TAKE OUT A PIECE OF PAPER

For each of the next six slides, write down the following for each slide:

1. Age of the person2. Marital status3. Job/Career4. Level of education5. Two adjectives that describe that

person

SUBJECT # 1

SUBJECT #2

SUBJECT #3

SUBJECT #4

SUBJECT #5

SUBJECT #6

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Studying the way people relate to others.

Attitude Attraction Aggression Group Behavior

PERSON PERCEPTION- HOW WE FORM IMPRESSIONS OF OTHERS

Physical Appearance Judgments frequently made based on

appearance- more positive qualities to those better looking WHY?

“Beauty is more than just in the eye of the beholder; people do judge & treat others with whom they interact based on attractiveness” (Langlois et al. 2000)

1977 Study- Impact of Beauty & It’s Self-Fulfilling Nature

ATTRACTION

5 Factors of Attraction

1. PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS

• Physically attractiveness predicts dating frequency (they date more).

• Matching Hypothesis

• 1990 Study of Average Faces

WHICH PERSON WOULD YOU WANT TO HAVE A LONG TERM RELATIONSHIP WITH?

WHAT IS BEAUTY?

2. BEAUTY AND CULTURE

Obesity is so revered among Mauritania's white Moor Arab population that the young girls are sometimes force-fed to obtain a weight the government has described as "life-threatening".

3. PROXIMITY

Geographic nearness

Mere exposure effect:

Repeated exposure to something breeds liking.

4. RECIPROCAL LIKING

You are more likely to like someone who likes you.

Why?

5. SIMILARITY

Opposites do NOT attract.

Birds of the same feather do flock together.

Similarity breeds content.

ATTRIBUTION THEORY

• Tries to explain how people determine the cause of the behavior they observe.

It is either a….• Situational

Attribution (external)• Dispositional

Attribution (Internal)

ATTRIBUTION THEORY

• Tries to explain how people determine the cause of the behavior they observe.

It is either a….• Situational Attribution• Dispositional

AttributionAnd • Stable Attribution• Unstable Attribution

ACTOR-OBSERVER BIAS- YOU VIEW YOUR OWN BEHAVIOR DIFFERENT THAN SOMEONE ELSE

Fundamental Attribution Error

Self-Serving Bias

Individualistic V. Collectivistic Cultures

STEREOTYPES, PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION

Stereotype:• Overgeneralized idea

about a group of people; type of social schema

Prejudice:• Biased attitude;

Ethnocentrism is an example of a prejudice.

Discrimination:• Biased action.

HOW DOES PREJUDICE OCCUR?

1. Thought-saving device2. Operant Conditioning3. Observational Learning4. Just World

Phenomenon- world is just and people deserve what they get

5. In-Group versus Out-Groups; In-Group Bias

A class divided

PREJUDICES CAN OFTEN LEAD TO A….

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

A prediction that causes itself to be true.

Rosenthal and Jacobson’s “Pygmalion in the Classroom” experiment.

COMBATING PREJUDICE

Contact Theory• Contact between hostile groups will reduce

animosity if they are made to work towards a superordinate goal.

ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR

• relatively stable organization of beliefs, feelings, & behavior tendencies

Cognitive Dissonance Theory• People want to have

consistent attitudes and behaviors….when they are not they experience dissonance (unpleasant tension).

• Usually they will change their attitude.

You have a belief that cheating on tests is bad.

But you cheat on a test!!!

The teacher was really bad so in that class it is OK.

ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR

Effort Justification (type of CD)- you give a lot but receive little in return so to justify why you gave so much you rate it more favorably

Relate to cults

ATTITUDES & PERSUASION

Advertising is ALL based on attitude formation.

Mere Exposure Effect

Elaboration Likelihood Model- 2 basic “routes” to persuasion Central Route v.

Peripheral Route

COMPLIANCE STRATEGIES

Foot-in-the-door phenomenon

Door-in-the-face phenomenon

Norms of reciprocity

Low Ball Technique

HOW GROUPS AFFECT OUR BEHAVIOR?

PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR

• Kitty Genovese case in Kew Gardens NY.

Bystander Effect:• Conditions in which people

are more or less likely to help one another. In general…the more people around…the less chance of help….because of…

• Diffusion of ResponsibilityPluralistic Ignorance• People decide what to do by

looking to others.video

SOCIAL FACILITATION THEORY

• If you are really good at something….or it is an easy task…you will perform BETTER in front of a group.

CONFORMITY STUDIES

Adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.

Candid camera

ASCH’S STUDY OF CONFORMITY

Asch

ASCH’S RESULTS

• About 1/3 of the participants conformed.

• 70% conformed at least once.

To strengthen conformity:• The group is unanimous• The group is at least three

people.• One admires the group’s status• One had made no prior

commitment

MILGRAM’S STUDY

Of Obedience

Milgram

Milgram obedience study

RESULTS OF THE MILGRAM STUDY

WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM MILGRAM? Ordinary people

can do shocking things.

Ethical issues…. Would not have

received approval from today’s IRB (Internal Review Board).

SOCIAL LOAFING

The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling efforts toward a common goal than if they were individually accountable.

GROUP POLARIZATION

Groups tend to make more extreme decisions than the individual.

GROUPTHINK

• Group members suppress their reservations about the ideas supported by the group.

• They are more concerned with group harmony.

• Worse in highly cohesive groups.

The Challenger

DEINDIVIDUATION

People get swept up in a group and lose sense of self.

Feel anonymous and aroused.

Explains rioting behaviors.

ZIMBARDO’S STANFORD PRISON STUDY

Illustrated the power of the situation

College subjects were assigned the role of a prisoner or guard for a make-shift prison

Subjects experienced a loss of identity and transformed into their roles