Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY
(7th Ed)
Chapter 18
Social Psychology
James A. McCubbin, PhD
Clemson University
Worth Publishers
Social Thinking
 Social Psychology
 scientific study of how we think about,
influence, and relate to one another
 Attribution Theory
 tendency to give a causal explanation for
someone’s behavior, often by crediting either:
 the situation or
 the person’s disposition
 The Lunch Date
Social Thinking
 Fundamental Attribution Error
 tendency for observers, when analyzing
another’s behavior, to underestimate the
impact of the situation and to overestimate
the impact of personal disposition
 Attitude
 belief and feeling that predisposes one to
respond in a particular way to objects, people
and events
Social Thinking
 How we explain someone’s behavior affects how
we react to it
Situational attribution
“Maybe that driver is ill.”
Tolerant reaction
(proceed cautiously, allow
driver a wide berth)
Dispositional attribution
“Crazy driver!”
Unfavorable reaction
(speed up and race past the
other driver, give a dirty look)
Negative behavior
Social Thinking
 Our behavior is affected by our inner attitudes
as well as by external social influences
Internal
attitudes
External
influences
Behavior
Attitudes and Actions
 Attitude
 belief and feeling that predisposes one to
respond in a particular way to objects, people
and events
 Empathy Quiz
Attitudes and Actions
 Do Attitudes Guide Actions?
 Yes, IF:
 Outside influences on are minimal
 Don’t feel pressure to act or say one way or the other
 The attitude is specifically relevant to the behavior
 Often general attitudes contradict behavior
 Attitudes about specific ACT do guide action
 We are aware of our attitudes
 Acting out of habit or others’ expectations then attitude
doesn’t come into play
 Repeatedly expressing an attitude make it come to mind
more quickly
 More likely to guide behavior
Attitudes and Actions
 Do Actions Guide Attitudes?
 TED talk
Attitudes and Actions
 Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon
 Tendency for people who have first
agreed to a small request to comply
later with a larger request
 “Thought control” programs on prisoners of war
 A trivial act makes the next act easier
 Changing Minds
Social Thinking
 Cognitive Dissonance Theory
 we act to reduce the discomfort
(dissonance) we feel when two of our
thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent
 example- when we become aware that
our attitudes and our actions clash, we
can reduce the resulting dissonance by
changing our attitudes
Social Thinking
 Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Cognitive Dissonance
Theory:
How do we deal with cognitive dissonance?
Thought 1 I smoke
Thought 2 smoking causes cancer (is bad)
Modify
Trivialize
Add
Deny
Cognitive Dissonance
Theory:
How do we deal with cognitive dissonance?
Thought 1 I smoke
Thought 2 smoking causes cancer (is bad)
Modify (approach 1): don’t smoke enough to
be worried ; I’ll quit tomorrow
Trivialize (approach 2): evidence is weak
Add (new thought; approach 3): exercise to
counter effects
Deny (no connection; approach 4): no evidence
they’re even linked
Social Thinking
 Cognitive Dissonance Theory
In order to reduce this dissonance between
belief and behavior, he has a few difference
choices:
 He can sell the car and purchase another one
that gets better gas mileage OR
 He can reduce his emphasis on environmentalresponsibility.
Social Thinking
 Cognitive Dissonance Theory
In the case of the second option, his
dissonance could be further minimized by
engaging in actions that reduce the impact
of driving a gas-guzzling vehicle, such as
utilizing public transportation more
frequently or riding his bike to work on
occasion.
Social Thinking
 Cognitive Dissonance Theory
How to Reduce Cognitive Dissonance
Three key strategies to reduce or minimize
cognitive dissonance:
Focus on more supportive beliefs that outweigh the
dissonant belief or behavior
Reduce the importance of the conflicting belief
Change the conflicting belief so that it is consistent
with other beliefs or behaviors
Cognitive Dissonance
Social Thinking
 Role
 set of expectations about a social
position
 defines how those in the position ought
to behave
 Zimbardo Prison Experiment
 Follow-up
Social Norms
 Social Norm Violations…
 http://www.radford.edu/~jaspelme/social/examples
_of_norm_violations.htm
Review
I II
Attribution Theory
Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)
Attitude (influence in action and vice
versa)
Foot in the Door Phenomenon
Cognitive Dissonance
Role
Social Thinking
 Role
 set of expectations about a social
position
 defines how those in the position ought
to behave
 Zimbardo Prison Experiment
 Follow-up
Social Influence
 Conformity (II)
 adjusting one’s behavior or thinking
to coincide with a group standard
 Normative Social Influence
 influence resulting from a person’s
desire to gain approval or avoid
disapproval
Social Influence
 Normative Social Influence
 influence resulting from a person’s desire to
gain approval or avoid disapproval
 To be seen as NORMal
 Informational Social Influence
 influence resulting from one’s willingness to
accept others’ opinions about reality
 Alter the perception of INFORMATION
Social Influence
 Informational Social Influence
 influence resulting from one’s willingness to
accept others’ opinions about reality
Social Influence
 Asch’s conformity experiments
Social Influence
Milgram’s Obedience Experiment (2)
Milgram knew people comply to social pressures,
but what about outright commands?
Obedience was highest when:
 The person giving the orders was close at hand
and a legitimate authority figure
Supported by a prestigious title or organization (Yale
researchers, for example)
 The victim was depersonalized or at a distance
No role models for defiance
Social Influence
 Milgram’s follow-up obedience experiment
Lessons from the Conformity
and Obedience Studies
Asch (normative and informational social
influences) and Milgram (obedience to
“scientist”) experiments
Demonstrate that strong social influences
can make people conform to falsehoods
or give in to cruelty
GROUP Influence: Individual
Behavior in the Presence of Others
 Social Facilitation (1)
 improved performance of tasks in the presence
of others
 occurs with simple/well-learned tasks but not
with tasks that are difficult or not yet mastered
 Social Loafing
 tendency for people in a group to exert less
effort when pooling their efforts toward
attaining a common goal than when individually
accountable
GROUP Influence
 Deindividuation
 loss of self-awareness and selfrestraint in group situations that
foster arousal and anonymity
 - example: RIOTS
GROUP Influence
 Group Polarization
 enhancement of a group’s prevailing attitudes
through discussion within the group
 Groupthink
 mode of thinking that occurs when the desire
for harmony in a decision-making group
overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives
Social Relations
 Prejudice
 an unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude
toward a group and its members
 involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings,
and a predisposition to discriminatory action
 Stereotype
 a generalized (sometimes accurate, but often
overgeneralized) belief about a group of
people
Social Relations
 Bystander Effect
 tendency for
any given
bystander to be
less likely to
give aid if other
bystanders are
present
 Video
Social Relations
 The decision-making process for
bystander intervention
Social Relations
 Ingroup
 “Us”- people with whom one shares a
common identity
 Outgroup
 “Them”- those perceived as different or
apart from one’s ingroup

Brown Eyed - Blue Eyed
Social Relations
 Ingroup Bias
 tendency to favor one’s own group
 Scapegoat Theory
 theory that prejudice provides an outlet for
anger by providing someone to blame
 Just-World Phenomenon
 tendency of people to believe the world is just
 people get what they deserve and deserve
what they get
Discrimination
 For each of the following
characteristics, provide your best
estimate of the percentage of
students here at Jackson who posses
the trait:
Discrimination








Kind ____%
Not easily influenced ____%
Competitive ____%
Aware of other’s feelings ____%
Dominant ____%
Makes decisions easily ____%
Independent ____%
Understanding ____%
Discrimination








Never gives up ____%
Helpful ____%
Aggressive ____%
Warm ____%
Self-confident ____%
Stands up well under pressure ____%
Able to devote self to others ____%
Active ____%
Discrimination
Consider each of the following questions as
you read each example:
1. Is Institutional Discrimination present?
2. Against what group or groups does the
practice discriminate?
3. What is the intended purpose of each
practice?
4. If the intended purpose is valid, how else
might the purpose be achieved?
Discrimination
 A fire department requires applicants for
the position of firefighter be 5’8” or taller.
 A Caucasian actor is chosen to play the
part of an Asian man.
 A corporation decides to fill a position
opening “in-house” rather than advertise
the position.
 Children of alumni receive preference for
admission into a private college.
Discrimination
 Persons accused of a crime who cannot
post bail are imprisoned and thus appear
in court dressed in prison clothes.
 A health-club official offers a reduced
membership rate to families.
 A teacher requires an oral presentation as
part of the final grade.
 A public meeting is held in downtown
Seattle at 5:00 pm. (am?)
Social Relations
 Aggression
 any physical or verbal behavior
intended to hurt or destroy
 Frustration-Aggression Principle
 principle that frustration – the blocking
of an attempt to achieve some goal –
creates anger, which can generate
aggression
Social Relations
Social Relations
 Conflict
 perceived incompatibility of actions,
goals, or ideas
 Social Trap
 a situation in which the conflicting
parties, by each rationally pursuing their
self-interest, become caught in mutually
destructive behavior
Attraction: liking and loving
Social Attractiveness: What makes us
attractive to each other?
Do birds of a feather flock together or do
opposites attract?
Does familiarity breed contempt or does it
intensify our affection?
Does absence make the heart grow fonder or
is it out of sight, out of mind?
What attracts us?
1. PROXIMITY
 Mere Exposure Effect
 repeated exposure to stimuli increases liking of them
2. ATTRACTIVENESS
 Conceptions of attractiveness vary by culture
 3. SIMILARITIES
Common attitudes, beliefs, interests, intelligence, age,
economic status
Attraction: liking and loving
Social Attractiveness: Friendship
What are the identifiable attributes of
“friendship”?
Ruth Sharabany’s Friendship scale suggests:
Attraction: Friendship
Frankness and spontaneity.
The relationship includes honest self-disclosure of
strengths and weaknesses as well as frank feedback
about the other's actions.
Sensitivity and knowing.
Understanding and empathy counterbalance
frankness.
Attachment.
Closeness and liking produce feeling of connection
to the friend.
Exclusiveness.
Unique qualities in the relationship lead to its
elevation over other relationships.
Attraction: Friendship
Giving.
Friends provide each other with material goods as
well as social support.
Imposition.
Friends stand ready to seek and accept each other's
help.
Common activities.
Friends enjoy time spent together in joint activities.
Trust and loyalty.
Friends can hold each other's disclosures in confidence
and will defend one another from outside attack.
Attraction: Friendship
Universal Norms?
Researchers asked adults in various countries to
indicate which of 43 possible friendship rules
they would endorse.
Japanese participants endorsed the fewest,
participants from Hong Kong and Britain endorsed the
most
Attraction: Friendship
 Overall, the researchers found the following rules to be
strongest.
 Volunteer help in time of need.
 Respect the friend's privacy.
 Keep confidences.
 Trust and confide in each other.
 Stand up for the person in his or her absence.
 Don't criticize each other in public.
 Show emotional support.
 Strive to make him/her happy while in each other's company.
 Don't be jealous or critical of a friend's other relationships.
 Be tolerant of each other's friends.
 Share news of success with the other.
 Don't nag.
 Seek to repay debts and favors and compliments.
Attraction: liking and loving
Social Attractiveness: What makes us attractive to
each other?
Concept of Beauty 1
Attraction: liking and loving
Concept of Beauty 2
Attraction: liking and loving
Concept of Beauty 5
Attraction: liking and loving
Concept of Beauty 5
Attraction: liking and loving
Concept of Beauty 6
Social Relations
 Passionate Love
 an aroused state of intense positive
absorption in another
 usually present at the beginning of a
love relationship
 Companionate Love
 deep affectionate attachment we feel
for those with whom our lives are
intertwined
THEORIES OF LOVE: Hatfield
Companionate Love
affection
secure, intimacy
equity
self-disclosure
Passionate Love
physical arousal
cognitive appraisal
physiological
THEORIES OF LOVE: Rubin
Liking or Loving
Loving
- Attachment
- - Caring
- - Intimacy
vs.
Liking
- Evaluative
THEORIES OF LOVE:
Sternberg
Sternberg’s Triangular Theory
Intimacy:
feeling component of love,
know each other well
Passionate:
motivating component:
arousal, sex
Consummate
Love:
Intimacy + Passion +
Commitment
Commitment:
thinking componentmarriage, com
When all are balanced – consummate love!
Social Relations
 Equity
 a condition in which people receive from a
relationship in proportion to what they give to it
– freely give & receive – Companionate love
 Self-Disclosure
 revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others
 Altruism
 unselfish regard for the welfare of others