Social Psychology CH 13 Learning Goal One: Describe how people think about the social - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Social Psychology CH 13

Learning Goal One: Describe how people think about the social world.Slide2

Experiencing Psychology: Are 180,000 Heads Better Than One?

The

chapter begins by discussing how a college student, Tiffany

Philippou

, used a technique called

crowdsourcing

and generated a wealth of information about traveling to London.

Whether

interacting face to face or online, solving problems and forming bonds is in essence social psychology

.

Brainstorming by a group of people on

facebook

caused

Philippou

to gain information and problem-solve about a place she never been to.Slide3

Social Psychology

Social psychology

scientifically studies how we

think about

,

influence, and relate to one another.

Attitude

Attraction

Aggression

Group BehaviorSlide4

SOCIAL COGNITION

Social Psychology

is the study of how people think about, influence, and relate to other people.

Social

Cognition is an area of psychology that examines how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information.The most important principles are how individuals perceive others, how they come to understand the behavior of others, and how their attitudes relate to their behavior and that of others.Slide5

Person Perception

People judge others by their

looks

. The face can tell a lot about someone to a social perceiver

.

Attractive individuals are thought to be better adjusted, socially skilled, friendly, likable, extraverted, and more likely to achieve superior job performance.Research has shown that even three- to six-month-old infants preferred to look at attractive faces versus unattractive ones.Stereotypes are generalizations about a group’s characteristics, though those traits may vary from one individual to the next. Stereotypes are used to simplify the understanding of people by classifying them as belonging to one group or another.In a self-fulfilling prophecy, an individual’s expectations cause them to act in ways that serve to make those expectations come true.Slide6

First Impressions

The

primacy effect

is an individual’s tendency to attend to and

remember what they learned first. When an individual wants to impress someone else, they put their best foot forward. After getting to know the person, however, there is a lot more information available to form an opinion.Slide7

The

attribution theory

views individuals as motivated to discover the underlying causes of behavior as part

of

their effort to make sense of the behavior.The internal/external cause includes all causes internal and external to the person.The stable/unstable cause is whether an individual perceives the cause of behavior to be stable or unstable.The controllable/uncontrollable cause is whether a cause is perceived as controllable or uncontrollable. When an individual is successful at something because of some internal characteristic they feel proud, but when it is due to some external characteristic there is not the same pay-off. Slide8

Fundamental Attribution Error

We

tend to overestimate the role of dispositional factors

.

Individualistic

V. Collectivistic CulturesFalse Consensus EffectSelf-Serving Bias

How do you view your teachers’ behaviors?

Y

ou probably attribute it to their personalities rather than their profession.

But do you really know?

When you start a romance, you assume that they agree with your world views….honeymoon period.

If you win it is because you are awesome…if you lose, it must have been the coach or weather or…. Slide9

Attributional Errors and Biases

The

fundamental attribution error

occurs when the importance of internal traits is overestimated and the importance of external situations is underestimated.

Most individuals tend to explain behavior in terms of the personalities of the people involved rather than the situation.Slide10

Stereotypes, Prejudice and Discrimination

Stereotype:

Overgeneralized

idea about a group of people.

Prejudice:

Undeserved (usually negative) attitude towards a group of people (sometimes seems unconscious). Ethnocentrism is an example of a prejudice.

Discrimination:An action based on a prejudice.

unconscious levelSlide11

Heuristics in Social Information Processing

Heuristics

are cognitive shortcuts that allow individuals to make decisions rapidly.

The

false consensus effect

is an overestimation of the degree to which everyone else thinks or acts the way an individual does, and it is the result of the individual using their own outlook to predict that of others.Slide12

The Self as a Social Object

One of the most important self-related variables is

self-esteem

, which is the degree to which an individual has a positive or negative attitude about themselves.

A

positive illusion is a positive view that an individual has about themselves that is not necessarily rooted in reality. Most people tend to think of themselves as above average in a variety of positive characteristics.A self-serving bias refers to the tendency to take credit for success and to deny responsibility for failures.Self-objectification refers to the tendency for an individual to see themselves primarily as an object in the eyes of others.Slide13

Stereotype Threat

A

stereotype threat

is an individual’s fast-acting, self-fulfilling fear about being judged on the basis of a negative stereotype about his or her group.

The

stereotype threat has been shown to have a negative effect of women taking a math test compared to men that have equally strong math training. Slide14

Social Comparison

Social comparison

is the process by which individuals evaluate their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and abilities in relation to other people.

Individuals

are more likely to compare themselves to others that are similar to them

.Slide15

Attitudes

A set of

beliefs and feelings.

Advertising is ALL based on

attitude formation

.Mere Exposure EffectCentral Route v. Peripheral Route of PersuasionSlide16

Attitudes

Attitudes

are how individuals feel about things. It’s their opinions and beliefs.

1. Can Attitudes Predict Behavior?

There

are many situations where an individual’s attitudes will change their behavior. Some of these attitudes are: when the person’s attitudes are strong, when the person shows a strong awareness of his or her attitudes and rehearses and practices them, when the attitudes are relevant to the behavior, and when the person has a vested interest in the issue. Slide17

Can Behavior Predict Attitudes?

Research has shown that changes in behavior sometimes precede changes in attitudes.Slide18

Attitude and Behavior

Do attitudes tell us about someone’s behavior

?

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Leon

Festinger

People want to have consistent attitudes and behaviors….when they are not they experience dissonance (unpleasant tension).Usually they will change their attitude

to match behavior (relieves tension).

You have a belief that cheating on tests is bad.

But you cheat on a test!!!

The teacher was really bad so in that class it is OK.Slide19

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Cognitive dissonance

occurs when an individual’s psychological discomfort is caused by two inconsistent thoughts. What an individual does and what they say they believe are inconsistent. The individual can either change their attitude or change their actions.

They will try to justify their actions or change their attitude before changing their behavior.Effort justification is explained in the following way: goals that require a lot of effort are the ones that are valued the most. If a great deal of effort is put forth, yet the goal is still not reached, then cognitive dissonance occurs.ü The role of self-esteem is very strong in cognitive dissonance. There is a discrepancy between cognition about a particular behavior and the person’s self-image. Slide20

Self-Perception Theory

The

self-perception theory

stresses that individuals make inferences about their attitudes by perceiving their behavior.

Behaviors can cause attitudes.Slide21

Persuasion

Persuasion

occurs

when individuals try to change another person’s attitudes.

a. The Communicator (Source)Whether or not someone is believable depends on their expertise or credibility. b. The MediumThe medium refers to how the message is presented; meaning what type of technology is used.Slide22

The Target

Age and attitude strengths

are two characteristics of the audience that can determine whether or not a message will be effective.

Younger

people are more likely to change their attitudes than older ones.

The elaboration likelihood model explains the relationship between the rational and emotional aspects of appeals. It describes two ways to persuade: one is a central route, which engages someone thoughtfully and the other is a peripheral route, which involves non-message factors, such as the credibility and attractiveness.Slide23

The Message

(stet)Emotional appeals are very powerful. Negative appeals play at the audience’s emotions. The less informed an audience, the more likely they will respond to an emotional appeal.Slide24

Compliance/Persuasion Strategies

Foot-in-the-door phenomenon

Door-in-the-face phenomenonSlide25

Successful Persuasion

An important aspect is the order in which arguments are presented. The

foot-in-the-door

technique states that the strongest point or demand should be made in the beginning, or makes a small request at the beginning to get them to listen and comply and then asks for something more at the end. Another technique is the door-in-the-face, in which the communicator makes the important point up front (which the listeners will probably reject)and then makes a weaker point at the end.Cognitive Dissonance is also an important tool in successful persuasion.Slide26

Resisting Persuasion

Inoculation

,

giving people weaker arguments, allows people to resist persuasive techniques.

Prior

warning about persuasive appeals is also helpful in resisting them.Slide27