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Ch. 15
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Social Psychology
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Social psychology is the scientific study of the
ways in which the thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors of one individual are influenced by the
real, imagined, or inferred behavior or
characteristics of other people.
1. Social Cognition
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A. Impression Formation
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Schemata - ready-made categories
 Primacy effect
 Early info weighs more
 Self-fulfilling prophecy
 We bring about expected behavior in another
person
 Stereotypes
 A set of characteristics believed to be shared
by all members of a social category
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B. Attribution
 Explaining behavior
 Biases
 Fundamental attribution error
 Overemphasize
personal causes for others and
underestimate personal causes for self
Defensive attribution
 Success attributed to own efforts, failure to
external factors
 Just-world hypothesis - assume bad things happen
to bad people
 Attribution across cultures
 Varies dramatically
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C. Interpersonal Attraction
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Proximity - living or working close
Physical Attractiveness
 Power assumptions about character
Similarity
 In attitudes, interests, values, background
Exchange
 We like people who appreciate us
Intimacy - self disclosure
2. Attitudes
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A. The Nature of Attitudes
 Attitudes and behaviors
 Relatively stable beliefs, feelings, and behaviors
(math)
 Self-monitoring
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Behave as others expect
Attitude development
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Imitation
Reward
Teachers
Peers
Mass media
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B. Prejudice and Discrimination
Prejudice
 Unfair attitude
 Sources of prejudice
 Frustration-aggression theory
 Displaced frustration - scapegoat
 Authoritarian personality
 Rigidly conventional
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Racism
 Directed at particular racial group
 Modern racism
 More subtle
 Institutional racism
 $36,915 average income of white family
 $21,423 average income of African-American
family
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Reducing prejudice
 Recategorize
 Catholics and Protestants view themselves
as Christians
 Education
 Equal status contact and one-to-one contact
 Cooperation
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C. Attitude Change
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Process of Persuasion
 1. Attention
 2. Comprehending
 3. Accepting
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Communication Model
 Source
 Message
 Medium
 Audience
Cognitive dissonance
 Two contradictory cognitions
 Increase consonant elements
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D. Compliance
 Change in behavior in response to a request
E. Obedience
 Obey orders
3. Social Influence
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A. Cultural Influence
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Norm
 Shared idea about how to behave
B. Cultural Assimilators
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technique of asking why people behave a certain way
- staying open-minded
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C. Conformity
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Yield to social norms
Conformity across cultures
 Varies - higher in collectivist cultures
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D. Compliance
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Change in behavior in response to a request from
someone
foot-in-the-door (get them to say yes first)
lowball (get compliance then raise price)
door-in-the-face (get them to decline large request
then ask something smaller)
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E. Obedience
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Change in behavior in response to a command
Milgram
4. Social Action
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A. Deindividuation
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Loss of personal sense of responsibility in a group
B. Helping Behavior
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Altruistic behavior - helping behavior that is not linked
to personal gain
Bystander effect - helpfulness decreases as
bystanders increase
Helping behavior across cultures
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C. Group Dynamics
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Polarization in group decision making
 Shift toward more extreme position
The effectiveness of groups
 Groupthink - Bay of Pigs invasion, Watergate
cover-up, Challenger disaster
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Group Leadership
 Great person theory
 Personal qualities qualify one to lead
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D. Organizational Behavior
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Productivity
 Hawthorne effect
 Just attention of experimenter changed
behavior
Communication and responsibility
 Buy-in is important
 Shared governance