Social Psychology

AP Psychology

Learning Targets:

AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:

Apply attribution theory to explain motives (e.g., fundamental attribution error, selfserving bias).
Describe the structure and function of different kinds of group behavior (e.g.,
deindividuation, group polarization).
Explain how individuals respond to expectations of others, including groupthink,
conformity, and obedience to authority.
Discuss attitudes and how they change (e.g., central route to persuasion).
Predict the impact of the presence of others on individual behavior (e.g., bystander
effect, social facilitation).
Describe processes that contribute to differential treatment of group members (e.g., ingroup/out-group dynamics, ethnocentrism, prejudice).
Articulate the impact of social and cultural categories (e.g., gender, race, ethnicity) on
self-concept and relations with others.
Anticipate the impact of behavior on a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Describe the variables that contribute to altruism, aggression, and attraction.
Discuss attitude formation and change, including persuasion strategies and cognitive
dissonance.
Identify important figures in social psychology (e.g., Solomon Asch, Leon
Festinger, Stanley Milgram, Philip Zimbardo).

How Are We Going to Break

This Chapter Down?
1. Group Dynamics
2. Attribution and
Interpersonal
Perceptions
3. Conformity,
Obedience, and
Compliance
4. Attitudes and
Attitude Change

This is how far I am on my

take home test:

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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Done
Almost done
Half way
Just started
Havent started
yet
6. Take home test?
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What is Social Psychology?

Social Psychology
How other people, groups,
and cultures shaped our
perceptions
Examples:
1. Why do people become
and stay friends?
2. How can a boss keep
his workers happy?
3. Why does violence
occur?
4. Why would people
follow unjust rule?

Group Dynamics
Humans have a basic
drive to form social
bonds with others.
Social group two or
more individuals sharing
common goals and
interests, interacting, and
influencing each others
behavior.
Norms Implicit or
explicit rules that apply to
all members of the group
and govern acceptable
behaviors and attitudes

Social Roles:
Role
set of expectations about
a social position
defines how those in the
position ought to behave
The Power of the
Situation: The Stanford
Prison Experiment
Didnt the guard,
prisoners, and warden all
fall into their respective
roles? Why?

When working in groups, what

role(s) do you most often fall
into?
1. Leader

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2. Follower
3. Social Loafer
4. More than one of
these

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Working in Groups:
You will undoubtedly
work in groups
throughout your entire
life.
Social loafing
members of group
realize that others will
complete the task
(combat this by offering
individual evaluations)
Tug of war example

Why Does Social Loafing

Happen?
1. People acting as a
part of a group feel less
accountable, so they
worry less about what
others think of them.
2. They may not believe
that their contribution
makes a difference.
3. Motivation matters!
those with lower
motivational levels know
that someone will pick up
the slack (in a group)

Deindividuation:

Deindividuation: The process of

losing ones identity while in a
group. (usually occurs when
there is a heightened sense of
arousal)
Example: Gang members wear
similar outfits and act in similar
ways that are appropriate to their
gang.
Where does this happen?
1. Sporting contests - fighting
2. Church
3. Rock concerts
4. Protests
5. Riots and Looting after natural
disasters (Haiti)

Social Facilitation:
Social Facilitation: The
presence of others sometimes
helps or hurts performance.
We perform better when we
are doing an already learned
task in front of others.
We perform worse when we
are doing a new task in front
of others. (social impairment)
Point to remember: What
you do well, you are likely to
do even better in front of an
audience. (especially a
friendly audience)

Jesses friends are making fun of a freshman classmate

in the hallway between classes. Jesse doesnt
personally agree with this behavior but goes along with
it anyway. Which psychological term describes what
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Jesse is experiencing?

1. Group
polarization
2. Group think
3. Deindividuation
4. Social loafing
5. Normative
behavior
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Group Think:

Groupthink: When the desire for

harmony replaces realistic
judgment.
Example: When a group has to
make a decision and no one
stands up opposing the decision,
then the group feels it is a
unanimous decision. (even
though it may not be) Bay of
Pigs
Group Polarization When in a
group of like minded people,
decisions are often more extreme
than if made individually.
Minority Influence a lone
dissenter holds on their opinion
and ends up convincing others of
their opinion.

Some difficult cuts needed to be made in the school board budget and
everyone on the board knew that there had to be consensus and
cooperation. Even though many members disagreed with certain
proposals, each one met with unanimous support or defeat. To
preserve cooperation, no one offered conflicting viewpoints. Which of
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the following concepts is best described by this example?

1. Group
polarization
2. Fundamental
attribution error
3. Groupthink
4. Role schema
5. Reciprocity
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Bystander Intervention:
When in trouble, weve
been taught to go to
crowded places.
Kitty Genovese example
What would you do?
Diffusion of
Responsibility
(bystander effect) the
sense of personal
responsibility reduces
when more people are
present.

Altruism:
Bystanders dont always
diffuse responsibility
Altruism - a hero will
emerge and fight off
attackers or help a
person in need.
Researchers debate
whether there is an
inborn trait of altruism or
if it may be reward
based.

A young woman was gunned down at a gas station. A

busload of onlookers saw the entire event and no one
did anything. What social psychological phenomenon
best accounts for this behavior?

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1.
2.
3.
4.

Groupthink
Altruism
Social impairment
Super ordinate
goals
5. Diffusion of
responsibility
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Lesson Two: Objectives

By the end of this lesson, I will be able to:

1. Apply attribution theory to explain

motives (e.g., fundamental attribution
error, self-serving bias).
2. Describe processes that contribute
to differential treatment of group
members (e.g., in-group/out-group
dynamics, ethnocentrism, prejudice).

Attribution Process:
Theorists believe that
each of us is an amateur
scientist engaged in
trying to figure out why
people act the way that
they do.
Social Cognition
refers to the way people
gather, use, and interpret
information about their
social aspects of the
world around them.

Social Thinking
Attribution Theory
tendency to give an
explanation for someones
behavior, often by crediting
either the situation or the
persons traits.
Dispositional attributions
hold an individual responsible
for his or her behavior.
Situational attributions
look at factors in the
environment to explain why
someone acted the way that
he/she does.

Evaluating Behavior:
Self serving bias we
attribute our achievements
and successes to personal
causes and our failures to
situational factors. (group
projects)
Fundamental Attribution
Error
tendency for observers,
when analyzing anothers
behavior, to underestimate
the impact of the situation
and to overestimate the
impact of personal traits

Social Roots of Prejudice:

Some people have money,
power, and prestige
others do not.
This creates a have and
have not world.
The Just World
Phenomenon: The
tendency for people to
believe the world is just
and that people therefore
get what they deserve and
deserve what they get.
Do you agree?

How Does This Work?

Slave owners developed
attitudes that justified
slavery. They perceived
the people they enslaved
as innately lazy, ignorant,
and irresponsible.
(Hoffman & Hurst, 1990)
Do you think that over
time, the slaves bought
into this?
SoPrejudice rationalizes
inequalities.

Us and Them:
We have inherited our
ancestors need to belong,
to live and love in groups.
We cheer for them, kill for
them, and die for them.
Ingroup
Us- people with whom
one shares a common
identity
Outgroup
Them- those
perceived as different or
apart from ones ingroup

How Does This Work?

Facing fear and terror (such
as from the 9/11 attacks),
patriotism heightens and
produces anger and
aggression towards them.
those who threaten our
world.
Scapegoat theory: When
things go wrong, finding
someone else to blame can
provide an outlet for anger.
Lets look at an example:

Dr. Z, What Do You Think?

Following 9/11, negative stereotypes
blossomed. Some outraged people
lashed out at innocent Arab Americans.
Others called for eliminating Saddam
Hussein. Fear and anger create
aggression, and aggression against
citizens of different ethnicity or race
creates racism and, in turn, new forms of
terrorism. (Zimbardo, 2001)

Prejudice and Stereotyping:

Prejudice: An
unjustifiable, and usually
negative attitude towards
a group and its
members.
Stereotype: a
generalized (sometimes
accurate, but often
overgeneralized) belief
about a group of people
Question:
Have you ever
experienced either one of
these in your life?

Causes of Conflict:
Ethnocentrism
belief that our culture
is superior to others.
Out-group
homogeneity
tendency to believe all
members of another
group are more
similar than is true
(Hitler and the Jews)

Increasing Cooperation:
Contact Theory Equal
status contact between
opposing groups should
lower tension and
increase harmony.
(Sherif study)
Sherif showed that
teamwork increased
because of a
superordinate goal
(emergency situation that
requires joint
cooperation)

Lesson Three: Objectives

Obedience, Power, and Social Influence
By the end of this lesson I will be able to:
1. Explain how individuals respond to
expectations of others, including
groupthink, conformity, and obedience to
authority.
2. Identify important figures in social
psychology (e.g., Solomon Asch, Leon
Festinger, Stanley Milgram, Philip
Zimbardo).

The take home test was:

1.
2.
3.
4.

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Difficult
Average
Easy
None of the
above

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Ethnocentrism is the belief

that:
1.
2.

Ethnic foods are all good

Human diversity is a positive
force
Ones own culture is superior
to others
Other people are all pretty
much alike in their opinions
Cultural pluralism is a
destructive goal that fosters
conflict

3.
4.
5.

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You read in the newspaper that survivors in a plane

accident in the Andes were discovered to have eaten
other survivors during their 32-day ordeal. You will have
committed the fundamental attribution error if you:
1.

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Attribute the behavior to

dispositional (personal)
factors
Attribute the behavior to
situational factors
Think you would have done
the same thing if you had
been there
Consider the behavior as a
signal for the moral
degradation of our society
Decide never to fly in a plane
again

2.
3.

4.

5.
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Of the following, which would be a

good example of a self-serving
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bias:
1.
Carlos, who feels that everyone
should strive to help themselves
as well as others
Antoine, who says that he has
bombed a test even though he
always gets an A
Mai, who works harder for
teachers who compliment her on
her efforts
Lina, who overestimates the
degree to which people agree
with her opinions
Betty, who believes that she
works harder than others and is
under-appreciated

2.

3.

4.

5.

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Key terms:
Normative Social
Influence
influence resulting
from a persons desire
to gain approval or
avoid disapproval

Conformity
adjusting ones
behavior or thinking to
coincide with a group
standard
Think about the elevator study

Other Terms:

Chameleon effect: People will

naturally (unconsciously) mimic
others expressions, postures,
and movements.
Laughing
Coughing
Yawning
Why do we do this?
It helps us to feel what others feel
(empathize)
The more we mimic, the more
people like us (people like people
like them) (conformity)

Solomon Asch: Conformity

Experiment
In 1955 Asch
conducted a simple
experiment to assess
conformity.
Lets look at a
replication of the
experiment.

Click on me!!!

What this show us..

Experimentation reveals that we

are more likely to conform when:
1. We are made to feel
incompetent or insecure
2. We are in a group of at least
three people
3. We are in a group in which
everyone agrees.
NOTE: If just ONE other person
disagrees, the odds that we also
will disagree greatly increase.
4. We admire the groups status
and attractiveness
5. We have not already committed
ourselves to any response
6. We know that others in the
group will observe our behavior.

Discussion: Is conformity
good?
What do you think?
Positive: If people
conform to what we want
we may consider them as
being open minded
Negative: If they dont
conform to what we want
we scorn their inability to
give in
So.how do
individualistic and
collectivists cultures
handle conformity
differently?

Stanley Milgram: Obedience

Stanley Milgram (Yale) was a
student of Solomon Aschs and
wanted to continue studying
conformity and obedience.
In 1974 he set up a lab to
assess how obedient subjects
would be when asked to
physically harm another
human being.
Obedience: Adjusting our
behavior or thinking to coincide
with a group standard.
Lets see what he came up
with!!
Game Show!

What have we learned from

the research on obedience?
Obedience is highest when:
1. The person giving the
orders was close at hand and
was perceived as being a
legitimate authority figure.
2. The authority figure was
supported by a respected,
well known institution.
3. The victim was at a
distance (killing)
4. There were no role models
for defiance (no one stood up
to the researcher)

Types of Power:
Coercive Power: The power
to punish (parents placing
their kids in time out)
Reward Power: The power to
reward desirable behavior
(boss giving bonuses)
Legitimate Power: The
power granted by some
authority. (police officer)
Expert Power: The power of
knowledge (wise professor)
Referent Power: The power
of respect or admiration
(Looking up to certain people)

Lesson Four: Objectives

By the end of this lesson, I will be able to:
1. Discuss attitude formation and
change, including persuasion
strategies and cognitive dissonance.

Attitudes:
Attitude learned predispositions to
respond in a favorable or unfavorable
way to something
Many people claim to be honest citizens,
yet lie, cheat, and steal
How do we change attitudes?

Social Thinking
Foot-in-the-Door
Phenomenon
tendency for people
who have first agreed
to a small request to
comply later with a
larger request
Example: Sales
Reciprocity your
are more likely to help
someone else out if
they help you first.

Ways of Changing Attitudes:

The Elaboration Likelihood Model looks at
two ways that attitudes can be changed.
1. Central Route to Persuasion person uses
facts and figures to enable listeners to process
information and think about their decisions.
2. Peripheral Route to Persuasion
Superficial information is used to distract the
audience to win favorable approval (pro
athletes pitching a product)

Friendships and attitudes:

Proximity is the primary
determinant of who will
initially become friends.
We are also more likely to
be attracted to somebody
we see everyday
Mere-exposure effect
the more we come into
contact with someone, the
more likely we are to like
that person.

Mixed Emotions:
Cognitive Dissonance Theory: Relief
from tension (Leon Festinger)
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

Advertising and Attitudes

Advertising works well in changing attitudes
and beliefs
People will often trust someone that is famous
or even good looking more than someone who
isnt.
Millions of dollars a year are spent on
advertising, especially to kids.
Some argue that advertising is a social issue
(female portrayal of seduction and weakness)

THE END
of
AP PSYCHOLOGY!!!