Social Psychology

- the study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another

• Social Thinking - How do we think about on another?
• Attribution Theory: idea that we give a casual explanation for someone's behavior; credit behavior either to situation or disposition
• Fundamental Attribution Error: tendency to underestimate the impact of a situation and overestimate the impact of personal disposition
• effects of attribution:
• a belief or feeling that predisposes one to respond in a particular way to something
• Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon: tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request
• Door-in-Face Phenomenon: tendency for people who say no to a huge request, to comply with a smaller one
• Cognitive Dissonance Theory: we do not like when we have either conflicting attitudes or when out attitudes do not match out actions
• it's bad for us, but we still do it
• Social Influence
• Conformity - adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standards
• Asch's Study
• Conditions to Strengthen Conformity -
1. one is made to feel incompetent
2. group is at least 3 people
3. group is unanimous
4. one admires the group's status
5. one had made no prior commitment
6. person is observed
• Reasons for Conformity -
1. Normative Social Influence: influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disappointment
2. Informational Social Influence: influence resulting from one's willingness to accept other's opinions about reality
• Obedience: Milgram's Experiments
• Social Facilitation: improved performance of tasks in the presence of others; occurs with simple tasks, not with tasks that are difficult
• Social Loafing: tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling efforts toward a common goal than if they were individually accountable
• Deindividualization - loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in a group situations that foster arousal and anonymity
• Group Polarization: concept that a group's attitude is one of extremes and rarely moderate
• Groupthink: mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides common sense
• THE POWER OF AN INDIVIDUAL IS STRONGER THAN A GROUP'S!!
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: occurs when one person's belief about others leads one to act in ways that induce the others to appear to confirm the belief
• Social Relations
• Prejudice - unjustifiable attitude towards a group of people and involves stereotype beliefs
• Stereotype - a generalized belief about a group of people
• Social Inequalities: principle reason behind prejudice
• ingroup - "us" , people with whom one shares a common identity
• outgroup - "them" , those perceived as different than one's ingroup
• ingroup bias - tendency to favor one's own group
• Scapegoat Theory: theory that prejudice provides an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame
• Aggression - any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy
• psychology of aggression:
• Frustration-Aggression Principle: blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal; creates anger which generates aggression
• Conflict - perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas; ex :Social Trap or Prisoner's Dilemma
• prisoner's dilemma: you don't know what your partner will say... probable outcomes
• Just World Phenomenon: belief that those who suffer deserve their fate
• Reciprocity Norm: HELP THOSE WHO HELPED YOU
• Social Responsibility: expectation that people will help those who depend on them
• Attraction:
1. Proximity: geographic nearness
• Mere Exposure Effect: repeated exposure to something breeds liking
• Mirror Image Concep
2. Reciprocal Liking: you are more likely to like someone who likes you
3. Similarity: birds of the same feather do flock together; similarity breeds content; opposites do NOT attract
4. Physical Attractiveness: predicts dating frequency (date more)
5. Love:
• Passionate Love - an arousal state of INTENSE positive absorption of another
• Compassionate Love - deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined; equality and self disclosure
6. Altruism: unselfish regard for the welfare of others
• Bystander Effect: bystanders are less willing to help if there are other bystanders around
7. Social Exchange Theory: idea that our social behavior is an exchange process, which we maximize benefits and minimize costs
8. Peacemaking: give people superordinate (shared) goals that can only be achieved through cooperation; win-win situations through meditation; GRIT (Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension Reduction)