3. What is Social Psychology?
• Social Psychology is the scientific study of
social influence (p. 16)
– We are influenced not only directly, but also
indirectly;
– The mere presence of someone else, and even the
imaginary presence of someone else, can also
influence us!
• Below are some possible questions we might
investigate…
4. What explains the rise of Nazism?
"Resistance would have been another form of suicide.”
5. What causes violence and
competition? Cooperation?
• Why did the British and Germans stop shooting at each other
during WWI? More importantly, why would they start fighting
in the first place?!
• The Christmas Truce of 1914 was a series of widespread
unofficial ceasefires that took place along the Western Front
around Christmas 1914, during the First World War.
• British and German mingled, held meetings, joint burial
ceremonies, sang carols, and even played games of soccer.
7. How do we define a ‘situation?’
• There are two basic approaches to defining a
social situation scientifically:
1. Behaviorism- defines the situation in terms of
the objectively observable rewards and
punishments that occur.
8. How do we define a ‘situation?’
2. Gestalt Psychologists-
stresses the importance of
how people perceive their
environment; takes into
account their subjective
beliefs and expectations. (see
the Thomas Theorem)
9. What is Social REALITY?
• Thomas theorem: "If people define
situations as real, they are real in their
consequences“
• To understand human inter-actions and
relations, sociologists have to
understand both reality, and perceived
reality.
W. I. Thomas
1863 - 1947
10. The power of the situation
• A definition of the situation
consists of our expectations of
the relevant roles that ‘make
sense’ in a given context , and
the corresponding behaviors
associated with these roles
Behavior Situation
• Role = “social scripts that are
attached to the statuses
people occupy”.
• Different situations can elicit
different behaviors!
11. The power of the situation
• We normally think an individual’s behavior is a
consequence or effect of his/her personality, the type
of person s/he is, or some other internal characteristic.
• The textbook calls this the fundamental attribution
error.
CAUSE = EFFECT =
Inside Outside
Personality Behavior
Common-sense view of human behavior
12. The power of the situation
• This view is incomplete! Behaviors are often
influenced more by social context, i.e. the
expectations we have of relevant or appropriate
behaviors defining a perceived situation.
CAUSE =
Relevant Labeling of
Perceived
Behavior Personality
situation
Sociological view of human behavior
13. The power of the situation
• Quote: “Individual behavior is largely under the control of
social forces … rather than personality traits, character, will
power or other empirically unvalidated constructs. Thus
we create the illusion of freedom, by attributing more
internal control to ourselves, to the individual, than
actually exists. We thus underestimate the power and
pervasiveness of situational controls over behavior….”
(Zimbardo, pg. 142)
CAUSE =
Relevant Labeling of
Perceived
Behavior Personality
situation
Sociological view of human behavior
15. The influence of social context
• Individuals are often
influenced by
circumstances over which
s/he has little control
• Examples: your native
language, your religious
and political beliefs, your
parent’s income, etc.
Starvation in East Africa, 2011
16. The influence of social context
• Sometimes, interacting
individuals create
collective circumstances
that everyone is Traffic jam
subjected to, but no one
intends!
• Example: traffic jams Unintended
Consequences
Intended
actions
of Actions
17. The influence of social context
• Some attributes are valued more highly
in some contexts or societies than in
others. Individuals can adapt to these
realities, but cannot control them.
• Example: standards of beauty.
18. Social context and
decision-making
• Most human behaviors are not ‘decisions’; rather
we have varying degrees of susceptibility to
influence from others.
• People are responsible for their own actions and
decisions in life, but sociologists will still examine
those factors that make some decisions and
actions more likely than others.
• Example: Smoking Crack
19. Social context and
decision-making
Example: Standing Ovations.
• We are socialized to pay attention to how
others respond to situations.
• Our decision to stand is often not based on
how we personally feel, but what other
people are doing.
21. The Power of Expectations
• Pygmalion Effect (aka
Rosenthal effect): the
greater the expectation
placed upon people, the
better they perform.
– According to legend, Pygmalion
was the king of Cyprus who fell
in love with a beautiful woman
(Galatea) he sculpted out of
ivory.
22. The Power of Expectations
• In the 1960s Robert Rosenthal
and Lenore Jacobson
hypothesized that teacher
expectations influenced
children’s performance.
• Study: they randomly assigned 1
out of 5 children to the
‘spurter/bloomer’ group, but
told teachers these students
were selected to the group
based on test performances that
indicated future success.
• Findings: the kids who were
expected to ‘spurt’ made larger
improvements than nonspurters.
23. Self-fulfilling and Self-negating
prophecies
• A self-fulfilling prophecy is something that
comes true because you believe it will
come true.
– Example: bank run, placebos, psychic
predictions, etc…
• A self-negating prophecy is something that,
once believed to be true or expected to
happen, cannot happen (or becomes less
likely to happen).
Editor's Notes
In his book Defying Hitler, the German writer Sebastian Haffner recalls how he, an enemy of the Nazis, had been coerced into taking part in their activities. In the mid-1930s, when the Nazi army of intimidation, the brownshirts, marched through the streets, they beat anyone who failed to salute. Defiant in his own small way, Haffner often ducked into doorways. But when he and other students of law were ordered into an indoctrination camp, he found himself wearing a brown shirt and joining the very same marches."Resistance would have been another form of suicide," Haffner wrote, and the oppressed, unwittingly, became oppressor: When we came through villages, the people on either side of the road raised their arms to greet the flag, or disappeared quickly in some house entrance. They did this because they had learned that if they did not, we, that is I, would beat them up. It made not the slightest difference that I—and, no doubt others among us—ourselves fled into entryways to avoid these flags, when we were not marching behind them. Now we were the ones embodying an implicit threat of violence against all bystanders. They greeted the flag or disappeared.Source:Buchanan, Mark (2008-12-05). The Social Atom: Why the Rich Get Richer, Cheaters Get Caught, and Your Neighbor Usually Looks Like You (p. 2). Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Christmas truce was a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires that took place along the Western Front around Christmas 1914, during the First World War. Through the week leading up to Christmas, parties of German and British soldiers began to exchange seasonal greetings and songs between their trenches; on occasion, the tension was reduced to the point that individuals would walk across to talk to their opposite numbers bearing gifts. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, many soldiers from both sides – as well as, to a lesser degree, from French units – independently ventured into "no man's land", where they mingled, exchanging food and souvenirs. As well as joint burial ceremonies, several meetings ended in carol-singing. Troops from both sides were also friendly enough to play games of football with one another.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truceSee also Buchanan’s The Social Atom, and Jeremy Rifkin’s Empathic Civilization.
There are two levels here to evaluate: what is going on, and what people think is going on; the facts, and perceived facts; the world of physical, material objects and the world of meanings ascribed to these objects. The relation between these two levels is often complicated. For example, a sufficient sociological explanation would not only explain to people that what they believe to be true is in fact only partially true or false, but also, to explain what about the real world leads to their being deluded about it in the first place!
Even if a given situation does not predetermine how one is to behave, it often establishes the relevant range of expected behaviors, i.e. defines a social universe within which some actions make sense and others do not. For example, in the context of a chess game, yelling ‘fire’ can only make sense as a change of the very definition of the situation, i.e. context of relevance.
In a standing ovation, people are more likely to stand when they see others stand. Once everyone is standing, it is an act of social defiance or resistance to stay seated. One ‘feels’ like one should stand. Our behavior is influenced and partly determined by watching the behavior of others.
