CHAPTER 9- SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

An Example of Asch's Line-Length Judgment Task (see phone)

About 75% of the participants gave an obviously wrong answer at least once, and overall, conformity occurred 37% of the time This conformity occurred despite the fact that the "correct" answer, unlike in Sherif's study, was obvious Asch's results illustrate the power of normative social influence, influence stemming from our desire to gain the approval of and to avoid the disapproval of other people

Role

A social position that carries with it expected behaviors from the person in it Defined by the socially expected pattern of behavior for it, and these definitions impact both behavior and attitudes

Situational Factors that Impacted Obedience in Milgram's Study

Can you explain how these factors impacted obedience in the Milgram experiment? Physical presence of the experimenter Physical closeness of teacher and learner Setting of the study Experimenter unanimity Teacher responsibility

Bystander effect/college students Darley and Latané (1968)

College students ostensibly participated in a round-robin discussion of college adjustment problems over an intercom system Suddenly, one student (confederate) starts having a seizure and cries out for help Participant willingness to help depended on how many other individuals the participant thought were available to help the student having the seizure

Low-ball (Compliance Technique)

Compliance to a costly request is achieved by first getting compliance to an attractive, less costly request, but then reneging on it This works because many feel obligated to go through with a deal after agreeing to an earlier request, even if the first request has changed for the worse People want to remain consistent in their actions Method of action: Consistency

Foot-in-the-door(Compliance Technique)

Compliance to a large request is gained by prefacing it with a very small, almost mindless request Tendency is for people who have complied with the small request to comply with the next, larger request Technique works because behavior (complying with the initial request) affects attitudes, leading to more positive helping behavior and a view of oneself as a generally charitable person Freedman and Fraser's (1966) classic yard sign study Technique was used by the Communist Chinese in the Korean War on prisoners of war Method of Action: Consistency

Milgram's Basic Experimental Paradigm

Experimenter tells student volunteers that the study is examining the effects of punishment by electric shock on learning, and specifically learning a list of word pairs. One of the participants will be the teacher and the other participant will be the learner. Students draw slips for these roles, and all students draw the slip of the teacher, so the other participant (experimental confederate) becomes the learner Student teachers accompany the learner into an adjoining room and helps strap him to a chair and shock generator A test shock is given to all students to familiarize them with the shock stimuli Student teachers believe they are administering increasing levels of shock with each missed respond Despite cries of pain, students continue with the shocks

Social facilitation

Facilitation of dominant response on a task due to social arousal Leads to improvement on simple or well-learned tasks and worse performance on complex or unlearned tasks when other people are present Occurs because the presence of others increases physiological arousal, and under conditions of increased arousal, people tend to give whatever response is most dominant

Attributional Bias

Fundamental attribution error: The tendency to overestimate dispositional influences and to underestimate situational influences on other's behaviors. our tendency to explain someone's behavior based on internal factors, such as personality or disposition, and to underestimate the influence that external factors, such as situational influences, have on another person's behavior (justification for cruelty). Actor-observer bias: tendency to overestimate situational influences on our own behavior but to overestimate dispositional influences on other's behavior.The actor-observer bias is a term in social psychology that refers to a tendency to attribute one's own actions to external causes, while attributing other people's behaviors to internal causes. Self-serving bias: tendency to make attributions so that one can perceive oneself favorably; we tend to overestimate dispositional influences on our behavior when the outcome is positive and to overestimate situational influences when the outcome is negative

The "Astroten" Study

Hofling and colleagues (1966) Participants were nurses on duty alone in a hospital ward Each nurse responded to a call from a personally unknown staff doctor who authorized a potentially dangerous dosage of Astroten to be given to a patient in the ward Of 22 nurses phoned, 21 did not question the order Astroten was a fake drug, an injection of sugar pill (glucose) A separate sample of 33 nurses were asked about this situation and what they would do if they were placed in it All but 2 said they would NOT obey the doctor's order This demonstrated the difference between what we think we will do and what we actually do in a given situation

Situational Factors that Impact Conformity

If the group is unanimous, conformity will increase. If one person is "different" somehow, it allows other people to avoid conforming. The mode of responding is also critical. Secret ballots lead to less conformity than public, verbal reports. The status of group members intervenes. More conformity is observed from a person that is of lesser status than the other group members or is attracted to the group and wants to be part of it.

The Jonestown Massacre

In 1978, more than 900 people who were members of Reverend Jim Jones's religious cult in Jonestown, Guyana committed mass suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid These were Americans who moved to South America from San Francisco in 1977 Using various compliance techniques, Jones developed unquestioned faith as the cult leader and discouraged individualism

The Asch Study and Normative Social Influence

In Asch's study, the visual judgments were easy visual discriminations involving line-length judgments In this study, the correct answer/behavior was obvious When making such judgments alone, almost no mistakes were made Experimental confederates, part of the experimental setting, made deliberate mistakes on certain trials.

Zimbardo's study (1970s)

In a now-classic study, Zimbardo recruited male college students to participate in a study held in the basement of the Stanford University psychology building—renovated to be a mock prison The most emotionally-stable volunteers were selected for the study and then randomly assigned to play the roles of prisoner and prison guard. The participants began to take their respective roles too seriously Role-playing quickly became reality

Attitudes

Include evaluative reactions (positive or negative) toward things, events, and other people Tend to guide our behavior When the attitudes are ones that we feel strongly about When we are consciously aware of our attitudes When outside influences on our behavior are not strong

Compliance

Involves acting in accordance to a direct request from another person or group Occurs in many facets of life Note this is a Different term than Conformity Compliance takes place due to direct requests from an equal

Obedience

Involves following the commands of a person in authority Good in some instances and bad in other instances Note this is a Different term than Compliance Obedience is also a direct request, but is from an authority figure of some kind

Deindividuation

Involves loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in a group situation that fosters arousal and anonymity Supports feelings of less restraint that enable people to forget their moral values and act spontaneously without thinking Allows action within anonymity of the group situation

Group polarization

Involves strengthening of a group's prevailing opinion about a topic following group discussion of that topic Is impacted by normative social influence

Conformity

Is defined as a change in behavior, belief, or both to conform to a group norm as a result of real or imagined group pressure Has negative connotations in Western cultures; some conformity is needed for society to function

Primacy effect

Is partially responsible for the fundamental attribution error Occurs when early information is weighted more heavily than later information in forming an impression of another person

Milgram's Initial Obedience Finding

Milgram asked various types of people what they and other people would do Most thought people would stop at relatively low shock levels Psychiatrists believed that maybe one person in a thousand would go to the end of the shock generator In reality, almost two out of every three participants (65%) continued to obey the experimenter and administered the maximum possible shock of 450 volts

Groupthink

Mode of group thinking that impairs decision making Occurs when the desire for group harmony overrides a realistic appraisal of the possible decisions Leads to an illusion of infallibility or belief that the group cannot make mistakes

Zimbardo's study criticism

Not clear if participants behavior was motivated by natural acceptances of situational roles or active leadership by Zimbardo Findings may be confounded by demand characteristics Only a few guards were abusive

Just-world hypothesis

Observer places blame on victims by assuming that the world is just and that people get what they deserve This hypothesis helps justify cruelty to others

Fundamental attribution error

Observer tends to overestimate internal dispositional influences and underestimate external situational influences upon others' behavior External factors are ignored when explaining the behaviors of other people

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Occurs when expectations of a person elicit behavior from the person that confirms our expectations

Social loafing

Occurs when people pool their efforts to achieve a common goal Is the tendency for people to exert less effort when working toward a common goal in a group than when individually accountable

Diffusion of responsibility

Occurs when responsibility for a task is spread across all members of the group so individual accountability is lessened

Door-in-the-face(Compliance Technique)

Opposite of the foot-in-the-door technique Compliance is gained by starting with a large unreasonable request that is turned down, and then following it with a more reasonable smaller request Success is due to tendency toward reciprocity and making mutual concessions Method of Action: Reciprocity

The Sherif Study and Informational Social Influence

Participants were placed in a completely dark room and exposed to a stationary point of light The task was to estimate the distance this light moved The light never moved (autokinetic effect), but participants reported movement when alone and in a group setting After several exposures, the individual estimates converged on a common group norm A year later, participants were brought back and made estimates alone; these estimates remained at the group norm What did this indicate about social influence?

Festinger and Carlsmith's study: Findings

Participants who were paid only $1 rated the boring tasks as fairly enjoyable Participants who were paid $20 rated the boring tasks as boring Why?

That's-not-all (Compliance Technique)

People are more likely to comply to a request after a build-up to make the request sound "better" But Wait! There's MoRE!! Technique is often used in television infomercials As in the door-in-the-face technique, reciprocity is at work Method of Action: Reciprocity

Bystander effect (Darley and Latané)

Posits the probability of a person's helping in an emergency is greater when there are no other bystanders than when there are other bystanders

Attributions

Process by which people explain their own behavior and the behavior of others Poses the question: What do we think are the causes of our behavior and the behavior of others?

Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory

Proposes that people change their attitudes to reduce the cognitive discomfort created by inconsistencies between their attitudes and their behavior

Bem's self-perception theory

Proposes that when we are unsure of our attitudes we infer them by examining our behavior and the context in which it occurs Contends that we don't change our attitude because of our behavior, but rather we use our behavior to infer our attitude

Haslam and Reicher/BBC study

Recreated SPE study (with ethical study) Results: Guards failed to impose their authority and rebelled after six days Guards and prisoners formed communal system that collapsed Findings via social identity theory: Power resides in group ability to establish sense of shared identity

Self-Serving Bias

Self-serving bias can also influence our estimates of the extent to which other people think and act as we do False consensus effect False uniqueness effect

False consensus effect

Tendency to overestimate the commonality of one's opinions and unsuccessful behaviors.In psychology, the false-consensus effect or false-consensus bias is an attributional type of cognitive bias whereby people tend to overestimate the extent to which their opinions, beliefs, preferences, values, and habits are normal and typical of those of others (i.e., that others also think the same way that they do)

False uniqueness effect

Tendency to underestimate the commonality of one's abilities and successful behaviors.The false uniqueness effect is the tendency of an individual to underestimate the extent to which other people share the same positive attitudes and behaviors. Individuals tend to think that their attributes and traits are more uncommon and rare than they actually are.

Interpreting Milgram's Findings

The difference between what we say we will do and what we actually do illustrates the power of situational social forces on our behavior The foot-in-the-door technique was used because participants started off giving very mild shocks (15 volts) and increased the voltage relatively slowly. Similar results have been found with females and participants in other cultures.

The Bystander Effect

The probability of helping decreased as the responsibility for helping was diffused across more participants.

Social psychology

The scientific study of how we influence one another's behavior and thinking Focuses on how situational forces influence our behavior and thinking Social influence: Examines how other people and the social forces they create influence an individual's behavior

Results of Sherif's Study of Conformity (see phone)

This pattern of results suggests the impact of informational social influence that stems from the desire to be correct in situations in which the correct action of judgment is uncertain When a task is ambiguous or difficult and people want to be correct they look to others for information

Criticisms of Milgram's Experiment

Violations of ethical guidelines Experimental obligation because of agreement to and payment for participation

Another key aspect of cognitive dissonance

We don't suffer dissonance if we have sufficient justification for our behavior Participants paid $20 in the study had perfectly good reason to be inconsistent but not experience dissonance Once people make a tough choice, they will strengthen their commitment to that choice in order to reduce cognitive dissonance

What techniques were used in Jonestown Massacre?

What techniques were used? Using the foot in the door technique, Jones was able to increase financial support required of each member until they had turned over essentially everything they owned. Jones had recruiters ask people walking by to help the poor. When they refused, the recruiters then asked them just to donate five minutes of time to put letters in envelopes. This illustrates the door in the face technique. Informational social influence was also at work, as being moved from San Francisco to Guyana created an uncertain environment in which followers would look to others to guide their own.

Kitty Genovese 1964 murder

When returning home from work late one night Kitty Genovese was attacked and murdered in front of her apartment building At least 38 neighbors heard her cries for help but no one intervened and police were not called until the victim died. Do you think this was a case of "big city" apathy? Why? Why not?

apply cognitive dissonance theory to the participants in the boring task study who lied for $1

Why did they rate the task as enjoyable? Their attitude was that the tasks were incredibly boring, but this was inconsistent with their behavior—lying about the tasks for only $1 This inconsistency would cause them to have cognitive dissonance To reduce this dissonance, the participants changed their attitude to be that the tasks were fairly enjoyable, relieving the inconsistency and resulting dissonance

Self-perception theory

explains situations in which our attitudes are not well-defined. We infer our attitudes from our behavior

An external attribution

involves explaining behavior in terms of a person's circumstances/situation

An internal attribution

involves explaining behavior in terms of a person's disposition/personal characteristics

Cognitive dissonance theory

is a better explanation for behavior that contradicts well-established attitudes. Such behavior creates mental discomfort, and we change our attitudes to reduce it