Social psychology involves the study of how individuals are influenced by and influence others. Key areas of focus include social perception and judgments of others, conformity to group pressures, prejudice and discrimination, and attribution or how people explain the behaviors of themselves and others. Research has shown people tend to conform to group norms, obey authority figures even when instructed to harm others, and make internal rather than external attributions for people's behaviors. The goal is to understand social thinking, attitudes, and behaviors.

1. Social Psychology

2.  Social Psychology involves the study of social
interactions, stereotypes, prejudices, attitudes,
conformity, group behaviors, and aggression.
 Goal of this field of study is to understand and
explain how our thoughts, feelings, perceptions,
and behaviors are influenced by the presence of,
or interaction with, others.

3.  Social Perception: The way in which we perceive,
evaluate, categorize and make judgments about the
qualities of others.
 Primacy Effect: the first information we receive about a
person tends to have the greatest influence on our
perception of that person.
 Implicit Personality Theory: assuming that traits occur
together in others’ personalities
 Shy & quiet  lack assertiveness, less intelligent
 Halo Effect: The tendency to infer other positive (or
negative) traits from our perception of one trait in
another person
 More attractive women  more intelligent & socially
gifted
 Thinner men  more attractive, enthusiastic & successful

4.  The tendency for an individual to feel
a diminished sense of responsibility
to assist in an emergency when other
bystanders are present.
 Feel less personal responsibility and
are less likely to take action in a
situation where help is required.
 Study by Darley & Latane and the
Kitty Genovese case (page 365)

5.  Attribution theory: The theory that we
attempt to make sense out of other
people’s behavior by attributing it to
either dispositional (internal) causes
of situational (external) causes.
 Internal: events caused by the
person’s temperament, tendency, or
inclination. (part of the person)
 External: the circumstance or situation
in which the person is.

6.  The Fundamental Attribution Error: is
the tendency to overestimate
dispositional (internal) causes and to
underestimate situational (external)
causes of behavior.
 Are you more likely to blame the abused
woman if you didn’t know the system
had failed her?
 Would you claim that she could have left
if she really wanted to?

7.  The False Consensus Bias: is an
attribution bias caused by the
assumption that most people share
our own attitudes and behaviors.
 Belief that our beliefs and attitudes are
more common than they really are, or at
least more prevalent than beliefs held by
others that are inconsistent with our own.

8.  The Illusion of Control is an
attributional bias caused by the belief
that we control events in our own lives
that are really beyond our control.
 Promotion given to person who has been
with company longer than you (of which
you have no control), so we make
ourselves feel better by pretending we
had some control (we don’t like a lack of
control) by saying that we should have
done something to better our chances.

9.  Any learned, relatively enduring dispositions to
respond in consistently favorable or unfavorable
ways to certain people, groups, ideas, or
situations.
 Attitudes are shaped by experience
 Behavioral Observations (others & ourselves)
 Classical Conditioning (associating two things
together)
 Operant Conditioning (punishment & reward)
 Direct Experience

10.  Favorite Music?
 What attributes do you find attractive
or sexy?
 Food preferences?
 Gender Roles?
 Racism?
 Sexism?
 Ageism?

11.  Prejudice: Negative, unjustifiable, and
inflexible attitude toward a group and its
members.
 Discrimination: the behavioral consequences
of prejudice in which one group is treated
differently from another group.

12.  Ingroup: In social psychology, the group in
which people include themselves when they
divide the world into “us” and “them.”
 Ingroup Bias: The tendency to see one’s own
group in a favorable light.

13.  Conformity: the tendency to change or
modify behaviors so that they are
consistent with those of other people.
 Any behavior you perform because of
group pressure, even though that
pressure might not involve direct
requests
 Wear clothes that are in style, use
common slang phrases, buying the latest
and most popular products.

14.  Informational Social Influence: one
basis for conformity, in which we
accept a group’s beliefs or behaviors
as providing accurate information
about reality.
 We might use the reactions of others to
judge the meaning of a situation.
 The bum sleeping on the street must be
ok, because no one is stopping to help
him.

15.  Normative Social Influence: one basis
for conformity, in which we conform
not because of an actual change in our
beliefs, but because we think we will
benefit in some way (such as gaining
approval)
 Volunteering to get a raise or promotion
 Guy agreeing to go see a chick flick with
girlfriend or wife

16.  Compliance: a kind of conformity in
which we give in to social pressure in
our public responses but do not
change our private beliefs.
 We alter our behavior in response to
direct requests from others
 Usually involves a degree of coercion
 Ex you might comply with your
instructors suggestion to re-write a paper,
even though you do not agree with it.

17.  Obedience: Social influence in
which we alter our behavior in
response to commands or orders
from people perceived as having
some power or authority over us.
 I have to file my taxes, because if I
don’t…the IRS will find me!

18.  Stanley Milgram (1963) wanted to determine if
subjects would inflict considerable pain on
others merely because an authority figure
instructed them to do so.
 Teacher and students (actors)
 65% used the highest voltage (continued even
beyond the point they thought was dangerous)
 Psychiatrists predicted less than 1% would be
obedient

19.  When the subjects (teachers) were given
orders over the phone, they were more likely
to disobey (disobedience)
 Results indicate that the majority of people
will obey orders that they know are
unreasonable.