SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER

CHAPTER 1 - 7
CHAPTER 1 Social influences shape our behavior
INTRODUCING SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
❖ Locality
❖ Educational level
What is Social Psychology?
❖ Subscribed media
❖ Scientific study of how people think ❖ Culture
about, influence, and relate to one ❖ Ethnicity
another
Personal attitudes and dispositions
➢ Social thinking
➢ Social influence ❖ Internal forces
➢ Social relations ➢ Inner attitudes about
❖ Focuses more on individuals and specific situations
does more experimentation ❖ Personality dispositions
➢ Different people may react
Social thinking
differently while facing the
❖ How we perceive ourselves and same situation
others
Social behavior is biologically rooted
❖ What we believe
❖ Judgements we make ❖ Evolutionary psychology
❖ Our attitudes ➢ Natural selection
predisposes our actions
Social influence
and reactions
❖ Culture
Social psychology’s principles are
❖ Pressures to conform
applicable in everyday life
❖ Groups of people
❖ Persuasion ❖ How to know ourselves better
❖ Implications for human health
Social relations
❖ Implications for judicial procedures
❖ Prejudice ❖ Influencing behaviors
❖ Aggression
Obvious ways values enters
❖ Attraction and intimacy
psychology
❖ Helping
❖ Research topics
We construct our social reality
❖ Types of people
❖ We react differently because we ❖ Object of social-psychological
think differently analysis
➢ Objective reality ➢ How values form
■ Beliefs about others ➢ Why they change
■ Beliefs about ➢ How they influence
ourselves attitudes and actions
Our social intuitions are often powerful Not-so-obvious ways values enter
but sometimes perilous psychology
❖ Dual processing ❖ Subjective aspects of science
➢ Conscious and deliberate ➢ Culture
➢ Unconscious and automatic ➢ Social representation
(widely held ideas and
values)
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
❖ Psychological concepts contain ➢ Experimental
hidden values ■ Seeks clues to
➢ Defining the good life cause-effect
➢ Professional advice relationships by
➢ Forming concepts manipulating one or
➢ Labeling more variables
while controlling
Problem with common sense
others
❖ Outcomes are more obvious after ❖ Correlation and causation
the facts are known ➢ Allows us to predict but not
❖ Hindsight bias (I-knew-it-all tell whether changing one
phenomenon) often makes people variable will cause changes
overconfident about the validity of in another
their judgements and predictions ❖ Survey research
➢ Random sample
➢ Unrepresentative samples
❖ It is not that common sense is ➢ Order of questions
usually wrong, it is usually right ➢ Response options
– after the fact. ➢ Wording of questions
❖ We therefore easily deceive ■ Framing
ourselves into thinking that we
Experimental research: Searching for
know and knew more than we do
cause and effect
and did.
❖ Control: Manipulating variables
Forming and testing hypotheses
➢ Independent variable
❖ Theory ■ Experimental factor
➢ Integrated set of principles that a researcher
that explain and predict manipulates
observed events ➢ Dependent variable
❖ Hypothesis ■ Variable being
➢ Testable proposition that measured; depends
describes a relationship on manipulations of
that many exist between the independent
events variable
❖ Random assignment: The great
Correlation research: Detecting natural
equalizer
associations
➢ Process of assigning
❖ Location participants to conditions of
➢ Laboratory an experiment such that all
■ Controlled situation persons have the same
➢ Field chance of being in a given
■ Everyday situations condition
❖ Method ➢ Eliminates extraneous
➢ Correlational factors
■ Naturally occurring
relationships among
variables
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
Generalizing from laboratory to life Social comparisons
❖ We can distinguish between the ❖ Evaluating your abilities and
content of people’s thinking and opinions by comparing yourself to
acting and the process by which others.
they think and act ❖ Others around us help to define
the standard by which we evaluate
CHAPTER 2
our- selves as rich or poor, smart
THE SELF IN A SOCIAL WORD
or dumb, tall or short
Spotlights and Illusions ❖ We compare ourselves with those
around us and become conscious
❖ Spotlight effect
of how we differ
➢ Seeing ourselves at center
❖ Social comparisons can also
stage, thus intuitively
diminish our satisfaction in other
overestimating the extent to
ways.
which others’ attention is
aimed at us. Other people’s judgements
❖ Illusion of transparency
❖ When people think well of us, it
➢ The illusion that our
helps us think well of ourselves.
concealed emotions leak
❖ The looking-glass self was how
out and can be easily read
sociologist Charles H. Cooley
by others.
(1902) described our use of how
Examples in the interplay between our we think others perceive us as a
sense of self and our social worlds mirror for perceiving ourselves.
❖ George Herbert Mead (1934)
❖ Social surroundings affect our
refined this concept, noting that
self-awareness
what matters for our self-concept is
❖ Self-interest colors our social
not how others actually see us but
judgment
the way we imagine they see us.
❖ Self-concern motivates our social
behavior Self and culture
❖ Social relationships help define the
❖ For some people, especially those
self
in industrialized Western cultures,
Self-concept individualism prevails. Becoming
an adult means separating from
❖ The most important aspect of
parents, becoming self-reliant, and
yourself is your self. The elements
defining one’s personal,
of your self-concept, the specific
independent self.
beliefs by which you define
❖ Most cultures native to Asia, Africa,
yourself, are your self-schemas.
and Central and South America
❖ Schemas are mental templates by
place a greater value on
which we organize our worlds. Our
collectivism, by respecting and
self-schemas—our perceiving
identifying with the group. They
ourselves as athletic, overweight,
nurture what Shinobu Kitayama
smart, or anything else—powerfully
and Hazel Markus (1995) call the
affect how we perceive, remember,
interdependent self.
and evaluate other people and
ourselves.
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
❖ Collectivistic cultures also promote ❖ Studies confirmed that social
a greater sense of belonging and rejection lowers our self-esteem
more integration between the self and makes us more eager for
and others. approval.
❖ Jeff Greenberg (2008) offers
Culture and Self-esteem
another perspective, called “terror
❖ In collectivist cultures, self-esteem management theory,” which
tends to be malleable argues that humans must find
(context-specific) rather than stable ways to manage their
(enduring across situations). overwhelming fear of death.
❖ For those in individualistic cultures,
The Trade-off of low vs. high
self-esteem is more personal and
self-esteem
less relational.
❖ People low in self-esteem are
Self-knowledge
more vulnerable to anxiety,
❖ How well do we actually know loneliness, and eating disorders
ourselves? ❖ People with low self-esteem also
experience more problems in life
Predicting our behavior
❖ When good things happen, people
❖ One of the most common errors in with high self-esteem are more
behavior prediction is likely to savor and sustain the good
underestimating how long it will feelings
take to complete a task (called the ❖ High self-esteem has other
planning fallacy). benefits: It fosters initiative,
❖ How can you improve your resilience, and pleasant feelings
self-predictions?
Narcissism: Self-esteem’s conceited
➢ The best way is to be more
sister
realistic about how long
tasks took in the past. ❖ High self-esteem becomes
➢ Estimate how long each especially problematic if it crosses
step in the project will take. over into narcissism or having an
inflated sense of self.
Predicting feelings
❖ Narcissists usually have high
❖ Many of life’s big decisions involve self-esteem, but they are missing
predicting our future feelings. the piece about caring for others
❖ Study after study reveals our ❖ Narcissism goes beyond just very
vulnerability to impact bias— high self-esteem—people high in
overestimating the enduring impact self-esteem think they’re worthy
of emotion-causing events. and good, but narcissists think they
❖ We are especially prone to impact are better than others
bias after negative events. ❖ Although narcissists are often
outgoing and charming early on,
What is the nature and motivating
their self-centeredness often leads
power of self-esteem?
to relationship problems in the long
❖ Self-esteem – a person’s overall run
self-evaluation or sense of
self-worth.
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
Self-efficacy ❖ Defensive pessimism can
sometimes save us from the perils
❖ A sense that one is competent and
of unrealistic optimism. Defensive
effective, distinguished from
pessimism anticipates problems
self-esteem which is one’s sense
and motivates effective coping.
of self-worth.
❖ Children and adults with strong False consensus and uniqueness
feelings of self-efficacy are more
❖ We have a curious tendency to
persistent, less anxious, and less
enhance our self-images by
depressed. They also live healthier
overestimating or underestimating
lives and are more academically
how much others think and act as
successful.
we do.
Self-serving bias ❖ On matters of opinion, we find
support for our positions by
❖ One of social psychology’s most
overestimating how much others
provocative yet firmly established
agree—a phenomenon called the
conclusions is the potency of
false consensus effect.
self-serving bias—a tendency to
❖ On matters of ability or when we
perceive oneself favorably.
behave well or successfully,
Explaining positive and negative however, a false uniqueness
events effect more often occurs.
❖ Many dozens of experiments have Temporal comparison
found that people accept credit
❖ Temporal comparisons with our
when told they have succeeded.
own past selves are typically
They attribute the success to their
flattering to our current selves.
ability and effort, but they attribute
❖ Temporal comparisons –
failure to external factors, such as
comparisons between how the self
bad luck or the problem’s inherent
is viewed now and how the self
“impossibility”.
was viewed in the past or how the
❖ We help maintain our positive
self is expected to be viewed in the
self-images by associating
future.
ourselves with success and
distancing ourselves from failure. Explaining self-serving bias
(Self-serving attributions)
❖ Perhaps the self-serving bias
Unrealistic optimism exists because of errors in how we
process and remember information
❖ Optimism predisposes a positive
about ourselves.
approach to life.
❖ Studies reveal that most humans
are more disposed to optimism
than pessimism.
❖ Many of us have what researcher
Neil Weinstein terms “an
unrealistic optimism about future
life events.”
❖ Illusory optimism increases our
vulnerability.
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
❖ Questing for self-knowledge, we’re Doubting our ability in social situations
motivated to assess our
❖ Self-presentation theory
competence (Dunning, 1995).
assumes that we are eager to
Questing for self-confirmation,
present ourselves in ways that
we’re motivated to verify our
make a good impression.
self-conceptions (Sanitioso,
Kunda, & Fong, 1990; Swann, Overpersonalizing situations
1996, 1997). Questing for
❖ Shy, anxious people
self-affirmation, we’re especially
overpersonalize situations, a
motivated to enhance our
tendency that breeds anxious
self-image (Sedikides, 1993).
concern and, in extreme cases,
Trying to increase self-esteem,
paranoia.
then, helps power self-serving
❖ They are especially prone to the
bias.
spotlight effect—they overestimate
How do people manage their the extent to which other people
self-presentation? are watching and evaluating them.
❖ To reduce social anxiety, some
❖ Sometimes people sabotage their
people turn to alcohol.
chances for success by creating
impediments that make success What does it mean to have perceived
less likely—known as self-control?
self-handicapping.
❖ Our self-concepts influence our
❖ Self-handicapping – protecting
behaviour
one’s self-image with behaviors
that create a handy excuse for Learned-helplessness vs.
later failure. Self-determination

Impression management ❖ Learned helplessness – the

hopelessness and resignation
❖ Self-presentation refers to our
learned when a human or animal
wanting to present a desired image
perceives no control over repeated
both to an external audience (other
bad events.
people) and to an internal
❖ A growing body of evidence
audience (ourselves).
reveals that people who undergo
❖ We excuse, justify, or apologize as
highly stressful experiences
necessary to shore up our
become more vulnerable to
self-esteem and verify our
disease
self-image
❖ One self-presentation strategy is
the “humblebrag,” an attempt to
disguise bragging behind
complaints or false humility
❖ Self-monitoring – being attuned
to the way you present yourself in
social situations and adjusting your
performance to create the desired
impression.
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
CHAPTER 3 ❖ Remedies for Overconfidence
SOCIAL BELIEFS AND JUDGEMENTS ➢ Give prompt feedback to
explain why statement is
Judging our social worlds
incorrect
❖ Two brain systems ➢ For planning fallacy, ask
➢ System 1: intuitive, one to “unpack a task” –
automatic, unconscious break it down into
and fast estimated time
➢ System 2: deliberate, requirements for each part
controlled, conscious and ➢ Get people to think of one
slow good reason why their
❖ Priming judgments might be wrong
➢ Activating particular ❖ Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts
associations in memory ➢ With precious little time to
➢ Example: Watching a scary process so much
movie at home may prime information, our cognitive
us to interpret furnace system is fast and frugal. It
noises as a possible specializes in mental
intruder shortcuts.
➢ Representativeness
Intuitive judgements
heuristic
❖ Powers of intuition ■ Tendency to
➢ Controlled processing - presume,
reflective, deliberate and sometimes despite
conscious contrary odds, that
➢ Automatic processing - someone or
impulsive, effortless, and something belongs
without our awareness; to a particular group
schemas and emotional if resembling
reactions. (representing) a
❖ System 1 intuitions are sometimes typical member
wrong ➢ Availability heuristic
❖ Overconfidence Phenomenon ■ Cognitive rule that
➢ Tendency to be more judges the likelihood
confident than correct – to of things in terms of
overestimate the accuracy their availability in
of one’s beliefs memory
❖ Confirmation Bias ❖ Counterfactual Thinking
➢ Tendency to search for ➢ Imagining alternative
information that confirms scenarios and outcomes
one’s preconceptions that might have happened,
❖ Self-verification but didn’t.
➢ Helps explain why our
self-images are so stable
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
❖ Illusory thinking the person conjures up a
➢ Another influence on rationale for it.
everyday thinking is our ➢ the more we examine our
search for order in random theories and explain how
events, a tendency that can they might be true, the
lead us down all sorts of more closed we become to
wrong paths. information that challenges
❖ Illusory correlation our beliefs.
➢ Perception of a relationship ❖ Constructing Memories of
where none exists, or Ourselves and Our Worlds
perception of a stronger ➢ Memory can be likened to a
relationship than actually storage chest in the brain
exists into which we deposit
❖ Illusory thinking material and from which we
➢ Illusion of control can withdraw it later if
■ Perception of needed. Occasionally,
uncontrollable something is lost from the
events as subject to “chest,” and then we say
one’s control or as we have forgotten.
more controllable ➢ We construct memories at
than they are the time of withdrawal. The
■ Gambling: mind sometimes constructs
Gamblers attribute a falsehood
wins to their skill ❖ Misinformation effect
and foresight. ➢ Incorporating
■ Regression toward “misinformation” into one’s
the average: The memory of the event after
statistical tendency witnessing an event and
for extreme scores receiving misleading
or extreme behavior information about it
to return toward ❖ Reconstructing our Past
one’s average. Attitudes
❖ Moods and Judgments ➢ People whose attitudes
➢ Moods color our have changed often insist
interpretations of current that they have always felt
experiences much as they now feel.
❖ Belief Perseverance ➢ The construction of positive
➢ Persistence of one’s initial memories brightens our
conceptions, as when the recollections.
basis for one’s belief is
discredited but an
explanation of why the
belief might be true
survives
➢ it is surprisingly difficult to
demolish a falsehood, once
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
➢ Terence Mitchell, Leigh Why do we make the attribution error?
Thompson, and their
❖ Perspective and situational
colleagues (1994, 1997)
awareness
report that people often
➢ Actor-observer
exhibit rosy
perspectives : we observe
retrospection—they recall
others from a different
mildly pleasant events
perspective than we
more favorably than they
observe ourselves
experienced them.
■ When we act, the
➢ Cathy McFarland and
environment
Michael Ross (1985) found
commands our
that as our relationships
attention. When we
change, we also revise our
watch another
recollections of other
person act, that
people
person occupies the
❖ Reconstructing our Past
center of our
Behavior
attention and the
➢ Memory construction
environment
enables us to revise our
becomes relatively
own histories.
invisible.
➢ Our judgments of people
❖ Cultural Differences
depend on how we explain
➢ Dispositional attribution
their behavior
➢ Situational attribution
❖ Attributing Causality: To the
❖ Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Person or the Situation
➢ Belief that leads to its own
➢ Misattribution - mistakenly
fulfillment
attributing a behavior to the
■ Teacher
wrong source
Expectations and
➢ Attribution theory - theory
Student
of how people explain
Performance
others’ behavior
❖ Behavioral confirmation
■ Dispositional
➢ Type of self-fulfilling
attribution
prophecy whereby people’s
■ Situational
social expectations lead
attribution
them to behave in ways
❖ Fundamental Attribution Error
that cause others to confirm
➢ Tendency for observers to
their expectations
underestimate situational
influences and
overestimate dispositional
influences upon others’
behavior
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
CHAPTER 4 Role Playing
BEHAVIOR AND ATTITUDES
❖ Role
Attitude ➢ Set of norms that defines
how people in a given
❖ Favorable or unfavorable
social position ought to
evaluative reaction toward
behave
something or someone
➢ Norms: Rules for accepted
❖ ABCs of attitude:
and expected behavior that
➢ Affect (feelings)
prescribe “proper” behavior.
➢ Behavior tendency
❖ Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford’s prison
➢ Cognition (thoughts)
study
How well do our attitudes predict our ❖ Gender Roles
behavior? ➢ Behavior expectations
(norms) for males and
❖ People’s expressed attitudes
females.
hardly predicted their varying
behaviors When saying becomes believing
➢ Student attitudes toward
❖ People often adapt what they say
cheating bore little relation
to please their listeners. They are
to the likelihood of their
quicker to tell people good news
cheating
than bad, and they adjust their
❖ When Attitudes Predict Behavior -
message toward the listener’s
when social influences on what we
position
say are minimal
❖ When there is no compelling
➢ Implicit
external explanation for one’s
■ Implicit association
words, saying becomes believing
test (IAT)
❖ Foot-in-the-Door phenomenon
■ Implicit biases are
➢ Tendency for people who
pervasive
have first agreed to a small
■ People differ in
request to comply later with
implicit bias
a larger request
■ People are often
❖ Low-ball technique
unaware of their
➢ Tactic for getting people to
implicit biases
agree to something. People
■ Implicit biases can
who agree to an initial
harm
request will often still
➢ Explicit
comply when the requester
❖ When Attitudes Predict Behavior
ups the ante.
➢ When attitudes specific to
❖ Door-in-the-face technique
the behavior are examined
➢ the tendency for people
➢ When attitudes are potent
who have first declined a
■ Self-awareness
large request to comply
■ Forge strong
with a subsequent, but
attitudes through
smaller, request.
experience
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
❖ Evil and Moral Acts ❖ Self-Perception Theory
➢ Harmful acts shape the ➢ When we are unsure of our
self, but, thankfully, so do attitudes, we infer them
moral acts. Character is much as would someone
reflected in what we do observing us, by looking at
when we think no one is our behavior and the
looking. circumstances under which
❖ Social Movements it occurs
➢ Political and social ❖ Overjustification effect
movements may legislate ➢ The result of bribing people
behavior designed to lead to do what they already like
to attitude change on a doing; they may then see
mass scale their action as externally
❖ Self-Presentation: Impression controlled rather than
Management intrinsically appealing.
➢ Assumes that people, ➢ Intrinsic motivation - no
especially those who external reward
self-monitor their behavior ➢ Extrinsic motivation -
hoping to create good external reward
impressions, will adapt their
CHAPTER 5
attitude reports to appear
SOCIAL INFLUENCE: PERSUASION
consistent with their actions
❖ Self-Justification: Cognitive Persuasion
Dissonance
❖ It is the process by which a
➢ Tension that arises when
message induces a change in
one is simultaneously
beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors.
aware of two inconsistent
❖ The bad, we call “propaganda”; the
cognitions
good, we call “education.”
■ To reduce this
tension, we adjust Central Route to Persuasion
our thinking
❖ Occurs when interested people
➢ Insufficient justification
focus on the arguments and
■ Reduction of
respond with favorable thoughts.
dissonance by
internally justifying Peripheral Route to Persuasion
one’s behavior ❖ Occurs when people are
when external influenced by incidental cues, such
justification is as a speaker’s attractiveness.
“insufficient”
❖ Self-Justification: Cognitive The Communicator
Dissonance ❖ Social psychologists have found
➢ Dissonance after decisions that who is saying something
■ Deciding-becomes- affects how an audience receives
believing effect it.
■ Can breed
overconfidence
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
Credibility The Message Content
❖ Believability. A credible ❖ It matters not only who says
communicator is perceived as both something but also what that
expert and trustworthy person says.
➢ Reason versus emotion
Sleeper effect
➢ Discrepancy One-sided
❖ A delayed impact of a message; versus two-sided appeals
occurs when we remember the ➢ Primacy versus recency
message but forget a reason for
Reason vs. emotion
discounting it
❖ Thoughtful, involved audiences
Perceived Expertise
travel the central route; they are
❖ Begin by saying things the most responsive to reasoned
audience agrees with. arguments.
❖ Be seen as knowledgeable on the ❖ Disinterested audiences travel the
topic. peripheral route; they are more
❖ Speak confidently affected by how much they like the
communicator.
Perceived Trustworthiness
The effect of good feelings
❖ Trustworthiness is higher if the
audience believes the ❖ Messages becomes more
communicator is not trying to persuasive through association
persuade them. with good feelings
❖ We also perceive as sincere those ❖ Products associated with humor
who argue against their own were better liked, as measured by
self-interest. an implicit attitude test, and were
more often chosen
Attractiveness and Liking
The effect of arousing fear
❖ Attractiveness
➢ Having qualities that appeal ❖ Messages also can be effective by
to an audience. An evoking negative emotions.
appealing communicator ❖ The effectiveness of fear-arousing
(often someone similar to communications is being applied in
the audience) is most ads discouraging not only smoking
persuasive on matters of but also drinking and driving and
subjective preference. risky sexual behaviors
■ Physical
Discrepancy
attractiveness
■ Similarity ❖ People are more open to
conclusions within their range of
acceptability.
❖ The effect of a large versus small
discrepancy depends on whether
the communicator is credible
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
One-sided vs. Two-sided appeals Media Influence: The two-step flow
❖ One-sided appeals ❖ Two-step flow of communication
➢ A message containing ➢ The process by which
arguments that solely media influence often
advocate one side of an occurs through
issue. ❖ Although face-to-face influence is
❖ Two-sided appeals usually greater than media
➢ Persuasive communication influence, we should not
that presents both sides of underestimate the media’s power.
an argument: 'the pros and ❖ Those who personally influence
the cons'. our opinions must get their ideas
from some source, and often their
Primacy vs. Recency
sources are the media.
❖ Primacy effect
The Audience: How old are they?
➢ refers to an individual's
tendency to better ❖ Social psychologists offer two
remember the first piece of possible explanations for age
information they encounter differences. One is:
than the information they ➢ A life cycle explanation:
receive later on. Attitudes change (for
❖ Recency effect example, become more
➢ are those items, ideas, or conservative) as people
arguments that came last grow older.
are remembered more ➢ A generational
clearly than those that explanation: Attitudes do
came first. not change; older people
largely hold onto the
Channel of communication
attitudes they adopted
❖ For persuasion to occur, there when they were young.
must be communication. And for Because these attitudes
communication to occur, there are different from those
must be a channel of being adopted by young
communication. people today, a generation
gap develops.
Active experience or Passive reception
What are they thinking?
❖ A persuasive speaker must not
only get attention, but also be ❖ Our minds are not sponges that
understandable, convincing, soak up whatever pours over them.
memorable and compelling. If the message summons favorable
thoughts, it persuades us. If it
Personal vs media influence
provokes us to think of contrary
❖ Persuasion studies demonstrate arguments, we remain
that the major influence on us is unpersuaded.
not the media, but our contact with
other people.
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
Forewarned is forearmed – if you care give one argument instead
enough to counter-argue of one speaker giving
three)
❖ What circumstances breed
➢ By making people feel
counter-arguing? One is a warning
responsible for evaluating
that someone is going to try to
or passing along the
persuade you. If you had to tell
message
your family that you wanted to drop
➢ By repeating the message
out of school, you would likely
➢ By getting people’s
anticipate their pleading with you to
undistracted attention
stay. So you might develop a list of
arguments to counter every Extreme Persuasion: How do cults
conceivable argument they might indoctrinate?
make.
Group Indoctrination tactics
Distraction disarms counterarguing
❖ Cults
❖ Persuasion is also enhanced by a ➢ A system of religious
distraction that inhibits counter veneration and devotion
arguing. directed toward a particular
➢ Political ads often use this figure or object
technique.The words ■ Heaven's Gate
promote the candidate, and ■ Order of the Solar
the visual images keep us ■ Temple Sun Myung
occupied so we don’t Moon's Unification
analyze the words. Church
➢ Distraction is especially ■ Jim Jones's
effective when the Peoples Temple
message is simple. ■ David Koresh's
Branch Davidians
Uninvolved audiences use peripheral
cues Attitudes follow behavior
❖ Analytical people—those with a ❖ Compliance Breeds Acceptance
high need for cognition — enjoy ➢ Cult initiates become
thinking carefully and prefer central committed advocates. The
routes (Cacioppo & others, 1996). greater the personal
People who like to conserve their commitment, the more the
mental resources—those with a need to justify it.
low need for cognition—are ❖ The Foot-In-The-Door
quicker to respond to such Phenomenon
peripheral cues as the ➢ Foot-in-the-door technique
communicator’s attractiveness and is a compliance tactic that
the pleasantness of the aims at getting a person to
surroundings. agree to a large request by
➢ By using rhetorical having him or her agree to
questions a modest request first.
➢ By presenting multiple
speakers (for example,
having three speakers each
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
Group Effects information they expose
themselves to.
❖ Social Implosion
➢ Selective attention - the
➢ Cult initiates become
extent to which people’s
committed advocates. The
attitudes affect how much
greater the personal
of this information they pay
commitment, the more the
attention to, once they’ve
need to justify it.
been exposed to it.
➢ Cut off from families and
❖ Selective Perception and
friends , they lose access to
Judgement
counter-arguments.
➢ These selectivity effects
➢ The group now offers
have been found to be
identity and defines reality.
particularly likely to occur
➢ Folie à deux (french for
when attitudes are strong.
"insanity of two")
➢ Example: Houston and
Attitude strength Fazio (1989) found that
people whose attitudes
❖ Strong attitudes are more likely to
toward capital punishment
lead to behavior, whereas weak
were more accessible
attitudes are not. (Krosnick & Petty,
engaged in biased
1995).
processing to a greater
❖ Studies conducted by multiple
degree than people whose
researchers have found that higher
attitudes were not as
certainty is associated with attitude
accessible.
stability over time, resistance to
❖ Selective Memory
persuasion, and impact on social
➢ The extent to which
judgments. Thus, the more certain
people’s attitudes bias
you are, the harder it will be for
recall and recognition of
someone to change your mind.
attitude relevant
❖ Certainty - the level of subjective
information.
confidence or validity that people
attach to their attitudes. Reactance
Information-processing biases ❖ A motive to protect or restore our
sense of freedom. Reactance
❖ Strong attitudes have been
arises when someone threatens
demonstrated to result in biases in
our freedom of action.
how we process information.
❖ If we feel that our freedoms to think
➢ Selective Exposure and
and behave in a certain way are
Attention
being unreasonably challenged,
➢ Selective Perception and
we will “react” and often end up
Judgment
strengthening our pre-existing
➢ Selective Memory
attitudes and beliefs.
❖ Selective Exposure and
Attention
➢ Selective exposure - the
extent to which people’s
attitudes affect the
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
Strengthening Personal Commitment Inoculation Programs
❖ Before encountering others’ ❖ Could attitude inoculation indeed
judgments, you can resist prepare people to resist unwanted
persuasion by making a public persuasion? Applied research on
commitment to your position. smoking prevention and consumer
Having stood up for your education offers encouraging
convictions, you will become less answers.
susceptible (or should we say less ➢ Inoculating Children
“open”) to what others have to say. Against Peer Pressure to
➢ Challenging Beliefs Smoke
➢ Developing ➢ Inoculating Children
Counter-arguments Against the Influence of
❖ Challenging Beliefs Advertising
➢ Kiesler found that when
Implications of Attitude Inoculation
committed people were
attacked strongly enough to ❖ The best way to build resistance to
cause them to react, but brainwashing probably is not just
not so strongly as to stronger indoctrination into one’s
overwhelm them, they current beliefs. If parents are
became even more worried that their children could
committed. become members of a cult, they
➢ “When you attack might better teach their children
committed people and your about the various cults and
attack is of inadequate prepare them to counter
strength, you drive them to persuasive appeals.
even more extreme
CHAPTER 6
behaviors in defense of
CONFORMITY
their previous commitment”
(Kiesler, p. 88). Conformity
❖ Developing Counter-arguments
❖ A change in behavior or belief to
➢ Robert Cialdini and
accord with others.
colleagues (2003) agree
that appropriate counter Varieties of Conformity:
arguments are a great way ❖ Compliance
to resist persuasion. But ➢ Conformity that involves
they wondered how to bring publicly acting in accord
them to mind in response to with social pressure while
an opponent’s ads. The privately disagreeing.
answer, they suggest, is a ❖ Obedience
“poison parasite” ➢ Acting in accord with a
defense—one that direct order.
combines a poison (strong ❖ Acceptance
counterarguments) with a ➢ Conformity that involves
parasite (retrieval cues that both acting and believing,
bring those arguments to in accord with social
mind when seeing the pressure.
opponent’s ads).
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
What are the classical conformity and ❖ When responding alone, Asch’s
obedience studies? subjects nearly always gave the
correct answer. It was another
❖ Sherif’s Studies of Norm Formation
matter when they stood alone
➢ Muzafer Sherif (1935,
against a group. In the obedience
1937) wondered whether it
studies, a powerful social
was possible to observe the
pressure (the experimenter’s
emergence of a social norm
commands) overcame a weaker
in the laboratory.
one (the remote victim’s pleas).
❖ Asch’s Studies of Group Pressure
➢ Why were the participants
➢ Solomon Asch (1907-1996)
unable to disengage
had been fascinated with
themselves? How had they
conformity since his
become trapped?
childhood.
➢ Foot-in-the-door
Milgram’s Studies of Obedience phenomenon
❖ Milgram (1974) reported that many
❖ Milgram's Obedience Studies
subjects harshly devalue the victim
tested what happens when the
as a consequence of acting
demands of authority clash with
against him.
the demands of conscience.
❖ Once having acted against the
❖ In Yale University, Milgram
victim, these subjects found it
conducted a lab experiment in
necessary to view him as an
which two participants were
unworthy individual, whose
assigned either the role of a
punishment was made inevitable
teacher (participant) or learner (a
by his own deficiencies of intellect
confederate). The teacher and
and character.
learner were put into separate
rooms. Power of situation
❖ The teacher was then asked by the
❖ Power of the situation
experimenter (who wore a lab
➢ Social environment
coat) to administer electric shocks
significantly impacts
(15-450 volts) to the learner each
people’s ideas, behaviors,
time the participant gave the wrong
and emotions.
answer.
❖ In trying to break with social
❖ Results: Milgram found out that the
constraints, we suddenly realize
majority of participants obeyed,
how strong they are.
even when the individual being
➢ Not standing up against
shocked screamed in pain. The
racism/sexism: shows the
results were that all participants
power of normative
went to 300 volts and 65% were
pressure
willing to go all the way to 450
➢ Saying what we would do in
volts.
a hypothetical situation is
Behaviors and Attitudes often easier than doing it in
a real situation.
❖ Attitudes fail to determine behavior
when external influences override
inner convictions.
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
❖ Situations can induce ordinary ❖ UNANIMITY
people to capitulate to cruelty.
Charlan Nemeth and Cynthia Chiles'
➢ Under the sway of evil
Experiment on Unanimity
forces, even nice people
are sometimes corrupted ❖ Numerous tests show that anyone
as they construct moral who undermines a group's
rationalizations for immoral unanimity reduces its social
behavior (Tsang, 2002). influence (Allen & Levine, 1969;
❖ Procrastination involves a similar Asch, 1955; Morris & Miller, 1975).
unintended drift, toward self-harm ❖ Observing someone else’s
(Sabini & Silver, 1982). dissent— even when it is
➢ A student knows the wrong—can increase our own
deadline for a term paper independence.
weeks ahead. ❖ Charlan Nemeth and Cynthia
Chiles (1988) conducted an
What predicts conformity?
experiment to observe how one
❖ GROUP SIZE dissenter can influence people's
tendency to conform.
Milgram's Field Experiment on Group
➢ 76% of the time, the people
Size
who observed the "green"
❖ Stanley Milgram et. al, (1969) dissenter correctly labeled
conducted an experiment to know the slides “red”
how the number of people affects ➢ Participants who had no
conformity. opportunity to observe the
➢ Three to five people is the “green” dissenter
ideal number to elicit conformed 70% of the time.
conformity
COHESION
➢ Increasing the number of
people beyond five results ❖ Cohesiveness
in declining returns ➢ A “we feeling”—the extent
(Gerard, Wilhelmy, & to which members of a
Conolley, 1968; Rosenberg, group are bonded together,
1961). such as by attraction for
➢ Bibb Latane (1981) "Social one another.
Impact Theory" ➢ A minority perspective from
someone outside the
Wilder's Experiment on Group Size
groups we identify with
❖ David Wilder (1977) conducted an influences us less than a
experiment to know how the way majority opinion from
the group is segmented affects someone inside those
conformity. groups (Clark & Mass,
➢ The agreement of several 1988).
small groups makes a ➢ The more cohesiveness a
position more credible. group exhibits, the more
power it gains over its
members.
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
STATUS ❖ Morton Deutsch and Harold
Gerard (1955) coined the terms
Milgram (1974) Studies on Obedience
normative influence and
❖ People of high-status elicit more informational influence.
influence than those people who ❖ Normative Influence
are of low-status ➢ Conformity based on a
➢ A 37-year-old welder, after person’s desire to fulfill
delivering 450 volts others’ expectations, often
■ “Where do we go to gain acceptance.
from here, ➢ “Going along with the
Professor?” (p. 46). crowd”
➢ A divinity school professor ❖ Informational influence
who disobeyed at 150 volts ➢ Conformity that results from
■ “I don’t understand accepting evidence about
why the experiment reality provided by other
is placed above this people.
person’s life” (p. ➢ “We want to be right”
48).
Who conforms?
PUBLIC RESPONSE
❖ Personality
Asch’s Studies of Group Pressure ➢ Personality is a poor
predictor of an individual's
❖ People conform more when they
behavior.
must respond in front of others
➢ Internal traits rarely predict
rather than when they write their
specific action but predict a
answer privately.
person's average behavior
❖ It is much easier to stand up for
across many situations.
what we believe in private than
➢ Personality predicts
before a group.
behavior better when social
NO PRIOR COMMITMENT influences are weak.
❖ Culture
❖ After giving a prior judgment in
➢ Cultural background affects
public, people almost never back
how conforming a person
down even in the face of group
will be.
pressure (Deutsch & Gerard,
❖ Gender
1955).
➢ Does gender matter?
❖ People often stick to their public
❖ Social Roles
commitment. Although most of
➢ Social life is like acting on a
them would change their decision
theatrical stage, with all its
in later situations (Saltzstein &
scenes, mask, and scripts.
Sandberg, 1979)
Why do people conform?
❖ There are two possible:
➢ To be accepted and avoid
rejection
➢ To obtain important
information
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
Do we ever want to be different? Why Are We Aroused in the Presence
of Others?
❖ Reactance
➢ A motivation to protect or ❖ What you do well, you will be
restore our sense of energized to do your best in front
freedom. Reactance arises of others (unless you become
when someone threatens hyper-aroused and self-conscious).
our freedom of action. What you find difficult may seem
❖ Asserting uniqueness impossible in the same
➢ Seeing oneself as unique circumstances.
also appears in people’s ❖ Evaluation Apprehension -
“spontaneous concern for how others are
self-concepts.” evaluating us.
❖ Driven by Distraction - when
CHAPTER 7
people wonder how co-actors are
GROUP INFLUENCE
doing or how an audience is
What is a group? reacting, they get distracted.
❖ Mere Presence - the mere
❖ Group dynamics expert Marvin
presence of others produces some
Shaw (1981) argued that all groups
arousal even without evaluation
have one thing in common: Their
apprehension or arousing
members interact. He, therefore,
distraction.
defined a group as two or more
people who interact with and What is social loafing?
influence one another.
❖ The tendency for people to exert
What is social facilitation? less effort when they pool their
efforts toward a common goal than
❖ Original meaning: the tendency of
when they are individually
people to perform simple or well
accountable.
learned tasks better when others
are present. Deindividuation
❖ Current meaning: the
❖ the loss of self-awareness and
strengthening of dominant
evaluation apprehension; occurs in
(prevalent, likely) responses owing
group situations that foster
to the presence of others.
anonymity and draw attention
The Mere Presence of others away from the individual.
❖ “Mere presence” means that the
people are not competing, do not
reward or punish, and in fact do
nothing except be present as a
passive audience or as co-actors.
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
Circumstances that elicit this ❖ The Case of the Risky Shift
psychological state ➢ A study conducted by
James Stoner
❖ Group size
➢ Stoner compared
➢ A group has the power not
risk-taking by individuals
only to arouse its members
and groups
but also to render them
➢ The study resulted that the
unidentifiable.
group decisions were
❖ Physical Anonymity
usually riskier
➢ contributes to an
individual's loss of Informational Influence and Group
self-awareness and loss of Polarization
concern for self- evaluation
❖ According to the best-supported
within a group setting,
explanation, group discussion
enabling the individual to
elicits a pooling of ideas, most of
participate in anti-normative
which favor the dominant
or aggressive behavior
viewpoint. Ideas that were
❖ Arousing and distracting activities
common knowledge to group
➢ Aggressive outbursts by
members will often be brought up
large crowds are often
in discussion or, even if
preceded by minor actions
unmentioned, will jointly influence
that arouse and divert
their discussion.
people’s attention. Group
shouting, chanting, Normative Influence and Group
clapping, or dancing serve Influence
to both hype people up and
❖ It is human nature to want to
reduce self-consciousness.
evaluate our abilities and opinions,
➢ There is a self-reinforcing
something we can do by
pleasure in doing an
comparing our views with those of
impulsive act while
others. We are most persuaded by
observing others doing it
people in our “ reference groups
also.
”— that is, groups we identify with
❖ Diminished self-awareness
(Abrams et al., 1990; Hogg,
➢ Group experiences that
Turner, & Davidson, 1990).
diminish
Moreover, because we want
self-consciousness tend to
people to like us, we may express
disconnect behavior from
stronger opinions after discovering
attitudes.
that others share our views.
Group Polarization: Do groups ❖ Pluralistic ignorance
intensify our opinions? ➢ A false impression of how
other people are thinking,
❖ Many conflicts grow as people on
feeling, or responding.
both sides talk mostly with
like-minded others.
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
Groupthink ❖ Illusion of unanimity
➢ Members of the group
❖ Groupthink is the mode of thinking
falsely perceive that
that occurs when the desire for
everyone agrees with the
harmony in a decision-making
group's decision; silence is
group overrides a realistic
seen as consent.
appraisal of alternatives.
❖ Mindguards
Symptoms of Groupthink ➢ Some members protect the
group from information that
❖ An illusion of invulnerability
would call into question the
➢ when group members
effectiveness or the
create excessive optimism
morality of its decisions.
and encourage taking
extreme risks. Preventing Groupthink
❖ Unquestioned belief in the group’s
❖ Be impartial
morality
❖ Encourage critical evaluation
➢ Group members assume
❖ Occasionally subdivide the group,
the inherent morality of
and then reunite to air differences
their group and ignore
❖ Welcome critiques from outside
ethical and moral issues.
experts and associates
❖ Rationalization
❖ Before implementing a decision,
➢ The group discounts
call a “second-chance” meeting to
challenges by collectively
air any lingering doubts.
justifying its decisions.
❖ Stereotyped view of opponent Leadership
➢ consider their enemies as
❖ the process by which certain group
too evil to negotiate or too
members motivate and guide the
weak to defend themselves
group.
against the planned
initiative. Task leaders
❖ Conformity pressure
❖ often have a directive style—one
➢ Group members rebuff
that can work well if the leader is
those who raise doubts
bright enough to give good orders
about the group’s
(Fiedler, 1987). Being goal
assumptions and plans, at
oriented, such leaders also keep
times not by argument but
the group’s attention and effort
by ridicule.
focused on its mission.
❖ Self-censorship
➢ Men that exhibit “masculine
➢ Members of the group
” traits—tend to be
withhold dissenting views,
perceived as dominant
keep silent about their
leaders and to be
misgivings and minimize
successful CEOs (Blaker et
the importance of their
al., 2013; Wong et al.,
doubts.
2011).
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEWER
CHAPTER 1 - 7
Social leaders The Influence of the Minority
❖ often have a democratic style: one ❖ “minority influence” refers to
that delegates authority, welcomes minority opinions.
input from team members, and, as ❖ Referring to situations where one
we have seen, helps prevent person or a small group influences
groupthink. the beliefs and behaviors of others.
➢ Women more often have a
Consistency
democratic leadership
style. They are more ❖ The minority must be consistent in
egalitarian than men and their views- Over time, this
are more likely to oppose increases the level of interest from
hierarchies (Lee et al., other people.
2011). Many experiments ❖ Diachronic Consistency
reveal that such leadership ➢ Consistency over time.
is good for morale. ❖ Synchronic Consistency
➢ Consistency between all
Transactional leadership
members of the group.
❖ These transactional leaders
Self-confidence
(Hollander, 1958) focus on getting
to know their subordinates and ❖ By being firm and forceful, the
listening carefully. They seek to minority’s apparent self-assurance
fulfill the subordinates ’ needs but may prompt the majority to
maintain high expectations for how reconsider its position.
subordinates will perform. ❖ Consistency and persistence
➢ Such leaders, who allow convey self confidence, showing
people to express their dedication to their cause.
opinions, both learn from
Defections from the majority
others and receive strong
support from their followers ❖ When a minority consistently
(Tyler, Rasinski, & Spodick, doubts the majority wisdom,
1985). majority members become freer to
express their own doubts and may
Transformational leadership
even switch to the minority
❖ motivates others to identify with position.
and commit themselves to the
group’s mission. Transformational
leaders many of whom are
charismatic, energetic,
self-confident extroverts; articulate
high standards, inspire people to
share their vision, and offer
personal attention
➢ The frequent result of such
leadership in organizations
is a more engaged,
trusting, and effective
workforce.