Social Psychology

How we think about each other - social cognition

How we influence each other - social influence
How we relate to each other - social behavior

The scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another
Primacy Effect - first impressions of someone (10 seconds make an impression)
Central Route to Persuasion - People care about the topic or viewpoint, more likely to persuade per viewpoint
Peripheral Route to Persuasion - People look at outside factors, the speaker's appearance & reputations, and arguments presented
Sleeper Effect - Delayed by initial effect to persuade rejected
Inoculation Effect - People hear a weak argument, then a stronger one
Mere Exposure Effect - The principle that the more often we come in contact with someone or something, the more we tend to like
that person

Role - A set of expectations about social psychology, defining how those in a position ought to behave
Cognitive Dissonance Theory - The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (Dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts
(Cognations) clash. For example, when we become aware that our attitudes and our actions don't match, we may feel more
comfortable. State of unpleasant tension.
Attitudes are feelings, often based on our beliefs, that can influence how we respond to particular objects, people, and events
"Cruel acts shape the self, so do acts of good will"
Conformity - changing ones beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, so as to become more similar to others around us who exert normative
social influence
Unamity - Degree to which everyone is in agreement
Size of the majority - How many people pressure conformity
Social Impact Theory
Strength of majority - How much influence they have, think power of control.
Immediacy - Ratio of power between majority and minority at the moment you have to conform.
Number of people present - The more in the majority and less in. minority, the more likely conformity behaviors take place.
Why conform?
Informational Influence - When deciding what to do, one looks to the majority
Normative Influence - I know exactly what to do & I follow it
Autokinetic Effect Study - 1935 - Sherif
3 participants per group, track distance of light in a dark room.
Social Pressure - Ques used to change people and their ability to conform "peer pressure"
A) Private Acceptance - Individuals trying to force change and we accept the change. Embracing change.
B) Forced Compliance - Feeling manipulated or trapped by change, changing but not agreeing with that change.

Solomon Asch's classic line experiment (1955)

Participants was asked "which line is equal to the standard line?
Setting set up so that confederate answered first
Confederates gave the wrong answer most of the time
More than a third of all participants gave the wrong answer also

Fear of Dissent - If you go your own way, the risk of alienating yourself.
Mindlessness - You are not engaging in or focusing on what you are doing
Non-Conformist - A person who resists changing their beliefs, attitudes, & behaviors despite social pressures to do so because they
oppose the change
Counter Conformist - Deliberately take an opposing view to the majority irrespective of what they actually believe.
If a group is non-cohesive, non-conformity is more likely to occur.
If there is a disagreement in a group, non-conformity is more likely to occur.
Stanley Milgram asked, could someone be pressured to commit an immoral act? Electric shock
Hollander's Idiosyncrasy Credits Theory - Is a status that is earned through time in a group. A building of credits to oneself to
achieve status.
Moscovici Consistent Dissent Innovation - You will always oppose the majority until everyone agrees with your thoughts. Getting
them to think why you will not conform.

 Coalition Formation - Suggest you don't challenge majority directly, instead you go after individuals one at a time.
In order to get another person to change, you'll need some kind of influence or power
French & Raven
Argued 5 bases of social power. Your most posses one to change a person and the more you possess the more people you can
change
Social Power - The ability to induce pre-meditated change in another persons attitude, beliefs, and behaviors
The 5 Bases of Power
1. Reward - The ability to give to take away rewards or reinforcers
2. Coercive - Using threats, violence to gain power
3. Legitimate - Able to command because of position, role, occupation
4. Referent - Getting people to do what you want because they live, admire, are attracted to you
5. Expert - Influences people because they believe you have some special knowledge, skill, or ability
Zimbardo's Prison Experiment
What kinds of situations increase obedience?
The person giving the orders is close at hand and perceived to be a legitimate authority
The authority figure is associated with a prestigious institution
The victim is depersonalized if in another room
No role models for disobeying the authority figure
Conformity increases when
The person is made to feel incompetent
The group has at least three people but is not a huge crowd
The rest of the group is unanimous
The person admires the status and attractiveness of the group
The person has not made a prior commitment to any response
Group members observe the person's behavior
The person's culture encourages respect for social standards
Normative Social Influence - Desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval from the group
Informational Social Influence - Other's opinions and behavior provides information about reality
Attribution Bias Theory
Attribution - An inference as to the cause of an event or outcome
Attribution Bias - Systematic error caused by self perspective beliefs
We explain others' or our own behavior by crediting the
Situation (situational attribution)
Person's Disposition (dispositional attribution)
The Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency to over estimate the influence of personality and dispositional factors while under sizing the situational factors
Overestimate the influence of personal traits (honesty, moodiness, laziness) and
Underestimate the influence of the situation
The Williams College study - Students assumed that a person's friendly behavior was a function of the person's disposition
(even when they were gilding the person was paid to act that way)
The Actor-Observer Effect - The tendency to judge the cause of one's actions differently than when someone else does the same
action.
Most commonly, this means overestimating the influence of personal traits when explaining the behavior of others, and yet,
when explaining our own behavior, particularly our failures and problematic actions, to overestimate the influence of the
situation
Adults tend to excuse themselves more
The self serving bias is the tendency to take credit for our success by attributing them to traits (personality, skills, intelligence) and
distance ourselves from our failures by attributing them to the situation
Over Attention - fully aware of the situational constraints on a person, but still go after their character
Defensive attribution - our tendency to blame individuals for actions that yield negative outcomes by assigning responsibility for
that outcome to the individual

 "It's never my fault, it's all your fault"

Just World Hypothesis: Individuals get what they deserve

Illusion of Control: Thinking you control something that you don't
Mastery Orientation: Belief that you have full control of the situation
Actor/Observer Conflict: Depending on whether you are the actor/observer, there will be a tendency to make different attributions

Central Route (Systematic) Persuasion

A change in attitude brought about by an appeal to reason and logic
Strong evidence and arguments are presented
Works when people are analytical or involved in the issue
Peripheral Route (Heuristic) Persuasion
A change in attitude brought about by appeals to habit and emotion
Incidental cues, such as celebrity endorsement are used
Used when issues don't engage systematic thinking
People rely in shortcuts (heuristics) to make a decision
The Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon - First ask for something small, later make a larger request. Small requests pave the way for
compliance with the larger request
Door-in-the-Face Phenomenon - Asking for a large request up front, but the after you rejection you ask for a small request
Contrast Effect - The opposite is compared when something is presented
Lowballing - Try to get a person to agree to something, but actually need more from them because they have agreed.
And that's not all - Instead of presenting entire deal, you actually present things in broken up parts.
Social Facilitation - the tendency for weakness or strengths in performances to be magnified when people are watching
Performer is physiologically aroused in front of an audience
Performer's most likely response is strengthened
Better performance if performer is skilled or task is easy, and especially in front of friendly audience (home-field advantage)
Proper performance if performer is poor or task is hard
Social Loafing - Less effort exerted by individual in a group. Especially when individual contributions are hard to separate from the
whole
People in a group feel less accountable for their actions
People in a group worry less about what others think
People in a group may view their contributions as dispensable

Coaction - Occurs when group engages in same activity as individual

Passive Audience - An individual engages in activities with audience watching
Zajone Theory - When activity is done with others around us we are going to have physiological aroused
Contrells Evaluation Apprehension Theory - The mere presence of others is not enough to cause arousal. The others have to be
evaluating you
Sander's Conflict & Distraction Theory - Argued that problem is not arousal, but rather attention of the individual
Ringleman Effect - The tendency for individuals to be less productive in a group or team setting, as the size of the group increases
Deindividuation - Happens in a group or crowd, dismissed self-consciousness, loss of normal restrains, lowers awareness of
individual values
More likely to occur when there is anonymity
Group Polarization - Enhancement of a group's prevailing tendencies
Groupthink results when group members try to maintain harmony in a decision-making group and ignore conflicting evidence of
opinions
Suggestibility
Chameleon Effect - we unconsciously mimic others' expression, postures, and tines, especially when we like them
Stereotypes
Can be inaccurate
Can be overused
Can be self-perpetuating

 Can be automatic
Perceptual Confirmation
Tendency for people to perceive what they expect to perceive
Stereotypes bias our perception of individuals
Stereotypes lead us to believe those individuals confirm the stereotype when they have not
Stereotype Threat - The fear of confirming an observer's stereotype
Stereotype threat, ironically can cause a person to behave in ways that confirm the stereotype
Prejudice - Unjustifiable and usually negative attitude towards a group
Involves stereotyped beliefs
Often involves negative emotions - hostility envy or fear
Includes predisposition towards discriminatory action
In-Group - "US" the group with whom we share a common identify
In-Group bias - the tendency the tendency to favor our own group
Out-Group - "Them" those perceived as different from our in-group
Aggression - physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy
Genetic influences
Neutral influences may facilitate aggression
Biochemical influences, such as hormones, neurotransmitters (serotonin)
Substances such as alcohol may play a role
Frustration (Aggression Principle) - the blocking of some goal - generate aggression
Aggression
Can be responsive to an unpleasant state
Aversive stimuli such as pain, heat, insults, loud noises, and bad smells can evoke hostility and aggression
Muszafer Sherif and and the Robber's Cave experiment
Two groups of 12 year old boys
Groups were separated and competed
Rivalries and hostilities formed
Sherif then gave both groups a shared goal
By the end, conflict and hostility were reduced

Prosocial/helping behavior - When an action is done to benefit the interest of another at the expense of the helper
Altruistic - behavior that benefits others without benefiting oneself. Unselfish regard for welfare of others
Egoistic - helping behavior that is performed with some type of expectation or reward
Bystander effect - the tendency for people to be less helpful as the number of people increases

Why do people help?

1. Diffusion of Responsibility - The more people present, the less responsible an individual will feel
2. Information Influence - We tend to look for cues as to what we should be doing
3. Evaluation apprehensive - Fear or anxiety that we will do something wrong or embarrassing around others watching
4. Confusion of Responsibility - Fear of being sucked into a situation
5. Ambiguity - The more unsure a helping behavior/situation is, the less likely help is going to occur
Good Samaritan Laws - Providing assistance in good will and something bad happens, you are protected by laws.
Personal factors as to why people do not help or do help
Personal characteristics of the victim - more attractive people are likely to receive help. Disabled people are less likely to
recover help
The more similar the victim is to the helper, the more likely they are to receive help
Men are more likely to engage in helping behaviors
Location - the situation you are in has an effect, people in rural areas are more likely to extend help
Daniel in Distress - Masculine men help very feminine woman in distress
Person vs. The Situation
Individual who score high in areas of Empathy, Mortality, Self-confidence, & Risktaking are more likely to help than those who
score low

 Emotion Based Theory - Our emotional state has an effect on out helping behavior
Mood Based Theory - "Feel good, do good"... We are helpful purely in the moment
Motivation - a need or desire that energizes or motivates behavior.
Biological
Cognitive
Social
Emotional
Intrinsic Motivation - doing it because you want to
Extrinsic Motivation - doing it with getting something at the end in mind
Factors Contributing to Attraction
Proximity - the mere exposure effect - repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases our liking for them, or we like people we
see often
Approach motivation - a motivation to experience a positive outcome
Avoidance motivation - a motivation not to experience a negative outcome
Instinct - a complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned
Instinct theory - certain human behaviors are innate and due to evolutionary programming
Homeostasis - maintained behavior
Incentives - positive or negative environment
Stimulus that motivates behavior
Attraction - a feeling and or attitude of like toward another person
Surface level factors - things that began cycle of attraction
1. Proximity - mere exposure effect
2. Physical / attractiveness - liking the booty
3. Smell - attraction to smell good things
Mid-level factor - things that cause us to continue to find them hot
1. Desired personality - all have things that we want others to possess
2. Similarity - seek people like us
3. Balance - emotional balance, everything feels right
In-depth factors - deeper feelings of connectedness
1. Mutual feelings - attraction must be mutual
2. Social reward - receiving rewards from others
Reciprocity principle - like each other
Economic integration of attraction theory - boils down to reward system
Reward system - I You because you reward me
Caring - desired to help other person
Intimacy - high desire to share experiences along with high levels of trust
Styles of Love
Eros - romantic love (sex and romance)
Ludos - game playing love (sex and done)
Mania - emotionally charged love (jealous, demanding)
Storge - Best friend love (long term commitment)
Agape - sacrificial love (always live even when cheated on)
Pragma - benefit love (I love you because of benefits)
Passionate love - lot of emotion, attraction, and sex (eros, ludos, and mania)
Companionate love - more of friendship. (storge, agape, pragma)
Romeo & Juliet - when relationship is told to be bad, high level of stress/sex. Relationship stronger
Self disclosure - process of revealing personal information about oneself to another
1. Orientation - small talk
2. Exploratory affective - talk of personal info
3. Affective - beginning of love, talk about nearly everything

4. Stable exchange - only occurs in companionate. Everything is shared with a person

Dissolution - end of relationship
1. Death
2. Emotionally based conflict
3. Loss of satisfaction
4. Alternative relationship
5. Family conflict

Motivated behaviors are activated by a complex interaction of biological, social, and psychological factors

Energy homeostasis - long-term matching of food intake to energy expenditure

Energy balance - calories consumed match calories expended
Baseline metabolic rate (BMR) - at rest, the rate at which a body uses energy for vital functions
Positive energy balance - calorie intake exceeds expenditure (weight gain)
Negative energy balance - calorie intake falls short (weight loss)

Glucose - form of sugar that circulates in blood and provides a major source of energy
Orexigenic - signals tell the brain to switch hunger off
Ghrelin - manufactured by the stomach, increased levels of food
Leptin - produced by fat cells, increased levels in brain to be hungry
See point - body is predisposed to maintain itself at a particular stable weight - the set point of the body's weight thermostat
Basal metabolism rate (BMR) - the body's resting rate of energy expenditure
Arousal theory - view that people are motivated to maintain a level of arousal that is optimal - neither too high or too low
Low arousal boredom motivation for stimulation
High arousal overstimulation motivation for calm
Hierarchy of needs - Maslow's pyramid of human needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then
psychological needs become active

Self-determination theory (SDT) - optimal human functioning only if psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and
relatedness are satisfied
Three need that must be satisfied for psychological growth and success
Competence motivation - striving to be capable and exercising control
Achievement motivation - stifling to excel and out perform others
Gender and Sexuality
Female Sexual Responses: three basic variations.
Typical Male Response
Orgasm
Plateau
Excitement

 Three motivators for sex.

A. Biological
B. Psychological
C. Social-cultural Influences
Possible causes of same-sex sexual orientation
1. Differences in brain anatomy
2. Prenatal hormonal influences
3. Genetic influences
Spatial Abilities and Sexual Orientation
Two central route causes
A. Gender Identity Disorder (GID) - Sexual disfunctioning
B. Paraphilias - Kinky sex, sex toys
General Identity Disorder
Sexual Desire - Has no interest in sexual activity. Hypo active
Sexual Aversion Disorder - Dislike of sex because of bad past experience
Sexual Arousal Disorder - Body doesn't respond to sex
Female SAD, male Erectile Disorder (ED), lack of Libido (sexual arousal)
Orgasmic Disorders - Female and male arousal disorder and premature ejaculation
Not achieving orgasm
Sexual Pain Disorder - involves pain and Dyspareunia
Vaginismus - a contraction of the wall of the vagina, causes painful intercourse
Paraphilias - A misdirection of sexual attitudes, mostly diagnosed in males. Involving intense fantasies or sexual behavior
Exhibitionism - Mostly males, who expose themselves to someone, is not a rapist by nature, but masturbates to reaction of the
victim
Fetishism - Non-living object of attraction
Frotteurism - Rubbing up against someone unexpectedly for sexual purposes
Pedophilia - Sexual contact/desire for younger people by older people, this is pre-puberty attraction. Ages under puberty, pre-teen
Sexual Sadism - Hurting someone else sexually, pain but not mutilation
Sexual Masochism - Wanting to be hurt by someone sexually, again pain not mutilation or killing someone
Transvestic Fetishism - Heterosexual males who get sexual stimulation by wearing woman's clothes (cross-dressing)
Voyeurism - The desire to watch other undressing or having sex (peeping tom)
Orgy - Sexual encounter with multiple partners engaging in sexual acts
Heterosexual - Desire to have sex with opposite sex partners
Homosexual - Desire to have sex with same sex partners
Transsexual - Someone who believes that they are the other sex, you believe you should have been the other sex, but are physically
normal.
Bi-Sexual - Desire to have sex with both male and female partners
Gender - Male or Female anatomy
Transgendered - Having both male and female anatomy
Brian based functions
1. General Medical Condition - Conflicting anatomy
2. Substance Abuse - Alcohol & Illicit drug use
3. Delerium - Clouded consciousness, confused