PSY 301 1st Edition Lecture 3 Outline of Last Lecture I First Impressions a Attributions b Internal and External Attributions Outline of Current Lecture I Attributional Bias Current Lecture Attributional Bias This is a cognitive shortcut for making an attribution that generally occurs outside of awareness The types of Attributional bias are o The Fundamental Attribution Error When we overestimate internal factors and underestimate external factors Example is when someone gets into a car accident we tend to assume that she is a bad driver and fail to analyze the situation where she may have got into an accident due to a slippery road o Actor Observer bias When we underestimate internal factors and overestimate external factors This is the opposite of the fundamental attribution error An example is when you are stopped over for speeding and you say that the reason why you were speeding was cause your speedometer situational was not working o Self serving bias When we attribute failure to external causes and our successes to internal causes An example of this is when we fail a test we tend to blame our professor for doing a poor job external but when we pass a test we tend to say that it is because of our intelligence internal o Just World Attribution When we assume that people get what they deserve An example of this is when your friend s daughter gets kidnapped after leaving her for a few minutes You assume that your friend got what she deserved because she shouldn t have left her child even for a few minutes Cognitive Dissonance The discomfort caused by a perceived conflict between an attitude and a behavior This motivates a return to consistency by changing the attitude or behavior In an attitude to behavior conflict the attitude is more likely to change When a decision is being made between conflicting attitudes factors are re weighted in favor of the chosen attitude There is less dissonance if the person has a credible explanation for the conflict If the person has little or no choice in the conflicting action little dissonance or attitude change occurs Social Influences 1 Groups These are people who function within groups The common qualities among groups are o Regular interaction among members o Some type of emotional connection o A common frame of reference o Some type of interdependence o Feelings thoughts and behaviors may be motivated by the group perspective Groups have norms or shared beliefs that are enforced through a groups use of penalties o Can endure over time even as group members change o Can also change over time o What matters however is the perception of the norms Groups have assigned roles or behaviors that a member is a given position in a group is expected to perform o Delineate responsibility within and to the group o Status hierarchy defines the position of roles within a group 2 Conformity A change of beliefs or actions in order to follow a groups norms The Asch Study was a study where 9 people were confederates people working for the experiment would say the wrong answer and the participant last in line would conform to the wrong answer even though the right answer was obvious Social influences that lead to conformity most likely occur because of an ambiguous situation a difficult task when there is a crisis when others are experts Normative social influences are when we conform because we want to be liked or thought of positively o Conformity goes up in more cohesive groups with people more strongly identified with the group norms and in less powerful group members o Conformity goes down with social support for not conforming People in collectivist cultures conform more to their families classmates and close friends but less to people whom they do not share close interpersonal bonds 3 Compliance A change in behavior produced by a direct request rather than social norms This is more likely if it is based on friendship or liking if there is a commitment or consistency scarcity reciprocity social validation or authority o Foot in the door technique Beginning with a small request followed by a larger request o Low ball technique Getting someone to make an agreement and then increasing the cost o Door in the face technique Start with a very large request which is denied as expected then making compliance with a smaller request which is the more desired request 4 Obedience The Milgrim Study was used to analyze obedience This study showed that 65 of the people who participated in the experiment will go to the max shock when only 2 were predicted Decreased obedience occurs when o The teacher sees the learner o The teacher gives the shock personally o Dissenting confederate Increased conformity occurs when o Participant must follow orders o When individuality is decreased o When the victim is dehumanized o People who have authoritarian personalities are more likely to be highly obedient They are submissive to those more powerful and harsh to those less powerful They are associated with prejudice against minority groups
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