1. Chapter 15 6th Edition
Social Psychology: The
Individual in Society
15-1

2. Social Psychology and Culture
• Social psychology examines the causes,
types, and consequences of human
interaction.
• Human interactions do not occur in
isolation; they occur in a specific cultural
context.
• Researchers are sometimes guilty of
ethnocentrism;they disregard cultural
differences and see other cultures as an
extension of their own ―superior‖ culture.
15-2

3. Social Psychology and Culture
• Because culture can influence the type of
research problem we choose to
investigate, the nature of our research
hypothesis, and the selection of the
variables we choose to manipulate and
record, researchers must guard against
ethnocentrism.
15-3

4. Social Psychology and Culture
• Individualism is defined as placing one’s
own goals above those of the group.
• Collectivism is defined as placing group
goals above individual goals.
• The degree of individualism or collectivism
in a culture can influence many aspects of
behavior, such as interpersonal relations,
self-concept, parenting practices, self-
esteem, and emotional expression.
15-4

5. Social Cognition
• Impression formation is the process of
developing an opinion about another
person. Requires an actor and a perceiver
• In addition to forming impressions of
others, we also make judgments, called
attributions,about the reasons for or
causes of this person’s behavior.
15-5

6. Social Cognition
• A stereotype (+ OR – ) is a set of beliefs about
members of a particular group.They reduce the amount
of information that must be processed
• In-group stereotypes refer to the stereotypes that we
have about people who are in the same group(s) we
belong to; they typically are positive stereotypes.
• Out-group stereotypes tend to be negative and describe
others in such terms as ―them‖ or ―those people.‖
• They are persistent b/c:
– 1) If we believe that a group of people possesses certain
characteristics, we may selectively note behaviors that are
consistent with those characteristics and fail to notice behaviors
that are inconsistent.
– 2) When your behaviors influence others to respond the way you
expect, a self-fulfilling prophecy is at work. 15-6

7. Social Cognition – Examples
• The ―beautiful is good‖ stereotype
assumes that attractive people have
positive characteristics—that they are
witty and intelligent and have pleasing
personalities.
• Therefore, attractive people can be
expected to make better impressions.
15-7

8. Social Cognition
• Four features of the actor have been
shown to influence impression formation.
• Those features are:
1) physical appearance,
2) style and content of speech,
3) nonverbal mannerisms and nonverbal
communication, and
4) the perceiver’s prior information about the
actor.
15-8

9. Social Cognition
• With regard to impression formation, an
actor’s style of speech is important.
• Among the aspects of speech that are
influential are speed, volume, and
inflections (variations).
• The content of speech is also important.
15-9

10. Social Cognition
• More self-disclosure = more positive the
impression others form.
• However, too much self-disclosure early in
a relationship can create a negative
impression.
15-10

11. Social Cognition
• Attribution is the process by which we
decide why certain events occurred or why a
particular person acted in a certain manner.
• With internal attributions, behavior is seen as
being caused by factors that reside within a
person.
• With external attributions, the causes of
behavior are viewed as residing outside an
individual.
15-11

12. How We View Others
and Their Behavior
• Our confidence in making attributions regarding
internal or external causes is greatest when the
behaviors we observe are consistent.
• Consensus refers to the reactions of other
people to the external object or behavior in
question.
• When consensus is high and everyone views the
behavior or object in the same manner, we tend
to make external attributions; when it is low and
no one agrees about the behavior or object in
question, we tend to make internal attributions.
15-12

13. Social Cognition
• The fundamental attribution error is the
tendency to attribute behaviors to internal
causes.
• Perceivers are more likely to make internal
attributions, while actors are more likely to
make external attributions.
15-13

14. Social Cognition
• The self-serving bias is the tendency to
make internal attributions when we are
successful and external attributions when
we fail.
• The just world belief is the belief that bad
things happen to bad people and good
things happen to good people.
15-14

15. Attitudes
• Attitudes are evaluative judgments about
objects, people, and thoughts that include
affective, knowledge, and behavioral
components.
• They protect us from threats to the self or ego.
• Bring order and meaning to the world.
• Can develop through operant or classical
conditioning.
• Can be measured with a (1 – 5) Likert Scale
15-15

16. Interpersonal Relations
• Attraction
• Friendship
15-16

17. Interpersonal Relations
• Passionate love is a transitory form of
love characterized by strong emotional
reactions, sexual desires, and fantasies.
• Companionate love is characterized by a
long-term relationship and commitment.
• Sex roles can influence the love
relationship.
15-17

18. Interpersonal Relations
• Interdependence theory takes into account the
costs and rewards in a relationship, as well as
the available alternatives.
• Each person develops a comparison level
(CL); this CL is the general outcome you expect
from a relationship.
• Your CL is based on your past experiences and
the experiences of others in similar situations.
15-18

19. Interpersonal Relations
• You are satisfied with a relationship when
the outcomes are equal to or above your
CL.
• You become dissatisfied when the
outcomes fall below your CL.
• People leave a relationship when the
outcomes fall below their CLs for other
relationships.
15-19

20. Interpersonal Relations
• Prosocial behavior is behavior that
benefits others.
• Altruism refers to helping behavior
performed with no anticipation of reward.
(But is it?)
• Higher levels of prosocial behavior are
positively correlated with empathy, social
skills, and extraversion.
15-20

21. Interpersonal Relations
• Bystander
effect: The
tendency for a
group of
bystanders to be
less likely than
an individual to
provide
assistance to a
person in trouble.
15-21

22. Interpersonal Relations
• Among the factors that determine the
bystander effect are degree of danger,
embarrassment, not knowing how to help,
and diffusion of responsibility.
15-22

23. Interpersonal Relations
• Date rape appears to result from
misperceptions, especially on the part of
men, about the acceptability of sexual
relations in certain situations.
• Heavy alcohol consumption is another
factor that often leads to date rape on
college campuses.
15-23

24. Social Influences on Behavior
• Persuasion is the use of social influence
to cause other people to change their
attitudes and behaviors.
• The expertise, attractiveness, and
trustworthiness of the source of a
message are important determinants of
persuasion.
15-24

25. Social Influences on Behavior
• The sleeper effect occurs when the
message and its source become
detached.
• Messages from sources low in expertise,
attractiveness, and trustworthiness may
increase in effectiveness due to the
sleeper effect.
15-25

26. Social Influences on Behavior
• Obedience is the initiating or
changing of behavior in
response to a direct command
of an authority.
• In cases in which obedience
will result in harm to another
person, obedience increases
with proximity to the source of
the commands but decreases
with proximity to the victim.
• If the source of the commands
takes responsibility for any
harm resulting from obedience
to those commands, the
likelihood of obedience is high.
15-26

27. Social Influences on Behavior
• Conformity results from indirect social
pressure on an individual to change his or
her behaviors and thoughts.
• The nature of the authority behind
pressures for conformity is not as obvious
as it is in commands for obedience.
15-27

28. Social Influences on Behavior
• Selecting the
matching line seems
simple!
• However, 30% of
Asch’s participants
chose incorrectly to
conform with the
group.
15-28

29. Social Influences on Behavior
• Compliance refers to behavior that is
initiated or changed as a result of a
request.
• The foot-in-the-dooreffect is a
phenomenon in which a person who has
agreed to a small request is more likely to
comply with a subsequent larger request.
15-29

30. Social Influences on Behavior
• In the door-in-the-face technique, people are
first presented with an extremely large request,
which they likely will refuse, and then they are
presented with a more reasonable request that
they are more likely to accept.
• The compliance technique known as reciprocity
involves doing something for someone else to
make that person feel obligated to do something
in return.
15-30

31. The Individual as Part
of a Social Group
• The presence of
other people
increases arousal,
which may result
in enhanced ability
to perform a
desired response.
• This effect is
known as social
facilitation.
15-31

32. The Individual as Part
of a Social Group
• Social loafing is the tendency to exert
less effort when working on a group task if
individual contributions are not evaluated.
• Social loafing can be reduced by making
the task more involving, challenging,
appealing, or competitive.
15-32

33. The Individual as Part
of a Social Group
• Groupthink is the tendency to make decisions
intended primarily to promote the harmony of the
group.
• Groupthink occurs most often in very cohesive
groups that are insulated from other opinions
and groups, feel that they are invulnerable, have
a respected and directive leader, and are placed
under time constraints to reach a decision
concerning a threat to the group.
• In these circumstances, groups tend to make
premature and poorly considered decisions. 15-33

34. The Individual as Part
of a Social Group
• Steps to help avoid being snared into the
groupthink trap:
– The leader should strive to remain impartial
and nondirective.
– Opinions should be gathered from people
outside the group.
– Use secret ballots.
15-34

35. The Individual as Part
of a Social Group
• Prejudice is judging a person on the basis
of stereotypes about the group to which
the person belongs.
• Prejudice may be reduced through contact
among members of different groups.
• Discrimination consists of behaviors
directed at members of a particular group
that affect them adversely.
15-35

36. The Individual as Part
of a Social Group
• Prejudice frequently justifies social
standing or maintains self-esteem.
• Because it makes us feel superior,
prejudice can also satisfy our emotional
need for status.
• Gordon Allport proposed that ―equal status
contact between majority and minority
groups in the pursuit of common goals‖
would reduce prejudice.
15-36