Unit 14

outgroup

"them"- those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup People outside that circle are "them"

ingroup

"us"- people with whom we share a common identity Mentally drawing a circle defines us, but the social definition of who you are also states who you are not

approach-avoidance conflict

A conflict in which there are both appealing and negative aspects to the decision to be made.

Philip Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment

A two-week experiment that simulated the prison life of both prisoners and guards that was ended in just six days because of what the simulation was doing to college students who participated, showed that people adapted and really took on their roles seriously Yet, people differ: in Zimbardo's prison simulation and in other atrocity producing situations, some people have succumbed to the situation and others have not Person and situation interact much as water dissolved salt but not sand, so toxic situations corrupt some people but not others

Solomon Asch

Conducted famous conformity experiment that required subjects to match lines. and people conformed to the wrong answer that those in the group gave

attribution theory

Fritz Heider proposed this, the theory that we explain someone's behavior by crediting rither the situation or the person's disposition we can attribute behavior to the persons stable, enduring traits (a dispositional attribution) or we can attribute it to the situation (a situational attribution) in class we notice a girl doesn't talk and at the fane a guy talks nonstop that must be the sort of people they are, we decide such attributions to their dispositions can be valid because people do have enduring personality traits

Sherif Robber's Cave Experiment

Goal: To test if prejudice is caused by competition between an in group and out group. Also to see if intergroup conflict could be reduced by the introduction of superordinate goals. Results: Researchers found a significant increase in the number of boys who had friendships in the out-group compared to the results found in stage two. Subordinate goals did influence the two groups of boys to become friends

Run Jones and the Third Wave

High school teacher Ron Jones questioned how the Germans did not realize what the Nazis were doing during WW2, he became really strict for the experiment and said they were members of the Third Wave and he transformed his lazy class into a productive one but after 5 days he called it off because the students were being brainwashed in a sense, letting their duties overtake individuality and several students were becoming anti democracy overturning individuality for a higher sense of being prominent members in the Third Wave And people were engaging in violent behavior with some non believers so as they awaited the announcement in auditorium he announced it was an experiment on fascism on how Germans went along with the plans without realizing the true intention of the Nazis and created an open sense of superiority

cognitive dissonance theory

Leon Festinger's Theorythe theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent. For example, when we become aware that our attitudes and our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes One explanation for why our actions can affect attitudes One explanation is that when we become aware that our attitudes and actions don't coincide, we experience tension or cognitive dissonance To relieve such tension according to Leon Festinger's theory, we often bring our attitudes into line with our actions Dozens of experiments have explored this cognitive dissonance phenomena: many have made people feel responsible for behavior that has clashed with their attitudes and had foreseeable consequences In one of these experiments, you might agree for a measly $2 to help a researcher by writing an essay that supports something you don't believe in Feeling responsible for the statements (which are inconsistent with your attitudes) you would probably feel dissonance, especially if you thought an administrator would be reading your essay To reduce the uncomfortable tension, you might start believing your phony words- at such times, its as if we rationalize "if i chose to do ir or say it, i must believe in it" The less coerced and more responsible we feel, the more motivated we are to find consistency, such as changing our attitudes to help justify the act The pressure to reduce dissonance helps explain the evolution of American attitudes toward the US invasion of Iraq- when the war began, the stated reson for the invasion was the presumed threat of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) Woule the war be justified if Iraq did not have WMD- only 38% of american surveyed said it would be and nearly 80% beleved such weapons would be found When no WMD was found, many Americans felt dissonance, which was heighted by their awareness of the war's financial and human costs, by scenes of chaos in Iraq and by inflamed anti American and pro terorrist sentiments in some parts of the world To reduce dissonance, some people revised their memories of the war's rationale: the invasion then became a movement to liberate an oppresed people and promote democracy in the middle east and before long, 58% of americans, a majoirty, said they supported the war even if no WMD was found The attitudes follow behavior principle has a heartening implication: we cannot difrectly control our feelings, but we can influence them by altering our behavior- the emotional affects of facial expressions and of body postures cruel acts shape the self

chameleon effect

Natural (unconscious) tendency to imitate other peoples speech, inflections & physical movements

GRIT

Under such conditions, is there an alternative to war or surrender? Social psychologist Charles Osgood advocated a strategy called GRIT: graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction- a strategy designed to decrease international tensions In applying GRIT, one side first announces its recognition of mutual interests and its intent to reduce tensions and it then initiates one or more small conciliatory acts without weakening one's retaliatory capability, this modest beginning opens the door for reciprocity by the other part Should the enemy respond with hostility, one reciprocate in kind but so too with any conciliatory response In lab experiments, small conciliatory gestures: a smile, a tough a word of apology have allowed both parties to begin edging down the tension ladder to a safer rung where communication and mutual understanding can begin In real world international conflict, US president John F. Kennedy's gesture of stopping atmospheric nuclear tests began a series of reciprocated conciliatory acts that culminated in teh 1963 atmospheric test ban treaty

self-fulfilling prophecy

a belief that leads to its own fulfillment they may confirm themselves by influencing the other country to react in ways that seem to justify them participants tend to see their own actions as responses to provocating, not ws the causes of what happens next perfeiving themselves as returning tit for tat, fhey oftne hit back harder as university college london volunteers did in one experiment their task: after feeling pressure on their own finger, they were to use a mechanical device to press on wnother volunteers finger/ although told to reicprocate with the same amount of pressure, they typically responded with about 40% more force than they had just experineced Despite seeking only to respond in kind, their touches soon escalated to hard presses, much as when each child after a fight claims "i just poked him, but he hit me harder" Perceived provocations feed similar cycles of hostility in the world stage In 2001, newly elected pres George W. Bush spoke of Saddam Hussein in bad light and Hussein reicprocated the perception in 2002 calling the US an evil tyrant The point is not that trust must lie midway betweentwo such views (one may be more accurate) the point is that enemy perceptions often form in mirror images and moreover as enemies change so do perceptions In American minds and meida, the bloodthirsrty cruel treacherous Japanses of WW2 later became our intelligent, hardworking, self disciplined resourceful allies

avoidance-avoidance conflict

a choice must be made between two unattractive goals

equity

a condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it One key to a gratifying and enduring relationship When this exists, their chances for sustained and satisfying companionate love are good In one national survey, sharing household chores ranked third after faithfulness and a happy sexual relationship on a list of 9 things people associated with successful marriages "i like hugs, i like kisses, but what i really love is help with the dishes summarized the Pew Research Center This importance extends beyond marriage- mutually sharing self and possessions, making decisions together, giving and getting emtoional support, promoting and caring about each other's welfare- all of these acts are at the core ov every type of loving relationship- its true for lovers, for parent and child, and for intimate friends

sociogram

a diagram that represents relationships within a group, especially likes and dislikes of members for other members

stereotype

a generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people

Prisoner's Dilemma

a particular "game" between two captured prisoners that illustrates why cooperation is difficult to maintain even when it is mutually beneficial- social trap

conflict

a perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas the elements of conflict are muxh the same, whether we are speaking of nations ar war, cultural groups feeding within a society, or partners in a sparring relationship in each situation people become enmeshed in potentially destructive processes that can produce results no one wants- among these processes are social traps and distorted perceptions

role

a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave When you adopt a new role like when you leave middle school for high school, or become a college student or begin a new job, you strive to follow the social prescriptions At first, your behaviors may feel phony, because you are acting a roll Soldiers may at first feel they are playing war games and newlyweds may feel they are playing house Before long, however, what began as playacting in the theater of life becomes you

social trap

a situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self interest rather than the good of the group, become caught in mutually destructive the matrixes display that as long as we both pursue our immediate best imteresf we will both end up with nothing many real life situations similarily pit our individual interests against our communcal well being- individual whalers reasoned that the few whales they took would not threaten the species and that if they didnt take them others would anyway but the result was thay some species of whales became endgamered individual car owners and homeowners reason it would cost me comfort or money to buy a more fuel efficient car and furnace, besides the fossil fuels i burn dont noticeably add ro the greenhouse gasses when enough others reason similarily, the collective result thretends disaster, climate change, rising seas, and more extreme weather in some situations we support our collective well being by pursuing our personal interests- but in other situations we harm out collective well being by pursuing our personal interests social traps challenge us fo fidn ways of reconciling our right to pursue our personal well being with our responsibility for the well being of all psychologists have thereofre explored ways to convince people to cooperate for their mutual betterment, through agreed upon regulations, better communication, and through promoting awareness of our responsibilities toward community, nation, and the whole humanity given effective regulations, communication, and awareness, people more often cooperate, whether it be im playing a laboratory game or the real game of life

conformity

adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard Suggestibility and mimicry are subte types of this To study conformity, Solomon Asch devised a simple test As a participant in what you believe is a study of visual perception, you arrive in time to take a seat at a table with 5 other people- the experimenter asks the group to state, one by one, which of the 3 comparison lines is identical to a standard line You see clearly that the answer is line 2 and you await your turn to say so and your boredom begins to show when the next set of lines prove equally easy Now comes the 3rd trial and the correct answer seems just as clear cut but the first person gives what strikes you as a wrong answer and when the second and third person give the same wrong answer, you get nervous and doubt yourself In this experiment, college students answering questions alone erred less than 1% of the time, but what about the several others- confederates working for the experimenter answered incorrectly? Although more people told the truth even When others did not, Asch was disturbed by his result: more than one third of the time these "intelligence and well meaning college students were then willing to call white black by going along with the group Later investigators have not always found as much conformity as Asch found, but they have revealed that we are more likely to conform when we Are made to feel incompetent or insecure Are in a group with at least 3 people Are in a group in which everyone else agrees (if just one other person disagrees, the odds of our disagreeing greatly increase) Admire the groups' status ad attractiveness Have not made a prior commitment to any response Know that others in the group will observe our behavior Are from a culture that strongly encourages respect for social standards

instrumental aggression

aggression as a means to some goal other than causing pain

hostile aggression

aggression stemming from feelings of anger and aimed at inflicting pain or injury

passionate love

an aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship A key ingredient of passionate love is arousal The two factor theory of emotion can help us understand this intense absorption in another- that theory asumes that Emotions have two ingredients- physical arousal plus cognitive appraisal Arousal from any source can enhance on emotion or another, depending on how we interpret and label the arousal In tests of the two factor theory, college men have been aroused by fright, by running place, by vieieiwng erotic materials, or by listening to humorous or repulsive monologues They were then introduced to an attractive womn and asked to rate her (or their gf) unlike unarouse dmen, the stirred up men attributed some of thei rarousal to the woman or girlffirned and felt more attracted to her A sample experiment: researchers studied people crossing tow birdges above British Columbia's rocky Capilano River One, a swaying footbridge, was 230 feet above the rocks; the oter was low and solic The researchers had an attractive young women intercept men coming off each bridge, and ask their help in filling out a short questionnaire she then offered her number in case they wanted to hear more about her project Far ore of those who had just corssed the bridge, which left their hearts pounding, accepted the number and later called the woman To be revved up and to associate some of that arousal with a desirable person is to feel the pull of passion Adrenaline makes the heart grow fonder and when sexual desire is supplemented by a gorwing attachment, the result is the passion of romantic love

social-responsibility norm

an expectation that people will help those needing their help its that we should help those needing our help-young children and others who cannot give as much as they receive- even if the costs outweigh the benefits construction worker Wesley Autrey exemplified the social responsibility norm in 2007 when him and his two young daughters (6 and 4 year olds) were aeaiting a NY subway train when a man collapsed in a seizure, got up, then stumbled to the platforms edge and fell onto the tracks with the headlights approaching of the train he said he had to make a split decision and he successfully pushed the man off the tracks into a foot deep space between them and lay atop of him and as the train screeched to a halt, five cares teaveled hust abbe his head leaving grease on his knit cap and he yelled tat he had two daughters up there and to let them know their father is okay and people applauded ppl who attend weekly religious serbices often are admonished to practice the social responsibility norm and sometimes they do in American surveys they have reported twice as many volunteer hours spent heling the poo and infirm, compared with those who rarely or never attend religious services between 2006 and 2008, Gallup pools samples more rhan 300,000 people's oe across 140 countries comparing those high religious (who said religion wws important to them and who had attended a religious service in the prior week) with those less religious the huggly religious, despire being poorer, were about 50 percent kore likely to report having donated money to a charity in the last month and to have volunteered time to an organization although positive social norms encourage generosity and enable group livinf, conflicts often divide us

reciprocity norm

an expectation that people, will help, not hurt, those who have helped them Others believe that we help because we have been socialized to so , through norms that prescribe how we ought t behavior Through socialization we learn the reciprocity norm which is the expectation that we should return help, not harm, to those who have helped us In our relations with others of similar status, the reciprocity norm compels us to give in to fairs, gifts, or social invites about as much as we receive This norm kicked in after Dave Talley, a tempe, Arizona homeless man found 3300 dollars in his backpack that had been lost by a ASU student headed to buy a used car and instead of usigng the cash for much needed bike repairs, food, and shelter, Tally returned the backpack in to the social service ahecy where he volunteered To reciproate Tally's help, the student thanked him with a rewward Hearing about Tally's self giving deeds, dozens of otherss also sent him money and job offers

prejudice

an unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members. Prejudice generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action Means "prejudgement" Often toward a different cultural, ethnic, or gender group Like all attitudes, prejudice is a three part mixture Beliefs: (in this case called stereotype: a generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people Emotions: (for example, hostility or fear) Predispositions to action (to discriminate)

aggression

any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy Prejudice hurts but aggression often hurts more Aggression can be done out of hostility or as a calculated means to an end The assertive, persistent salesperson is not aggressive or is the dentist who makes yo wince with pain but the person who passes along a vicious rumor about you, the person who verbally assaults you and the attacker who mugs you for money are aggressive Aggressive behavior emerged from the interaction of biology and experience For a gun to fire, the trigger must be pulled; with some people, as with hair trigger guns, it doesn't take much to trip an explosion

ethnocentrism

assuming the superiority of one's ethnic group is one example of prejudice To believe that a person of another ethnicity is somehow inferior or threatening, to feel dislike for that person, and to be hesitant to hire or date that person is to be prejudiced Prejudice is a negative attitude

Pygmalion effect

closely related to the self-fulfilling prophecy; the two terms are even considered synonymous in some circles; it is a type of self-fulfilling prophecy where if you think something will happen, you may unconsciously make it happen through your actions or inaction. It occurs in the workplace when a manager raises his or her expectations for the performance of workers, and this actually results in an increase in worker performance.

Double/Multiple Approach-Avoidance Conflict

conflict in which the person must decide between two or more goals, with each goal possessing both positive and negative aspects

approach-approach conflict

conflict occurring when a person must choose between two desirable goals

Jigsaw effect

cooperation in school where students become masters on a subject and teach it to eachother, no one could get the full lesson without the other

social script

culturally modeled guide for how to act in various situations Repeatedly viewing on screen violence teaches us social scripts- culturally provided mental files for how to act When we find ourselves in new situations, uncertain how to behave, we rely on social scripts After so many action films, teens may acquire a script that plays in their head when they face real life conflicts Challenged, they may "act like a man" by intimidating or eliminating the threat Likewise, after viewing the multiple sexual innuendos and acts found in most prime time TV shows, often involving impulsive or short term relationships, youths may acquire sexual scripts that they later enact in real life relationships Music lyrics also write social scripts In one set of experiments, German university men administered hotter chili sauce to a woman and recalled more negative feelings and beliefs about woman after listening to a woman hating song lyrics Man hating song lyrics had a similar effect on the agressive behavior of women listeners Sexual aggresion is sometimes modeled in x rated film and porn Content analyses have revealed that most x rated films depic quick, casual sex between strangers, but sometims also provide scence of raps and exual exploitation of women by men These scens oftne inlude enactments of the rape myth the idea that some women invite or enjoy rape and get "swept away" while being "taken" (in actuality rape is traumaitc, and it frewuently harms women's reproductive and psychological health) Most rapists accept this myth and so do many men and women who watch a great deal of TV: compared with those who watch little TV, hevay viewers are more accpeting of the rape myth Might sexually explicit media models in the $97 billion global porn business contribute to sexually aggressive tendencies Most consumers of child and adult porn commit no known sexual crimes but they are more likely to accept the rape myth as reality

Rosenthal's Study

demonstrated self fulfilling prophecy and expectancy effects of students in schools where teachers were told certain students were gonna do better than others where rly they were all the same and the ones they expected to do better did

Jane Elliot

divided her class into blue eyes and brown eyes to teach her kids about discrimination.

attitude

feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events If we believe someone is threatening us, we may feel fear and anger toward the person and act defensively The traffic between our attitudes and our actions is two-way Our attitudes affect our actions and our actions affect our attitudes

social facilitation

improved performance on simple or well learned tasks in the presence of others Norman Triplett's finding of strengthened performance in others presence but on tougher tasks (learning nonsense syllables or solving complex multiplication problems) people perform worse when observers or others working on the same task are present further studies revealed that the presence of others sometimes helps and sometimes hinders performance this is because when others observe us, we become aroused, and this arousal amplified our other actions: it strengthens our most likely response, the correct one on an easy task, an incorrect one on a difficult task expert pool players who made 71 percent of their shots when alone and 80 percent when four people came to watch them poor shooters who made 36 percent of shots alone made only 25 percent when watched the energizing effect of an enthusiastic audience probably contributed to the home advantage that has shown up in studied of more than a quarter million college and professional athletic events in various countries home teams win about 6/10 games (somewhat fewer for baeball, cricket, and football, somewhat more for basketball, rugby, and soccer point to remember: what you do well, you are likely to do even better in front of an audience, especially a friendly audience what you normally find difficult may seem all but impossible when you are being watched social facilitation also helps explain a funny effect of crowding comedians and actors know that a good house is a full one crowding triggers arousal, which as we have seen strengthens other reactions too comedy routines that are mildly amusing to people in an uncrowded room seem funnier in a densely packed room and in experiments when participants have been seater close to one another, they liked a friendly person even more, an unfriendly person even less so, for an energetic class or ehemt, choose a room or set up seating that will just barely accommodate everyone

normative social influence

influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval Frequently, we conform to avoid rejection or to gain social approval We are sensitive to social norms: understood rules for accepted and expected behavior- because the price we pay for being different can be severe we need to belong and to get along, we go along

informational social influence

influence resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality At other times, we conform because we want to be accurate Groups provide information and only an uncommonly stubborn person will never listen to others As Rebecca Denton demonstrated in 2004, sometimes it pays to assume others are right and to follow their lead She set a record for the further distance driven on the wrong side of a British divided highway- 30 miles, with only one minor sidewsipe before the motorway ran out and police were able to puncture her tires Denton, who was intoxicated, later explained that she thought the hundreds of drivers coming at her were all on the wrong side of the road

mirror image perceptions

mutual views often held by conflicting people, as when each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive psychologists have noted thst those in conflict have a curious tendency to form diabolical images of one another these distorted images are ironaically so similar that we call them mirror image perceptions as well see them as untrustworthy, with evil intentions, so they see us- each demonizes the other mirror image perceptions can often feed a viscious cycle of hostility so like if juan believes Maria is annoyed woth him, he may snub her, causing her to act in ways that justify hisnperception as with invidividuals, so with countries

Catharasis theory

not supported but it is the idea that a person can use a video fame as a harmless outlet to aggression

Stanley Milgram

obedience to authority; had participants administer what they believed were dangerous electrical shocks to other participants; wanted to see if Germans were an aberration or if all people were capable of committing evil actions, 63 percent did 450 volts

central route persuasion

occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts Offers evidence and arguments that aim to trigger favorable thoughts It occurs mostly when people are naturally analytical or involved in the issue Because it is more thoughtful and less superficial, it is more durable and more likely to influence behavior

peripheral route persuasion

occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues such as a speaker's attractiveness Doesn't engage systematic thinking, but does produce fast results as people respond to incidental cues (such as endorsements by respected people) and make snap judgements

3 ingredients for our liking of another

proximity, attractiveness, and similarity

self disclosure

revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others Another vital ingredient of loving relationships These intimate details include our likes and dislikes, our dreams and worries, our proud and shameful moments Self disclosure breeds liking and liking breeds self disclosure As one person reveals a little, the other reciprocate, the first then reveals more and on and on, as friends or lovers move to deeper and deeper intimacy One experiment marched student pairs through 45 min of increasingly self disclosing conversation from "when did you las sing to yourself? To when did you last cry in front of another person? By yourself? Others spent the time with small talk questions such as "what was your high school likfe" By the experiments end, those experinecing the esclating intimacy felt remarkably clse to their convo partner, much clsoer thna did small talkers Intimacy can also grow from pausing to ponder and write our feelings In another study, researchrs ivited one person from each of 86 dating coupes to spend 20 min a day over three days either writing their deepst thoguhts and feelings about the relaitonship or writing merely about their daily activities Those hwo had written about thei rfeeling expressed more emotion in their instant messages with their partners in the days following, and 77% were still dating three months later comapred with 52 percent of those who had written about their activities In addition to equity and self disoclsure, a third key to enduring love is positive support: while relationship conflicts are inevitable, we can ask ourselves whether our communications more often express sarcasm or support, scorn or sypath, sneers or smiles- for unhappy couples, disagreements, criticism, and put doens are routine For happy couple in enduring relationships, psoitive interactions (compliments, touches, laughing) outnumebr negative interactions (sarcasm, disapproval, insults) by at least 5 to 1 In the math of love, self dislcoing intimacy plus musutally supportive equity= enduring companionate love

superordinate goals

shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation When he arranged for the camp water supply to fail, all 22 boys had to work together to restore water and etc Having used isolation and competition to make strangers into enemices, Sherif used shared predicaments and goals to turn enemies into friends What reduced conflict was not mere contact, but cooperative contact A shared predicament had a powerfully unifying effect in the weeks after 9/11 Patriotism soared as Americans felt that "we" were under attack At such times, cooperation can lead people to define a new, inclusive group that dissolves their former sub groups To accomplish this, you might seat memebers of two groups not on opposite sides, but alternatley around a tablea nd give them a new shared name, have them work together, and then wats us and them become we After 9/11, one 18 year old New Jersey man described this shift in his own social identity: "I just thought if myself as black but now i feel like I am an American more than ever" In a real experiment, White americans who read a newspaper article about a terrorist threat against all americans, subsequently expressed reduced prejudice against Black Americans

mood linkage

sharing ups and downs with the type of people around them

Lewin's study of leadership styles

studied leadership styles with childrens groups -autocratic: worked hard but only when the leader was watching -democratic: worked the best, most creative -laissez faire: did the least work, poor quality

Stanley Milgram's Obedience Study

study showing a person willingly harming another solely because an authority figure was there telling them to do so- used a shock board showed obedience, 66% made it all of the way right up to 450 volts, women weren't much different than men, Jerry Burger replicated it only going up to 150 volts- obedience is highest when:The person giving the orders was close at hand and was perceived to be a legit authority figure: such was the case in 2005 when Temple University' basketball coach sent a 250 pound bench player, Nehemiah Ingram, into a game with instructions to commit "hard fouls" Following orders, Ingram fouled out in 4 min after breaking an opposing player right arm The authority figure was supported by a prestigious institution: Compliance was somewhat lower when Milgram dissociated his experiments from Yale The victim was depersonalized or at a distance even in another room: similarly, many soldiers in combat either have not fired their rifles at an eemy they can see or have not aimed them prperly. Such refusals to kill were reare among soldiers who were operating long distance artillery or aircraft weapons There were no role models for defiance: teachers did not see any other participant disobey the experiments

spotlight effect

the belief that others are paying more attention to our appearance and behavior than they really are

Herd poisoning

the crowd poisons the mind and judgement of a normally rational person

compassionate love

the deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined Although the desire and attachment of romantic love often endure, the intesne absorption in the other, the thrill of the romance, the giddy "floating on a cloud" feelings typically face Does this mean the french are correct in saying that "love makes the time pass an time makes love pass" or can friendship and commitment keep a relationship going after the passion cools The evidence indicates that as love matures, it becomes a steadier companionate love The flood of passion facilitating horones (testosterone, dopamine, adernaline) subsides and another homrone, oxytocin, supprts feelings of trust, calmness, and bonding with the mate In the most satisfying of marriges, attractive and sexual desire endure, minus the obsession of early stage romance There may be adaptive wsidem to the shift from passion to attachemtn- passionate love often produces children whose surival is aided by the parents' wanting obsession with eachother Failure to apprecaite passionate love's limited half life can doom a relationship Indeed, recognizingt hes hort duration of obsessive passionate love, some societies deem such feelings to be an irrational reason for marrying Better, they say, to choose (or have someone else choose for you) a partner with a compatible background and interests- non western cultures, where people rate love less important for marriage, do have lower divorce rates

culture

the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next the mark of our species- nature's great gift to us- is our ability to learn and adapt we come equipped with a huge cerebral hard drive ready to receive cultural software compared with the narrow path taken by flies, dish, and foxes the road along which environment drives us is wider human nature notes Roy Baumeister seems desigjed for culture we are social animals, but more wolves are social animals because they live and hunt in packs but culture is a better way of being soocao wolves functions pretty much as they did 10,000 yewrs ago and you and i enjoy things unknown to most of our century ago ancestors, indo using electricity, plumbing antibiotics and the internet: culture works other animals exhibit the rudiments of culture- primates have local customs of took use, grooming, and courtship younger chimpanzees and macaque monkeys sometimes incent customs: potato washing in one famous example and pass them on to their peers and offspring but human culture does more: it supports our species survival and reproduction by enabling social and economic systems that give us an edge thanks to our mastery of language? we humans enjoy the preservation of innovation iehtim the span of this day, i have thanks to my culture made food use of Post it notes, google and digital hearing technology moreover, culture enables an efficient division of labor: although one lucky person gets his name on this hooks cover, the product actually results from the coordination and commitment of a team of people, no one of whom could produce it alone across cultures, we differ in our lang, our monetary system, our sports which fork if any we eat with and even the side of the road we drive on but beneath these differences is our great similarity, out capacity for culture culture transmits the customs and beliefs that enable us to communicate, the exchange money for things, to plau, to eau and to drive with agreed upon rules and without crashing into one another

group polarization

the enhancement of a groups prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group over time, initial differences between groups of college students tend to grow: if the first year students at College X tend to be artistic and those at colegge Y tend to be business savvy, those difference will probably be even greater by the time they graduate similarly, gender differences tend to widen over time, as Eleanor Maccoby Notes from her decades of observing gender development girls talk more intimately than boys do and play and fantasize less aggressively and thsr differences will be amplified as boys and girls interact mostly with their own gender in each case, the beliefs and attitudes we bring to a group grow stronger as we discuss them with like minded others this process can have beneficial results as when it amplifies a sought after spiritual awareness or reinforces the resolve of those in a self help group but it can also have dire consequences George Bishop and i discovered that when high prejudice students discuss racial issues, they became more prejudiced and low prejudice students became even more accepting thus, ideological separation plus deliberation=polarization between groups group polarization can feed extremism and even suicide terrorism analysis of terrorist organizations around the world reveals that the terrorist mentality does not erupt suddenly, on a whim: it usually begins slowly among people who share a grievance: as they interact in isolation (sometimes with other "brothers" and "sisters" in camps) their views grow more and more extreme increasingly, they categorize the world as "us against them" the like minded echo chamber will continue to polarize people speculated a 2006 US national Intelligence estimate: "we assess that the operational threat from self radicalized cells will grow" this also happens in virtual groups: electronic communication and social netowrking have created virtual town halls where people can isolate themsleves from those whose perspective differs: people read blogs that reinforce their views and those blogs link to kindred blogs seperation plus conversation=polarization in the echo chambers of virtual worlds as the internet connects the like minded people and pools their ideas? climate change skeptics, those who believe they've been abducted by aliens and conspiracy theorists find support for their shared ideas and suspictions, white supremacists may become more racist and militia members nay become more terrorism prone but the internet web oficial amplifier can woso work for good social networking sites connect friends and family members sharing common interests or coping with challenges peacemakers, cancer survivors, and beheaded parents can find strength and solace from kindred spirits by amplifying shared concerns and ideas, internet enhanced communication can also foster social gentures (i know this personally from social networking with others with hearing loss to transform US Assistive listening technology) point to remember: bu linking and magnifying the inclination of like minded people, the internet can be very bery bad but also bery very good

hostility

the intentional use of unfriendly or offensive behavior, hatred

Deindividuation

the loss of self awareness and self restraint occuring in group situations that coster arousal and anonymity we have seen that the presence of others can arouse people (social facilitation) or it can diminish their feelings of responsibility (social loafing) but sometimes the presence of others does both the uninhibited behavior that results fen range from a food fight to vandalism or rioting this process of losing self awareness and self restraint often occurs when group participation makes people feel both aroused and anonymous in one experiment, NYU women dressed in depersonalizing KKK style hoods and compared with identifiable women in a control group, the hooded woman delivered twice as much electric shock to a victim which as in all experiments, the victim did not actually receive shocks Deindividuation thrives for better or for worse in many different settings tribal warriors who depersonalize themselves with face paints pr masks are more likely than those with exposed faces to kill, torture, or kutiliate captured enemies online internet trolls and bullies who would never say "you're so fake" to someones face, will hide behind anonymity whether in a mob, at a rock concert, at a ballgame, or at worship, when we shed self awareness and self restraint, we become more responsible to the group experience- bad or good research also shows that interacting with others can similarly have both bad and good effects

groupthink

the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives so group interaction can influence our personal decisions. does it ever distort important national decisions? social psychologist Irving Janis studies the decision making procedures leading to the ikl fayed bay of pigs invasion he discovered that the soaring moral of the recently elected president and his advisors fostered undue confidence to preserve the good feeling, group members suppressor or self censor their dissenting views, especially after president Kennedy boiced his enthusiams tor the scheme since no one spoke dtrongly against the idea, everyone assumed the support was unanminous: to desfribe thos harmonious but unrealistic group thinkint- groupthink later studied showed that groupthink fee hy overconfidence, conformity, slef justification wje group polarization, contributed to other fiascos ws well among them were the failure to anticipate the japanese attack on pearl harbor, the esvlqtion or the vietnam war, the us watergate cover up and etc and the iraq war launched on the false idea that iraq had weapons of mass destruction despite the dangers of groupthink. two heads are better than one in solving problems so Janis also studied instances in which us presidents and their advisors collectively made good decisions such as when the truman admin formulated the marshall plan which offered assistance to europe after world war 2 in such instances, and in the business world too janis grieved groupthink is prevented when a leader welcomes various opinions, invited experts critiques of developing plans, and assigns people to identify possible problems just as the sippression of dissent hends a group toward had recisions, so open debate often shapes good ones this is especially so with diverse groups whose garnier percentages often enable creative or superior outcomes none of us are as smart as all of us

mere exposure effect

the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them This applies to nonsense syllables, musical selections, geometric figures, Chinese characters, human faces, and the letters of our own name We are even somewhat more likely to marry someone whose first or last name resembles our own

personal control

the power of the individual the 2 react

social control

the power of the situation

frustration-aggression principle

the principle that frustration- the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal- creates anger, which can generate aggression Suffering sometimes builds character but in laboratory experiments, those made miserable have often made others miserable- this phenomenon is called this Frustration creates anger which can spark aggression One analysis of 27,667 hit by pitch Major League Baseball incidents between 1960 and 2004 revealed this link- pitchers were more likely to hit batters when They had been frustrated by the previous batter hitting a home run The current batter had hit a home run the last time at bat A teammate had been hit by a pitch in the previous half inning Other aversive stimuli, hot temperatues, physical pain, personal insults, foul odors, cigarette smoking, crowding, and a host o others, can evoke hostility In labroatory experiments when people get overheated, they think, feel, and act more aggressively In baseball games, the number of hit batters rises with the temperature And in the wider world, violent crime and spousal abuse rates have been higher during hotter years, seasons, months, and days From the available data, Craig Anderson and his colleagues have projected that other things being equal, global warming of 5 degrees F would induce tens of thousands fo additional assaults and murders, and thars before the added violencce inducement from climate change related drought, poverty, food, insecurity, and migration

social psychology

the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another focuses on the situation they study the social influenced that explain why the SAME person will act differently in different situations

bystander effect

the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present Darley and Latane reached their conclusions after interpreting the results of a series of experiments For example, they simulated a physical emergency in their lab as students participated in a discussion over an intercom Each student was in a seperate cubicle, and only the person whose microphone was switched on could be hear and when his turn came, on student (an accomplice of the experimenters) made sounds as though he were having an epileptic sezuire and he called for help Those who belieived only they could hear the victim, and therefore though they aloe were responsible for helping him, suusally went to his aid but students who thought others also could hear the victims cries were more likely to ignore the victim

diffusion of responsibility

the tendency for individuals to feel diminished responsibility for their actions when they are surrounded by others who are acting the same way When more people shared responsibility for helping, when their was a diffusion of responsibility any single listener was less likely to help

fundamental attribution error

the tendency for observers, when analyzing others behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition we overestimate the influence of personality and we underestimate the influence of situations: in class the guy could be quiet and the girl rly outgoing if she's in the play- you may hardly recognize your quiet classmate David Napolitan and George Goethals demonstrated this in an experiment with Williams College Students they had students talk one at a time with a woman who acted either cold or critical or warm and friendly before she talks the researchers told half the students that the woman's behavior would be spontaneous and told the other half the truth, that they had instructed her to act friendly or unfriendly did hearing the truth affect students impressions of the woman? not at all if the woman acted friendly both groups decided she was a warm person and vice versa They attributed her behavior to her personal disposition even when told that her behavior was situational, that she was acting that way for the purposes of the experiment This error appears more often in some cultures than others: individualist westerners more often attribute behavior to people's personal traits whereas people in East Asian cultures are somewhat more sensitive to the power of the situation: appeared in the fish experiment where Americans focused more on the individual fish and Japanese people more on the whole scene We all commit this error, people can act differently depending on their context: teachers are more outgoing in their teaching context than a meeting for example When we explain our own vehavior, we are sensitive to how our behavior changes with the situation After behaving badly, we recognize how the situation affected our actiong (self serving bias) Our intentiional and admirable actions we attribute not to situations but to our own good resons We are also sensitive to the power of the situation when we explain the behavior of people we know well and have seen in different contexts We are most likely to commit this error when a stranger acts badly: having seen that red raced fan screaming at the referee in the heat of competition only, we may assum he is a bad person but outside of the stadium, he may be a good neighbor and parent Researchers have reversed the perspectives of actor and observer They filmed 2 ppl interacting, with a camera behind each person They shower each person a replay, filmed from the other person's perspective This reversed their attributions of the behaviors Seeing things from the actor's perspective, the obsevers better appreacited the situation (as we act, our eyes look outward; we see others' faces, not our own) Taking the observer's pov, the actors become more aware of their own personal style

social loafing

the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their effects toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable when people perform the task as a group whereas social facilitation experiments test the effect of others presence on performance on an individual task experiments of a person clapping or shouting as loud as they can and when they thiught they were apart of a group the participants produced about ⅓ less noise than when clapping or shouting "alone" and same with the tug o war thing people exerted only 82 percent we much effort as when they thought they were pulling alone Bibb Latané and his colleagues jackson and williams described the diminished effort as social loafing experiments in the US, India, Thailand, Japan, China, and Taiwan have recorded sociso aging on various takes thought it was especially common among men in individualist cultures 3 things cause social loafing people acting as part of a group feel less accountable, and therefore worry less about what others think group members may reel their individual contributions we dispensable when group members share equally im benefits, regardless of how much they contribute, some may slack off (as you maybe have observed on group assignments) Unless highly motivated and strongly identified with the group. people may free ride on others efforts

just-world phenomenon

the tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get When some people have money, power and prestige and others do not, the "haves" usually develop attitudes that justify things as they are This phenomenon reflects an idea we commonly teach our children- that good is rewarded and evil is punished From this is it but a short leap to assume that those who succeed must be good and those who suffer must be base Such reasoning enables the rich to see both their own wealth and the poor's misfortune as justly deserved Are women naturally unassertive and sensitive? This common perception suggests that women are well suited for the caretaker tasks they have traditionally performed In an extreme case, slave owners perceived slaves as innately laxy, ignorant, and irresponsible, as having the very traits that justified enslaving them Stereotypes rationalize inequalities Victims of discrimination may react with either self blame or anger Either reaction can feed prejudice through the classic blame the victim dynamic Do the circumstances of poverty breed a higher crime rate? If so, that higher crime rate can be used to justify discrimination against those who live in poverty

foot-in-the-door phenomenon

the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger requisition How do Chinese captors "brainwash" the US prisoners of war to want to stay with communists- this was a key ingredient They knew that people who agreed to a small request would find it easier to comply later with a larger one The Chinese began with harmless requests such as copying a trivial statement, but gradually escalated their demand- the next statement to copied might list flaws of capitalism Then, to gain privileges, the prisoners participated in group discussions, wrote self criticisms, or uttered public confessions After doing so, they often adjusted their beliefs to be more consistent with their public acts The point is simple: to get people to agree to something big, start small and build- a trivial act makes the next act easier Succumb to a temptation, and you will find the next temptation harder to resist In dozens of experiment,s researchers have coaxed people into acting against their attitudes or violating their moral standards with the same result: doing becomes believing After giving in to a request to harm an innocent victim, by making nasty comments or delivering electric shocks, people began to disparage their victim After speaking or writing on behalf of a position they have qualms about, they begin to believe their own words Fortunately, the attitudes follow behavior works with good deed as well This tactic has helped boost charitable contributions, blood donations, and product sales When approaching volunteers to display a sign saying "drive carefully" only 17% consented They approached other homeowners with a small request first: would they display a 3 inch high be a safe driver sign Nearly all readily agreed and when reapproached 2 weeks later to allow the large sign that was ugly in their front years, 76% consented To secure a big commitment, it often pays to put your foot in the door: start small and build

ingroup bias

the tendency to favor our own group This is a favoring of our own group that soon follows Even arbitrarily creating us them groups by tossing a coin creates this bias In experiment,s people have favored their own group when dividing any rewards The urge to distinguish enemies from friends predisposes prejudice against strangers To Greeks of the classical era, all non Greeks were "barbarians" In our own era, most students believe their school is better than all other schools in town- perhaps you can recall being most conscious of your school identity when competing with an archival school Many high school students form cliques, jocks, gamers, stoners, theater types, LGBT supporters, and disparage those outside their own group Even chimpanzees have been seen to wipe clean the spot where they touched by a chimpanzee from another group They also display ingroup empathy, by yawning more after seeing ingroup rather than outgroup members yawn Ingroup bias explains the cognitive power of partisanship In the US in the late 1980s, most Democrats believed inflation had risen under Republican predisdent Ronald Reagan (it had dropped) an din 2010 msot Repiblicans believed that taxes had increase dunder Democrat Barack Obama (for most, they had decreased)

false consensus effect

the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors

self-serving bias

the tendency to perceive oneself favorably

other-race effect

the tendency to recall faces of one's own race more accurately than faces of other races. Also called the cross race effect or the own race bias our greater recognition for faces of our own race emerges during infancy between 3 and 9 months of age with effort and with experience people get better at relaxing individual faces from another group people of european descent for example more accurately identify individual african faces of they have watched a great deal of baseball on tv exposing them to many african heritage faces and the longer chinese people have resided in a western cojntry, the less they exhibit the orher race effect

outgroup homogeneity effect

the tendency to view outgroup members as less varied than ingroup members in categorizing people into groups however, we often stereotype them- we recognize greater lt we differ from individuals in our groups but we overestimate the homogeneity of other groups (we perceive outgroup homogeneity) they, the members of some other group seem to look and act alike while we are more diverse to those in one ethnic group, members of another often seem more alike than they really are in attitudes, personality, and appearance

social exchange theory

the theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs One widely held view of why we help is that self interest underlies all human interactions and that our constant goal is to max rewards and min costs Accountants call it cost benefit analysis, philosophers call it utilitarianism but social psychologists call it this If you are pondering whether to donate blood, you may wight the costs of doing so: time, discomfort, anxiety against the benefits: reduced guilt, social approval, and good feelings If the rewards exceed the costs, you will help

scapegoat theory

the theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame Prejudice springs not only from the divisions of society but also from the passions of the heart This notes that when things go wrong, finding someone to blame can provide a target for anger Following 9/11, some outraged people lashed out at innocent Arab-Americans Others called for eliminating Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader whom Americans had been grudgingly toleration "fear and anger create aggression and aggression against citizens of different ethnicity or race creates racism and in turn new forms of terrorism" noted philip zimbardo A decade after 9/11, anti muslim animosities still flared, with mosque burnings and efforts to lock and islamic community center near New York City's Ground Zero Evidence for the scapegoat theory of prejudice comes from high prejudice levels among economically frustrated people, and from experiments in which a temporary frustration intensifies prejudice Students who experience failure or are made to feel insecure often restore their self esteem by disparaging a rival school or another person To boost our sense of status, it helps to have others to denigrate That is why a rival's misfortune sometimes provides a twinge of pleasure By contrast, those made to feel loved and supported become more open to and accepting of others who differ Negative emotions nourish prejudice When facing death, fearing threats, or experiencing frustration, people cling more tightly to their ingroup and their friends As the terorr of death heigthens patriotism, it also produces loathing and aggression toward "them"- those who threaten our world the few individuals who lack fear and irs associalted amygdala activitt, such as children with the genetic disorder Williams sundrome, also display a laxk of racial stereotypes and prejudice

reward theory of attraction

the theory that we like those whose behavior is rewarding to us or whom we associate with rewarding events

risky shift phenomenon

type of group polarization effect in which a group discussion leads to the adoption of a riskier course of action than the members would have endorsed initially

discrimination

unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members

altruism

unselfish regard for the welfare of others This became a major concern of social psychologists after an especially vile act of sexual violence

self concept bias

what we consider important in ourselves is what we consider important in others