Ch 12 Social Psy Objectives 11 21 2014 1 Define social psychology The branch of psy that studies how the thoughts feelings and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the real imagined or implied presence of others 2 What are attitudes How do they affect our behavior What factors help to shape our attitudes How do advertisers use knowledge about attitudes and behavior Attitude can be defined as a tendency to respond positively or negatively toward a certain idea person object or situation Three components of attitudes o 1 Affective emotions feelings o 2 Cognitive thoughts beliefs o 3 Behavioral intentions past behavior action taken in regard to the situation Attitudes are learned through experiences and contact with others and even through direct instruction from parents teachers and other important people in a person s life o Developed through experiences as they live and work with others Direct contact direct instruction parents interaction with others observational learning Attitudes and Behavior o Thus even if you know a person s attitude about something it doesn t mean that you can predict their behavior o Attitudes predict behavior only under certain conditions How specific the attitude is and how strong it is affect the way it might or might not affect behavior o How do we transition from the attitudes we hold to the behaviors we exhibit I dislike political candidates Affective prejudice Cognitive Stereotypes Behavioral Discrimination 3 What is cognitive dissonance Look at the section on attitudes and behavior on p 554 555 of the printed text When an attitude and a behavior are inconsistent we experience emotional discomfort or cognitive dissonance finding yourself saying or doing things that do not match their idea of themselves o Reduce it by changing the behavior changing cognition or attitude to match the behavior or forming new attitudes to justify the behvaior 4 What is persuasion What factors make attempts at persuasion either more or less likely to be successful Persuasion o One person tries to change the beliefs opinions position or course of action of another person by presenting arguments pleading or explaining Goal is to change a person s attitude o Persuasion and Attitude Attitudes can be formed by associations between two o Factors influencing how successful persuasion can be Person giving the message expert trustworthy things Source Message Should be clear and well organized more effective to present both sides of an argument moderately provoke fear and provide info about the fear provoked consequences Target Audience age characteristics of the people Medium seeing and hearing something is better than reading about it o How easily influenced someone is will also be related to the way people tend to process information Elaboration Likelihood Model People either elaborate based on what they hear or they do not elaborate at all only paying attention to the surface characteristics Two Types of Processing Central Route Processing People attend to the content of the message Peripheral route processing Relies on peripheral cues expertise of the message or other things having nothing to do with the message 5 What are stereotypes and how can they lead to prejudice Stereotype o A generalized sometimes accurate but over generalized belief about a group of people o A belief that a set of characteristics is shared by all members of a particular social category Prejudice o An unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members Prejudgement o Generally involves Stereotyped beliefs negative feelings predisposition to discriminatory action 6 Identify the components of attitudes that perpetuate prejudice hint affective cognitive and behavioral Affective prejudice Cognitive Stereotypes Behavioral Discrimination 7 Complete the implicit attitude test discussed on p 558 of the printed text Is there typically a discrepancy between reported attitudes and those measured by the IAT Implicit personality theory o Sets of assumptions that people have about how different types of people are all related and form in childhood Implicit attitudes o Attitudes we are not consciously aware of Analogous to implicit memory It doesn t say anything about a discrepancy in our notes or textbook so that is cool 8 What conditions can decrease prejudice and stereotypes Can you describe the Robber s Cave experiment p 566 o Cooperative dependent equal status contact can decrease Social Contact Theory prejudice Experiment Robber s Cave Study o Shows how prejudice can be created and dissipated o 11 year old boys went to summer camp o They divided them into two groups and competed to prizes o Conflict b w two groups quickly turned into name calling and vandalism o However then the two teams were brought together to work on a common goal fixing the water supply o After 6 days all signs of the previous tensions were gone 9 Explain what conformity and compliance are identify factors that affect them and describe techniques that increase compliance Conformity o Changing one s own behavior to more closely match the actions of others o Asch s study on conformity Seven participants all of them knew about the experiment except one they were asked to pick the line out of 3 lines on a card that was most similar to a single line on a second card The participants conformed to a group answer a little over 1 3 rd of the time Group Size conformity increased with each new confederate until there were four confederates then more did not increase the participant s tendency to conform But he also found that conformity decreased if there was just one confederate who gave the correct answer Group is unanimous even one dissenter significantly reduces conformity Group observes one s behavior when behavior is not private but publicly known more conformity when you have to give an answer in public women show greater conformity than men with this o Reasons for Conformity Normative Social Influence A person s desire to gain approval or avoid rejection Respecting normative behavior because price may be severe if not followed Informational Social Influence Group may provide valuable information Take our cues for how to behave from other people when we are in a situation that is nit clear When the task is difficult or you are unsure it makes sense to listen to others Compliance o Occurs when people change their behavior as a result of another person asking them to change When the behavior is changed as a
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