Chapter 18 Social Behavior

Quiz1. Social roles are the expected behavior patterns associated

with particular social positions (student, daughter, worker, etc)

2. Fundamental Attribution Error is the tendency to attribute the behavior of others to internal causes (personality, likes, etc)

3. A Secure attachment base is when someone avoids people they care about

4. ‘Groupthink’ is a compulsion by members to maintain their independence, even at the detriment of group consensus

5. Social influence is when we act differently around people we don’t know well, such as police officers or distant neighbors

What is Social Psychology? Some Definitions

• Social Psychology: Scientific study of how individuals behave, think, and feel in social situations; how people act in the presence (actual or implied) of others

• Culture: Ongoing pattern of life that is passed from one generation to another

Social Roles• Social Role: Patterns of behavior expected of

people in various social positions (e.g. daughter, mother, teacher, President

• Ascribed Role: Assigned to a person or not under personal control– Achieved Role: Attained voluntarily by

special effort: Teacher, mayor, President• Role Conflict: When two or more roles make

conflicting demands on behavior• What are some examples of role conflicts?• How could this look for recent immigrants?

Groups

• Group Structure: Network of roles, communication, pathways, and power in a group

• Group Cohesiveness: Degree of attraction among group members or their commitment to remaining in the group– Cohesive groups work better together

• Status: Level of social power and importance• Norm: Accepted, but usually unspoken,

standard of appropriate behavior

Fig. 18-2, p. 609

Typical spatial zones (in feet) for face-to-face interactions in North America. Often, we must stand within intimate distance of others in crowds, buses, subways, elevators, and other public places. At such times, privacy is maintained by avoiding eye contact, by standing shoulder to shoulder or back to back, and by

positioning a purse, bag, package, or coat as a barrier to spatial intrusions.

Write down the name of two people you didn’t know when class began, but you know now. Then swap papers with someone

Social Perception

• Attribution: Making inferences about the causes of one’s own behavior and others’ behavior– Consistency: Person’s behavior changes

very little in many different circumstances– Distinctiveness: Noticing that a behavior

only occurs under certain circumstances

More Attribution Concepts

• Fundamental Attribution Error: Tendency to attribute behavior of others to internal causes (personality, likes, and so on). We believe this even if they really have external causes!

• Actor-Observer Bias: Tendency to attribute behavior of others to internal causes, while attributing the behavior of ourselves to external causes (situations and circumstances)

Affiliation• Need to Affiliate: Desire to associate with

other people; appears to be a basic human trait

• Social Comparison: Making judgments about ourselves by comparing ourselves to others. E.g. comparing our feelings and abilities to those of other people

• Write down whether you are below average, average, or above average in the following ways: physical attractiveness, friendliness, creativity, athleticism, sense of humor, height, weight.

More on Affiliation

• Downward Comparison: Comparing yourself with someone who ranks lower than you on some area (e.g. money, attractiveness)

• Upward Comparison: Comparing ourselves to someone who ranks higher than we do on some area; may be used for self-improvement (something we strive for)

Interpersonal Attraction

• Social attraction to another person• Physical Proximity: Physical nearness to

another person in terms of housing, school, work, and so on

• Physical Attractiveness: Person’s degree of physical beauty as defined by his or her culture

• Halo Effect: Tendency to generalize a favorable impression to unrelated personal characteristics

Interpersonal Attraction Continued

• Similarity: Extent to which two people are alike in terms of age, education, attitudes, and so on– Similar people are attracted to each other

• Homogamy: Tendency to marry someone who is like us in almost every way

• Groups by gender: in same sex group, come up with a list of 10 things you find attractive in the opposite sex

Self-Disclosure

• Process of revealing private thoughts, attitudes, feelings and one’s history to others– Should be used cautiously and sparingly

when you are the therapist performing therapy

– May lead to countertransference in therapy– In pairs, the younger person will decide

level of self disclosure, the older person has to respond at the same level of self-disclosure

Attachment

• Secure Attachment: A stable and positive emotional bond

• Avoidant Attachment: Fear of intimacy and a tendency to resist commitment to others

• Ambivalent Attachment: Mixed emotions about relationships; conflicting feelings of affection, anger and emotional turmoil

Social Influence• Changes in a person’s behavior induced by

the presence or actions of another person – Someone else influences your decision:

husband, wife, mother, peer, etc.– Peer pressure: Rudy is swayed by Fanny

to go see “MI3” when he really wanted to see “X-Men 3”

– Social reinforcement:– Turn to the person closest to you and give

them two compliments, the person is only allowed to say thank you

– How does social reinforcement work?

Conformity

• Bringing one’s behavior into agreement with norms or the behavior of others

Solomon Asch’s Experiment

• You must select (from a group of three) the line that most closely matches the standard line. All lines are shown to a group of six people (including you)– Other five were accomplices and at times

all would select the wrong line– In 33% of the trials, the real subject

conformed to group pressure even when the group’s answers were obviously incorrect!

Fig. 18-5, p. 619

Group Factors in Conformity

• Groupthink: Compulsion by decision makers to maintain each other’s approval, even at the cost of critical thinking

• Group Sanctions: Rewards and punishments administered by groups to enforce conformity among members

Power

• Social Power: Capacity to control, alter or influence the behavior of another person

• Reward Power: Rewarding a person for complying with desired behavior

• Coercive Power: Based on ability to punish a person for failure to comply

More Power Concepts

• Legitimate Power: Accepting a person as an agent of an established social order

• Referent Power: Respect for, or identification with, a person or a group

• Expert Power: Based on possession of knowledge or expertise

Obedience (Milgram)

• Conformity to the demands of an authority• Would you shock a man with a known heart

condition who is screaming and asking to be released?

• Milgram studied this; the man with a heart condition was an accomplice and the “teacher” was a real volunteer. The goal was to teach the learner word pairs.

Fig. 18-6a, p. 622

Fig. 18-6b, p. 622

Fig. 18-6c, p. 622

Milgram’s Results

• The learner screamed and provided no further answers once 300 volts (“Severe Shock”) was reached

• 65% obeyed by going all the way to 450 volts on the “shock machine” even though the learner eventually could not answer any more questions

• Group support can reduce destructive obedience

Fig. 18-7, p. 622

Fig. 18-8, p. 623

Foot-in-the-Door Effect

• A person who has agreed to a small request is more likely later to agree to a larger demand.– Once you get a foot in the door, then a sale

is almost a sure thing

Door-in-the-Face Technique

• A person who has refused a major request will be more likely later on to comply with a smaller request– After the door has been slammed in your

face (major request refused), person may be more likely to agree to a smaller request

Low-Ball Technique

• Commitment is gained first to reasonable or desirable terms, which are then made less reasonable or desirable– Henry accepts the price he states for a

new car. Then, later, Tillie the saleswoman tells Henry “How about adding all these options?”, thus increasing the price

Make up quizzes

• For each quiz you missed, write one handwritten page explaining why you weren’t in class. It needs to be based on something from the textbook. It does not have to be true.

• For example: I had these overwhelming feelings that something bad would happen on the day of the quiz, I could have been diagnosed with ‘agoraphobia’ that day