Unit 9 Social Psychology

• Attribution theory — we credit (attribute) the behavior to a person’s stable traits or to the external situation
• Fundamental attribution error — when analyzing others, we tend to practice dispositional attribution rather than situational attribution (homeless person is lazy, rather than they could have lost their job or suffer mental illness)
• East Asian collectivist culture attributes behavior to situation.
• The relationship between our attitudes is two-way. One affects the other affects the other.
• Attitudes predispose us to respond in a particular way to things. (Tanning skin cancer)
• (Peripheral route persuasion) - people are influenced by incidental cues like someone‘s attractiveness, popularity, etc. and make quick judgements based on emotions triggered by attention getting cues
• (Central route persuasion): people are persuaded by arguments and evidence.
• Foot-in-the-door phenomenon explains that people will be more likely to comply with a request if it is preceded by a smaller request.
• Door-in-the-face phenomenon explains how people are more likely to accept a request of it is preceded by a much larger or less reasonable one.
• Roles are sets of norms about a social position that define how people in those positions should behave
• The Stanford Prison experiment conducted by Philip Zimbardo show how roles effect behavior.

  Playing their roles and adhering to its norms affected their actions, which in turn affected their attitudes. .
• Cognitive dissonance theory states that we act to reduce the dissonance we feel when two thoughts or our thoughts and behaviors are incompatible.

  We change either our attitudes or our behavior.
• Solomon Asch’s experiment studied conformity.
• Normative social influence results from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid rejection/disapproval. We need to belong.
• Informational social influence results from a person‘s willingness to accept the opinions of others about reality. …basically, being a SHEEP!!! me waiting for someone to give me my opinion…
• Stanley Milgram’s experiment studied obedience.
• Participants in the obedience study were more likely to comply fully if:

  • the authority appeared legitimate
  • the authority was supported by a prestigious institution
  • the victim was depersonalized or at a distance
  • there were no role models for defiance
• Social facilitation is when a person‘s performance on an easy task is better in the presence of others
• Social loafing is the tendency for a person in a group will not put in as much effort if they are working in a group than if they were working alone
• Deindividuation is when people get swept up by a group that fosters arousal and anonymity and do things they never would have done on their own.

  (Lord of the Flies)
• Group polarization is how beliefs are strengthened when discussed with like minded people.
• Groupthink is people being morons and each not voicing their reservations because they assume everyone is in unanimous agreement. JFK’s bay of pigs
• In the obedience experiments, two thirds of participants administered what they thought were dangerous levels of electric shock to another participant just because someone told them to.
• For good outcomes, we attribute our behavior to our disposition.
• For bad outcomes, we tend to attribute our behavior to our situation.