PSYC 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Stanford Prison Experiment, Fundamental Attribution Error, Deindividuation
Chapter 12: Social Psychology
Social Psychology
●Social psychology- study of how people influence others’ behavior, beliefs, and attitudes
●We (erroneously) tend to think others are vulnerable to social influence, but not ourselves
●Can lead us to doubt social psychology findings initially
Humans as a Social Species
●We are predisposed to forming intimate interpersonal networks that are only so large
○150 people or so
●Need-to-belong theory and biologically based need for interpersonal connections
●It literally hurts us to be isolated or rejected
●Most social influence processes are adaptive under most circumstances, but can turn
maladaptive when blind or unquestioning
Social Comparison Theory
●We seek to evaluate our abilities and beliefs by comparing them with those of others
●Upward and downward social comparison
●Both can boost our self-concept
Fundamental Attribution Error
●Attributions- are assigning causes to behavior
○Internal (dispositional)- enduring characteristics, personality traits, attitudes, and
intelligence
○External (situational)- whats going on around the person influence
●When we look at others’ behavior, we
○Overestimate impact of dispositional influences
○Underestimate impact of situational influences
Attributions of the self and others
●Do the opposite for our own behavior (actor-observer bias)
●Also tend to see ourselves more favorably (self-serving bias)
●Just-world hypothesis- belief that people get the outcomes they deserve
Self-presentation
●Social role- pattern of behavior that is expected of a person or group
●Social norm- group’s expectation of what is appropriate and acceptable behavior for its
members
●Scripts- a person’s knowledge about the sequence of events expected in a specific setting
Stanford Prison Study
●Recruited normal young men for a two week “psychological study of prison life”
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●Randomly assigned them to be either a prisoner or a guard
●Prisoners were dressed as such, referred to by number and not name
●By second day, guards began to treat prisoners cruelly and dole out punishment
●Prisoners started a rebellion, guards became increasingly sadistic
●Had to stop study only after 6 days due to nervous breakdowns by prisoners
Deindividuation
●The tendency of people to engage in atypical behavior when stripped of their usual
identity
●Become more vulnerable to social influence
●Wearing masks and concealing identity, for example, leads to deindividuation
Chaos in the Real World
●Events as Abu Ghraib echoed those of the Stanford Prison Study
●Still, individual differences are at play in deindividuation
●Makes us more likely to conform to whatever norms (good or bad) are present in the
situation
Attitudes
●Attitude- our evaluation of a person, idea, or object
●Attitudes are typically favorable or unfavorable
●Attitudes involve:
○An affective component (feelings)
○A behavioral component (effect of attitude on behavior)
○A cognitive component (belief and knowledge)
Attitude Change
●Cognitive dissonance theory- unpleasant state of tension between two opposing
thoughts/cognitions/attitudes/beliefs
●We are motivated to reduce or eliminate it, 3 options to resolve it
●Can change cognition A, change cognition B, or introduce new cognition C
Persuasion
●Persuasion- the process of changing our attitude toward something based on some kind
of communication
●Features of the person who is attempting to persuade you can have an impact:
○Attractive or famous people
○Highly credible people
○If messenger is similar to you (implicit egotism)
●Features of the message matter too:
○Subtetly
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Social psychology- study of how people influence others" behavior, beliefs, and attitudes. We (erroneously) tend to think others are vulnerable to social influence, but not ourselves. Can lead us to doubt social psychology findings initially. We are predisposed to forming intimate interpersonal networks that are only so large. Need-to-belong theory and biologically based need for interpersonal connections. It literally hurts us to be isolated or rejected. Most social influence processes are adaptive under most circumstances, but can turn maladaptive when blind or unquestioning. We seek to evaluate our abilities and beliefs by comparing them with those of others. Internal (dispositional)- enduring characteristics, personality traits, attitudes, and intelligence. External (situational)- whats going on around the person influence. When we look at others" behavior, we. Do the opposite for our own behavior (actor-observer bias) Also tend to see ourselves more favorably (self-serving bias) Just-world hypothesis- belief that people get the outcomes they deserve.
