UNIT IV
CHAPTER 16
Lecture 25: Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Text Assignment: Chapter 16 pp. 733-754
Social Cognition and Social Behavior
I. Attitude: an overall evaluation about some aspect of the world – people, issues, or
objects. Three components of attitudes:
1. Affective: your feelings about the object or issue
2. Behavioral: your predisposition to act in a particular way (not your actual behavior but how you are inclined to act
3. Cognitive: what you believe or know about the object or issue
II. Attitudes and Cognitions
1. Attitudes play and important role in how we process information and remember events
2. It is not the event itself but how we perceive it that determines whether it induces stress
III. Attitudes and Predicting Behavior. Attitudes are more likely to affect behavior when the attitudes are:
1. Strong
2. Relatively stable
3. Directly relevant to the behavior
4. Important
5. Easily assessed from memory
IV. Behavior can affect Attitudes: repeatedly asserting an attitude can make the attitude
more extreme
V. Cognitive Dissonance: An uncomfortable state that arises when there is a discrepancy
between attitude and behavior or between two attitudes
1. The inconsistency produces a state of discomfort leading to heightened arousal
2. In general, research indicates that the less reason there is to engage in a behavior that is counter to our attitudes, the stronger the dissonance
3. Because cognitive dissonance produces an uncomfortable state, we try strategies to reduce it. One strategy is to trivialize the inconsistency as being unimportant
VI. Attitude Change and Persuasion
1. Persuasion: basically efforts to change attitudes
2. Elaboration Likelihood Model of attitude Change: proposes that there are two avenues of change:
(1) Central route: results when you play close attention to the content of the argument – usually a reasoned approach where you weigh the pros and cons based on the evidence
(2) Peripheral Route: attempts to sway us based on the content of the argument, but on the attractiveness and/or expertise of the source
(3) The mere exposure effect: changes resulting simply from exposure through the peripheral route
VII. Social Cognitive Neuroscience: attempts to understand social cognition not only by
specifying the cognitive mechanisms, but by discovering how those mechanisms involve the brain
VIII. Stereotypes: a belied or set of beliefs about people in a particular social category –
the category can be defined by race, sex, social class, religion or numerous other possible characteristics
1. Generally, we prefer to read or seek information which is consistent with our stereotypes and we process such information more quickly
2. If a conflict between a stereotype and actual behavior of someone from the stereotyped group, rather than change the stereotype, we may create a new subtype
3. In general, it is very difficult to change a stereotype
IX. Prejudice: an attitude, generally negative, toward members of a group – it includes
beliefs and expectations about the group but also an emotional component
1. The ingroup: people usually think of their own group more favorably
2. The outgroup: is usually disliked and assumed to possess more undesirable traits
3. Discrimination: suffering the effects of prejudiced behavior
4. Realistic Conflict Theory: the belief that prejudice arises as groups compete for resources such as good housing, jobs, and schools
5. Prejudice often results in an “us” versus “them” distinction which draws on stereotypes support prejudice and discrimination
6. We may behave in ways that will trigger behavior which supports our stereotypes
X. Changing Prejudice
1. Contact Hypothesis: increased contact between groups will decrease prejudice
2. Recategorization: shifting the categories of “us” and “them” so that the two groups are no longer distinct entities. Sometimes happens when persons are promoted to management
Lecture 26: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Text Assignment: Chapter 16 pp 499-520
XI. Attributions: our explanations for the causes of events or behaviors
1. Internal Attributions: explaining a person’s behavior in terms of that persons beliefs, goals or other characteristics
2. External Attributions: explaining a persons behavior as a function of external situations
XII. Attribution Biases: cognitive shortcuts for determining attributions- usually outside
our awareness
1. Fundamental Attribution Error: The strong tendency to interpret other people’s behavior as caused by internal causes rther than external ones
2. Self-Serving Bias: the inclination to attribute your own failures to external causd4es but the failure of others to internal causes
3. Belief in a Just World: a tendency to assume that cultures, countries, or people “get what they deserve” – a naďve view of “justice”
I. Relationships and Interpersonal Attraction
1. First impressions and repeated contacts play an initial role in attraction
2. Most research indicates that opposites do not attract
3. Physical attraction: in our culture, persons considered physically attractive tend to be perceived by others as smarter and happier. Other cultures also value physical attractiveness, but may associate different qualities with attractiveness such as concern for others and integrity in the Korean culture
II. What are the Physical Features that are considered Attractive?
1. Research on facial features indicates that women views a man as more attractive if he has: large eyes, a large chin, prominent cheekbones, and a big smile
2. Men view a woman as more attractive if she has: a small nose, prominent cheekbones, and a big smile
3. Findings regarding what facial features are perceived as attractive for men and women are consistent across cultures
4. Facial photographs of Hispanic, African American, White, and Asian women were rated similarly by African Americans, Whites, Asians, and Hispanic men
5. There is some indication that features which are close to the “average” features in a particular culture are rated as more attractive
6. Generally, people prefer faces that are symmetrical
7. People tend to prefer men’s and women’s faces that are “feminized”
III. Love
1. Passionate Love: the intense, often sudden feeling of being “in love” including sexual attraction. A desire for mutual love and physical closeness, arousal, and a fear that the relationship will end
2. Compassionate Love: characterized by a very close friendship, mutual caring, liking, respect, and attraction
IV. Robert Sternberg’s Triangular Model of Love
1. The three dimensions of the Triangular Model of Love are:
(1) Passion – including sexual desire
(2) Intimacy - emotional closeness and sharing
(3) Commitment – the conscious decision to be in the relationship
2. Most types of love relationships involve two of the three components
3. Consummate Love: Sternberg maintains that only Consummate Love involves all three of the above components
V. Attachments
1. Attachment style with a partner stems from the interaction pattern developed between parent and child
2. Secure Attachments: adults who seek closeness and interdependence in relationships and are not worried about the possibility of the loss of the relationship (59% of Americans)
3. Avoidant Style: persons structure their daily lives so as to avoid closeness (25% of Americans)
4. Anxious-ambivalent Style: those who want but simultaneously fear a relationship (11 % of Americans)
5. The Anxious-ambivalent style is more common in Japan and Israel
6. The Avoidant Style is more common in Germany
VI. Mating Preferences
1. Buss (1989) asked people in37 countries to rank order how important they
believed 18 different characteristics are in ideal mates. Findings were:
(1) Kindness and intelligence are the most important
(2) Emotional stability, dependability, and a good disposition are important
(3) Respondents also valued mutual attraction and love
(4) A controversial finding also supported by others (Cramer et al, 1996; Li et al, 2002) was that men focus on physical attractiveness whereas women focus on wealth and power
2. Other investigators (Speed and Gangestad, 1997) have reported findings somewhat different. Romantically popular men were seen by their peers as confident, outgoing, and “trend setting”, but were not seen as likely to succeed financially or as being the best leaders (a finding that tends to contradict the wealth and power emphasis that was found to be valued by women in Buss’s study)
3. Other research indicates that as women achieve economic power, their preference in mates becomes more similar to men’s.
VII. Social Influence and Conformity
1. Conformity: changing our beliefs or behavior to conform to social norms because of pressure from others
2. Two types of social influence that can lead to conformity:
(1) Informational Social Influence: occurs when we conform to other’s views or behavior because we want to be right – most likely in ambiguous situations where others are perceived as experts
(2) Normative Social Influence: we conform because we want to be liked or have others think well of us – Example: Asch’s research (1951; 1955involving a research participant identifying which of three lines matches the length of a target line after others in a group (confederates) gave a wrong answer. Participants verbally agreed with wrong answer of the confederates 76% of the time, but when asked to write the answer, they gave the correct answer 98% of the time.
VIII. Factors Affecting Conformity
1. Social Support: if another member in a group openly disagrees with the group consensus, conformity by a participant is less likely
2. Group Cohesiveness: the more cohesive the group (the attraction and commitment members have), the more likely conformity will occur
3. Conformity studies over the years suggest less conformity than Asch found in the 1950’s
IX. Compliance: a change in behavior brought about through a direct request
rather than by social norms.
1. Robert Cialdini’s (1994) six principles of compliance techniques as extracted from the views of compliance specialists in jobs in advertising, fundraising, and door-to-door sales:
(1) Friendship/liking: more likely to comply with a friend’s request than a strangers
(2) Commitment/consistency: more likely to comply if you have made a previous commitment
(3) Scarcity: more likely to comply with limited short term rather than open-ended opportunities
(4) Reciprocity: more likely to comply if request comes from someone who has done you a favor
(5) Social Validation: more likely to comply if others similar to you would comply
(6) Authority: compliance more likely to occur with a person perceived as an authority
X. Techniques of Compliance
1. Foot-in-the-door technique: works often. First you make an insignificant request. If there is compliance, you follow up with a larger request
2. Lowball Technique: you first get someone to agree, then you increase the cost of the agreement
3. Door-in-the-face technique: you begin by making a very large request. When it is denied, you make the smaller request which you actually wanted
XI. Obedience: rather than respond to a request (as in compliance), obedience
involves compliance with an order
1. Milgram’s (1963) study in which participants were ordered to inflict pain on a confederate
2. Participants were paired with a 47-year-old confederate and were told that as part of a learning experiment they would control the level of electrical shock necessary to induce learning. Participants were given a 45 volt shock to convince them that the apparatus was real and would deliver shocks (it did not
3. When the confederate cried out in pain, the experiments ordered the participants to continue
4. A group of psychiatrists queried by Milgram predicted that only a “pathological fringe” – at most 2% of the population would obey by giving the highest level of shock when ordered by the experimenter to do so
5. Findings were that 65% of the participants went to the highest level of shock when ordered to do so
6. The original research was with men, but later Milgram obtained similar findings for women and for people from different countries (Jordan, Germany, and Australia) and also for children
XII. Factors Which May Make Group Decisions “Bad ones”
1. Group Polarization: the tendency of group members to take a more extreme position in the direction of their initial decision following discussion
2. Group-Think: the tendency of people who try to solve problems together to accept one another’s information and ideas without a critical analysis
3. Cohesive groups: cohesive groups make poorer decisions if the cohesiveness grew out of interpersonal attraction – they have positive feelings toward group members and want to be cooperative.
XIII. Social Loafing: when the responsibility is spread out, some members may be likely
to let other members work harder
XIV. Social Facilitation: when performance increases as a result of just being in the
presence of other people
XV. Helping Behavior
1. Altruism: the motivation to increase the welfare of another person – usually
without tangible personable gain as a result
2. Prosocial Behavior: includes sharing, cooperating, comforting. We are more likely to help persons under the following conditions:
(1) if people are similar to ourselves
(2) if they are friends or people we like
(3) if we believe that they are not responsible for their misfortune or predicaments
XVI. Bystander Intervention
1. The case of Catherine Genovese: “Kitty”, as she was known by neighbors, was brutally stabbed to death for 35 minutes while viewed by at least 35 witnesses in Queens New York. No one helped
2. The Bystander Effect: It was hypothesized that if only a few people witnessed the above events, they would have been more likely to help. It was found that if there were only two persons listening for pleas for help by a confederate, they were more likely to help than if there were three persons listening to pleas for help over a speaker.
3. Diffusion of Responsibility: the more bystanders there are the less each feels the responsibility to help
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NOTE: FINAL EXAM IS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2009
AT 10:00 a.m. to 11:50 a.m.
THE FINAL WILL NOT BE COMPREHENSIVE
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