PSYCHOLOGY: Perspectives & Connections2nd Edition

GREGORY J. FEISTERIKA L. ROSENBERG

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Social Behavior

Chapter Fourteen

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Social Psychology

Study of how living among others influences thought, feeling, and behavior

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Group Living and Social Influence

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Group Living and Social Influence Social facilitation

– Phenomenon in which the presence of others improves one’s performance

Social loafing – Phenomenon in which the presence of

others causes one to relax one’s standards and slack off

– Have you ever been assigned to a group project where one member didn’t pull their weight?

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Conformity

Social norms– Rules about acceptable behavior

imposed by the cultural context in which one lives

Conformity– Tendency of people to adjust their

behavior to what others are doing or to adhere to the norms of their culture

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Conformity

Study by Solomon Asch (1951)– Groupthink

Occurs when the thinking of the group takes over

Can lead to detrimental, even disastrous, outcomes

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Minority Social Influence In order to change the majority

view the minority, one must present a logical argument

Usually by means of informational social influence– How might a single jury member

convince 11 other people that she is right and they are wrong?

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Obedience

Type of conformity in which a person yields to the authority of another person– Stanley Milgram’s obedience study

Showed how powerful situations can make reasonable people do things that seem cruel and unusual

As with other classic studies, Milgram’s research led to an ongoing debate over what is and what is not ethical treatment of research participants

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Milgram’s Obedience Study

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Exclusion and Inclusion In-group/out-group bias

– Tendency to show positive feelings toward people who belong to the same group as we do, and negative feelings toward those in other groups

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Exclusion and Inclusion Out-group homogeneity

– Tendency to see all members of an out-group as the same

– Social rejection

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Prejudice and Discrimination Discrimination

– Preferential treatment of certain people, usually driven by prejudicial attitudes

Can result from institutionalized rules– “Flight attendants must not be excessively

overweight”

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Nature and Nurture of Attitudes Nature

– Some attitudes, like in-group bias, made sense, because humans evolved in small social groups, and it made sense for people to trust those who are most like them

Nurture– Exposure increases our preference

for different things and people

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Attitude Change

Cognitive dissonance– Feeling of

discomfort caused by information that is different from a person’s conception of himself as a reasonable and sensible person

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Social Relations

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Nature and Nurture of Aggression Aggression

– Violent behavior that is intended to cause psychological or physical harm, or both, to another being

Hostile aggression Instrumental aggression

– Influenced by brain structures and hormones

Hypothalamus, prefrontal cortex, and amygdala Testosterone and serotonin

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Nature and Nurture of Aggression Social influences

on aggression– The closer we are

to our goal when we become frustrated, the more aggressive we are likely to be

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Nature and Nurture of Aggression Social influences on aggression

– Albert Bandura Social learning theory

– Bobo Doll experiment– Experiments strongly suggest that watching

TV violence leads to aggressive behavior in children

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Prosocial Behavior

Behaviors that benefit others Bystander Effect (Latané and

Darley, 1968)– The greater the number of

bystanders who witness an emergency, the less likely any one of them is to help

Diffusion of responsibility – Case of Kitty Genovese

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Prosocial Behavior

Altruism– Selfless attitudes and behavior toward

others Kin selection

– Evolutionary favoring of genes that prompts individuals to help their relatives or kin

Reciprocal altruism– Act of helping others in the hope that they will

help us in the future Social exchange theory

– We help others when the benefits to ourselves are likely to outweigh the costs

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Prosocial Behavior

Empathy– Ability to share the feelings of others

and understand their situations Empathy-altruism hypothesis

– Idea that people help others selflessly only when they feel empathy for them

Egoistic motivation Empathetic motivation

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