A complete summary of module 3 "Social Psychology" of Psychology Introduction, Psych1010. Includes all content from seminars and relevant labs. Studying this got me a high distinction in this course.
Social Psychology
Social Psychology
Examines the influence of social pressures on the way people think (cognitions), feel (emotions) and behave
(actions).
Attitudes
A relatively stable evaluation of an object/person/location/place etc. Either +ve or -ve impression. 3 components:
cognitive (polar bears can eat a person) → emotional (they are scary) → behavioural (*moves to Australia*). E.g., La
Pierre study (Chinese couple and restaurant service).
Attitudes are likely to predict behaviour when:
Attitude and behaviour are specific
Environmental reinforcement matches attitude
Important others share the same attitude
Attitudes are implicit/unconsciousness
Attitude is strong
Developed from personal experience
Developing attitudes → Impression Formation
1. Need memory system
2. Need to be able to ‘group’ characteristics
3. Need to apply these to social characteristics
Cognitive algebra: weighing up positive/negative traits
Asch 1946: Central traits: one personality trait difference dramatically shaped perception of this person.
Also, 1st word sets tone
Rules of attraction
Psych principle: you either want to be close to something/someone or as far from it as possible
4 Basic Rules of Social Attraction:
1. Proximity – are physically close (or high interaction possibility) vs environmental spoiling
2. Interpersonal rewards – what have you done for me lately
3. Similarity – share values, attitudes, beliefs
4. Physical attraction – same level of attractiveness (matching hypothesis)
Attraction vs arousal: men found women hotter on high bridge (natural reaction to height – racing heart, blood rush
etc) interpreted as arousal.
Categorising People
Schema: way of representing things about the world (see cognitive development)
o Social psych: way of representing people, eg. Priests
Prototype/exemplar: typical member of a group/category. Say you had only met 1 person from this group,
they would represent all of that population in your mind.
Social categories: allow us to minimise the work required to make attributes about people you meet. People
with thing in common (eg. Country) but don’t interact. Exemplar based → prototype based. Eg. Lawyers.
, Stereotype: group schema, learned by socialisation process (not direct experience, modelling parents
attitudes, peak around 7yrs then decline, in group/out group)
Racism
→ Stereotype – cognitive component (overgeneralised characteristics, inaccurate)
→ Prejudice – emotional component (learned negative attitude towards group: thoughts, feelings, behaviours)
→ Discrimination – behavioural component
In group/out group = my group/your group → simple categories to define groups, treat our own group more
favourably
o Overestimate difference between groups
o Underestimate difference within groups (justifies war)
Influences of groups
Social loafing: reduce individual effort when pooling effort with others for common goal. Ringlemann 1913: each
man exerted less force pulling rope as team
Social facilitation: physical/cognitive performance altered by the presence of others (↑performance in easy tasks =
social facilitation, ↓performance with hard tasks = social inhibition). Triplett 1898: presence of other bike riders
improved performance.
Intergroup competition: Sherif 1961: Robbers cave experiment. Positive propaganda did not work, contact did not
work. Cooperative action worked.
Changing Someone’s Attitude – Persuasion
Components of persuasion:
Persuasive sources are credible, attractive, likeable, powerful and similar to the recipient
Persuasive messages match the recipients level of consideration of the topic
Persuasive channels of delivery are personal (e.g. face-to face)
Context — messages should be delivered at the right time and in the right place, attitude inoculation
Persuasion is likely if the receiver has weaker attitudes and/or is attending to the message.
Festinger and Carlsmith: lie that experiment was interesting for either $1 or $20. $1 group then believes it was
interesting/counter-attitudinal behaviour (not worth money so it must’ve been.) = external justification.
Cognitive Dissonance: inconsistency between attitude and behaviour changes cognition. Is drive to reduce tension of
dissonance. Most easily changed elements changes (usually attitude), unless there is external justification for
inconsistent cognition.
Conformity
Change in behaviour, belief, or both to fit into a group norm as a result of real or imagined group pressure (Kiesler &
Kiesler 1970).
Obedience
Milgram: 1933-84: electric shock experiment. 30% went all the way. PTSD. Factors influencing obedience:
Proximity of teacher and learner (obedience ↑ when they couldn’t see/hear the person getting shocked)
Proximity of authority figure (obedience ↑ when in same room)
Location of study (Obedience decreased if the study was conducted by a commercial firm vs. a prestigious
university)
Role of the situation:
Holfing et. al. 1996: can’t predict our obedience in situations. Role-play nurses said they wouldn’t administer
medication on unknown orders, but 95% were about to in experiment
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