Learning Objectives What are the distinctions between a norm and a role? How does each shape social...

Learning Objectives

• What are the distinctions between a norm and a role? How does each shape social behavior?

• What are the 4 reasons why people obey an authority figure?

• What is the difference between a situational attribution and a dispositional attribution, and how does the fundamental attribution error highlight this distinction?

• What is the difference between a situational attribution and a dispositional attribution, and how does the fundamental attribution error highlight this distinction?

Social and Cultural Psychology

The study of how basic social and cultural forces affect good and bad behavior

• Social Psychology:– How social roles, attitudes, relationships, and

groups influence behavior

• Cultural Psychology:– How culture and ethnicity influence roles and

relationships

Social cognition

The study of how the social environment influences thought, memory, perception, and other cognitive processes.

Researchers are interested in how people’s perceptions of themselves and others affect. . .RelationshipsThoughtsBeliefsValues

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Definitions

NormsRules that regulate human life, including social conventions, explicit laws, and implicit cultural standards

RoleA given social position that is governed by a set of norms for proper behavior

CultureA program of shared rules that govern the behavior of members of a community or society, and a set of values, beliefs, and attitudes shared by most members of that community

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What would you do?As part of an experiment on learning, you are told to administer an electric shock to another participant every time that participant misremembers a series of words. As the experiment proceeds, the amount of electricity you are administering rises. You started at 15 volts, but the switchboard goes up to 300. How far would you go before you refused to continue?1. 50 volts2. 100 volts3. 200 volts4. 300 volts

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The Obedience Study:Stanley Milgram, 1960s

Objective:Would people would follow orders from an authority figure, even when the order violated their ethical standards.

Design:Participants were assigned to the role of “teacher” and another “volunteer” was assigned to the role of “learner”

• the learner was really part of the experiment and acting out a preset script

The “teacher” was told to give the “learner” an electric shock whenever the learner made an error in reciting a list of words he was supposed to have memorized

• increasing in 15 volt increments with each error• machine was labeled slight shock to danger to severe shock

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Results:

Most people were far more obedient than anyone expected.

• Every single participant complied with at least some orders to shock another person.

• Two-thirds shocked the learner to the full extent.• “Teachers” obeyed the experimenter even when they were

clearly in a state of cognitive dissonance

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Factors leading to Disobedience:

1. When the experimenter left the room

2. When the “learner” was in the same room

3. When 2 experimenters issued conflicting orders

4. When the person ordering them to continue was an ordinary man

5. When the subject worked with peers who refused to go on

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Conclusion:Obedience is a function of the situation, rather than personality

The participants were not administering shocks because they had sadistic personalities or pent-up anger they were taking out on the learner, but because they are following orders from an authority figure and playing the role they were assigned and following the norms they felt the situation called for

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Criticisms:UnethicalQuestion conclusions – personality traits can influence

willingness to obey an authority figure

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The Stanford Prison Study:Zimbardo & Haney, 1970s

Objective:What would happen to college students when assigned to the role of prisoner or prison guard

Experimental Design:Subjects were physically and mentally healthy young men (college students) who volunteered to participate for money.

Subjects were randomly assigned to be prisoners or guards.

Basement of a Stanford building transformed into a prison, guards and prisoners had uniforms, students agreed to live there for 2 weeks

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Results:

Prisoners became distressed, helpless, and panicky.

Guards became:1. nice2. “tough but fair” 3. tyrannical

Study had to be ended after six days.

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Conclusions:

Demonstrated the power of roles

Obedience to authority

Example of how a social situation affects behavior, causing people to do things that seem “out of character”

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Obedience• How is obedience to authority bad?

• If it is blind obedience• C.P. Snow “more crimes have been committed in the

name of obedience than in the name of rebellion

• How is obedience to authority good?• Laws help a society to function• Help people learn the appropriate social roles and norms

Factors in obedience:

1. Allocating responsibility to the authority

2. Routinizing the task

3. Wanting to be polite

4. Becoming entrappedEntrapment: a gradual process in which individuals escalate their commitment to a course of action to justify their investment of time, money, or effort

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AttributionsAttribution theoryTheory that people are motivated to explain own and others’ behavior by attributing causes of behavior to the situation or a disposition

• Situational Attribution: Cause of action or behavior is due to something in the situation or environment

• Dispositional Attribution: Cause of action or behavior is due to a personality trait or personal motive

Fundamental attribution errorTendency to overestimate the influence personality factors and underestimate situational influence

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Attributions

Self-serving biasTendency to take credit for one’s good actions but to rationalize one’s mistakes

• Good behaviors = Dispositional Attribution• Bad/Embarrassing behavior = Situational Attribution

Just-world hypothesisMany people need to believe that the world is fair and that justice is served.

Bad people are punished and good people rewarded.

Blaming the victim:restores believe in a just worldwrongly attributes dispositional reasons for something unjust

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Attributions

Situational Dispositional

Fundamental Attribution Error

“Suzy played really bad in the soccer game today and allowed 6 goals!”

“Maybe she didn’t get a good night sleep”

“But the field was awfully muddy in the goalie box”

“She is so lazy”

“She is so incompetent”

Ignore the situational influences and emphasizing personality traits

Attributions


Self-Serving Bias

“I donated $200 to the Breast Cancer Foundation this month”

It was Breast Cancer Awareness month

My best friend was doing the 3 day Breast Cancer walk and made me feel guilty about not walking, so I gave her a lot of money to make myself feel better

I am such a generous person

Ignore the situational influences when we do something good

Attributions


Self-Serving Bias

“I yelled at my husband today”

Its that time of the month

I had a stressful day

I am a grouchy person

I have a bad temper

Ignore the dispositional influences when we do something bad

Your turnYour roommate studies hard for the psychology test, but does not do very well. After receiving the results, she says “It really wasn’t a fair test.” What sort of bias is reflected in this attribution?1. Fundamental attribution error2. Self-serving bias3. Just world hypothesis

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Last Class in Review• Introduction to social and cultural psychology

– Norms: rules that regulate human life– Role: a given social position governed by norms– Culture: a set of shared rules that govern the behavior of its members

• Obedience:– Milgram Obedience Study– Stanford Prison Study– Factors in obedience

• Social cognition– The study of how the social environment influences thought, memory,

perception, and other cognitive processes• Attributions

– Attribution theory: people are motivated to explain own and others’ behavior by attributing causes of behavior to situation or disposition

• Situational and dispositional attribution• Fundamental attribution error, self-serving bias, just-world hypothesis

Learning Objectives1. What are attitudes and where do they come from?2. What factors can change our attitudes?3. How can groups influence our behaviors?4. Under what circumstances is groupthink likely to occur?5. How do diffusion of responsibility and deindividuation each predict

antisocial behavior by individuals in a group?6. What is ethnic identity and how might it contribute to ethnocentrism?7. How do stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination differ from one

another?8. What are four conditions that promote the reduction of prejudice and

inter-group conflict?

Attitudes

A relatively stable opinion containing beliefs and emotional feelings about people, groups, ideas or activities

Explicit: we are aware of them, they shape conscious decisions

Implicit: we are unaware of them, they influence our behavior in ways we do not recognize

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Where do our Attitudes come from?

• Learned from social-cultural interactions• Experiences, economic standing, social circles

• Genetics– Some traits are highly heritable

What factors can change our Attitudes?

1. Change in social environment and behaviors

• New information• New experiences

2. Need for consistencyCognitive dissonance: a state of tension that develops when a person simultaneously holds two contradictory cognitions or when a person’s belief is incongruent with his/her behavior

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Influencing attitudes:Friendly Persuasion

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Familiarity Effect:

The tendency to have positive feelings towards something because you have seen it frequently

Validity Effect:

Tendency to believe something is true because it has been repeated many times

Influencing attitudes:Friendly Persuasion

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(And familiarity effect)

Implicit Memory Classical Conditioning

How can groups influence our behaviors?

1. Conformity

2. Groupthink

3. The Anonymous Crowd

ConformityTaking action or adopting an attitude as the result of group pressure

Experimental objective:To see what would happen when a group would unanimously contradict an obvious fact

Experimental DesignSubjects in group asked to match line lengths.

Confederates picked wrong line.

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ConformityResults:

Subjects went with wrong answer in 37% of trials.

Conformity has decreased since 1950, possibly due to changing norms.

Individualistic vs. collectivist cultures

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Groupthink

In close-knit groups, the tendency for all members to think alike and suppress disagreement for the sake of harmony.

Symptoms1. Illusion of invincibility2. Self-censorship3. Pressure on dissenters to conform4. Illusion of unanimity

Counteracted by1. Creating conditions that reward dissent2. Basing decision on majority rule

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The anonymous crowd

If you were to be the victim of a crime in a public place, such as a mugging, in what situation would you be most likely to get help:

1. 1 person is passing by

2. Several people were in the area

3. Dozens of people were in the area

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The anonymous crowd

Diffusion of responsibilityThe tendency of group members to avoid taking responsibility for actions or decisions because they assume others will do so.

• Bystander apathy

People fail to call for help when others are near because they assume someone else will

• Social loafing

When people work less in the presence of others, forcing others to work harder

• Deindividuation

Loss of awareness of your own individuality

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Deindividuation

In groups or crowds, the loss of awareness of one’s own individuality.

FactorsSize of city, group

Uniforms or masks

Can influence either unlawful or prosocial behaviorsDepends on norms of specific situation

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Group Identity

Social Identity: part of our self concept that depends on the political, religious, national, and occupational groups we identify with

Gives us a sense of place and position in the world

Ethnic Identity vs. Acculturation:

Ethnic Identity:A person’s identification with a religious or ethnic group

Acculturation:Identification with the dominant culture

Ethnic Identity vs. Acculturation:

4 ways to balance the conflict:

1. Bicultural: strong ties to both their ethnicity and the larger culture

2. Assimilation: weak feelings of ethnicity, but strong sense of acculturation

3. Ethnic Separatists: strong sense of ethnic identity, but weak feelings of acculturation

4. Marginal: connected to neither their ethnicity or dominant culture

Is America become post-ethnic?

Ethnicity vs. Acculturation

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Ethnocentrism

The belief that one’s own ethnic group, nation, or religion is superior to all others.

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EthnocentrismThe belief that one’s own ethnic group, nation, or religion is superior to all others…………………………………………Robber’s Cave Boys randomly separated into two groups: Rattlers and Eagles

To build in-group identity: each group worked on projects together

Competition between groups = hostility

To make peace between the groups: Groups required to work together to reach a goal

Conclusion:• Us-Them social identities are strengthened when two groups compete with each other

• Interdependence in reaching mutual goals reduces ethnocentrism

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StereotypesCognitive schemas of a group, where the person believes

that all members of a group have common trait(s).• Summarizes a person’s impression of a group• Traits may be positive, negative, or neutral

How are stereotypes good?Allow us to process quickly new information and retrieve memoriesAllow us to organize experiences and make sense of differences

How are stereotypes bad?They can distort reality:

1. Exaggerate differences between groups2. Produce selective perception3. Underestimate differences within groups

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Prejudice

A negative stereotype and a strong, unreasonable dislike or hatred of a group

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Measuring prejudice

• Not all people are prejudiced in the same way.

• People know they shouldn’t be prejudiced so measures of prejudice have declined.

• Explicit vs. implicit prejudiceExplicit: conscious prejudice towards a groupImplicit: Unconscious prejudice or negative emotional feelings

that one tries to suppress

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Measures of explicit prejudice

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Measures of Implicit Prejudice

1. Experiments that pay attention to what people do, not what they say

2. Use fMRI and PET scans to determine what parts of the brain are involved in forming stereotypes and prejudices

3. Implicit Association Test (IAT)

Measures of Implicit PrejudiceAggression Experiment:• Objective:

– To determine if an individual’s implicit prejudice will be revealed (as aggression) when stressed or angered

• Experimental Design:– White students asked to administer a shock to black or white

confederates of the experiment– Experimental condition: participants overheard the

confederate making a nasty comment about them– Control condition: participants heard no nasty comments– Degree of aggression = level of shock


Aggression Experiment:• Results:

– Control: white students showed less aggression towards black confederates

– Experimental group: White subjects showed more aggression towards blacks when they heard derogatory comments

• Conclusion:• When people are stressed or angered they are not able

to hide negative feelings or prejudice they might have toward others

• To measure Implicit prejudice:Pay attention to what people do, not what they say


fMRI and PET scans:• Objective:

– Uses fMRI and PET scans to determine which part of the brain are involved in forming stereotypes and prejudices

• Results (2 studies):– When African-American and whites saw pictures of each

other, activity in the amygdala was elevated– Activity while looking at pictures of another ethnicity

depended on what the person was asked to do with the picture

• Amygdala was not activated when participants were asked to register faces as individuals or part of a visual test

• Amygdala was activated when they were asked to identify faces as members of a “black” category


Conclusion:If white students take longer to respond to black faces associated with positive words than to black faces associated with negative words it means the white students have implicit prejudice

Other interpretations:• Measures how much the word stands out•Measuring unfamiliarity with another ethnicity

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Implicit Association Test (IAT)

Measures speed of people’s positive and negative associations with a target group

How can we reduce prejudice?

1. Groups must have equal legal status, economic opportunities, and power.

2. Authorities and institutions must endorse egalitarian norms and provide moral support for all groups.

3. Groups must have opportunities to work and socialize together, both formally and informally.

• Contact hypothesis: prejudice decreases when people have the opportunity to become familiar with those that the prejudice is against

4. Groups must work together for common goal.• Cooperation reduces the US-THEM thinking

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