TAKE OUT A PIECE OF PAPER
For each of the next six slides, write down the
following for each slide:
1. Age of the person
2. Marital status
3. Job/Career
4. Level of education
5. Two adjectives that describe that person
SUBJECT # 1
SUBJECT #2
SUBJECT #3
SUBJECT #4
SUBJECT #5
SUBJECT #6
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Attitude
Attraction Aggression
Group Behavior
PERSON PERCEPTION- HOW WE FORM
IMPRESSIONS OF OTHERS

Physical Appearance
 Judgments
frequently made based on appearancemore positive qualities to those better looking
WHY?
 “Beauty
is more than just in the eye of the beholder;
people do judge & treat others with whom they
interact based on attractiveness” (Langlois et al.
2000)
 1977
Study- Impact of Beauty & It’s Self-Fulfilling
Nature
ATTRACTION
5 Factors of Attraction
1. PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS
•
•
•
Physically
attractiveness
predicts dating
frequency (they
date more).
Matching
Hypothesis
1990 Study of
Average Faces
WHICH PERSON WOULD YOU WANT TO
HAVE A LONG TERM RELATIONSHIP WITH?
WHAT IS BEAUTY?
2. BEAUTY AND CULTURE
Obesity is so revered among Mauritania's
white Moor Arab population that the young
girls are sometimes force-fed to obtain a
weight the government has described as
"life-threatening".
3. PROXIMITY

Geographic nearness
Mere exposure effect:
 Repeated exposure to
something breeds
liking.
4. RECIPROCAL LIKING


You are more
likely to like
someone who
likes you.
Why?
5. SIMILARITY



Opposites do NOT
attract.
Birds of the same
feather do flock
together.
Similarity breeds
content.
ATTRIBUTION THEORY
•
Tries to explain how
people determine the
cause of the behavior
they observe.
It is either a….
• Situational Attribution
(external)
• Dispositional Attribution
(Internal)
ATTRIBUTION THEORY
Tries to explain how
people determine the
cause of the behavior
they observe.
It is either a….
• Situational Attribution
• Dispositional Attribution
And
• Stable Attribution
• Unstable Attribution
•
ACTOR-OBSERVER BIAS- YOU VIEW YOUR OWN
BEHAVIOR DIFFERENT THAN SOMEONE ELSE

Fundamental Attribution Error

Self-Serving Bias

Individualistic V. Collectivistic Cultures
STEREOTYPES, PREJUDICE AND
DISCRIMINATION
Stereotype:
• Overgeneralized idea
about a group of
people; type of social
schema
Prejudice:
• Biased attitude;
Ethnocentrism is an
example of a
prejudice.
Discrimination:
• Biased action.
HOW DOES PREJUDICE OCCUR?
1. Thought-saving device
2. Operant Conditioning
3. Observational Learning
4. Just World
Phenomenon- world is
just and people deserve
what they get
5. In-Group versus OutGroups; In-Group Bias
A class divided
PREJUDICES CAN OFTEN LEAD TO A….
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy


A prediction that
causes itself to be
true.
Rosenthal and
Jacobson’s “Pygmalion
in the Classroom”
experiment.
COMBATING PREJUDICE
Contact Theory
• Contact between hostile groups will reduce
animosity if they are made to work towards a
superordinate goal.
ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR
•
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.
relatively stable organization of
beliefs, feelings, & behavior
tendencies
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
• People want to have
consistent attitudes and
behaviors….when they are
not they experience
dissonance (unpleasant
tension).
• Usually they will change
their attitude.
ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR


Effort Justification (type
of CD)- you give a lot but
receive little in return so
to justify why you gave
so much you rate it
more favorably
Relate to cults
ATTITUDES & PERSUASION
 Advertising
is ALL
based on attitude
formation.
 Mere
Exposure
Effect
 Elaboration
Likelihood
Model- 2 basic “routes”
to persuasion

Central Route v.
Peripheral Route
COMPLIANCE STRATEGIES


Foot-in-the-door
phenomenon
Door-in-the-face
phenomenon

Norms of reciprocity

Low Ball Technique
HOW GROUPS AFFECT OUR BEHAVIOR?
PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Kitty Genovese case in
Kew Gardens NY.
Bystander Effect:
•
Conditions in which people are
more or less likely to help one
another. In general…the more
people around…the less chance
of help….because of…
• Diffusion of Responsibility
Pluralistic Ignorance
• People decide what to do by
looking to others.
•
video
SOCIAL FACILITATION THEORY
•
If you are really good
at something….or it is
an easy task…you will
perform BETTER in
front of a group.
CONFORMITY STUDIES

Candid camera
Adjusting one’s
behavior or thinking to
coincide with a group
standard.
ASCH’S STUDY OF CONFORMITY
Asch
ASCH’S RESULTS
About 1/3 of the
participants conformed.
• 70% conformed at least
once.
To strengthen conformity:
•
•
•
•
•
The group is unanimous
The group is at least three
people.
One admires the group’s status
One had made no prior
commitment
MILGRAM’S STUDY
Of
Obedience
Milgram obedience study
Milgram
RESULTS OF THE MILGRAM STUDY
WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM MILGRAM?



Ordinary people can
do shocking things.
Ethical issues….
Would not have
received approval
from today’s IRB
(Internal Review
Board).
SOCIAL LOAFING

The tendency for
people in a group to
exert less effort when
pooling efforts toward
a common goal than if
they were individually
accountable.
GROUP POLARIZATION

Groups tend to make
more extreme
decisions than the
individual.
GROUPTHINK
The Challenger
•
•
•
Group members
suppress their
reservations about
the ideas supported
by the group.
They are more
concerned with
group harmony.
Worse in highly
cohesive groups.
DEINDIVIDUATION



People get swept up in
a group and lose
sense of self.
Feel anonymous and
aroused.
Explains rioting
behaviors.
ZIMBARDO’S STANFORD PRISON
STUDY



Illustrated the power of the
situation
College subjects were
assigned the role of a
prisoner or guard for a
make-shift prison
Subjects experienced a loss
of identity and transformed
into their roles