4 th edition copyright 2004 - prentice hall15-1 social psychology: the individual in society chapter...

Copyright 2004 - Prentice Hall 15-1

4th Edition

Social Psychology: The Individual in

Society

Chapter 15


Social Psychology and Culture• Social psychology examines the causes, types,

and consequences of human interaction.• Cultural differences, such as individualism (in

which the individual's goals are most important) versus collectivism (in which group goals are most important), can influence the results of social psychological research.

• Researchers need to avoid ethnocentrism (viewing other cultures as inferior extensions of their own).


How We View Others

• Impression formation requires an actor and a perceiver.

• The views of the perceiver, as well as the appearance and behaviors of the actor, influence the impression of the actor that is formed by the perceiver.


How We View Others

• Stereotypes are negative or positive sets of beliefs about members of particular groups.

• Stereotypes reduce the amount of information that must be processed.

• Stereotypes are very resistant to change because we tend selectively to notice behaviors that confirm our stereotypes.


How We View Others

• Our treatment of other people is prompted by our stereotypes

• Prompting often brings forth the very behaviors that we associate with our stereotypes of those people.

• Some self-disclosure fosters a positive impression, but excessive self-disclosure early in a relationship may result in a negative first impression.


How We View Others

• The process of attribution involves deciding why certain events occurred and why certain people behaved as they did.

• With internal attributions, behavior is seen as being caused by factors that reside within a person.

• With external attributions, the causes of behavior are viewed as residing outside an individual.


How We View Others

• We are more confident in our attributions when behaviors are consistent and have also been witnessed by others.

• The fundamental attribution error occurs when internal factors are emphasized to the exclusion of external or situational factors.


How We View Others

• Perceivers' attributions may be biased toward internal attributions.

• Actors are biased toward external attributions, especially when failure is involved.


How We View Others• Attitudes are evaluative judgments (negative,

positive, or neutral) that are formed about people, places, and things.

• Affect, cognition, and behavior are the three components of an attitude.

• Discrimination consists of behaviors directed at members of a particular group that affect them adversely.

• Attitudes can serve ego-defensive, adjustment, and knowledge functions.


How We View Others

• Attitudes can be measured by Likert scales and evaluation of observed behaviors.


Interpersonal Relationships

• Attraction is the extent to which we like or dislike other people.

• Attraction is determined by proximity, affect and emotions, reinforcement and similarity.



• Friendship is a form of interpersonal attraction that involves a set of unwritten rules.

• Passionate love is characterized by strong emotional reactions, sexual desire, and fantasies.

• Companionate love is characterized by a long-term relationship and commitment.

• Several other types of love have been proposed. • Sex roles can influence the love relationship.



• Interdependence theory takes into account the costs and rewards in a relationship.

• Each person develops a comparison level (CL), or expected outcome, for the relationship.

• Dissatisfaction occurs when the outcomes of the relationship fall below the CL

• People leave a relationship when the outcomes fall below their CLs for other relationships.



• Prosocial behavior benefits society or helps others.

• Altruism occurs when a person helps others with no thought of reward.

• Because it is difficult to prove that no reward is present when a person behaves altruistically, the genuineness of this behavior has been questioned.


Interpersonal Relationships• The bystander effect

refers to the fact that people are less likely to provide assistance in an emergency when others are present than when they are alone.

• The bystander effect is attributable to potential embarrassment, fear of failure, and diffusion of responsibility.



• Aggression is any behavior that is performed with the intent of doing harm.

• Hostile aggression occurs when the goal is specifically to harm another individual.

• Instrumental aggression occurs when someone hurts another person in the pursuit of another goal-for example, during a robbery.

• Biological views stress the inherited nature of aggressive behaviors.



• The frustration-aggression hypothesis predicts that frustration, or being blocked from attaining a goal, results in aggression.

• In addition to frustration, the presence of anger and certain cues may be necessary for aggression to occur.



• Physical and verbal attacks, as well as adverse environmental conditions, may also elicit aggressive behavior.

• A high level of general arousal can facilitate aggressive responding.

• Current statistics underestimate the prevalence of sexual aggression directed toward women.

• Viewing of pornography is positively related to sexual aggression.



• Many incidents of rape can be classified as date or acquaintance rape.

• Date rape appears to result from misperceptions, especially on the part of men, about the acceptability of sexual relations in certain situations.


Social Influences on Behavior

• The use of social influence to cause other people to change their attitudes and behaviors defines persuasion.

• The expertise, attractiveness, and trustworthiness of the source of a message are important determinants of persuasion.



• The most persuasive messages are those that;– attract attention, – draw conclusions (If the audience is passively

involved), – differ only moderately from the attitudes of the

audience, – are the last message heard (if action is

required immediately), – are presented on a one-to-one basis.



• Naive audiences that are unaware of the intent of persuasive messages are more likely to be influenced by these messages.

• If the audience has previously been exposed to a mild form of the persuasive message, persuasion will be more difficult.



• Obedience is the initiating or changing of behavior in response to a direct command.

• In cases in which obedience will result in harm to another person, obedience increases with proximity to the source of the commands but decreases with proximity to the victim.



• If the source of the commands takes responsibility for any harm resulting from obedience to those commands, the likelihood of obedience is high.



• Conformity results from indirect pressure on an individual to change his or her behaviors and thoughts.

• The authority behind these pressures is less obvious than in cases of obedience.



• Selecting the matching line seems simple!

• However, one-third of Asch’s participants chose incorrectly to conform with the group.



• Compliance refers to behavior that is initiated or changed as a result of a request.

• The compliance technique known as reciprocity involves doing something for someone else to make that person feel obligated to do something in return.


The Individual and The Social Group• Prejudice is judging others solely on the basis of

their group membership.• Stereotypes about the members of certain groups

are an integral part of prejudice.• Prejudice may be reduced through contact among

members of different groups. • Such contact is most effective where status is

equal and common goals are being pursued• Discrimination consists of behaviors directed at

members of a particular group that affect them adversely.

4 th edition copyright 2004 - prentice hall15-1 social psychology: the individual in society chapter...

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