PSY2012 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Cognitive Dissonance, Fundamental Attribution Error, Pole And Polar
Chapter 13: Social Psychology
13.1- Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior
Morality: Logical or Emotional?
• Lawrence argued that we should evaluate moral reasoning on the basis
of the reasons people give for a decision rather than the decision itself.
➢ Altruistic Behavior: helping others without benefit to ourselves
o People want a reputation for being fair and helpful OR
o People who do cooperate punish those who don’t
Accepting or Denying Responsibility toward Others
Bystander Helpfulness and Apathy
• Diffusion of Responsibility: the tendency to feel less responsibility to act
when other people are equally able to act.
• Pluralistic Ignorance: a situation in which people say nothing each person
falsely assumes that others have a better-informed opinion.
Social Loafing
• Social Loafing: the tendency to work less hard, “loaf”, when sharing work
with other people.
o Most people work less hard when they are in a group than when
they work alone, unless they think they can make a contribution.
Causes of Anger and Aggression
• Frustration-aggression hypothesis: theory in which the main cause of anger
and aggression is an obstacle that stands in the way of doing something
or obtaining something.
o frustration or discomfort of any kind increases the probability of
anger and aggression.
Individual Differences in Aggression
• Studies show there is little to no relationship between aggressiveness and
low self-esteem, playing video games, and mental illness.
o Only mentally ill people who are also alcohol or substance abusers
are more prone to violence.
• Factors associate with violent behavior:
o Growing up in a violent neighborhood
o Poor nutrition
o Head injury
o History of suicide attempts
o Mother who smoked cigarettes or drank alcohol during pregnancy.
o Not feeling guilty after hurting someone.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Cognitive Influences on Violence
• People sometimes justify cruel or uncooperative behavior by lowering
their opinion of the victims.
o Deindividualization: perceiving others as anonymous, without any
real personality
o Dehumanization: perceiving others as less than human.
• People also decrease their own sense of personal responsibility.
Sexual Aggression
• Rape: sexual activity without the consent of the partner
• Characteristics:
o Hostile
o Distrustful
o History of other acts of violence and criminality
o High users of pornography, especially violent pornography
o Extreme self-centeredness.
13.2- Social Perception and Cognition
First Impressions
• Primacy Effect: the tendency for the first information we learn about
someone to influence us more than later information does
o We form first impressions quickly and more accurately than we
might guess.
• Self-fulfilling Prophecies: expectations that increase the probability of the
predicted event.
Stereotypes and Prejudices
• Stereotype: a belief or expectation about a group of people.
• Prejudice: an unfavorable attitude toward a group of people.
o Ex. Prejudice towards people who drink Pepsi products.
• Discrimination: unequal treatment of different groups of people.
o Intentional; you don’t feel guilty about it.
o i.e. paying male athletes more than female athletes.
• Implicit Association Test (IAT): procedure that measures reactions to
combinations of categories, such as “flowers” and “pleasant”.
o This finds evidence of subtle prejudice, even among many people
who deny having such prejudices.
o Most people know they have these prejudices, even though they
don’t admit it.
o You can overcome prejudice by people working together for a
common goal. → to stop being judgmental.
▪ i.e. military, school, college.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Morality: logical or emotional: lawrence argued that we should evaluate moral reasoning on the basis of the reasons people give for a decision rather than the decision itself. Altruistic behavior: helping others without benefit to ourselves: people want a reputation for being fair and helpful or, people who do cooperate punish those who don"t. Sexual aggression: rape: sexual activity without the consent of the partner, characteristics, hostile, distrustful, history of other acts of violence and criminality, high users of pornography, especially violent pornography, extreme self-centeredness. Stereotypes and prejudices: stereotype: a belief or expectation about a group of people, prejudice: an unfavorable attitude toward a group of people, ex. Prejudice towards people who drink pepsi products: discrimination: unequal treatment of different groups of people. Intentional; you don"t feel guilty about it. i. e. paying male athletes more than female athletes. Attributions: attribution: the set of thought processes we use to assign causes to our own behavior and that of others.
