Chapter 9 Social Psychology What is social psychology According to Gordon Alloport Social psychology is the study of how the thoughts feelings and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual imagined or implied presence of others o Not influenced but just the people immediately around us but ALSO the people we imagine expect to be around us Just thinking about others can influence our thought Social Influences Ways to respond to social influence o Conformity behavior influenced by social pressure we conform to some aspects of our cultural norms We choose certain clothes based on what is normal or attractive Some situations call for different clothes ex wedding Halloween etc o Compliance behavior influenced by an overt request o Internalization becoming convinced of what is correct Believing that what is popular is correct Examples of Social Influence o Normative influence we learn to conform to the rules of other people The more we see others behaving in a certain way or making particular decisions the more we feel obliged to follow suit because of our human need to belong to social groups Solomon Asch experiment a study of conformity a subject was placed in an experiment with other people who were acting The actors purposely choose the wrong answer to see if the participant would conform to choose to the wrong answer as well Solomon found that 33 of the time they conformed and choose the wrong answer although they knew it was incorrect Subjects conformed to groups of 3 or 4 just as often as a larger group However is a subject had an ally who had the same answer as they did they conformed much less In isolation participants never answer correctly 100 of the time o Informational influence when we do not know how to behave we copy other people is right Private acceptance occurs when we genuinely believe the other person Public compliance occurs when we copy others because we fear ridicule or rejection if we behave otherwise Occurs most often when The situation is ambiguous we have choice but do not know which to select There is a crisis we have no time to think and experiment a decision is required immediately Others are experts they must know better than us o The Stanford Prison experiment a psychological study to see the effects of becoming a prisoner or a prison guard The study was set to be six days but had to be stopped abruptly after 6 days because the situation had escalated quickly into abuse Compliance Obedience Milgram s study of obedience purpose was to show that it is human nature to comply Compliance gaining techniques o Foot in the door technique start by asking for something small when they give it to you ask for something bigger and so on and so forth Freedman Fraser 1966 asked people to sign a petition of put a small sign in the window that encouraged keeping California beautiful or supported safe driving After two weeks they asked the same people to put a larger sign in their window and many who agreed to the first request agreed to the second o Door in the face technique make a very large request that the person is likely to deny then act upset and request something more reasonable they are likely to accept Cialdini Cacioppo Basset and Miller they asked students to volunteer to juvenile delinquents for two hours a week for two years After everyone refused they asked them to chaperone on a one day trip to the zoo 50 of people agreed to chaperone compared to the 17 who agreed but were ONLY asked to chaperone at the zoo trip o Reciprocity norm if I give you something or help you in some way you are obliged to return the favor those who dislike us Also works at a level of liking We like people who like us and dislike The Bystander Effect Role of informational influence from other bystanders if they do not act like it is an emergency then it must not be one Diffusion of responsibility a social phenomenon which tends to occur in groups of people above a certain critical size when responsibility is not explicitly assigned o People think that someone else will help so they do not have to Attribution Biases Attribution the process of assigning a cause to an event o Internal attribution o External attribution Fundamental attribution error tendency to over estimate the internal and underestimate the external factors when explaining the behaviors of others o Saying what an idiot when someone cuts you off not she must be having a rough day Self serving bias we tend to equate successes to internal and failures to external attributes o When you get fired it s because your boss is a bad person but when you get promoted it s because you worked hard Attitudes Our evaluations of things and people Balance Theory when tensions arise between or inside people they attempt to reduce these tensions through self persuasion or trying to persuade others Cognitive Dissonance when we discover that certain thoughts disagree with each other it creates a state of negative arousal o When things don t make sense it causes anxiety and we are motivated to reduce the anxiety Class notes Social Comparison Theory Festinger Comparing yourself to someone else How we make a judgment about ourselves compared to others We understand ourselves by comparisons with relevant others o Am I good at X o How strongly do I feel about Y Social Influence Conformity a change in one s behavior due to the real or imagined influence of other people o Why do we conform Informational influence idea that other people have valuable information about the world We conform because we believe that other s interpretation of the situation is more accurate than ours and it will help us choose the appropriate course of action Private acceptance we really believe that they are right Sherif 1936 o Autokinetic effect staring at a bright light in an uniformly dark environment the light will appear wavering back and forth o Individual participants arrived at their own stable estimate during the study individual norm o As people came in and answered how far they thought the light moved they conformed with the answers of the person in front of them Normative influence we look at others to determine what is normal People conform in order to be liked and accepted o What do they conform to Social norms implicit or explicit rules a group has for acceptable behaviors values and beliefs of its members o Public compliance with the groups beliefs and behaviors but not necessarily private acceptance of those beliefs and behaviors o Asch
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