Chapter 13: Social Psychology

exemplar theories of stereotypes

assume we store memories of particular individuals (exemplars) and these individual memories form the basis for stereotypes

Discrimination

occurs when prejudice leads to behaviors against members of the group, ie. job exclusion , assault

external attributions

people apply the change to external causes, when the behavior is consistent, distinct, and there is consensus

heuristics

processing shortcuts we use in peripheral processing, ie. you adopt a favorable attitude towards an expensive product because we believe the more expensive, the better

elaboration likelihood model

proposes that there are 2 routes to persuasion; peripheral and central

consensus (covariation model of attribution)

tells us whether other people react similarly to exposure to the event (do other people improve mood after exercise?)

consistency (covariation model of attribution)

we try to determine whether the change occurs regularly when the causal event is present (does Ira's mood consistently improve after exercise?)

cognitive component of attitude

what people know or believe about the object of their attitude

What Makes a Face Attractive?

-Concept of attractiveness is important to psychologists because our physical appearance shapes how our behavior is interpreted and how we are treated by others -People rely on social schemas to form impressions, and physical attractiveness is often used to generate expectations about others

conformity

-Occurs when a person's feelings, opinions, and behaviors move toward the group norm -Social pressure in group settings causes you to comply with the wishes of a group, even though you may not be aware you are doing so

parents and drinking study (SFP)

Parent's beliefs about whether their teenage child would engage in illegal drinking predicted the child's drinking behavior; if both the parents expected their children to drink, there was a greater chance the child would

Darley and Berscheid

(proximity) you don't have to interact physically with someone for increased liking to occur' even the anticipation of an interaction with someone you don't already know can cause you to rate them as more attractive

Curtis and Miller

-(reciprocity) -Participants were asked to have a conversation with someone who they believed had been told negative or positive things about them (even though they had been told nothing) -If people believed they were talking to someone who perceived them positively, they were friendlier and more open, acting as if they liked their partner more

social loafing study

-Subjects were instructed to clap and cheer when blindfolded and listening to noises over headphones -Before the task, the participants were told they were clapping either with a group or by themselves -Those believing they were a part of a group showed less individual output

covariation model of attribution

-You look for some factor that happens at the same time as the behavior change, trying to identify an event that's present when the behavior changes oIe. Ira goes to an exercise class during lunch on Mondy and Wednesday -Covariation is not a sufficient condition for attribution of causality; just because Ira's mood improves, doesn't mean exercise causes the change, and so we rely on consistency, distinctiveness, and consensus to make appropriate inference

altruism

-Acting in a way that shows unselfish concern for the welfare for others, that is often impacted by the presence of others -Altruism occurs in people and animals; we all help others in need because of adaptations from evolution -We are more likely to engage in kin-directed altruism (helping relatives) than helping strangers, but we still do help strangers sometimes, even if it means putting ourselves at risk -Social environment controls altruistic behavior; you are not always likely to help someone on the side of the road because you would leave that job for someone else

Festinger and Carlsmith Study Results

-After the experiment, the participant's attitudes were questioned about the experimental tasks, and it was shown that the participants found the tasks more positive than did the control group, who had not been asked to lie -Those with a $1 reward had a bigger positive shift than those with a $20 reward; so the more people were paid to lie, the less their attitudes changed

cognitive dissonance

-Although you may expect those receiving more money would show the greatest attitude change, this was not the case because of cognitive dissonance -Cognitive dissonance: Festinger's theory that inconsistent behavior produces tension (dissonance) -Lying to receive $1 produces more internal turmoil, and so you need to justify the lie by changing your attitude about the task -If the discrepancy between what you believe and how you act is great, you wil either change your behavior or change your beliefs -Most studies later on confirmed Festinger's findings that when people are induced to act inconsistently with their attitudes, their attitudes often change

passionate love

-An intense emotional state characterized by a powerful longing to be with the other person -Resembles a ride on a rollercoaster- people experience intense joy if the feelings are shared and intense pain if the feelings are unrequited -Leads to intense arousal

Festinger

-Analyzed friendships that formed among students in an apartment complex near MIT -Found that they could predict the likelihood of a friendship forming by noting the proximity (closeness in living quarters) between two people -When students listed their three closes friends, 2/3 of the time they named students in their apartment complex, and when an apartment sharer was listed, 2/3 the time he or she lived on the same floor as the respondent

Latané

-Argued that there may be connections with social loafing and the bystander effect; both effects result from diffusion of responsibility -In bystander effect, people suspect others will or have become involved; in social loafing, we assume others will carry the load -The fact we are one of many makes us feel less accountable, and so we fail to take responsibility or work to our fullest capabilities because the responsibility can be diffused to other members

responses to Asch

-Asch's results are good demonstrations of conformity, but there are many variables affecting conformity -Asch found that the compliance rate dropped when one of the confederates dissented from the majority and gave the correct answer -Size of the group is not that important; conformity increases as the size of the pressure group increases, but it levels off quickly (when there are about 3-5 members, adding more pressure has less of an effect) -Your feelings about the group status matter; if you have no respect for the other members, you are less likely to conform -Conformity is likely when pressure comes from an ingroup- a group with which you share features in common with or identify with

Asch

-Asked people to participate in a perception experiment requiring them to make judgements about line length -2 cards were shown (one with a standard line and one with 3 comparison lines of differing lengths) -The participant had to rate which comparison line was the same as the standard, an easy task -The other members of the group were confederates who were told to lie on many of the trials, giving a clearly incorrect response to see if it affected the answers of the real participant -In approximately 75% of the sessions, people complied on at least one trial, and the overall conformity rate was 36% -Peer pressure wasn't always effective (only 5% conformed every time), it was still power

Langlois and Roggman

-Asked people to rate the attractiveness of average faces that were generated electronically -Hundreds of black and white photographs of male or female Caucasians, Asians, and Hispanics were scanned by a computer and digitized into matrices of individual gray values -Each gray value corresponded to a shade of gray at a location on the scanned face, and so a whle face was represented by thousands of the values like in a newspaper or video display (dots blend together to form a familiar image) -People were sometimes shown faces generated by averaging gray values across a collection of individual faces; an individual dot in one of these faces was set by averaging the values of all dots in that location in the face pool -Result was a blended face that represented a prototype face in the population -Volunteers were asked to rate the faces for attractiveness, as well as individual faces submitted to form the composite -People generally rated the composite faces as more attractive than the individuals

attitudes

-Attitude: a positive or negative evaluation hat predisposes us to act in certain ways -Attitudes are beneficial; they guide behavior, helping us to remain consistent in our actions and use our knowledge about individuals or situations -Attitudes help us perceive and interpret the world; we can focus our attention on the information relevant to our beliefs, such as information confirming an existing belief -Attitudes may be a defensive function, protecting our basic beliefs about ourselves and others

Central and Peripheral Routes to Persuasion

-Attitudes often change as we are always bombarded by persuasions in business, politics, religion, and the arts -Psychologists have tried to determine what determines persuasion

implications of attributional biases

-Attributional biases have implications for you and society -You may naturally attribute losing a job to laziness or incompetence, even though someone is usually unemployed because of situation, such as a tragic life event -May be adaptive because we can make quick decisions about the causes of behavior, and may be products of evolutions

Practical considerations of obedience

-Behavior changes with authority figures, but obedience can't be used to explain away actions of criminals -Ie. People can't justify Nazis for 'following orders' -Social psychologists draw distinctions between obedience to authority (Milgram) and cruelties in concentration camps -We can all be pushed to extremes with authorities, but obedience (or Deindividuation) can't be used as an overriding excuse or explanation for genocide or murder

ostracism

-Being excluded and ignored from the group, and can have serious psychological and physical consequences -When ignored or excluded, our sense of belongingness, self-esteem and control is threatened; we feel, angry and sad -Even the lack of eye contact by others in social settings can induce sadness and anger -Our reactions to ostracism may be evolutionary, and we may have ostracism detectors, because ostracism decreases chances of survival

Jones and Harris

-College students read essays expressing positive or negative opinions about Fidel Castro's communist regime in Cuba -Before reading the essays, one group was told that the writer could choose their position in the paper, but another group was told the writer was forced to adopt a position -Students in both groups had to guess the writer's true opinion -The students believed the essay always reflected the writer's opinion, even when they knew the students were forced to adopt a particular one -Shows the FAE; people attribute an individual's activities to internal personal factors, even when there are situational explanations

Self-Perception Theory

-Daryl Bem -Based on the idea that we are active observers of our own behavior -We learn from our behavior and use our actions as a basis for inferring internal believes; behavior is observed and attitudes follow as a result -i.e I practice the piano for 2 hours a day, and infer that I like music and have a bit of talent -Relates to Festinger and Carlsmith study- you observe your self telling someone that a boring task is interesting for $1 and conclude that your attitude must not have been that negative -We do not always match our attitudes to our behaviors but monitoring behavior does often contribute to attitude formation and change -We may be likely to use our actions as a guide when we are unsure about our attitude, or we may use our own behavior to see if our attitudes or opinions have changed

Whether or not relationships last

-Does not always depend on love or overall satisfaction -People who are highly invested in a relationship (ie. Sharing property or kids) tend to stick out relationships -Depends on how easily you can survive alone and the chances of finding another partner -Strong personal or moral convictions can lead to stability; you may dislike your partner but think it's wrong to break up

social facilitation

-Enhancement in performance that is sometimes found when we perform in the presence of others -Social facilitation occurs in many environments, ie motorists drive faster through intersections when another car is in the lane beside them, people eat more food when eating with others, ants excavate dirt quicker to built nests in the presence of other ants

experience and forming attitudes

-Experience is the most important factors in forming attitudes -Events that occur outside or control can be signals for our attitude through classical conditioning- Advertisers manipulate how we feel toward products by pairing the product with something pleasurable -Through operant conditioning, attitudes are influenced by rewards and punishments we receive for our actions- if you express an opinion on a subject and the opinion is reinforced by people you like, you are likely to keep the attitude -Through observational learning and modelling, we can form opinions; the political opinions of people often reflect those of their parents and peers, and we form judgements on the acceptability of our behaviors and beliefs from those around us

predicting love

-For college students, your roommate is a better judge of how long your romantic relationship will last than you or your partner -Your original ratings of the quality of the relationship correlate more highly with the eventual outcome than your predictions of how long it will last -Often our hopes for a relationship are inaccurate; what matters is the ongoing assessment of the relationship quality

foot in the door technique

-Freedman and Fraser convinced a group of householders to sign a petition supporting safe driving, and a few weeks later asked the householders to then place a large 'drive safely' sign in their yard -Petition signers were three times more likely to comply with the new request than a control group -Signing of the original petition triggered self-perception, helping the participants shape the attitude; if I sign the petition, I must be an advocate for safe driving

internal attributions

-If no single event explains the behavior (ie. Ira smiles in the afternoon, but also on mornings without the exercise), you don't appeal to environment -You attribute the pleasant behavior to an internal trait, ie. Ira is a friendly guy -Common when the consistency of the behavior is high but distinctiveness and consensus are low

Snyder et al results

-If the men thought they were talking to an attractive female, they were friendly and positive, but not if the partner was unattractive -Women's conversation styles differed; those who were presumed to be attractive were rated as more friendly and open than those shown as unattractive, even though they had no idea their male partners had preformed opinions about their attractiveness -Friendly, positive styles from the men elicited similar qualities in the women, demonstrating the self-fulfilling prophecy effect (the expectations we have towards others and our actions can influence them to act in the expected way)

Evolutionary Perspective of attractiveness

-If the purpose of attraction is to secure an ideal mate, then we would think that an attractive person is someone with high reproductive capacity or ability to provide protection for children and compete for resources -Evolution predicts that people should be attracted to opposite sex members who are young, vigorous, and healthy looking because it increases the likelihood of successful reproduction and child rearing -Evolutionary theory should predict that attractiveness features are the same cross-culturally; if it is grounded in our genetics, then it shouldn't matter about rearing- there should be a worldwide agreement on attractiveness -Many studies found that when ratings of attractive face were compared cross-culturally, attractive faces in many places share structural features -Babies within hours of birth prefer to look at faces that adults have rated as attractive over faces rated as unattractive

groupthink

-Influences the trend towards consensus and polarization of opinion -Members of a group become so interested in seeking a consensus that they start to ignore and suppress dissenting views

companionate love

-Less emotional and intense; feelings of enduring trust and warmth -Leads to self-disclosure; we are willing to reveal our secrets because of the strong trust

Janis

-Looked at how ingroups arrived at decisions, ie. Policy decisions by government members -Analysed a number of watershed events in U.S. policy making (decision to start war in Vietnam, JFK's decision to invade Cuba, NASA's decision to launch the Challenger) -Discovered that group members sought consensus at the expense of critical analysis, often trying to convince themselves of the correctness of the position -When alternative views were expressed in the group, they were suppressed and dismissed, ie. NASA management had evidence that Challenger may had problems, but chose to ignore it to go forward with the mission -Group think often leads to closed-mindedness and overestimation of opinion uniformity

defining love

-Love is a complex emotion expressed in many forms; between parent and child, lovers, spouses, or friends -Questionnaires display that love is characterized by the giving and receiving of support, a mutual understanding, and intense personal satisfaction -There are similarities between experiences of love, but the amount of love reported depends on the type of relationship studied •Women report loving their partner more than a best friend but liking their best friend more •Men report liking and loving their partner more than they report for their friends -Both compassionate and companionate love can be in the same relationship, but this is not always the case

The Triangular View of Love (Sternberg)

-Love is composed of intimacy, passion, and commitment, that vary in relation to one another -Intimacy: emotional component bringing closeness, connectedness, and warmth -Passion: motivational component underlying arousal, physical attraction, and sexual behavior -Commitment: decision-making arm of love- how willing the partners are to stick with the relationship in times of trouble

determinants of liking and loving

-Many people find it easy to come up with wish characteristics for a friend or marriage partner, but these factors may not actually be that important when we actually form relationships or partnerships -People act partly because of conscious internal factors but also because of constraints and pushes from the environment around us -The environment often plays a role in determining who we spend time with and who we consider appropriate mates; even mere exposure to something can increase its desirability

The degree of compliance in Milgram experiment depends on many factors

-Milgram study was at Yale, but when it was at less prestigious settings, compliance dropped -People were less likely to comply if the authority figure left the room or if the person giving orders was ordinary rather than official in appearance -Obedience to authority is not absolute- it depends on characteristics of the situation, participant, and person giving orders

stanley milgram experiment method

-Milgram wanted to determine how resistant the average person can be to demands of authority- place an advert in the paper recruiting men for a study looking at the effects of punishment on learning -Participants were told that for a small fee they would either be a learner or teacher, that the teacher had to administer an electric shock to the learner whenever he made recall errors, and that the condition was decided by drawing slips of paper from a hat -In every case the true volunteer was assigned as the teacher and the learner was a confederate -The study was set up to look as though learner was receiving shocks even though he wasn't; the idea was to get the confederate to make learning errors and then to assess how willing the teacher would be to administer the shock under the authority of the experimenter -Teacher was told that each shock got progressively more intense, from 15-450 volts, and was instructed to read and then test the learner's memory for the words and administer a shock when the learner failed to recall the word correctly

central route to persuasion

-Most obvious and familiar; operates when we are motivated to process a persuasive communication with effort and attention -We listen to the arguments of the message and judge them according to their merits -Ie. you've just changed your views on abortion after listening to a persuasive speaker; you weight out the quality of the arguments and change your attitude to form a new one -Attitudes processes this way are stable and long-lasting

explicit prejudice

-Negative attitudes about a group that are consciously endorsed -Ie. A person may willingly admit prejudicial feelings about certain racial groups

counterargument to cognitive dissonance

-Not all psychologists agree that cognitive dissonance results from acting in ways inconsistent with your beliefs -You may feel uncomfortable about your actions or you may feel personally responsible for creating an unwanted situation

deindividuation

-Occurs from the fact we sometimes feel less accountable for our behavior when we're in a group -Occurs from diffusion of responsibility; you are likely to feel unaccountable and anonymous and so your restraints on destructive actions lowers -You also feel less self-conscious; you go along with the group because you are not thinking of your individual standards and values -You may not actually be entering a depersonalized state, but your actions do differ from normal -Deindividuation is an example of situation-specific behavior because the unusual situation is controlling your actions, and so they do not depict how you usually behave -Deindividuation can lead to prejudice and discrimination; people can act towards members of an outgroup in ways they would not act otherwise

group polarization

-Occurs when members of an in-group arrive at a consensus of opinion -Group's dominant point of view, often determined by the initial view of the majority, becomes stronger and more extreme with time -Ie. You join an action group dedicated to exposing corporate corruption; the group believes initially that corporate corruption is significant but over time, you and the other members become even more convinced of that -Occurs with development and maintenance of terrorist groups

self-fulfilling prophecies

-Once stereotypes are activated, we expect certain kinds of behavior from members of groups -Self-fulfilling prophecy effect: a condition in which expectations about the actions of another person actually lead that person to act that way -If you expect someone to be unreliable and act in line with those expectations (ie. avoiding the person), there are high chances that he or she will assume that role -Self fulfilling prophecies can be positive or negative; they can either bring out the best or worst in you

reducing prejudice by recognizing their automaticity

-Once you recognize that stereotypes are common and maybe automatic, you can reduce their influence -You can consciously adjust your behavior to oppose the influence of the stereotype, ie. if you're a man interviewing a woman, you can steer away from questions relating to gender stereotypes -We can actively suppress stereotypic thoughts, preventing them from entering conscious awareness

peripheral route to persuasion

-Operates when we are unable to process the message carefully or are unmotivated to do so -Our attitudes become more susceptible to change from superficial cues or exposure -Ie. in a beer commercial, logical arguments are never made about the quality of the beer's nutrition, it's all about talking animals or anecdotes -Our motivation to process the message is low, and so we are more likely to be persuaded by source characteristics, such as celebrities, power, or attractiveness -Usually used by advertisers because we don't often process advertisements with a high level of involvement; we're more likely to rely on heuristics to form opinions

reciprocity (determinants of liking and loving)

-Our tendency to return in kind the feelings that are shown towards us; plays a role in the dynamics of interpersonal attraction -If someone displays hostility toward you, you will probably have negative feelings towards them, and if they like you, you will probably like them back -Reciprocity is self fulfilling; people who like you are reinforcing and accepting and so it leads to interpersonal attraction -However, if you feel that the positive actions of another are motivated by selfishness (ie. A con job), your reaction will be negative, and so we are only attracted to people who like us if we trust their intentions

exceptions to bystander effect

-People are more likely to help if they've recently observed others being helpful, if they don't think people around them have the ability to help, or if they truly perceive the situation as a dangerous emergency -Dangerous situations lead to higher arousal and more helping -Diffusion of responsibility is widespread; it doesn't mean that people are selfish it just implies how behavior can be strongly influenced by social factors -Our behavior changes in the presence of others, and although the forces producing the bystander effect do not make us feel good about ourselves, it may be adaptive because it protects ourselves from danger

Establishing Relations with Others

-People are not objects to be interpreted or forces influencing behavior; for most of us, our relationships are paramount to our lives -We depend on interactions with friends, lovers, and family for protection and help to gain meaning in our lives

attractive faces may be average

-People are programmed to prefer faces that are average representations of faces in the population; not common, but faces that are prototypical and good representation of the category 'faces'

average features are safer theory (why average is attractive)

-People are programmed to prefer prototypical faces cause average features suggest a lower likelihood of harbouring harmful genetic mutations -Faces symmetrical in appearance are preferred because they provide clues about genetic health of mating partners

cultural differences in attribution

-People in Eastern cultures are less susceptible to the FAE thn those in western cultures -People from Asian cultures are more likely to focus on situational factors; when asked to make a causal judgement about a behavior, they will likely make an external attribution

Milgram Controversy and Ethics

-People in the study were misled and became severely distressed; teachers groaned, bit their lips, sweat, trembled -Psychological manipulation occurred, even though it was done to advance knowledge -Milgram argued that debriefing occurred, and that the participants were glad they participated (only a handful felt negatively about it when questioned months later) -Some argued that the participants may have seen the learner through the cover and just continued to please the experimenter -Some argued that the study had no general applicability; people must have assumed things were okay, otherwise no one would have believed that an experiment of this type was conducted -Milgram pointed out that his participants got distressed, suggesting they didn't figure out the hoax and were truly upset -Study has been repeated since then, and few psychologists today question the findings' validity

the psychology of romantic love

-People struggle to understand how psychologists can define or measure love, as they believe it is something to be tackled by artists and poets

neuroimaging studies of cognitive dissonance

-People were asked to act in ways inconsistent with their attitudes, providing false ratings about their comfort level to ease the next participants -While making these ratings, the participants were scanned in an MRI -Lying about how they felt caused their attitudes about scanning to change, but their degree of attitude change was associated with brain regions that are activated when we hold conflicting thoughts (when we experience cognitive dissonance)

Zajonc

-People were shown photographs of undergraduate men from a school yearbook; some were shown once or twice; others were shown 25 times -Everyone was then asked to estimate how much they like each man shown -More often a photo was presented, more people liked the person shown -This shows how easily attitudes can be affected

Behavioural component of attitude

-Pre-disposition to act toward the object in a particular way -Attitudes don't always directly affect behavior; people sometimes act inconsistently with their attitudes (you may be nice to your landlord in person) -Behavior is usually determined by more than just attitudes, and so it is sometimes unwise to express your true feelings, but sometimes we act mindlessly without thinking of ramifications (ie. buying products we don't really want)

implicit prejudice

-Prejudicial thoughts that come to mind unintentionally and may not be consciously recognized or controllable -Ie. A person may claim he or she has no negative feelings towards African Americans, but moves to the other side of the street at the sight of a black person -Presenting a photograph of an African American or White face can affect how pleasant or unpleasant people judge a Chinese ideograph moments later, even if the face is only presented briefly (If the ideograph was rated more unpleasantly after the black face, there would be a presence of implicit prejudice) -A person can self report no explicit prejudice but show significant implicit prejudice -People who showed implicit racial prejudice were less liely to have voted for Obama than McCain in 2008

Baby Theory (why average is attractive)

-Prototypic faces are easy to identify as human faces, and classifying something as a face may be easy for adults but hard for newborns -Infants must be able to recognize a visual configuration as a face because they are dependent on social interactions -Faces that are particularly facelike may make processing easier for the individuals (because their vision is limited)

Bystander Effect

-Reluctance to come to someone's aid when others are present (ie. with Kitty Genovese) -Bystander effect has been replicated in many social settings beyond the laboratory; most show that the more witnesses there are, the less likely it is that anyone will offer aid -People who imagined themselves eating dinner with 30 of their friends were less likely to pledge money to a charity than people who imagined themselves eating with only 10 or just 1 person

diffusion of responsibility

-Reluctance to get involved when others are around can be explained by diffusion of responsibility -We tend not to help out because the presence of others leads us to believe that others have already done something or will d something -If we know others are present, we allow our sense our responsibility to diffuse among them

All love can be a combination of all three components

-Romantic love: intimacy and passion (but may lack commitment) -Compassionate love: intimacy and commitment (but without passion) -Fatuous love: passion and commitment (but no intimacy) -Empty love: commitment but little or no passion or intimacy -Infatuated love: passion but no intimacy or commitment -Liking: intimacy but no passion or commitment

lowball technique

-Salesperson offers you a great price on a good piece of equipment, and you agree -Salesperson leaves and returns with a higher price, but one that is still lower than usual -You agree to buy, even though you would have rejected this deal if it was offered first -By getting you to agree to the initial purchase, the salesperson lowered your resistance to buying the product

the power of the group

-Social context influences behavior greatly when we are members of a well defined group, and so it is not just the characteristics of the group that affects our behavior, but it is also just the fact we are in a group -Three phenomena illustrate the power of group membership: social loafing, deindividuation, and conformity

what factors contribute to group polarization?

-Some of the same factors as conformity, ie. Group discussions provide information consolidating initial opinions; those who enter the group with strong opinions make strong cases and other views are less likely to be heard -Social aspects of the discussion play a role; people want to be liked by the other members, and so shift their attitude towards the group consensus, arguing forcefully for the dominant viewpoint

Stereotypes formation

-Stereotypes are activated when we are exposed to stereotypic beliefs and actions --Men are more likely to behave sexually toward a woman if they have just seen a TV commercial in which women were presented as sexual objects --Witnessing a black man engage in a negative stereotypic behavior influences how a white male evaluates other black men -Recent exposure to behavior consistent with stereotypes activates or primes the stereotype, which affects future behavior -Effects of stereotypes depend on the situation; you're susceptible to negative effects of an activated stereotype if you're angry

prejudice

-Stereotypes can lead to rigid interpretations of people- they cause us to overgeneralize and place too much emphasis on the differences that exist between groups rather than the differences within groups -Stereotypes increase the likelihood of prejudice and discrimination -Prejudice: occurs when groups and their members are evaluated negatively -Stereotypic beliefs leading to prejudice may be automatic and subconscious, ie. witnessing a behavior can activate prejudice

love over time

-Sternberg studied how love changes over time; whether couples gain intimacy, love passion, increase commitment, etc. -On average, passion builds early and rapidly (can be almost immediate) but is difficult to sustain -Commitment is slow to develop but can be long lasting -Intimacy is unlikely to be found early but grows and maintains itself over time -Components of love change in ways reflecting the successes and failures of the partners

stanley milgram experiment results

-Teacher (participant) heard learner's progressively increasing vocal responses (prerecorded), which developed into screams and then silent at the 350 volt level -Most teachers expressed concern over the shocks and wanted to stop, but the experimenter was authoritative and demanded that the shocks go on -Beforehand, Milgram asked many professionals to predict how much shock the partipants would deliver, and most predicted that the obedience would be low (a few in a thousand would deliver all shocks and most would defy the experimenter after hearing learner's discomfort) -In reality, 65% of the 40 participants (26) were willing to deliver all shocks, and no one quit before pounding on the wall started

the power of authority: obedience

-The presence of others often affects behavior, but it often matters who these people are and what roles they play -Obedience: the form of compliance that occurs when people respond to the orders of an authority figure -Ie. In Guyana, South America- of converts to Jim Jones' religious teachings chose, under his orders, to commit mass suicide

subjective components of attractiveness

-There is a strong subjective component to the perception of beauty, and standards have changed over time (beauty in the West has ranged from curvaceous to slim and tomboyish) -Features considered attractive in one culture may be unattractive in another -Perceptions of beauty change with experience; we rate people we like as more attractive than people we dislike -If you've just been shown an attractive person, your ratings of average people decrease -If a male face has been paired with a smiling female face, women rate the man as more attractive

Cultural views of the self produce costs and benefits

-Those who adopt an independent view of the self score higher on measures of self-esteem and self-efficacy, which can increase one's subjective sense of well-being -Those who think the world revolves around them have struggle maintaining long-term relationships

Snyder et al

-Undergraduate men were asked to talk to undergraduate women on the telephone, and prior to the conversation, the men were shown a photo of the women -The photo either showed the person as attractive or unattractive, even though the photos were not of the actual participants (the intention of the study was to lead the men to believe they were talking to someone attractive or unattractive) -Women were not shown any photo, and were not told that the man had been given a bias -All of the phone calls were taped, and judges (who were unaware of the mens' assignment group) rated the social aspects of the conversation styles

stereotypes and prejudice

-Using stereotypes to prejudge can lead to racism, sexism, and ageism, and stereotypes may not even be accurate or applicable to everyone -Stereotypes are adaptive; they help people carve their social worlds into chunks providing a sense of direction about who to act when encountering new people

Kitty Genovese

-Was stalked and brutally attacked outside her apartment building in 1964, and yelled that she was being stabbed and that she was dying -Many neighbours were awoken by the screams but sat silently as the attacked continued to stab her and kill her; the attacked even had time to leave and return before ending her life -Few came to her aid or called the police

Festinger and Carlsmith Study

-We can change our attitudes because of our own actions -Male college students were asked to perform some boring tasks, ie. placing sewing spools on a tray for an hour -At the end of the hour, the experimental group were told that the purpose was to examine the effects of motivation on task performance, and that the next student needed to be told by the participant that the experiment was filled with interesting tasks -To provide an incentive for the participant to go and lie to the student, the participant were offered 1 or 20 dollars -The offer was done to get the experimental group to act in a way contradicting their feelings about the experiment; the task was clearly boring, so they were asked to lie for either a small or large reward

avoiding groupthink (Janis)

-We can counteract groupthink by having an impartial leader who does not have an opinion -We can assign members of the group as a devil's advocate giving dissenting positions -The group can recognize that social influences (ie. Groupthink) affect behavior even if the group is intelligent or committed

reducing prejudice with repeated exposure

-We can reduce prejudice that comes from stereotypes through repeated exposure to individuals in the stereotyped groups -As the amount of social contact between heterosexuals and homosexuals increases, negative feelings decrease -There are many elements at work in maintaining stereotypic beliefs -Whether beliefs change depends on the nature of the social interactions and how representative the contacted individuals are of their stereotypic group -The contact must be repeated, otherwise people will attempt to defend their stereotypic views by explaining away individual contacts as unrepresentative of the group

why conformity?

-We generally seek approval in social settings and try to avoid rejection and so act to please by complying with social customs and norms -Neuroimaging studies showed that areas of the brain associated with reward processing are involved in social conformity -We may use the majority group opinion as a source of information; if everyone around you is convinced that something is correct, you may think that your own perception is actually flawed, and so you use the opinions of others as evidence about what is actually correct

Bystander Effect Experiment

-You participate in a psychology experiment involving groups of college students discussing problems in college- you can sit in a small cubicle to communicate with others via intercom to minimize embarrassment -You're told beforehand that 1, 2, or 5 people are participating, and during the session, one member (who you know is epileptic) has a seizure, and he yells for help -Whether the real participant would help the seizure victim depended on how many people were 'present'; if only one other person was present, the participant almost always helped, but when he or she believed 4 were present, only 62% offered aid

similarity (determinants of liking and loving)

-We like and form relationships with people similar to us; friends and intimate partners resemble each other in age, social status, education level, race, intelligence, beliefs, etc. -People who smoke are more likely to initiate relationships with smokers than non smokers, we pick dogs that resemble us physically, and even if we prefer attractive mates, we almost always marry someone equal to us in attractiveness -May be because we like others who share our beliefs and attitudes because they validate our beliefs, helping to convince us that our beliefs are correct, so perceived similarity of attitudes is a better predictor of attraction than actual attitudes -We spend time with others like ourselves because we dislike people with different views -Partners may be similarly attractive because attractiveness dictates who you can find as a mate; society may dictate that attractive people reject those who are less attractive -Socioeconomic aspects affect our options; if we are poor, our interactions are likely to be with people who are also poor -People sharing the same church or university (where many people find companions) already share many features in common

attribution theory: attributing causes to behavior

-We naturally interpret the behavior of others, trying to understand why people do what they do -Attributions: when people assign causes to behaviors; attribution theories are concerned with processes underlying inferences of cause and effect -Ie. You notice that Ira's mood improves on Monday and Wednesday afternoons after lunch, and apply the covariation model of attribution

fundamental attribution error

-We often make judgements quickly, and so do not consider all factors logically when making an attribution -Shortcuts produce biases and errors in judgement -FAE (correspondence bias): When we interpret another person's behavior, we overestimate the influence of internal personal factors and underestimate the role of external factors -If you're driving down the street and see a truck obnoxiously tailgating you, you are likely to make an internal attribution, assuming the driver is a jerk and ignore the possibility that situational factors may have led to the driving

self-serving bias

-We take internal credit for our actions when they produce positive outcomes (ie. I got an A, I am smart) and blame the situation when our behaviors are questionable -Adaptive because it bolsters our self esteem, enabling us to project a sense of self-importance and confidence to the world

forming attitudes

-We use everyday experiences as the basis for many ideas and beliefs, and how we interpret the experiences depends on our inborn intellectual and personality traits -Mere exposure can change your feelings about an object

Personal Views of the Self: West vs. East

-When asked to write down self-descriptions, Eastern Asians list personal qualities they share with others (ie. Where they come from) and think they are more similar to others than others are to them -Westerners describe themselves as dissimilar to others, using unique characteristics (ie. A talent) to describe themselves -Westerners often think of themselves as above average in leadership and intelligence, which is rarely seen among Eastern Asians

group decision making

-When members of an in-group pressure one another to conform to group standards or norms, groups may take on behavioural characteristics of their own, especially when making decisions -Group decision making affects jury verdicts, family decisions, and congress decisions -Two important characteristics of group decision making: group polarization and groupthink

social loafing

-When participating as a member of a group, most people engage in social loafing, meaning they put out less effort than when they are alone -Whether it occurs depends on the importance of the task, the cohesiveness of the group, and the personalities of the group members -Differs cross culturally, and is more common in cultures stressing individuality

social interference

-When performing in a crowd impairs performance, making us 'choke' -Social interference could occur, for example, when Angela perfects her piano piece in practice but struggles to complete it during the recital

stereotypes

-When social schemas revolve around the traits and behaviors of groups and their members -We form stereotypes from all groups (from insurance agents to college professors), but the three most common are based on gender, race, and age -Gender stereotypes: most people think men are strong, dominant, and aggressive, while women are sensitive, warm, and dependent -Many theories of how stereotypes are formed resemble theories of categorization -Neuroimaging suggests that stereotypes may represent a unique category of knowledge in the brain- when we make decisions about categories of people (as opposed to decisions about non-social categories), we activate distinctive social rather rhan semantic brain regions

proximity (determinants of liking and loving)

-When somebody lives close by, you see him or her a lot, and so increased exposure may promote attraction -Proximity leads to interaction, and when you consistently interact with someone, feelings of connectedness and belonging result (familiarity leads to attraction) -You view people close by as members of your ingroup (so share features in common)

actor-observer effect

-When you make attributions about your own behavior, you are likely to explain your behavior by appealing to the situation -Ie. you are tailgating someone, and explain it not by saying you're a jerk, but saying you're late or in an emergency

culture and obedience/conformity

-Whether or not conformity and obedience is a sign of weakness or strength depends on culture -In Western cultures, people are taught to adopt an independent view, and are rewarded for viewing themselves as unique and distinctive; Eastern cultures adopt an interdependent view -American children are likely told to be different and unique, and Americans consider acts of charity or selflessness as reflecting distinctive personal qualities, making someone stand out as admirable -In Japan, children are taught to think of themselves from the perspective of the group and as members of a group with common goals, rather than individuals striving to differ -Our thoughts and actions are influenced by our efforts to adapt to our individual environments; as cultural demands on the individual vary, so will his or her actions

Greenwald and Banaji

-Words that were consistent with negative stereotypes about African Americans were flashed on a screen at speeds t fast to be noticed -The people working at the screens were more likely to evaluate a fictional character as having traits consistent with the negative African American stereotype -Suggests that stereotypes can be activated and influence behavior in ways not consciously controlled

deindividuation example

-You're at a lively party and the people around you are crazy, reckless, and drunk -Some psychologists believe you are likely to do the same; people in large groups often lose their sense of individuality, increasing their chances of engaging in destructive and aggressive behavior -It is highly unlikely that you would actually act violent and crazy, but if you are part of a large group, you are more likely to do things you may not otherwise do

reducing attribution biases

-You're less likely to show SSB if you're working with someone you know well, and are less likely to take credit for the success of a joint task and assign blame for failure -You're more likely to show the FAE if you're in a positive mood, but are more likely to blame the situation if youre in a negative mood

components of attitude example

-You've formed a bad attitude toward your landlord which rests on the foundation of facts and beliefs -You form the cognitive component of your attitude; you know he has raised your rent many times, he enters your apartment without asking, and he won't let you keep your cat -You have an emotional reaction making up the affective component; when you see him, you are angry and upset -The behavioural component predisposes your actions; you spend every Sunday looking for a new apartment and constantly complain about your landlord to everyone -Three components, thus, have formed an attitude

social psychology

-the discipline that studies how we think about, influence, and relate to other people -how we think and act changes when we are with others; the presence of others can be among the most powerful and pervasive of environmental influences •three social problems that play a role in helping us adjust and adapt to our world are interpreting the behavior of others, behaving in the behavior of others, and establishing relations with others

Ingratiation

a person consciously tries to win the affections of another for an ulterior motive, which often backfires

prototype theories of stereotypes

assume we store abstract representation of the typical features of a group, and then judge particular individuals based on their similarity to the prototype

affective components of attitudes

feelings the object produces

distinctiveness (covariation model of attribution)

indicates whether the change occurs uniquely at the presence of the event (does Ira's mood improve only if he has exercised?)

reciprocal altruism

some suggest we act altruistically because we expect the favour to be returned; adaptive because it increases our own chance of being helped

social influence

the study of how the behaviors and thoughts of individuals are affected by the presence of others (singular individuals or collective groups)