PSYCH101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Truism, Cognitive Load, Attribution Bias
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Unit 9: Social Psychology
Thinking about social interaction
-Lewin (1933)
-B = f(P,E)
-B = Behaviour
-overt action
-P = Personal Determinants
-Internal states / dispositions
-E = Environmental Determinants
-Physical and social interaction
-Lewin’s Grand Truism
-provided the initial framework for social psychology
Traditional Social Psychology
-B = f(E)
-Emphasizes Situational Factors
-Physical
-Social
-Interpersonal
-Organizational
-Cultural
-Personal factors largely irrelevant
-they try to isolate the E
Typical Methods for Social Psychologists
-Manipulate some feature of external environment
-Independent Variable
-Expose subjects to all conditions or within subject
-Random assign to different conditions - between subject
-Determine effects of specific situation on behaviour
-Dependent Variable
-Independent: Situation
-Dependent: Smiling
Contrast with Traditional Personality Psychology
-Emphasizes Personal Factors
-Beliefs
-Attitudes
-Traits
-Emotion
-Motivations
-Values
-Situational factors largely irrelevant
-Only correlational studies
-Measure a personality variable
-Predictor Variable
-Self Report questionnaire
-Rating Scale
-General Behavioural Observations
-Correlate individual differences with behaviour
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Unit 9: Social Psychology
-Predictor: Friendliness
-Predicted: Smiling
Social Behaviour
-Video
-Candid subject
-three people enter elevator and face away from the entrance
-the subject faces the same direction
Conformity : A change in behaviour to fit in with a group
Social norms: guidelines for how to behave in social contexts
-Normative influence: based on people’s desire to be liked
-Informational influence: based on people’s desire to be right
-Minority influence
-can reduce conformity
-can create social change
-Obedience: Complying with instructions or orders from an authority figure.
-More than 75% of people administered shocks even when they heard the learner screaming
-65% administered highest possible voltage
Social Roles
-Social roles are specific sets of behaviours that are associated with a position within a group
-Stanford Prison Experiment (1973)
-Simulated prison:
-told people to draw out of a hat their role
-# - prisoner, officer
-students assigned to prisoners were super obedient and emotionally disturbed
-guards became aggressive and power hungry
-the whole thing got out of hand !
Group Dynamics
-What are the consequences of being in a group?
-Number of factors to look at
-Do we do better in a group or alone?
-Mere presence effect: changes in a person’s behaviour due to another person’s presence
-Social facilitation: the tendency to perform better in front of other people than alone
-Social loafing: tendency to reduce efforts when you're working as part as a group
Group Dynamics: Attitude Effects
-Group polarization: when members of a group discuss characteristic attitudes and their views
become stronger.
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Unit 9: Social Psychology
Group Dynamics: Social Behaviour Effects
-Pluralistic ignorance: a type of misunderstanding that occurs when members of a group don’t
realize that the other members share uncertainty
-Prosocial behaviours: promote social functioning, group cohesion, or group well being
-Antisocial behaviours: may serve one individual or a small group expense of greater
community
-Deindividuation: a state in which an individual in a group loses awareness of him/herself as
separate individual
-Helping - tend to help people when you're in a group
-Kitty Genovese was killed
-lots of people could hear her being killed but no one did
-Experiment
-If there are fewer people around, you’re more likely yo help the victim!
-When and why we sometimes don't help
-Bystander effect: occurs when an individual in a group doesn't provide help to a person
in need
-Diffusion of responsibility: when people feel less responsible fir an individual in need in
presence of a group
-Altruism: helping other in need without reward
-when you do something for family members it doesn't count because your really helping
yourself from an evolutionary stand point
-Why do we do it?
-it doesn't make sense from an evolutionary point
-usually a long term benefit
-An example experiment
-whether spending money on you or someone else makes you happier
-how much of your money do you spend on yourself
-vs how much money how much they gave away
-questionnaire testing how happy they were
-there was a positive correlation when people gave away money to be happier
-gave people $20, told half to buy something for themselves and the other half to
buy something for someone else
-people who gave away money were happier
Attraction
-why are we attracted to the people we are attracted to?
-Social Behaviour in Groups of two: Attitude and Behaviour Effects
-Multiple components to finding someone attractive
-Lower Level contributions to Attraction
-Proximity: geographical nearness
-Matching Phenomenon: the tendency for people to choose partners who are a good
match in attractiveness and other traits
-Mere Exposure Effect: the tendency for liking to increase with the frequency of exposure
-More complex factors in attraction
-Arousal theory: we feel something on the inside and once we have that feeling we try to
feel it by putting an emotion to it
-two groups of people and one research assistant
-made a woman stand on the end
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Document Summary
Provided the initial framework for social psychology. Expose subjects to all conditions or within subject. Random assign to different conditions - between subject. Determine effects of speci c situation on behaviour. Three people enter elevator and face away from the entrance. Conformity : a change in behaviour to t in with a group. Social norms: guidelines for how to behave in social contexts. Normative in uence: based on people"s desire to be liked. Informational in uence: based on people"s desire to be right. Obedience: complying with instructions or orders from an authority gure. More than 75% of people administered shocks even when they heard the learner screaming. Social roles are speci c sets of behaviours that are associated with a position within a group. Told people to draw out of a hat their role. Students assigned to prisoners were super obedient and emotionally disturbed. The whole thing got out of hand.