Chapter 8 – Behavior in Social and Cultural Context

 

I.  Social Psychology:  Interactions w/ society, and how it affects us

       A.  Social norms

       B.  Social roles

              1.  Obedience and blind obedience

                     a.  Milgram’s classic study

                     b.  Zimbardo’s prison study

                     c.  When are we most likely to be blindly obedient?

                           i.  authority figure has the responsibility

                           ii.  routinizing the task

                           iii.  wanting to be polite

                           iv.  becoming entrapped (“foot in the door”)

 

II.  Social Cognition

       A.  Attribution theory

              1.  situational vs. dispositional attributions

              2.  Fundamental Attribution Error

              3.  Self-serving bias

              4.  Just-world hypothesis

       B.  Attitudes and how to change them

              1.  Via cognitive dissonance (as we’ll see in chpt 9)

              2.  Friendly persuasion

                     a.  Familiarity effect (eg, advertising)

                     b.  Validity effect (Goebbel’s “big lie”)

                     c.  endorsement by admired others, linkage with positive feelings

              3.  Coercive persuasion (brainwashing)

 

III.  Group behavior

       A.  Conformity

              1.  Asch’s conformity study

              2.  When are we least likely to conform?

                     a.  when responding is private rather than public

                     b.  when we have an ally (even if just two against the rest)

                     c.  when situation is not ambiguous

       B.  Groupthink

       C.  “Anonymous Crowd”

              1.   Diffusion of responsibility

                     a.  bystander apathy (Kitty Genovese story)

                     b.  social loafing (e.g., tug-of-war)

                     c.  deindividuation (e.g., riots at MSU)

                     d.  When are we most likely to help?

                           i.  you perceive the need to help

                           ex:  man on sidewalk:  drunk?  Or had heart attack?

                           ii.  fewer people available to help

                           iii.   less risk to you in helping

                           iv.  cultural norms of helping

              2.  Panicky crowds

                     a.  example:  getting trampled leaving room on fire

                     b.  “prisoner’s dilemma”

                     c.  if could trust everyone else to act rationally, wouldn’t need to ‘panic’ but since can’t, it’s more rational to act in own interest

 

IV.  Group-based Conflicts

       A.  Ethnocentrism and Social Identity

       B.  In-groups vs Out-groups

              1.  Sherif’s summer camp study

       C.  Stereotypes

              1.  Role of illusory correlations

              2.  Impact of in-group and out-group effects

       D.  Prejudice

              1.  Resistance to evidence

       E.  Ways of reducing group-based conflicts

              1.  Equalizing structures

              2.  Social pressure

              3.  Increase contact with “other”

              4.  Foster cooperation