of how people influence others behavior beliefs and attitudes Humans as a social species We gravitate to each other We feel the need to belong Need to Belong Theory We humans have a biologically based need for interpersonal connections Conformity obedience and many other forms of social influence become maladaptive only when they re blind or unquestioning Social Comparison Theory We evaluate our abilities and beliefs by comparing them with those of others Upward We compare ourselves with people who seem superior to us in some way Downward We compare ourselves with others who seem inferior to us in some way Social Contagion Mass Hysteria A contagious outbreak of irrational behavior that spreads much like a flu epidemic Collective Delusions Many people simultaneously come to be convinced of bizarre things that are false Urban Legends False stories repeated so many times that people believe them to be true Social Facilitation The presence of others can make us perform better Social Disruption The worsening of performance in the presence of others The Fundamental Attribution Error The Great Lesson of Social Psychology Attributions Assigning causes to behavior Fundamental Attribution Error The tendency to overestimate the impact of dispositional influences personality traits attitudes intelligence on others behaviors Social Influence Conformity and Obedience Conformity The tendency of people to alter their behavior as a result of group pressure Asch studies found that conformity was influenced by the following independent variables Unanimity If all confederates gave the wrong answer the participant was more likely to conform Difference in the wrong answer Knowing that someone else in the group differed from the majority made the participant less likely to conform Size The size of the majority made a difference Deindividualization The tendency of people to engage in atypical behavior when stripped of their usual identities A loss of identity actually makes people more likely to engage in prosocial or helping behavior when others are helping out Groupthink An emphasis on group unanimity at the expense of critical When groups combine information from members they typically rely on common knowledge information that group members share The best way to avoid groupthink is to encourage active dissent within an thinking organization Group Polarization Occurs when group discussion strengthens the dominant position held by individual group members Groupthink can lead to cults groups that exhibit intense and unquestioning devotion to a single cause Cults promote groupthink in four different ways Having a persuasive leader Disconnecting group members from the outside world Discouraging questioning of the group s assumptions Establishing training practices that gradually indoctrinate members Inoculation Effect First expose people to information consistent with cult beliefs and then debunk it Obedience The Psychology of Following Orders Obedience We take our marching orders from people who are above us in the hierarchy of authority Helping and Harming Others Prosocial Behavior and Aggression Mounting evidence suggests that human nature is a blend of both socially constructive and destructive tendencies Prosocial Behavior Behavior intended to help others Causes of Bystander Nonintervention Pluralistic Ignorance the error of assuming that no one in the group perceives things as we do Diffusion of Responsibility The presence of others makes each person feel less responsible for the outcome Social Loafing A phenomenon in which people slack off in groups Prosocial Behavior and Altruism Altruism Helping others for unselfish reasons Enlightenment Effect Exposure to research on bystander effects may Some people do help in situations in which others may not increase the chances of intervening in emergencies Participants who are less concerned about social approval and less traditional are more likely to go against the grain and intervene in emergencies even when others are present Extroverted people are more likely to help than introverted people Pages 520 533 Attitudes and Persuasion Changing Minds Belief A conclusion regarding ffactual evidence Attitude A belief that includes an emotional component Attitudes are highly accessible meaning they come to mind easily Self Monitoring A trait that assesses the extent to which people s behaviors reflect their true feelings and attitudes Origins of Attitudes Our experiences shape our attitudes Recognition Heuristic Makes us more likely to believe something we ve Bandwagon Fallacy We ll remember that we shouldn t believe something heard many times merely because most people do Our attitudes are associated in important ways with our personality traits Cognitive Dissonance Theory We alter our attitutdes because we experience an unpleasant state of tension between two or more conflicting thoughts We can reduce the anxiety resulting from this inconsistency in three major ways Change cognition A Change cognition B Introduce a new cognition C Two other explanations for cognitive dissonance effects Self Perception Theory Proposes that we acquire our attitudes by observing our behaviors Impression Management Theory Proposes that we don t really change our attitudes in cognitive dissonance studies we only tell the experimenters we have Persuasion Humans as Salespeople Dual Process Models of Persuasion There are two alternative pathways to persuading others Central Route Leads us to evaluate the merits of persuasive arguments carefully and thoughtfully Peripheral Route Leads us to respond to persuasive arguments on the basis of snap judgments Persuasion Techniques Foot in the door Technique Suggests that we start with a small request before making a bigger ones Door in the face Technique Start with a large request before asking for a small one Low Ball Technique Seller of a product starts by quoting a price well below the actual sales price We are more likely to swallow a persuasive message if famous or attractive people deliver it Implicit Egotism Messages are especially persuasive if the messenger seems similar to us Prejudice and Discrimination Prejudice To prejudge something negatively to arrive at an unfavorable conclusion before we ve evaluated all of the evidence