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    Social psychology is the scientific study of how individuals think, feel, and behave in social situations. It examines social thinking, social influences, and social relations. Early experiments showed the power of social context on individuals. Related fields include sociology, clinical psychology, personality psychology, and cognitive psychology. While common sense may seem similar, social psychology uses scientific methods and experiments to test theories rather than relying on oversimplified assumptions. The history of social psychology began with studies on how the presence of others affects performance, and it has increasingly integrated perspectives from emotion, motivation, cognition, biology, evolution, culture, and new technologies.

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    Social psychology is the scientific study of how individuals think, feel, and behave in social situations. It examines social thinking, social influences, and social relations. Early experiments showed the power of social context on individuals. Related fields include sociology, clinical psychology, personality psychology, and cognitive psychology. While common sense may seem similar, social psychology uses scientific methods and experiments to test theories rather than relying on oversimplified assumptions. The history of social psychology began with studies on how the presence of others affects performance, and it has increasingly integrated perspectives from emotion, motivation, cognition, biology, evolution, culture, and new technologies.

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    77 views55 pages

    First&Semester&: Chapter&1:&Intro&to&Social&Psych& &

    Uploaded by

    Neev Tighnavard
    Social psychology is the scientific study of how individuals think, feel, and behave in social situations. It examines social thinking, social influences, and social relations. Early experiments showed the power of social context on individuals. Related fields include sociology, clinical psychology, personality psychology, and cognitive psychology. While common sense may seem similar, social psychology uses scientific methods and experiments to test theories rather than relying on oversimplified assumptions. The history of social psychology began with studies on how the presence of others affects performance, and it has increasingly integrated perspectives from emotion, motivation, cognition, biology, evolution, culture, and new technologies.

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    of 55

    First&Semester&

    Chapter&1:&Intro&to&Social&Psych&
    &
    Intro to Social Psych
    Defining Social Psychology
    • What is it?
    o Scientific studies of how individuals think, feel, and behave in a social context.
    o Scientific: Systematic observations, descriptions, measurements
    o Scientific study of:
    • Social Thinking: How we perceive ourselves and others, what we believe, judgments we make
    • Social Influences: Culture and biology, pressures to conform, persuasion
    • Social Relations: Helping, aggression, attraction , intimacy, &prejudice
    • Why does "socialness" of society vary?
    o Psychologists measure things in different ways
    o They sometimes examine how nonsocial factors affect social thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and sometimes study
    how social factors influence nonsocial thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
    The Power of the Social Context: An Example of a Social Psychology Experiment
    • What was the Social Psych experiment that showed the Power of the Social Context?
    o How thinking about others influences our own self perceptions:
    o Female undergraduates who were made aware of cultural norms regarding thinness experienced a decrease in
    their overall body satisfaction ratings and reported being more concerned with the opinions of others.
    Distinctions and Intersections of Social Psychology and Related Fields
    • What are some related fields to Social Psychology: Distinctions and Intersections?
    • Be prepared to answer a couple questions that tell you to decipher the field.
    o Sociology:
    o Differences
    • Social psych: Focuses on individuals
    • Sociology: Focuses on groups
    o Same
    • Share interest in many of the same issues: violence, prejudice, culture and marriage
    • Both help in understanding societal and immediate factors that influence behavior
    o Clinical psychology
    o Differences
    • Social Psych: focuses on more typical ways in which individuals think, feel, behave, and interact
    • Clinical Psych: Focuses on disorders and differences
    o Same
    • Both are interested in how the individual engages with others and his or her environment
    o Personality psychology
    o Differences
    • Social Psych: Focuses on how different situations affect most people
    • Personality psych: focuses on differences between individuals that occur across a variety of
    situations
    o Same
    • They complement each other
    • Do situational factors interact with individual difference
    o Cognitive
    o Differences
    • Social Psych: Interested in mental processes with respect to social info and how these
    processes influence social behavior
    • Cognitive Psych: Study mental processes overall
    o Same
    • Social Cognition has become an important area within social psych
    Social Psychology: Why is it not Common Sense?
    • Social psychological theories and findings appear to be like common sense, But…
    o Problem: Common Sense may offer conflicting explanations and provide no way to test
    o Problem: common sense is often oversimplified and misleading.
    • Social Psych uses tests and facts.

    From Past to Present: A Brief History of Social Psychology


    The Birth and Infancy of Social Psychology: 1880s–1920s
    • Norman Triplett & Max Ringelmann
    ! Established Basis of Social Psych: how the presence of others affects an individual’s performance.
    • Cyclists raced faster when observers present
    ! Norman: Conducted first Psych Experiments
    ! First textbooks
    • Who are the fathers of psychology?
    ! William MacDougall 1908
    ! Edward Ross 1908
    ! Floyd Allport 1924
    • The first social psychology textbooks made social psych
    A Call to Action: 1930s–1950s
    • The 1940s and 1950s saw a burst of activity in social psychology that established it as a social science.
    • Why was social psych needed? Who were the Major influences? 1930s–1950s
    o Hitler:
    o The world needed an explanation for the violence of war and solutions to it.
    o Sherif’s
    o His work laid the foundation for later studies of social influence
    o Immigrated to the US after Greek soldiers brutally killed his friends and joined the psych society to think
    about the war
    o Kurt Lewin
    o He is still evident throughout social psychology.
    o Theories established? Not important
    • Behavior is a function of interactions of a person and their environment
    • Social Psych theories should be applied to practical issues
    Confidence and Crisis: 1960s–Mid-1970s
    • What did Stanley Milgram do for Social Psych?
    o Stanley Milgram
    o Authority --> Peer Shock administration
    o Individuals vulnerability to destructive commands of authority
    o Social psych expanded, but
    o There was also debate about the ethics of research procedures, the validity of research results, and the
    generalizability of conclusions drawn from the research.
    An Era of Pluralism: Mid-1970s–1990s
    • How is Social Psych become pluralistic? An Era of Pluralism: 1970s–1990s
    o During the 1970s, social psychology began to take a pluralistic approach
    • Views on human behavior:
    ! Hot Approach: Emotion and motivation
    ! Cold Approach: Cognition
    • Multicultural perspectives
    • Research method

    Social Psychology in a New Century


    Integration of Emotion, Motivation, and Cognition;
    • What are some themes and perspectives that are shaping social psychology’s second century?
    o Social Cognition: How we perceive, remember, and interpret info about ourselves and others
    o Researchers study how the three operate together in influencing individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
    o Recent social psychological research has explored the automatic versus controllable nature of a number of
    processes, such as stereotyping
    Biological and Evolutionary Perspectives of Social Psych?
    • Based on
    o Social neuroscience: relationships between neural and social
    o Behavior Genetics: study of how genes affect behavior
    o Evolutionary principles: How evolution affects behavior
    • They are being applied to the issues such as gender differences, relationships, and aggression.
    Cultural Perspectives of Social Psych?
    • Social psychologists are using cultural differences to evaluate universal generality or cultural specificity.
    o Ex: Canadian participants chose more desirable than undesirable traits as characteristic of themselves,
    whereas Japanese participants chose a balance of desirable and undesirable traits.
    New Technologies that help social psych?
    • Improved brain imaging
    • Virtual reality technology
    • The Internet
    • The ways in which they interact are changing.
    o The social psychology of the next era will explore this

    The In Depth Beginning of Social Psych


    The beginning: Where can we see evidence about reflection on human nature?
    • Rosetta stone
    ! Reflections about human nature are in the earliest writings
    • Homer’s Illyad
    ! Themes: challenges, identity, responsibility, deceit, authority , obedience, defiance
    ! Same as what we struggle with today
    The beginning: What were some of the earliest psych ideas?
    • The Greek Philosophers
    ! Plato: 4th century BC
    • Student of Socrates
    • Mind Body dualism:
    • Mind and body are distinct but interact
    • When you’re born your mind equipped with knowledge to live in the world
    • Immortality of the Soul
    • The body may die but the soul never does
    • Tripartite theory of soul (different components of the mind)
    • Three components:
    • Reasoning (logic)
    • Feeling (High Spirited)
    • This interferes with reasoning
    • Appetite
    • This model distinguishes between profane (of the body) and sacred (of the mind) love
    ! Aristotle: 3rd Century BC
    • Student of Plato
    • Associationism
    • The mind is composed of elements referred to as sensations and ideas
    • 4 Laws: contrast, frequency, similarity, contiguity
    • Early idea of faults of the mind (biases)
    • Pathe
    • Emotions and their influences upon human judgment
    • He characterized these emotions
    • Differences from Plato
    • More systematic than Plato
    • Human mind is blank and first
    • Emerges from 'mental philosophy:
    ! William James: The Principles of Psychology
    • He was a philosopher not psychologist
    • Late 19th Century Wundt, Thorndike, Watson
    ! Philosophy argument: Different minds asking questions and debating answers
    ! Moved to something more standardized and objective
    • Take questions of human nature and use scientific method to address those questions
    • “Mental philosophy" Becomes psychology
    The Renaissance: What did each person do?
    • Renée Descartes (1596-1650)
    ! Passions of the soul (1649)
    • Dualism: Our mind and body are separate
    • Interactionism: what goes through mind goes through senses
    • Mind can't be discussed completely independent of body
    • Body influences mind
    • Perception: Mechanistic body as influencing the mind
    • Vibrations are retranslated through nerves to brain
    • Sketched rudiments of physiology of perception and action
    • Introspection used to study the mind
    • Subjective
    ! The Rational Soul as the driving force of behavior
    • Incomplete control over the body - Inhibition of reflexive action
    • Subjectivity of perception
    • Divides spirit into different components - referred to as the 'soul'
    • Thomas Hobbes
    ! Human nature (1651)
    • Subjectivity - Mechanistic
    • Vibrations through senses to brain makes knowledge
    • 'Objects agitating internal substance of the brain'
    • 'Cognitive' and 'Motive' Mind
    • Part is logical, objective, and the other part is motivational
    • Emotions stronger drive of behavior than reason
    • Contiguity is fabric of coherence
    • 'there is nothing without us which we call an image or a color'
    • Coherence: when things co-occur with high frequency ultimately that continuity will emerge as single
    perception
    • John Locke
    ! An Essay Concerning Human Understanding:
    • Influenced by newton
    • Absence of physiological mechanisms
    • Purely Psychological model
    • Regardless of how it happens, this is how inside of mind is like
    • Argued Against Innate Ideas
    • Idea that mind is blank until experience paints it
    • Primary and secondary perception
    • Matter and motion as primary perception
    • Odors, Colors, Taste, and sounds as secondary
    • George Berkley
    ! Principals of Human Knowledge
    • Argued against Locke's primary and secondary perception
    • Impossible to conceive primary characteristics without secondary
    • Can’t have one perception without the other
    • No psychological distinction between them
    • All perception result of external reality

    &
    &
    &
    Chapter&2:&Social&Psychology&in&Research&&
    &
    Why Should You Learn About Research Methods?
    • Because common sense and intuitive ideas can be misleading and contradictory
    • What is Science?
    o An objective Approach to knowledge
    o No: What is the meaning of life
    o Yes: What is a tree? Describe it…

    Refining Ideas: Defining and Measuring Social Psychological Variables


    Conceptual Variables vs. Operational Definitions: From the Abstract to the Specific!
    • Researchers often must transform abstract, conceptual variables into specific operational definitions that indicate
    exactly how the variables are to be manipulated or measured.!
    • Construct validity is the extent to which the operational definitions successfully manipulate or measure the conceptual
    variables to which they correspond.!
    How can you measure Variables? (Using Self-Reports, Observations and Technology)!
    • In self-reports: introspection !
    • Narrative studies: analyze the content of lengthy responses on a general topic!
    • Observations !
    • Improved technologies: enable researchers to measure physiological responses, reaction times, eye movements, and
    activity in regions of the brain.!

    Testing Ideas: Research Designs


    How do we do Social Psychology Research? Analyze each step.
    • Select topic based on theory
    o Theory: Organized set of principles used to explain a phenomena
    • Three Criteria:
    ! Simplicity, Comprehensiveness, Generatively
    • Search relevant research
    • Formulate hypothesis
    o Hypothesis: An explicit, testable prediction about conditions under which an event occurs
    • Select research method
    o Basic Research
    • Goal: Increased human understanding; usually to test a theory
    o Applied Research
    • Goal: find solutions to practical problems; enlarge understanding of naturally occurring events
    • Collect Data
    o What types of variables are there?
    • Independent
    ! Manipulated variable
    • Dependent
    ! The factors experimenters measure to see if they're affected
    • Subject
    ! Variables that characterize pre-existing differences among study participants
    o Conceptual Variables Vs. Operational Definitions?
    • Conceptual variables: Abstract or general variables
    • Operational definition: how conceptual variable will be measured or manipulated
    ! Transforms variable from abstract (conceptual) to specific (operational)
    • Analyze data
    • Report results
    o What is construct validity?
    • The!extent!to!which!the!measures!used!in!a!study!actually!measure!what!they!were!designed!to!
    measure.!!
    !
    What type of Research Methods Exist?
    • Descriptive research: Look at how frequently people think, feel, or behave in certain ways.
    o Goal: Describe people and their thoughts, feelings and behaviors
    • Qualitative research: Using numbers to better understand why a particular behaviour occurs.
    • Observational Studies
    • Archival Studies: examining records
    • Surveys: asking questions on beliefs, attitudes etc…
    Correlational Research: Looking for Associations.
    • General:
    o Correlation does not indicate causation
    o Helps Generate hypothesis
    o Goal: Learn about relationship between variables
    o Correlation coefficient
    • Measures strength and direction of relationship
    • r = -1 to 1
    • Concurrent (happening at the same time) vs. Prospective (expected or expecting to be something
    particular in the future.)
    • Advantages/Disadvantages?
    o Advantages:
    • Can study variables that cant be manipulated or induced
    • Can examine phenomena difficult or unethical to experiment
    o Disadvantage
    • Correlation is not causation!!@$!@$!@$!@$!$!
    Experiments: Looking for Cause and Effect
    • What do they do?
    o Examine the effects of one or more independent variables on one or more dependent variables.
    • Important notes on experimentation:
    o Statistically significant if > .05
    o A representative sample strengthens external validity; a convenience sample weakens it.
    o Mundane realism: Extent to which the research setting seems similar to real-world situations.
    o Experimental realism: Extent to which the participants experience the experimental setting as real
    o Confederates: People who act as participants but work for the experimenter.
    o Goal: Used to examine cause and effect relationships
    • What are Two Characteristics of experiments?
    o Researcher has control
    o Participants are randomly assigned to different treatment conditions
    • Main effects and interactions of experiments?
    o Main effect: overall effect of Independent variable on dependent.
    o Interaction: how effect of each independent variable is different as a function of the other independent variables
    • Field Experiments
    o Conducted in real world settings
    o Advantage: People act naturally
    o Disadvantage: Experimenter has less control
    • EX:
    • Food courters were asked about Canada food guide recommendations
    • Examine the food choice they made upon going to the food court
    • This increased tendency for healthier food
    Meta-Analysis: Combining Results across Studies
    • Meta-analysis uses statistical techniques to integrate the quantitative results of different studies.

    !
    !
    !
    !
    !
    Experiments!
    Catastrophizing,!Disclosure,!and!Pain!
    • What!are!the!effects!Emotional!disclosures!on!pain?!
    o When!people!are!allowed!to!disclose!their!pain!they!reported!less!
    o High!catastrophizers!benefit!but!not!low!castaphroziers!don’t.!!
    • Midterm!Question:!Answer!questions!about!the!design!of!the!study?!
    o Independent!Variable:!Disclosure!condition!
    • Not!Disclosure!
    • Disclosure!!
    • Did!not!help!low!level!catastrophizes!!
    o Dependent!Variable:!Pain!ratings!!
    • P!<!.001.!(Statistically!relevant!if!>.05)!!
    Study:!Academic!Performance!vs.!Intelligence?!
    • What!were!the!two!studies!done?!
    o r!=!.56!VV>!University!students!(High!Correlation)!
    o r!=!.15!VV>!Grad!Students!(Lower!Correlation)!
    • Why!is!r!different?!
    o Different!context!
    o Grad!school!students!are!already!smart.!No!variance!!
    Link!between!Personality!and!Success?!
    • What!types!of!personalities!are!there?!Differences?!
    o Type!A:!determined.!Promoted!more!often!
    o Type!B:!easy!going.!More!likely!to!be!CEO!!
    !
    !!
    Ethics and Values in Social Psychology
    Ethic Basics:
    • Research Ethics Boards
    o Established by the federal government, REBs are responsible for reviewing research proposals
    • Informed Consent
    o Psychologists to secure informed consent from research participants.
    • Debriefing: Telling All
    o A full debriefing is essential; the researchers must disclose the facts about the study
    Deception and Ethics:
    • Why do we need to deceive people in some studies?
    o They might alter their behavior based on what they hear
    • Why do we need to protect participants?
    o Sensory deprivation experiments
    • Put people in coffins; there was an uproar in this procedure
    o New drugs
    o New surgical procedures
    • What are the current policies and procedures for experiments?
    o You must inform the participants and have informed consent
    o You need to debrief the participants with the true purpose!!
    !
    Chapter&3:&The&Social&Self&
    The Self-Concept
    • The self-concept: sum of a person’s beliefs about his or her own attributes. Cognitive component of self.!
    What are the elements of the Self-Concept?!
    • First step in the development of the self concept: Recognizing oneself as a distinct entity !
    • Secondary step: Cooley’s “looking-glass” self suggests that social factors also determine the self!
    o We imagine how others see us!
    o We imagine how others judge us!
    o We react accordingly!
    Further!in!Depth:!The!self!Concept!
    • Who!can!recognize!themselves?!
    o Only!apes!and!humans!
    • How!can!you!test!if!an!animal!recognizes!itself?!
    o Draw!a!dot!on!their!head!when!they're!passed!out.!If!they!try!rubbing!it!off!then!they!recognize!themselves.!!
    • How!can!we!tell!the!self!is!an!important!object!of!our!attention?!
    o Cocktail!party!effect:!you'll!recognize!your!name!in!a!crowd!of!speakers!
    • What!is!the!self;concept?!
    o Sum!of!total!beliefs!that!people!have!about!themselves!!
    • SelfVconcept!is!made!up!of!what?!
    o Self;Schema:!Belief!about!oneself!that!guide!processing!of!selfVrelevant!info.!!
    Introspection!
    • Does!it!improve!accuracy!of!selfVknowledge?!
    o Tasks!that!you!report!as!more!pleasurable!are!task!you!report!you!spend!more!time!on!
    o Ex:!Longer!duration!of!relationships!rated!as!happy!
    • People think introspection is a key to knowing the true self:!
    o Research shows that introspection sometimes diminishes the accuracy of self-reports.!
    o People also tend to overestimate their emotional reactions to future positive and negative events!
    • How!accurate!are!we!at!predicting!our!behavior!in!a!certain!situation?!
    o We!Overestimate!the!severity!of!our!emotional!response!!
    o Ex:!We!over!predict!how!happy!we!will!be!after!winning!the!lottery!!
    o Ex:!Prof's!were!asked!how!happy!they!would!be!if!they!got!tenure.!!
    • Why!do!we!overestimate?!
    • Coping!mechanism!!
    • We!don't!consider!all!the!events!happening!at!one!time.!!
    Self Perceptions of Our Own Behaviour: overjustification effect?!
    • What is Bem’s self-perception theory?
    o Internal states are difficult to interpret, we base it on our behaviour and surrounding situations
    o The facial feedback hypothesis is based on self-perception theory
    o Overjustification effect: Based on self perception theory, people lose interest when rewarded
    • But if a reward is seen as a “bonus” for superior performance, then it can enhance intrinsic motivation by
    providing positive feedback.
    o Daryl Bem (1972): People can learn about themselves simply by watching their own behavior.
    • Self perception theory:
    ! When internal cues are difficult to interpret people gain insight by observing their own behavior
    • Ex: Giving roses to a girl makes you think you're romantic
    • What is our Self-perception of emotions?
    o Laird (1974): Facial expressions affect emotion through process of self-perception.
    • Facial Feedback hypothesis: changes in facial expression make changes in subjective experience of
    emotions
    • Explanation: Facial movements evoke chemical changes
    Influences of Other People
    • Social comparison theory: people evaluate their opinions & abilities by comparing to similar others.
    o Schachter and Singer:
    • The experience of emotion is based on two factors:
    ! Physiological arousal
    ! A cognitive label for that arousal.
    • What is social comparison?
    o Comparing yourself to others
    • Important factor in self esteem
    • Experiment: The degree to which we compare our selves to super stars and consider is plausible to
    achieve it decreases as schooling increases.
    • Ideal self vs. self vs. ought self
    • In ambiguous situations we use others to interpret our own emotion
    Autobiographical Memories affect on self-concept
    • How?
    o Critical component to the self-concept.
    o People report more events from the recent past
    o People overemphasize their own roles
    • What do we do with Autobiographical memories? What is strategic recall?
    o We preserve our sense of self
    • We selectively consult our memory stores for information that is more positive
    • Ex: We remember all the classes we got an A in
    Culture Vs. Self-Concept
    • Cultures foster different conceptions of self.
    • Europe/north America: Autonomy
    • Asia: Family
    Motivation: What drives the self?
    • The Overjustificaiton effect
    o Lepper et Al:
    • Week 1: 3 groups of reward
    • Week 2: Observe playing time a week later
    ! Expected reward: play less with markers
    ! Unexpected reward: play with is longest
    ! No Reward
    o Reward for an enjoyable activity undermines interest in that activity
    • Learned Helplessness
    o Martin Seligman
    • Exposure to uncontrollable events: This has a big influence on our motivation to work towards goals
    ! Ex: dog experiment where they shock the dogs and one has control over the shocking by pressing
    a bar. The dogs with a sense of control learn to turn off the bar.
    • Takeaway: We feel helpless without control and tend to blame everyone but ourselves.
    ! Low sense of self efficacy: going to point fingers
    ! High Sense of self efficacy: Going to perceiver
    • Self Efficacy
    o Albert Bandura
    • Confidence in the ability to achieve desired outcomes
    • Outcome expectancies
    • Domain specific
    • Increases motivation
    Memory and Pain
    • What is Self Regulation
    o When one tires to regulate a feeling/thought
    o Rebounding Effect: trying to block out a memory makes it more frequent
    • PTSD leads to a worse memory
    • What are Ironic Processes?
    o Wedgner: Harder we try to inhibit a thought, the less likely we are to succeed
    • Ex: People who try to suppress pain thoughts reported higher pain levels
    ! Used Ice bath because its humane with not permanent damage
    • Catastrophizing and mental control over pain related cognitions experiment:
    o They told people to write their pain down
    o High catatropizers: Talk about pain much worse
    o Design:
    • We have high and low castrophizers
    • Independent: Free thought conditions
    ! Independent: group 1: No thought suppression
    ! Independent: Group 2: thought suppression
    • Dependent: Pain rating
    o Takeaway:
    • The rebounding effect causes pain because they think about it more
    • It affects high catastrophizers more than low.
    • What are the effects of disclosure on pain during dental hygiene treatments?
    o Catastrophizers and non-catastrophizers were asked to disclose about their dental worries prior to undergoing
    dental hygiene treatment.
    • Control condition: catastrophizers reported significantly more pain and emotional distress than non-
    catastrophizers.
    • Disclosure condition: catastrophizers and non-catastrophizers did not differ significantly in their pain
    and emotional distress.
    • The interaction between condition and level of catastrophizing remained significant even when
    controlling for emotional distress and the emotional content of the thought records.
    Self-Esteem
    • Self-esteem: a person’s positive and negative evaluations of the self.
    Self Esteem
    ! What are Sources for Self esteem?
    o Social Approval
    o Associatiating with groups that have positive characteristics
    ! What am I all about?
    o "The unexamined life is not worth living"
    o Truth: The more you examine yourself the more unhappy you hare
    ! What types of selves do you have
    o Ideal Self
    ! I wish I was…
    ! Unhappy if different to self
    o Self
    ! Who am I…
    o Ought Self
    ! The way I should act…
    ! Guilt, shame, resentment if it differs from self
    The Need for Self-Esteem?
    • High self-esteem want to see themselves in a positive light.
    • Low self-esteem often find themselves caught in a vicious cycle
    Are There Gender and Race Differences?
    • Among adolescents and young adults, males have higher self-esteem
    • Black Americans outscore white Americans on self-esteem tests
    Culture and Self-Esteem?
    • People from collectivist cultures see themselves in a modest light relative to individualistic societies
    • Everyone has a need for positive self-regard; collectivists seek to fulfill that in different ways.
    Self-Discrepancy Theory?
    • Self-esteem: the match between how we see ourselves and how we want to see ourselves.
    o Differences with actual and ideal: disappointment and depression.
    o Differences with actual and the ought: related to shame, guilt, and anxiety.
    The Self-Awareness “Trap”?
    • People spend little time actually thinking about themselves.
    o Mirrors, cameras, audiences increase self-awareness
    • Self-awareness forces us to notice self-discrepancies and can reduce self-esteem.
    What are the limits of Self-Regulation?
    • Self-control can temporarily be depleted by usage.
    • This depletion effect can be reversed by the consumption of glucose and by self-affirmation.
    Ironic Mental Processes?
    • Rebound effect
    • Choking under pressure is an ironic phenomenon often seen in sports.
    Mechanisms of Self-Enhancement:
    • People protect their self-esteem in four major ways: through
    o self-serving cognitions: such as taking credit for success and denying the blame for failure
    o self-handicapping: in order to excuse anticipated failure
    o basking in reflected glory: which boosts their self-esteem through associations with successful others
    o downward social comparisons to others who are less well off.
    Are Positive Illusions Adaptive?
    • Certain positive illusions may foster high self-esteem and mental health.
    • An alternative view is that such illusions promote self-defeating behaviour patterns and that people with inflated views of
    themselves are liked less by others.
    Explaining negative outcomes
    • Ex:
    ! My dog kept eating my homework
    ! My roommate parties every night
    • Decisions that determine how we will experience a situation: what is self-protection? Stable vs. unstable?
    • Internal Vs. External
    ! Self Protection: We attribute positive outcomes to as internal
    • I did well because…
    • I am smart
    • I studied hard
    • I did bad because
    • Dog ate my homework
    ! Takeaway: We feel better if we can attribute bad stuff to external conditions. Vise versa for good stuff.
    • Stable Versus Unstable
    ! Strategic self-deprecation
    • We ask people for a rescue to attribute our poor performance to an external attribute
    • Ex: How could I have failed that test?
    • What is the dark side of self-esteem?
    • When we have high self esteem, people take threats to it harsher
    • Self esteem is a good defense to our environment but it can get in th
    Self-Presentation
    • We care deeply about what others think of us and often believe that the social spotlight shines more brightly on us than it
    really does.
    • Self-presentation: the process by which we try to shape what others think of us and even what we think
    • The Two Faces of Self-Presentation?
    o There are basically two types of self-presentation,
    • strategic self-presentation (we try to shape others’ impressions in order to be liked)
    • self-verification (through which we try to get others to perceszive us as we perceive ourselves).
    • Individual Differences in Self-Monitoring?
    o Individuals differ in the tendency to regulate their behaviour to meet the demands of socity
    o High self-monitors modify their behaviour, as appropriate, from one situation to the next.
    o Low self-monitors express themselves in a more consistent manner

    Chapter&4:&Perceiving&Persons&
    Observation: The Elements of Social Perception
    • To understand others, social perceivers rely on indirect clues—the elements of social perception.!
    What is Judging a Book by Its Cover!
    • People often make snap judgments of others based on physical appearances!

    Attribution: From Elements to Dispositions


    • Attribution is the process by which we explain people’s behaviour.!
    Attribution!
    • People understand others by making personal or situational attributions for their behaviour.!
    • Correspondent inference theory?!
    o People learn about others from behaviour that is freely chosen that is unexpected, and that results in a
    small number of desirable outcomes.!
    o From multiple behaviours, we base our attributions on three kinds of co-variation information: !
    • Consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency.!
    !
    !
    !
    • Why!do!we!use!attributions?!!(Fritz!Heider)!!
    • Glue!
    ! Attributions!provide!you!with!the!conceptual!glue!for!meaning!
    • Why!
    ! That’s!why!we!ask!why!until!we!fill!in!the!blanks!
    ! Ex:!star!trek!!
    • What!did!Fritz!Heider!say!about!attributions?!
    • They!are!the!answer!to!"why"!
    • Conceptual!coherence!to!our!perceptions!
    • Sense!of!predictability!to!our!social!world!
    ! That’s!why!we!want!to!hang!out!with!nice!people!in!the!future!
    What are Attribution Biases?!
    • People depart from the logic of attribution theory in two major ways.!
    o Cognitive heuristics: rules of thumb that enable us to make judgments that are quick !
    o Fundamental attribution error: overestimating the role of personal factors and underestimating the
    impact of situations.!
    Culture and Attribution?!
    • Cultures differ in their implicit theories about the causes of human behaviour.!
    o Studies show that East Asians are more likely than Americans to consider the impact of the social and
    situational contexts of which they are a part!
    • What!two!categories!are!there!when!making!attributions?!What!is!the!explanation?!!
    o Two!categories!!
    • The!Person!!
    ! Something!about!the!person!was!the!cause!of!the!behavior!
    • The!situation!
    ! Something!about!the!situation!caused!the!behavior!
    o Explanation!
    • We!will!weigh!both!of!these!
    • We!do!this!when!people!are!on!trial!for!crimes.!Weighing!both!of!these!
    ! He!is!a!deranged,!and!sick!man!!
    ! Or..!He!is!a!mental!illness,!!
    ! They!try!to!make!external,!situational!attributions!
    • What!do!we!look!for!in!decisions!of!peoples!behavior?!Give!an!example:!
    o What!do!we!consider?!
    • Consensus:!is!this!normal!behavior?!
    • Distinctiveness:!is!this!a!one!time!instance?!
    • Consistency:!Is!he!like!this!across!situations?!
    o Example:!!
    • Jack!was!one!hour!late!for!Marys!birthday!party!
    • Implied!dispositional!trait:!inconsiderate.!!
    • Men!ask!Why??!
    ! She!brings!forth!the!evidence!!
    ! Consensus:!not!everyone!is!behaving!like!jack!(low)!
    • He!says!it!happened!to!a!lot!of!people:!Traffic!
    ! Distinctiveness:!this!is!not!the!first!time!(low)!
    ! Consistency:!he's!like!this!across!situations!(high)!
    • He!says!no!he's!not!to!make!it!lowe!
    Motivational Biases!
    • Our attributions for the behaviour of others are often biased by our own self-esteem motives.!
    • Needing to believe in a just world, people often criticize victims and blame them for their fate.!
    !
    !
    !
    !
    • What!is!the!fundamental!attribution!error!
    o Experiment!design:!
    • Some!are!given!a!choice!and!some!have!no!choice!
    ! A!pro!Charter!essay!
    ! Research!suggests!that!we!will!rate!the!people!who!had!no!choice!on!their!topic!in!line!with!
    their!essay:!!
    • Given!a!choice!and!some!have!no!choice!
    ! Pro!charter!
    ! Anti!charter!
    ! Difference!from!zero!is!the!error!from!your!bias!

    • !

    o Ex:!Castro!Speech!!
    o Ex:!Fundamental!attributional!error!and!the!TV!Quiz!show!jeapordy!
    • People!believe!alex!tribec!to!be!smart!even!though!he!just!reads!answers!
    • What!is!the!two!step!model!of!the!attribution!process!
    o Automatic!VV>!Effortful!=!Disponsional!inference!!

    o !

    !
    Integration: From Dispositions to Impressions
    Information Integration theory:!
    • The impressions we form are a weighted average !
    Deviations from the Arithmetic: weighted!
    • Perceivers differ in their sensitivity to certain traits and in the impressions they form.!
    • Differences stem from stable perceiver characteristics, priming from recent experiences, implicit personality
    theories, and the primacy effect.!
    Dispositional!information!vs.!situational?!Correspondence!of!traits:!Give!the!example!using!lance!armstrong.!
    • We!make!Dispositional!inferences!first!
    • Dispositional!inferences:!Attribution!to!the!internal!character!!
    • Ex:!Lance!Armstrong!!
    o Because!he!won!tour!de!France!he!is!an!amazing!influence!(dispositional)!
    o When!you!find!out!he!has!taken!steroids:!if!there!is!evidence!of!facilitated!factors!then!correspondence!will!be!
    reduced.!
    • The!information!value!of!the!behavior!is!'discounted'.!
    • You!find!out!he!broke!is!leg!and!won:!Increasing!correspondence.!Rate!him!as!higher!on!the!athleticism!
    dimension!
    • How!do!situational!influences!affect!our!opinion!if!we!find!them!out!before?!Facilitative!vs.!compromising!influences:!
    o Information!about!facilitative!or!compromising!influences!on!behaviour!will!have!more!influence!BEFORE!
    rather!than!after!observing!the!behaviour!
    • What!is!impression!management?!
    o Provide!audience!with!info!about!compromising!factors!'before'!execution!of!behavior!!
    • Ex:!Partying!before!the!day!of!exam!so!you!can!blame!it!for!your!failing.!!
    • This!prevents!a!blow!to!our!self!esteem!
    • Why is it more effective to provide info about facilitative or compromising influences before observing behavior
    o Because of the Judgment Process:
    • WE combine relevant behavioral and situational info when making attributions or inferences
    • If we judge that information is being put forward to deliberately influence our inferences, the information
    will be less effective
    • What did Fritz Heider say about dispositional explanations?
    o We favor dispositional explanations of others behavior
    • Provides us with meaning and predictability in our life
    o Attributions as the basic unit of analysis in social Psych
    • How long does it take you to make an inference about someone?
    o Usually immediately.
    • According to Heider we make dispositional inferences immediately
    • We can usually tell by looking at a person
    o Ex: The pain experiment (lifting paint cans)
    • Some characteristics such as shoulder shrug reinforce observers opinion on pain
    • People were asked to make judgments about pain level and readiness to work.
    • People who displayed protective pain are viewed as less likable, less dependable, and less likely to return
    to work
    o Ex: Looking at someone’s desk (dirt, or clean)
    • Are dispositional Inferences, automatic? Give an example to support your answer/what does automatic mean?
    o Automaticity: cognitive process that occurs by itself
    o Yes these are automatic
    o Experiment:
    • They would show people faces and ask them to make an inference
    • They found out that time does not matter
    • People who make decisions after 1 min are the same as people who make it in 1/10th of a second.
    o Class Experiment:
    • We are shown words and asked to assign meaning to a actions to people
    • We usually use the words that we saw
    • What is the primacy effect? Why does it happen?
    o Tendency for early info to have more impact on impressions than later info
    • When we have an impression of someone, we pay less attention to later info
    • Saves cognitive exercise
    • Change of Meaning Hypothesis
    • Once we have formed an impression, we start to interpret inconsistent information in light
    of that impression.
    o How does the anchoring effect contribute to first impressions
    • The first numbers given are the ones that are paid the most attention to
    • What is priming? Give an example:
    o Increasing the accessibility of information
    o Example:
    • Scrambled the words: 2 categories
    • Brave, independent, adventurous.
    • Reckless, foolish, careless.
    • Read about a man who climbs a mountain
    • People in each category use those scrambled words more often
    • How do emotions travel across borders
    o There are no cultural boundaries with emotion.
    • Very consistent facial expressions
    o Causes of emotion are also similar across cultures:
    • Anger: Transgression
    • Fear: Threats
    • Sadness: Loss
    • Happiness: Acceptance
    Confirmation Biases: From Impressions to Reality
    • Once an impression is formed, people become less likely to change their minds when confronted with nonsupportive
    evidence.
    • People tend to interpret, seek, and create information in ways that confirm existing beliefs.
    Perseverance of Beliefs
    • First impressions may survive in the face of inconsistent information.
    • Ambiguous evidence is interpreted in ways that bolster first impressions.
    • The effect of evidence that is later discredited perseveres because people formulate theories to support their initial
    beliefs.
    Confirmatory Hypothesis Testing?
    • Once perceivers have beliefs about someone, they seek further information in ways that confirm those beliefs.
    The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
    • A perceiver forms an expectation of a target person
    • the perceiver behaves accordingly
    • the target adjusts to the perceiver’s actions.
    Social Perception: The Bottom Line
    • Sometimes, people make snap judgments; at other times, they evaluate others by carefully analyzing their behaviour.
    • Research suggests that our judgments are often biased and that we are overconfident.

    Chapter 5: Stereotypes
    Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
    • What is a group? What determines if your in a group
    o Two or more having:
    o Direct interactions over time
    o Join membership into a social category (sex, race, etc..)
    o A shared, common fate, identity or set of goals
    o Ex: why aren't football fans part of a group
    o They don't know each other
    • Define the following important terms:
    o Stereotypes: Beliefs that associate a whole group with certain traits
    o Prejudice: Negative feeling held towards someone because of their a connection to a certain group
    o Discrimination: Negative behaviors directed towards that category
    • How are all three of those terms connected?

    o Can't have one without the other


    • Example of stereotypes
    o Heaven and hell
    ! Heaven: Police British, Lovers French, Mechanics German, chefs Italian
    ! Hell: Police German, lovers Swiss, mechanics French, chefs are British
    • What is Categorization
    o Putting people into categories
    o Ex: Star trek
    • Define the following important terms:
    o Racism: Prejudice and Discrimination based on racial background
    o Sexism: Prejudice against Sex
    o Individual: Personal person holding negative feelings
    o Institution: promote the domination of your group
    o Benevolent sexism: Being positive but still maintaining dominance over a group
    o What is modern/Implicit racism?
    • Modern Racism: Subtle racism occurring when its safe, and acceptable
    • Implicit Racism: Racism that operates unconsciously
    o Where can we see racism in today’s society?
    • Profs subtle prejudice
    ! Ex:
    • Profs using Men's names more often than women's
    • Association gays/lesbians with certain roles
    • Raymond Silverfox
    ! RMCP did not care to him; he died of pneumonia
    ! Racism against natives
    • Jews and Muslims
    ! Over a three year period there has been an increase in negative attitudes towards Jews and Muslims in
    north America
    • Woman strangled by scarf
    ! Everyone was sad when she died but less sad when they found out she was Muslim
    Sexism
    • What is the difference between race and gender stereotypes?
    o Racial stereotypes: Primarily descriptive
    o Gender Stereotypes: Descriptive as well as prescriptive
    • The differences between men and women act as social scripts on how we should grow up.
    • Men: Active, Aggressive, Like manly toys
    • Girls: beauty, Barbie's, dependent, nurturing
    • Study: What mothers would say
    o They show mothers videotapes of children playing on a playground
    • They ask the mother every time they would have cautioned their child not to do certain things
    • Mothers of girls offer a lot more caution compared to those mothers of boys
    • What was the model about social role theory put forward by Alex Eagly

    o Stereotypes between men and women exist because men are still on top
    • What are women's roles in work settings in across countries?
    o Women tend to occupy more clerical, sales, & service occupations
    o Women don’t usually occupy high power roles or craft and trade roles
    • Hostile Sexism Across countries study:
    o 19 countries listed from left to right in order of how unequal the sexes are.
    o Measured hostile and benevolent sexism
    ! Its clear from the diagram that countries that are more unequal have a higher rate of sexism
    o Benevolent Sexism: Making yourself dominant but complimenting
    • What is the Implicit attitude test?
    o A test that lets us see if we are implicitly stereotypical
    o Seeing anger in black faces
    ! People with high implicit racism were more likely to see a black face as angry
    • Group membership and stereotyping experiment:
    o Random assignment to Group A or B
    ! Asked to rate members of group and other group
    ! Other group is rated more negatively
    • What is the Realistic conflict theory?
    o Direct Competition for limited resources breeding hostility
    o Relative Deprivation: we might perceive a threat that’s not there
    • What is the social Identity Theory?
    o It says that people strive to enhance self esteem which has two components: diagram is on slides
    ! Personal Identity
    • Personal Achievements
    ! Social Identity: either
    • Group achievements
    • Favoritism toward in-group and degradation of out-groups
    ! Both lead to self esteem
    • Why do we use stereotypes?
    • People boost self esteem by favoring in-groups more favorably than out-groups
    • What does the motivated stereotype inhibition and activation example provide information about?
    • We activate/suppress our stereotypes in a manner that suppresses our self esteem
    • If we have a black doctor we will try and suppress our racism so we can benefit from his expertise

    Bias
    o How do stereotypes form: in-groups vs out-groups?
    • Strong tendency to divide into both
    • Consequences:
    ! We exaggerate differences
    • Out group homogeneity effect?
    ! In-group is diverse
    ! Out-group is very similar to each other
    ! Why does this happen? 2 reasons
    • Little personal contact with them so we don't notice subtle differences
    • Do not encounter a representative sample of out group members
    • What is the neural activity and in-group bias
    ! Participants were showed out-group members and the brain lit up in the places that normally recognize
    inanimate objects
    ! When shown pictures of in-group members, there were greater activity in neural activity
    o How are stereotypes automatic? Men and Women Height example
    • The showed same number of pictures of men/women of the same height
    • Is our stereotype going to influence the inferences we make?
    ! Yes!
    • There is less of a difference when we are informed
    • Even though he told us that they will be the same height we will still estimate the women as shorter
    • We can not turn off this heuristic
    o Important factors of Automatic stereotype activation:
    • Factors that make automatic stereotyping more likely
    ! Cognitive factors
    • Stereotype is accessible
    • Depleted cognitive resources: age, tired, glucose low
    ! Cultural factors
    • Popular stereotypes in culture
    • Norms and values that accept stereotyping
    ! Motivational factors
    • Motivation to make inference quickly
    • Motivated to feel superior
    ! Personal factors
    • Endorse stereotype
    • Factors making it less likely
    ! Cognitive factors
    • Exposure to counter stereotypic group members
    • Knowledge of personal info about the individual
    ! Cultural factors
    • Not common stereotype in culture
    • Norms and values that are opposed to stereotyping
    ! Motivational factors
    • Motivated to avoid prejudice
    • Motivativated to be fair
    ! Personal factors
    • Disagree with stereotypes, low in prejudice
    o How do stereotypes survive:
    • Illusory correlations
    ! The tendency for people to overestimate links between variables
    • Tend to overestimate the association between variables when
    • The variables are distinctive
    • The variables are already expected to go together
    • Attributional biases can perpetuate a stereotype
    ! If expectations are violated, more likely to consider situational factors
    • Subtyping and contrast
    ! Stereotypes stubbornly survive disconfirmation through 'subtyping'
    ! If behavior varies considerably from expectations, the perceived difference may be magnified
    • Contrast effect: tendency to perceive stimuli differ from expectations as being more different
    that they really are
    • Self fulfilling prophecy
    ! The way we behave towards a person makes them preform that stereotype
    ! Ex: phone call example
    • We are asked to phone someone and to get to know them
    • We are then given a photo of 1) a good looking person 2) an ugly person
    • Little to no negative statements
    • Lots of negative statements
    • Role influence
    ! How would you describe yourself?
    • We change the way we act based on our partner if we think they like a certain thing
    ! Would you perform differently on achievement test
    • Yes
    o Stereotype vs academic performance example?
    • Black and white students take difficult exams. Blacks told that it would
    be very hard. "

    • Swimsuit vs. Sweater example taking a test:


    ! Women perform less well when they are in a swimsuit
    ! Doesn’t affect men

    !
    o Needed sugar to stay sweet example:
    • Number of derogatory terms in writing an essay about gay men
    • Degree you have over your stereotypes depends on your cognitive abilities to do so: Sugar

    Conformation bias example:


    • Research Example:
    o Stone et al (1997)
    o Ps listened to a basketball game
    ! ½ believed player was white
    ! ½ believed player was black
    o Asked to evaluate how player had played in game
    o Results?
    ! If white player does well you attribute it to his intelligence
    ! If black player is doing well we attribute to his ability
    • We respond in a way in which we do not have to revise our stereotypes

    • How do we stop stereotyping?


    o Contact hypothesis
    • Four conditions deemed important for intergroup contact to serve as a treatment for racism
    ! Equal status
    ! Personal interaction
    ! Cooperative activities
    ! Social norm
    The Nature of the Problem: Persistence and Change
    Defining Terms
    • Individual level: racism and sexism are forms of prejudice and discrimination based on gender/race
    • Institutional and cultural level: promote the domination of one racial/gender
    • Stereotypes: Link groups of people with certain characteristics.
    • Prejudice: Negative feelings toward persons based on their membership of a group
    • Ingroups are groups we identify with; we contrast these with outgroups.
    Racism: Current Forms and Challenges
    • People’s ambivalence concerning race leads them to exhibit biases
    • IAT: Way of detecting modern and implicit racism and other subtle forms
    • We can predict perceptions of others based on their race based on IAT
    o Ex: white perceivers that are high in implicit racism will perceive hostility in a black face
    • What happens to the brain after seeing a member of a racial outgroup?
    o Increased activation in the amygdala (emotion)
    • Interracial interactions: threaten, and drain cognitive resources among people high in implicit racism.
    Sexism: Ambivalence and Double Standards
    • How does Sexism differ from racism?
    o Predictive (not just descriptive): They indicate what the majority of people in a society believe men and women
    should be.
    • What is ambivalent/hostile sexism, and benevolent sexism?
    o Ambivalent sexism & hostile sexism: negative and resentful feelings
    o Benevolent sexism: affectionate, chivalrous, but patronizing
    • How do countries with high degree of inequality differ on a sexism scale?
    o They exhibit high levels of both hostile and benevolent sexism.
    • What is the dilemma women face in the workforce?
    o If they behave consistently with gender stereotypes, they may be liked more but respected less.

    Causes of the Problem: Intergroup and Motivational Factors


    Fundamental Motives Between Groups
    • People divide the world into ingroups and outgroups why?
    o It's our social nature and how we evolved. We favor the ingroups
    • What happens when people’s motives for self-protection are aroused?
    ! They show stronger biases against threatening outgroups.
    • What does the optimal distinctiveness theory state?
    o People balance desire to belong with desire to be distinct
    • Being reminded about mortality triggers various ingroup biases, including negative stereotypes, and behaviour that
    demonstrates prejudice toward a variety of outgroups.
    Robbers Cave: A Field Study in Intergroup Conflict
    • Boys divided into rival groups quickly showed intergroup prejudice.
    o Prejudice was reduced when the boys were brought together by task that required intergroup cooperation.
    Theories
    • Realistic Conflict Theory?
    o `Realistic conflict theory maintains that direct competition for resources gives rise to prejudice.
    • Social Identity Theory?
    o Participants categorized into arbitrary minimal groups discriminate in favour of the ingroup.
    o Social identity theory proposes that self-esteem is influenced by the fate of social groups with which we identify.
    o What happens when we feel threatened?
    ! We derogate outgroups, which increases self esteem
    o Ingroup favouritism is more intense among people whose identity is closely tied to their group.
    Culture and Social Identity
    • Cultural differences can influence social identity processes.
    o Individualists are more likely than collectivists to try to boost their self-esteem through overt ingroup enhancing
    biases.
    What Motives for Intergroup Dominance and Status?
    • What do people with a social dominance orientation exhibit?
    o A desire to see their ingroups as dominant
    • What do people who tend to endorse and legitimize existing social arrangements show?
    o Signs of outgroup favouritism even when their group holds a relatively disadvantaged position in society
    What is Social Categorization
    • Why do we group ourselves and people into social categories?
    o They are energy-saving devices that allow quick inferences
    • Outgroup homogeneity effect:
    o Tendency to assume that there is more similarity among members of outgroups than ingroups.
    • Why do we process info about outgroups less deeply?
    o According to Brain imaging, it is because we use categorizing,
    How Stereotypes Survive and Self-Perpetuate
    • People make attributions about the causes of group behaviors in ways that maintain their stereotypes.
    o Group members who do not fit the mold are often subtyped
    • Self Fulfilling prophecy
    Culture and Socialization
    • How do we form sterotypes?
    o We form stereotypes by absorbing what we see around us in our culture, groups, and families.
    • Are are gender sterotypes different than racism?
    o Gender stereotypes are so deeply ingrained that they bias perceptions
    o Perceived differences are magnified by the contrasting social roles
    o Mass Media Plays a role
    • Portrayals of men and women in advertising influence the our behaviour and attitudes
    • Field experiment in Rwanda:
    o Demonstrated the positive effect the media can have in promoting anti-prejudice norms
    Stereotype Content Model?
    • Stereotypes have two dimensions: warmth and competence.
    • Stereotype content model:
    o Stereotypes about the competence are influenced by the relative status of that group
    o Stereotypes about the warmth are influenced by perceived competition of that group.
    Is Stereotyping Inevitable? Automatic Versus Intentional Processes
    • Implicit stereotypes:
    o New age racism: automatic
    • Stereotypes have factors that can activate them
    o Ex: When someone wants to feel good they might put down a group of people
    • Rebound Effect
    o Why trying to suppress a stereotype doesn’t work
    o Age, fatigue, intoxication can reduce ability to suppress stereotypes because its tiring.
    • Why is glucose important in racism?
    o An experiment found that high-prejudice individuals are able to suppress thoughts with glucose
    • How can we suppress automatic stereotypes
    o Training
    o Taking the perspective of others
    o Thinking of examples that counter stereotypes
    A Threat in the Air: Effects on the Targets of Stereotypes and Prejudice
    • Stigmatized groups are negatively stereotyped and devalued in society.
    Perceiving Discrimination
    • People experience benefits and drawbacks of self-esteem and feelings of control when they perceive someone
    discriminating against them
    • Perceive Is the key word there
    Stereotype Threat
    • Individuals worrying that others will see them in negative and stereotypical ways at a given situation
    • Stereotype threat can impair the performance

    Reducing Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination


    Intergroup Contact
    • How do we reduce racism?
    o According to the contact hypothesis, desegregation should reduce prejudice. Doesn’t cure it
    o You need:
    ! Equal status, personal interactions, common goal, and social norms.
    The Jigsaw Classroom
    • Schools fail to meet the conditions for reducing prejudice.
    • Intergroup cooperation and interdependence can improve attitudes and behaviors in a school setting.
    Shared Identities
    • Changing how group members categorize each other can reduce prejudice and discrimination;
    o Ex: recognizing the ways group members share a common identity with members of others
    Changing Cultures and Motivations
    • Changes in the kinds of information perpetuated in one’s culture can alter how one perceives social groups.
    Chapter 6: Attitudes

    The Study of Attitudes


    • Attitude: an affective, evaluative reaction toward a person, place, issue, or object.
    How Attitudes Are Measured?
    • Through self-reports, such as attitude scales.
    • The bogus pipeline may be used so participants don’t want to give the wrong answer
    • Physiological arousal
    o Main problem: may just reveal intensity rather than direction of attitude
    • Covert measures may also be used.
    o Such measures include nonverbal behaviour, the
    o Facial electromyograph (EMG): measures facial activity
    • Check vs. brow muscles
    o Brain-wave patterns, the Implicit Association Test (IAT),
    How Attitudes Are Formed?
    • Tesser: Twin studies suggest
    o People may be genetically predisposed to hold certain attitudes.
    o Twins raised apart can actually have same dislikes and likes more than fraternal

    • Research shows
    o Attitudes are formed by experience and learning,

    The Link Between Attitudes and Behaviour?


    • Attitudes do not necessarily correlate with behaviour
    o Under certain conditions, there is a high correlation.
    o Attitudes predict behaviour best when they’re specific
    • Is the assumption that attitudes influence behaviour a valid one? Various view points
    o LaPiere’s (1934) provocative but flawed study.
    o Wicker’s (1969) conclusion that attitudes and behaviour are only weakly correlated.
    o Kraus (1995): “Attitudes significantly and substantially predict future behaviour.”
    • Attitude must ‘correspond’ to the behaviour
    • The four possible reactions to attitude objects
    o Positive attitude
    o Indifference
    o Dual attitudes
    o Negative attitude
    • What is the theory of planned behavior?

    • Psychological factors influencing attitude strength


    o Does it directly affect ones own outcomes and self interests?
    o Is it related to deeply held philosophical, political, and religious values
    o Is it of concern to ones close friends, family, and social ingroups?
    • When attitudes predict behaviour:
    o Strength of attitude
    o Self awareness
    o Conscious awareness of the attitude
    o Specifically of the attitude
    o Intention

    Persuasion by Communication
    • Persuasive communication: Most common approach to changing attitudes
    Two Routes to Persuasion?
    • When people think critically about a message?
    o They take the central route to persuasion and are influenced by the strength of the arguments.
    o High level of involvement and ability
    • When people do not think carefully about a message?
    o They take the peripheral route to persuasion and are influenced by peripheral cues.
    o Peripheral cues
    • Desire.. Etc…
    • What does the route taken depends on?
    o Whether people have the ability and the motivation
    The Source?
    • When is attitude change is greater? When it comes from an effective source. Really meant for peripheral route
    o Coming from credible source
    • competent and trustworthy
    o Coming from likeable source
    • similar and attractive
    o Research example: Chaiken
    • Had male and female students approach others on campus
    • Worked for an organization aimed at stopping serving meat on campus
    • More attractive people got more signatures
    • What's important when an audience has a low level of personal involvement? Central route
    o Source factors are less important than message quality.
    • What is The sleeper effect?
    o People forget the source of a message, but not the content
    o Effects of source credibility dissipate over time

    •
    The Message
    • Two routes to persuasion? Which one should you choose?
    o Depends on audience:
    • High ability/motivation or Low ability/motivation?
    o Central route:
    • Lengthy messages are persuasive.
    • Influenced by strength and quality of the message.
    o Peripheral route:
    • Added information must not dilute the message.
    • Person doesn't think critically
    • Provides the use of heuristics (Peripheral cues)
    ! Ex: Justin Bieber drinks coke
    • Study: Message source vs Message: The role of audience Involvement

    • When is it best to present an argument?


    o Depends on how much time elapses:
    o Primacy vs Recency
    o Miller and Campbell experiment

    • How do Discrepancies of messages affect attitudes:


    o Moderately discrepant changes: inspire change
    o Highly discrepant messages: scrutinized and rejected.
    • How does emotion in the message affect it?
    o High-fear messages: motivate attitude change
    • Only when containing strong arguments and instructions on how to avoid the threat
    o Positive emotion: facilitates attitude change
    • People are easier to persuade when they’re in a good mood.
    o Subliminal messages: do not produce meaningful or lasting changes in attitudes.
    • The message components summarized
    o Length, Order
    o Message discrepancy: Primacy Vs Recency (Campbell experiment)
    o Fear Appeals: Tune out if too fearful; Needs to contain info on how to avoid threat
    o Positive emotions
    o Subliminal messages
    The Audience
    • Different kinds of messages influence different kinds of people:
    o High need for cognition: persuaded more by the strength of the arguments.
    o High in self-monitoring: influenced more by appeals to social images.

    • How can a message be persuasive?


    o Message should also appeal to the cultural values of its audience.
    • How does Forewarning increases resistance to persuasive influence?
    o It inoculates the audience by providing the opportunity to generate counter-arguments
    o It also arouses psychological reactance.
    o What else can promote resistance to persuasive influences?
    o Attitude bolstering
    o Counter arguing
    o Source Derogation
    Culture and Persuasion
    • Communications are successful to the extent that they appeal to the cultural values of an audience.
    • Research shows that North Americans are persuaded more by individualistic ads, whereas East Asians prefer collectivistic
    ads.

    Persuasion by Our Own Actions


    Role-Playing: All the World’s a Stage
    • The way people act can influence how they feel, as behaviour can determine attitudes.
    • Ex: This was demonstrated by the Stanford Prison Study:
    o Two groups
    ! Guards
    • Had power (along with power symbols: sunglasses, bat)
    • They put on a 'mask' preventing them from caring
    ! Prisoners
    • Number replaced their name
    • Chain on their foot
    • They were told to irritate the cops
    • Dehumanized
    • Ex: would you mind if I put this sign on your fence
    o A lot of people say no
    o If your asked first to put a card in your window and then put a billboard on
    your fence you will likely say yes
    Cognitive Dissonance Theory: The Classic Version
    • Cognitive dissonance "
    o A psych state in which caused by certain conditions: inconsistency between
    attitudes and behaviour
    o Motivated to reduce the tension, people often change their attitudes to justify
    ! (1) attitude-discrepant behaviour
    ! (2) wasted effort
    ! (3) difficult decisions
    • What are the conditions for the arousal and reduction of Dissonance?

    • Changing peoples attitudes through behaviors


    o Ex: People are more confidents on their bets when they have already made them
    A new look on Cognitive Dissonance Theory
    • “New look” version of cognitive dissonance theory:
    o four conditions must be met for dissonance to be aroused:
    ! (1) an act with unwanted consequences
    ! (2) a feeling of personal responsibility
    ! (3) arousal or discomfort
    ! (4) attribution of the arousal to the attitude-discrepant act.
    Alternative Routes to Self-Persuasion
    • What are some alternative explanations of dissonance-related attitude changes?
    o Self-perception theory:
    • People logically infer their attitudes by observing their own behaviour.
    o Impression-management theory:
    • People are motivated only to appear consistent to others.
    • You don’t want to appear inconsistent: you wanted to perceive your outward attitude to that 1$
    o Self-affirmation(esteem) theories:
    • Dissonance is triggered by threats to the self-concept and can be reduced indirectly, without a change in
    attitude, through self-affirming experiences.
    Cultural Influences on Cognitive Dissonance
    • Recently, social psychologists have wondered whether cognitive dissonance effects are universal or specific to Western
    cultures.
    • Research suggests that people all over the world will try to reduce dissonance when it arises, but that the conditions that
    arouse it are influenced by cultural context.

    Chapter 7: Conformity
    • Social Influence:
    • Conformity, compliance, and obedience are the three kinds of social influence
    • Varied in degree of pressure put on target
    • Social Influence as “Automatic”
    • We are influenced by other people without our awareness.
    • People mimic each other’s behaviours
    o Maybe to smooth out social interactions.
    Conformity
    The Early Classics
    • Contrasting types of conformity.
    • Experiment: Sherif "
    • Sherif presented groups of
    participants with an ambiguous task
    • Their judgments converged
    • Experiment: Asch
    • Asch had confederates make
    incorrect responses
    • Participants went along about a third of
    the time.
    • Length of lines example
    • Conformity ex:
    o Sick Building Syndrome
    ! Hospital in Halifax had 800/1200 people sick
    ! Psychological
    o What is the continuum of social influence
    ! Social influences vary in the degree of pressure they bear on
    an individual
    ! Yielding to influence
    ! Resisting Influence
    o Norm formation and Conformity
    ! The Chameleon Effect "

    Why Do People Conform?


    • Experiment: Sherif
    o People use others for info in an ambiguous situation.
    o Private acceptance
    • Experiment: Asch
    o People conform in their public behaviour to avoid appearing deviant.
    o Line judgement experiment
    o Public conformity

    Majority Influence
    • As the size of an incorrect unanimous majority increases, so does conformity
    • The presence of one dissenter reduces conformity

    • Women vs Men
    o Women conform more than men on “masculine” tasks
    o Not on “feminine” or gender-neutral tasks or in private settings.
    • Collectivistic vs Individualistic cultures
    o Rates are higher in cultures that value collectivism

    • How can a minority influence a group?


    o Minorities resist pressures to conform
    ! Minority influence is greater when the source is an ingroup member.
    o Moscovici:
    ! Minorities can exert influence by taking a consistent/unwavering position.

    Compliance
    • A common form of social influence occurs when we respond to direct requests.
    The Language of Request: how to communicate a request?
    • More likely to comply when…?
    o They are taken by surprise
    o The request sounds reasonable.
    ! Ex: Xerox Machine
    ! Can I use it? 60%
    ! I have 5 pages, can I use it because im in a rush 94%
    ! I have 5 pages, can I use it because I need to make copies 93%
    What Does The Norm of Reciprocity Describe?
    • How does reciprocity apply to compliance?
    o We comply when we feel indebted to a requester
    o People vary on this
    Setting Traps: Sequential Request Strategies
    • Four compliance techniques are based on a two-step request:
    • The first step sets a trap, and the second elicits compliance.
    • 4 Techniques: (2 Categories)
    o Small to large
    ! Foot-in-the-door:
    ! “Real” request comes after getting someone to comply with a smaller request.
    ! Putting signs in window and then on lawn for political party
    ! Low-balling:
    ! Get another to agree to a request but then increases the size of it
    ! Reveals hidden costs. Despite the increase, people often follow through
    ! Ex: Rebates up to 6000$
    o Large to small
    ! Door-in-the-face:
    ! The real request is preceded by a large one that is rejected.
    ! People then comply with the second request because it is a concession
    ! That’s-not-all:
    ! Begins with a large request.
    ! The apparent size of the request is reduced by the offer of a discount

    Obedience
    • When the request is a command, and the requester is a figure of authority
    Milgram’s Research: Forces of Destructive Obedience
    • Experiment:
    o Painful shocks to a confederate.
    o Sixty-five percent obeyed completely but felt tormented
    • Findings:
    o Obedience levels are influenced by various situational factors, including a participant’s physical proximity to both
    the authority figure and the victim.
    • Why high level of obedience?
    o Participants did not feel personally responsible
    o The orders escalated gradually.

    Milgram in the Twenty-First Century


    • Situational explanation for acts of destructive obedience does not forgive them.
    • A recent “partial replication” of Milgram’s shock study suggests that most people are still fully obedient today.
    Defiance: When People Rebel
    • Social influence breed obedience, but can also support acts of defiance
    o Disobedience
    o Resistance
    o Defiance
    • What breed’s obedience? Findings from milgram:
    o Emotional distance from victim
    o Closeness and legitimacy of the authority
    o Institutional authority
    o The liberating effects of group influence
    The Continuum of Social Influence
    Social Impact Theory
    • Social influence depends on the strength, immediacy, and # of sources who exert pressure
    o Relative to target persons who absorb that pressure.

    Perspectives on Human Nature


    • There is no single answer to the question of whether people are conformists or nonconformists.
    • There are cross-cultural differences in social influence, and values change over time even within specific cultures.

    Chapter 8: Group Processes


    Fundamentals of Groups
    What Is a Group? Why Join a Group?
    • A group has one of the following characteristics
    o Groups involve direct interactions among group members
    o Shared common fate, identity, or set of goals.
    o Joint membership of a certain category (race, gender etc..)
    • What is a collective?
    o An assembly of people engaging in common activity but having little direct interaction with each other
    ! Not a real group
    o Some social psychological processes are unique to real groups
    • Collectives vs group
    o Riots vs. Frats
    • Why join?
    o Many reasons
    ! To perform tasks that can’t be accomplished alone
    ! To enhance self-esteem and social identity.
    o Group influences: why join?
    ! Identity
    ! Safety
    ! Belonging-ness
    ! Learning
    • From the experience of others
    • Evolutionary scholars propose:
    o Attraction to groups is an evolved psychological mechanism.
    Socialization and Group Development
    • Socialization:
    o The socialization of newcomers into a group relies on the relationships they form with old-timers,
    ! Old timers act as models, trainers, and mentors.
    • Development:
    o Initial orientation through periods of conflict, compromise, and action
    •

    Roles, Norms, and Cohesiveness


    • Roles?
    o Clear roles can help a group, assigned people to areas of expertise
    o Stress and poor performance can result with ambiguity, and poorly chosen in roles
    o Experiment: Teams
    ! Teams work better when people are assigned to there area of expertise.
    • How does the group influence the individual
    o Heightened emotional intensity
    o Feelings of solidarity
    o Disinhibition
    o Feelings of Power
    • Norms?
    o Groups develop norms that group members are expected to conform to
    • Cohesiveness?
    o Cohesiveness and group performance relationship is complex
    o Depends on factors such as the size of the group, the kind of task the group is performing
    Culture and Cohesiveness
    • Collectivistic cultures may distinguish more between working with friends and strangers more than people from
    individualistic cultures.

    Individuals in Groups: The Presence of Others


    Social Facilitation: When Others Arouse Us
    • Experiment: Triplett
    o He found that children performed faster when they worked side-by-side rather than alone.
    • Social facilitation: two effects that occur when individual contributions are identifiable:
    o The presence of others enhances performance on easy tasks but
    • Impairs performance on difficult tasks.
    o Social facilitation effects have been found in a variety of domains.
    o Even the “presence” of computerized images of people can trigger these effects.
    • Causes of social facilitation?
    o Mere presence
    o Evaluation apprehension
    o Distraction-conflict
    Theories of Social Facilitation
    • When does Social Facilitation occur
    o Zajonc’s Mere Presence Theory
    ! The mere presence of others is sufficient to produce social facilitation

    ! d

    • Evaluation Apprehension Theory


    • Someone must be in position to evaluate performance.
    • Stereotype threat revisited
    • Distraction-Conflict
    Social Loafing: When Others Relax Us
    • When Is Social Loafing Less Likely to Occur?
    o People believe that their own performances can be identified and thus evaluated, by themselves or by others
    o The task is important or meaningful to those performing it
    o People believe that their own efforts are necessary for a successful outcome
    o Group expects to be punished for poor performance
    o Group is small/Cohesive
    • Experiment: Ringelmann (1880s):
    o Individual output declines on pooled tasks. Social Loafing:
    o A group-produced reduction in individual output on easy tasks in which contributions are pooled.
    • Research Example: Latane et al (1979)
    o Students were told to cheer or clap loudly
    o Varied group size
    o Measured sound pressure per person
    o Results?
    • People exhibit a sizable decrease in individual effort when performing in groups as compared to when they perform
    alone"
    How do We know if its loafing or facilitating "

    Culture and Social Loafing


    • Collectivistic cultures may be more likely to have group norms that promote productive teamwork
    • Collectivistic cultures may be likely to socially loaf if they are working in a group that has established a norm of low
    productivity and effort.
    Facilitation and Loafing: Unifying the Paradigms
    • A unified paradigm integrates social facilitation and social loafing
    o Deindividuation: diminishes a person’s sense of individuality
    o Reduces constraints against deviant behaviour.
    • Two types of environmental cues can increase deviant behaviour:
    o Accountability cues, such as anonymity, signal that individuals
    o Attentional cues, such as intense environmental stimulation, produce a deindividuated state
    o Ex: Large crowds
    ! Increase anonymity and decrease self-awareness: together increasing violent/deviant behaviour
    • The effects of Deindividuation depend on the characteristics of the immediate group
    o In the context of an antagonistic social identity, antisocial behaviour increases; in the context of a benevolent
    social identity, prosocial behaviour increases.

    •
    Group Performance: Problems and Solutions
    Process Loss and Types of Group Tasks
    • Process loss:
    o Because of process loss, a group may perform worse than individual
    • Group performance is influenced by the type of task at hand
    o additive, conjunctive, or disjunctive
    • Why does this happening?
    o Social loafing, poor coordination, and failure to recognize the expertise of particular members
    • When do Groups do better than best member?
    o When tasks that can be divided among subgroups and in which the correct answer is clearly demonstrable
    Conditions for team effectiveness?

    Groups
    • Brainstorming
    o Less ideas in groups
    ! Computer-based technology can improve group brainstorming.
    • Group Polarization
    o Opinions become more extreme.
    o When individuals who have similar, though not identical, opinions participate in a group discussion
    o Explanations for group polarization emphasize the number and persuasiveness of arguments heard,
    • Groupthink
    o The symptoms of groupthink produce defective decision making
    o Norms stimulating group think:
    ! high cohesiveness, a strong and controlling leader, and a great deal of stress.
    o Strategies to avoid:
    ! Consulting with outsiders, having the leader play a less controlling role, encouraging criticism and
    thorough information search, and devil’s advocate
    ! Use a computerized group support system.
    • Everything becomes anynonomous
    • Escalation Effects
    o Groups are susceptible to an escalation effect
    ! Occurs when commitment to a failing course of action is increased to justify investments
    ! Instead of cutting its losses, groups essentially throw good money and time after bad.
    • Communicating Information and Utilizing Expertise
    o Biased sampling: group pays attention to info accepted by most the group
    o Poor communication can arise due to suppression of relevant information
    o Groups can remember more information than individuals through transactive memory
    o Shared process in which the information can be divided among the group members.
    • How can groups improve?
    o Group norms fostering critical thinking can prevent biased sampling.
    o Setting specific ambitious goals can improve group performance.
    o Training groups in better group dynamics
    o such as how best to develop transactive memory, can be effective.
    o Interventions that compel groups to stop and explicitly think about the best way to proceed
    o Experts need to participate
    o Computer technology can be used to guide group discussions and decision-making processes
    • Virtual Teams
    o Virtual teams may be especially vulnerable to some of the factors that cause process loss.
    o Therefore, special attention needs to be paid to virtual teams
    • Diversity
    o Diversity on group performance is rather mixed
    Conflict: Cooperation and Competition Within and Between Groups
    Mixed Motives and Social Dilemmas
    • Mixed-motive situations: incentives for competition and cooperation
    o Ex: prisoners dilemma
    • Social dilemma: personal benefit conflicts with the overall good.
    o Influenced by psychological factors:
    ! Including situational factors, group dynamics, and structural arrangements.
    • Resource dilemmas: involve sharing limited resources.
    Culture Vs. Social Dilemmas
    • Collectivists are more likely to cooperate in social dilemmas than are individualists
    • Collectivists may cooperate more when dealing with friends or ingroup members but compete more aggressively when
    dealing with strangers or outgroup members.
    Conflict Escalation and Reduction
    • Escalation
    o Many reasons: conflict spirals and escalation of commitment.
    o The premature use of the capacity to punish can elicit retaliation and escalate conflict.
    o Perceptions of the other that contribute to conflict escalation include unfavourable mirror images and
    dehumanization.
    • Reduction
    o GRIT: strategy for the unilateral, persistent pursuit of trust and cooperation between opposing parties
    Negotiation
    • Integrative agreements outcomes exceed a 50-50 split
    • Communication and an understanding of the other party’s perspective are key ingredients of negotiation.
    • Mediators can often be helpful
    • Differences between men and women in negotiation
    o For women, negotiations go better when there is eye contact between the negotiators
    o For men, negotiations are more productive when there is no visual contact.
    Culture and Negotiation
    • People from different cultures may have very different assumptions and styles concerning negotiations,
    • Groups may go too far trying to accommodate another group’s negotiation style, leading to further difficulties.
    Finding Common Ground
    • Superordinate goals and a superordinate identity increase the likelihood of a peaceful resolution of differences.
    Second Semester

    Chapter 7: Attraction and Close Relationships


    Others: A Fundamental Human Motive
    • Why do we need affiliation? Under what conditions does it occur?
    o Need for affiliation: a desire to establish social contact with others.
    ! Motivated to establish and maintain an optimum balance of social contact
    o Stressful situations in particular motivate us to affiliate
    • What is loneliness? Sources? Consequences?
    o Sources
    ! Inborn personality trait
    ! Learned reaction to failed interactions with others
    o Painful Consequences
    ! Negative self-evaluations
    ! Expectations of failure in social encounters
    ! Self-blame for social failures.
    ! Self-imposed isolation
    o Loneliness: is a feeling of deprivation about social relations.
    ! Most likely to occur during times of transition or disruption.
    ! Loneliest group in Canadian society are those 18 to 30 years old.
    • Why are we attracted to others?
    o One Perspective:
    ! People are attracted to others with whom the relationship is rewarding; rewards can be direct or indirect.
    o Evolutionary psychologists:
    ! Juman beings exhibit patterns of attraction and mate selection: passing on of their own genes.
    • Affects of Familiarity?
    o The Proximity Effect
    ! The single best predictor of attraction is physical proximity, or nearness.
    • Where we live influences the friends we make.
    • Students tend to date those who live either nearby or in the same type of housing as they do
    o The Mere Exposure Effect
    ! Contrary to folk wisdom, familiarity does not breed contempt.
    • The more often we are exposed to a stimulus, the more we come to like that stimulus.
    • Familiarity can influence our self-evaluations.
    Physical Attractiveness: Getting Drawn In
    • Is Beauty an Objective Quality? Does culture play a role in beauty?
    o Some argue that certain faces are inherently more attractive than others.
    ! High levels of agreement for facial ratings across ages and cultures.
    ! Physical features of the face are reliably associated with judgments of attractiveness.
    ! Babies prefer faces considered attractive by adults.
    o Others argue that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and point to the influences of culture, time, and context.
    ! One reason for the bias toward beauty is that it’s rewarding to be in the company of others who are attractive.
    ! A second reason is that people associate beauty with other positive qualities, a belief known as the what-is-
    beautiful-is-good stereotype.
    • Are attractive people happier? No, why?
    o They often discount the praise they get for non-social endeavours.
    o They feel pressured to keep up their appearance and are often dissatisfied with how they
    look.
    • Is the Physical Attractiveness Stereotype Accurate?
    o Good-looking people do have more friends, better social skills, and a more active sex life.
    ! But beauty is not related to objective measures of intelligence, personality,
    adjustment, or self-esteem.
    ! Self-fulfilling prophecy plays a role
    o Media Influences on the Bias for Beauty "
    • What are The Benefits and Costs of Beauty?
    o Costs
    ! Being good-looking does not guarantee health, happiness, or high self-esteem.
    ! Attributional problems with being goodlooking:
    • Is the attention and praise one receives due to one’s talents or just one’s good looks?
    ! Pressure to maintain one’s appearance.
    • Societal pressures are particularly strong when it comes to the body.
    • Women are more likely than men to suffer from the
    “modern mania for slenderness.”
    o Overall, being beautiful is a mixed blessing. "
    ! Little relationship between appearance in youth and later
    happiness.

    First Encounters: Getting Acquainted


    • First Encounters: Liking Others Who Are Similar
    o We tend to associate with others who are similar to ourselves.
    (demographic backgrounds, attitudes, and interests.)
    ! Byrne (1971): We like people who we perceive as having
    similar attitudes to our own.
    ! Rosenbaum (1986): Similarity does not spark attraction; rather
    dissimilarity triggers repulsion, the desire to avoid someone
    o People first avoid others who are dissimilar
    • Two stage model of attraction process

    • Matching Hypothesis?
    o People tend to become involved romantically with others who are equivalent in their physical attractiveness.
    ! Matching is predictive of progress in a relationship.
    • Couples who were matched persisted longer and fell in love
    o Illustrating the effects of reciprocity, we tend to like others who indicate that they like us.
    o But people who are indiscriminate about who they like can be taken for granted and not liked as much by others.
    • Research on the hard-to-get-effect shows that people like others best who are moderately selective in their social choices.e

    Mate Selection: The Evolution of Desire


    • Women:
    o Evolutionary psychologists say that women seek men with financial security or traits predictive of future success in
    order to ensure the survival of their offspring.
    • Men
    o In contrast, men seek women who are young and attractive (physical attributes that signal health and fertility)—and
    not promiscuous (an attribute that diminishes certainty of paternity).
    • Cross-cultural studies:
    o They tend to support these predicted sex differences, but critics note that many results are not that strong and can be
    viewed in terms that are more psychological than evolutionary.
    • Mate Selection: The Evolutionary Perspective
    o Men and women by nature must differ in their optimal mating behaviours.
    ! Women must be highly selective because they are biologically limited in the number of children they can
    bear and raise in a lifetime.
    • Women seek out men who are older and financially secure.
    ! Men can father an unlimited number of children and ensure their reproductive success by inseminating
    many women.
    • Men seek out women who are young and physically attractive.
    • Supporting Evidence for the Evolutionary Perspective
    o Universal tendency in desired age for potential mate.
    ! Men tend to seek younger women.
    ! Women tend to desire older men.
    ! Men and women become jealous for different reasons.
    ! Men become most upset by sexual infidelity.
    ! Women feel more threatened by emotional infidelity
    • Close Relationships
    o Intimate relationships include at least one of three components:
    ! Feelings of attachment, fulfillment of psychological needs, and interdependence.
    • Theories on relationships:
    o Stage theories propose that close relationships go through specific stages, but evidence for a fixed sequence is weak.
    o Two other views emphasize either a gradual accumulation of rewards or a sharp distinction between types of relationships.

    The Intimate Marketplace: Tracking the Gains and Losses " Theories (3)
    • Social exchange theory:
    o People seek to maximize gains and minimize costs in their relationships.
    ! Higher rewards, lower costs, and an outcome that meets or exceeds a partner’s comparison level (CL) predict
    high levels of satisfaction.
    ! Lower expectations about alternatives (CLalt) and more investment in the relationship are associated with
    higher levels of commitment.
    • The Intimate Marketplace: Equity Theory
    o Most content with a relationship when the ratio between the benefits and contributions is similar for both partners.

    o Balance is what counts


    o Both over benefit and under benefit elicit negative emotions, but the underbenefited are usually less satisfied.
    • Social Penetration Theory

    Types of Relationships
    • In exchange relationships, people are oriented toward reward and immediate reciprocity; in communal relationships, partners
    are responsive to each other’s needs.
    • People with secure attachment styles have more satisfying romantic relationships than do those with insecure (anxious or
    avoidant) styles.
    • Attachment styles
    o Secure
    o Avoidant
    o Anxious
    How Do I Love Thee? Counting the Ways
    • According to the triangular theory of love, there are eight subtypes of love produced by the combinations of intimacy,
    passion, and commitment.
    o Sternbergs Triangular Theory of Love

    • Inherent in all classifications of love are two types:


    o Passionate and companionate.
    ! Passionate love is an intense, emotional,
    often erotic state of positive absorption in
    another person.
    • In one theory, passionate love is sparked by physiological arousal and the belief that the arousal was
    caused by the loved person.
    o Companionate love: rests on mutual trust, caring, friendship, commitment, and willingness to share intimate facts
    and feelings.
    ! Compared with passionate love, companionate love is less intense but in some respects deeper and more
    enduring.
    Culture, Attraction, and Relationships
    • Although Buss identified universal gender differences in mate preference, he also found some striking cultural differences, for
    example, in differing preferences for chastity.
    o The universality of passionate love has led some researchers to explore the neuroscientific bases for this experience.
    o Cultures differ in the extent to which romantic love is seen as necessary for marriage.
    Relationship Issues: The Male-Female “Connection”
    • People vary in how they define what it means to “have sex.”
    o On average, men report being more sexually active than women and see opposite-sex interactions in more sexualized
    terms.
    • Homosexuality
    o Both biological and environmental theories are used to explain the origins of homosexuality.
    • Breaking up
    o Communication problems are among the most common causes.
    o Try to understand each other’s point of view.
    • Happy vs. Unhappy Couples
    o Happy couples make relationship-enhancing attributions
    ! On average, marital satisfaction starts high, declines during the first year, stabilizes, and then declines again
    at about the eighth year.
    o Partners who are close and interdependent and for whom relationships are important to the self-concept suffer more
    after breaking up.
    • When do marriages work?
    o Married after age 20
    o Both grew up in stable, two-parent homes
    o Dated for a long while before marriage
    o Are well and similarly educated
    o Enjoy a stable income from a good job
    o Live in a small town or on a farm
    o Are religiously committed
    o Are of the same age, faith, and education
    Chapter 10: Helping Others
    Evolutionary and Motivational Factors: Why Do People Help?
    • Why do people help? For…
    • Values
    • Understanding
    • Personal Development
    • Community Concern
    • Esteem Enhancement
    Evolutionary Factors in Helping
    • Evolutionary perspectives emphasize two ways in which helping could become an innate, universal behavioural tendency:
    • What is important is survival of the individual’s genes, not survival of the fittest individual.
    ! Kinship selection is the tendency to help genetic relatives. (protect genes)
    • Strongest when biological stakes are particularly high.
    • What is the reproductive advantage of helping someone who isn’t related to you?
    ! Reciprocal altruism: helping someone else can be in your best interests.
    ! Increases the likelihood that you will be helped in return.

    o Other evolutionary approaches include the idea of group selection, in which members of a social group help each
    other survive.
    Rewards of Helping: Helping Others to Help Oneself
    o When do people help?
    • Rewards>Costs
    o Arousal: Cost-Reward Model
    • What are the costs and rewards associated with helping?
    • Both emotional and cognitive factors involved.
    ! Helping others often makes the helper feel good, it can relieve negative feelings such as guilt, and it is
    associated with better health.
    • Emotional
    ! People who are feeling bad may be inclined to help others in order to feel relief from their negative mood.
    • Cognitive
    o Helping to Feel good
    • More likely to help:
    ! If self-esteem has been threatened by failure. Feeling guilty about something.
    • Relationship between helping and feeling better.
    ! Helping increases positive mood, lowers stress, which can have a positive effect on health
    o Helping to appear good:
    • Moral hypocrisy
    ! People try to convince themselves that they are helping by moral principles when really it’s self-interests.
    • Over helping
    ! People appear or help only to hurt him or her
    o Costs of Helping or of Not Helping
    • Helping has its costs as well as its rewards.
    ! Helping can also be more sustained and deliberate. Courageous resistance
    • E.g., people who hid Jews during the Holocaust
    ! Helping can have negative health effects if involves constant and exhausting demands
    Altruism or Egoism: The Great Debate
    o The empathy-altruism hypothesis:
    • Taking the perspective of a person perceived to be in need creates the other-oriented emotion of empathic
    concern, which in turn produces the altruistic motive to reduce the other’s distress.

    o Is helping motivated by altruistic or egoistic concerns?


    • Altruistic: Motivated by the desire to increase another’s welfare.
    ! When people are altruistically motivated, they will help even when escaping from the helping situation is
    easy.
    • Egoistic: Motivated by the desire to increase one’s own welfare.
    ! The self-oriented emotion of personal distress produces the egoistic motive to reduce one’s own distress.
    • Batson: The motivation behind some helpful actions is truly altruistic
    o Alternatives to the empathy-altruism hypothesis include
    • Empathy-specific punishments for not helping and empathy-specific rewards for helping, such as
    ! negative state relief and empathic joy.

    • Egoistic Alternatives
    ! Empathy encourages helping because of concern about the costs to the self of not helping.
    ! Empathy highlights the potential rewards for helping others.
    • Negative state relief model
    ! People may be inclined to help to improve their mood. Helper experiences empathic joy by helping
    another person
    o Longer-term acts of helping: why?
    • Such as volunteerism, reflect both altruistic and egoistic motivations. Self-interested goals in this context can be a
    good thing because they promote a commitment to helping behavior to the extent that such goals are met.

    o How do we Tell the Difference Between Egoistic and Altruistic Motives


    ! How easy it to escape from a helping situation?
    ! If egoistic motive, helping should decline when escape from the
    situation is easy.
    ! If altruistic motive, help is given regardless of ease of escape.
    o Research Example: Batson et al (1981)
    • Participant is paired with a confederate Elaine: “randomly” placed in
    observer position. Watch Elaine receive shocks as she works.
    ! Would participant be willing to take Elaine’s place?
    ! Varied empathy and difficulty of escape
    • ½ told E’s personal values were similar to participant; ½ told quite different
    • ½ participants told they could leave early; ½ told had to stay through
    ! Results? "
    Situational Influences: When Do People Help?
    The Unhelpful Crowd
    o By Stander Effect?
    • Research on the bystander effect, in which the presence of others inhibits helping in an emergency, indicates
    why the five steps necessary for helping--noticing, interpreting, taking responsibility, deciding how to help, and
    providing help may not be taken.
    o Bystander Affect: The tragic story of Kitty Genovese.
    • Why did no one help Kitty Genovese?
    ! 38 People watched her die.
    ! The distractions of others and our own self-concerns may impair our ability to notice that someone needs
    help.
    • Latané & Darley: Were social psychological processes at work?
    • Bystander Effect: The presence of others inhibits helping
    o Research Example:
    • Garcia et al (2002)
    ! Participants imagined being in crowd, alone, or not in social situation. Later asked to volunteer to help in
    another experiment.
    ! Measured duration of helping.
    ! Results?

    • Research Example:
    ! Markey (2000)
    • Participants in chat room. Encountered plea for help.
    • Number of people present varied.
    • Manipulated whether asked for a particular person to help
    • Measured response time to plea
    ! Results?
    • Some recent research has demonstrated the bystander effect even in online contexts, when the
    bystanders are not physically present.

    o Reducing bystander intervention?


    • Under ambiguous circumstances, some interpretations—such as the belief that an attacker and a victim have a
    close relationship or the mistaken inferences drawn from pluralistic ignorance
    ! Ambiguity
    • Bystanders are less likely to offer direct aid when they do not feel competent to do so. They can, however, call for
    assistance from others.
    ! Competence
    • Even if people want to help, they may not do so if they fear that behaving in a helpful fashion will make them
    look foolish.
    ! Foolishness
    • Diffusion of responsibility:
    ! People may fail to take responsibility because they assume that others will
    o The five steps to helping in an emergency?
    • Emergency
    • 1: Notice that something is happening
    • 2: Interpret the event as an emergency
    • 3: Take responsibility for providing help
    • 4: Decide how to help
    • 5: Provide help
    Time Pressure & helping
    o When people are in a hurry, they are less likely to notice or choose to help others in need
    Location and Helping
    o Density
    • Residents of densely populated areas are less likely to provide spontaneous, informal help to strangers than are
    residents of smaller or less densely populated communities.
    o Research Example:
    • Baron (1997)
    ! People in mall were approached by confederate asking for change.
    ! Either ambient or no clear odors.
    ! Completed mood questionnaire.
    • Results?

    Culture and Helping


    o People in cities with relatively low levels of economic well-being were somewhat more likely to help strangers,
    o People from simpatía cultures were more likely to help strangers than people from non-simpatía cultures.
    Moods and Helping
    o Why does feeling good lead to doing good:
    • Desire to maintain one’s goodmood.
    • Positive expectations about helping.
    • Positive thoughts.
    • Positive thoughts and expectations about social activities
    o Why feeling good might not lead to doing good:
    • Costs of helping are high.
    • Positive thoughts about other social activities that conflict with helping.
    • taking the time to help someone would conflict with the good mood associated with getting to the party on time!
    o A Bad mood and helpfulness?
    • When do negative moods make us more likely to help others:
    ! If we take responsibility for what caused our bad mood (i.e., feel guilty).
    ! If we focus on other people.
    ! If we are made to think about our personal values that promote helping.
    • People in a bad mood may be motivated to help others in order to improve their mood.
    o When negative moods make us less likely to help others:
    • If we blame others for our bad mood.
    • If we become very self-focused.
    • If we are made to think about our personal values that do not promote helping.
    Role Models and Social Norms: What determines helping?
    o Role models are important in teaching children about helping.
    • How do role models inspire helping? 3 reasons:
    ! Provide an example of behaviour to imitate directly.
    ! Teach that helping is valued and rewarding.
    ! Increase awareness of societal standards of conduct.
    • Observing a helpful model increases helping.
    o Helping and Social Norms
    • Norm of reciprocity
    ! Role Model
    • Norm of equity
    • Norm of social responsibility
    ! People should help those who need assistance
    • Norm of self-interest
    ! People’s attitudes and behaviours are, and should be, influenced by their self-interest.
    o Cultural differences exist in how people interpret and apply social norms.
    o Sexual Differences:
    • Men are less likely to seek help than women.
    Personal Influences: Who Is Likely to Help?
    o Are Some People More Helpful than Others?
    • There is some evidence of relatively stable individual differences in helping tendencies.
    • Recent findings suggest that there may be a genetic, heritable component to helpfulness
    o What Is the Altruistic Personality?
    • Some personality traits are associated with helpful behavioural tendencies, but no one set of traits appears to
    define the altruistic personality.
    • Two qualities that do predict helping behaviours are empathy and advanced moral reasoning.
    Interpersonal Influences: Who Do People Help?
    o Perceived Characteristics of the Person in Need
    • Attractive individuals are more likely to receive help than are those who are less attractive.
    • People are more willing to help when they attribute a person’s need for assistance to uncontrollable causes rather
    than to events under the person’s control.
    o The Fit Between Giver and Receiver
    • In general, perceived similarity to a person in need increases willingness to help.
    • People are more likely to help members of their ingroups.
    • Research on racial similarity has yielded inconsistent results.
    • People usually help significant others more than strangers, except when helping threatens their own egos.
    o Gender and Helping
    • Gender differences reflect social stereotypes about the roles of men and women.
    ! Classic male-helper scenario: “Knight in shining armor”
    ! Classic female-helper scenario: “Social support”
    ! Men help female strangers in potentially dangerous situations more than women do; women help friends
    and relations in everyday situations more than men do.
    • Gender differences in willingness to seek help
    ! Compared to women, men are more hesitant to seek help, especially for relatively minor problems.
    o Reactions to Receiving Help
    • The threat-to-self-esteem model
    ! Help is experienced as self-supportive when recipient feels appreciated and cared for.
    ! Help is experienced as self-threatening when recipient feels inferior and overly dependent.
    • When Is Receiving Help Perceived as Threatening?
    ! Those with high self-esteem tend to react more negatively than those with low self-esteem.
    ! Being helped by a similar other may imply that recipient is inferior.
    ! Help from a significant other on an ego-relevant task can threaten one’s self-esteem.
    Culture and Who Receives Help
    o Some research has shown that people with a collectivistic orientation may be less likely to help out-group members or
    strangers than are those with an individualistic orientation.

    The Helping Connection (Cognition)


    • Theory and research seem to indicate that helping requires the recognition of meaningful connections among individuals.
    Chapter 11: Aggression
    Introduction:
    • What Is Aggression?
    o By 1983, 250 different definitions of aggression existed
    o Aggression is defined as behaviour that is intended to harm another individual
    • How do we know someone’s intentions?
    • Aggressive behaviour can come in many different forms.
    o Anger is an emotional response to perceived injury; Hostility is an antagonistic attitude.
    o Instrumental aggression is a means to obtain a desired outcome.
    o In emotional aggression, harm is inflicted for its own sake.
    • Language of Aggression:
    o Violence:
    • refers to extreme acts of aggression.
    o Anger:
    • consists of strong feelings of displeasure in response to a perceived injury.
    o Hostility:
    • Is a negative, antagonistic attitude toward another person or group
    • Types of Aggression?
    o Instrumental Aggression: Harm is inflicted as a means to a desired end.
    o Emotional Aggression: Harm is inflicted for its own sake.
    • Which are acts of aggression? (Q: Which one of the following are acts of Agres)
    o Accidentally injuring someone.
    o Working tenaciously to try to sell a product to a customer.
    o Biting someone on the neck.
    o Swinging a stick at someone but missing.
    o Hurling insults at someone.
    o Murdering for money.
    o Hiring someone to break a competitor’s kneecaps.
    o Hitting others while in a rage.
    Culture, Gender, and Individual Differences
    Culture and Aggression: Does it have an influence?
    • The rates of violence and the forms violence takes vary dramatically
    • Research: Individualistic Vs. Collectivist
    o Individualistic cultures tend to have higher rates of aggression than collectivistic cultures.
    • Forms of Aggression
    o The forms that aggression may take and attitudes about whether various practices should be considered aggression
    vary across cultures.
    o Bullying is a persistent and widespread problem that affects a large number of young people in the world.
    • Violence within different subcultures within a country
    o Within a society, different subcultures exhibit different norms concerning aggression.
    • Teenagers and young adults, and people in the Southern United States (compared to northern States) are the
    groups most prone to violence.
    o Aggression varies within particular societies as a function of:
    • Age
    ! Teenagers and young adults
    • Class
    • Race
    ! Certain groups live in more violent areas
    • Region
    • Culture Vs. Domestic Violence:

    • Non Violent Societies?


    o Bruce Conta identified some societies in 1997 as non violent
    • Ex: Bali (Indonesian island)
    Gender and Aggression
    • Universal finding that men are more violent than women.
    o Differences stable over time and place.
    o Does not depend on culture
    • Challenges to the notion that men are more aggressive than females.
    o Boys tend to be more overtly aggressive.
    o Girls often are more indirectly, or relationally, aggressive

    • Gender and Indirect vs Direct Aggression in Four Countries

    o
    Origins of Aggression
    Is Aggression Innate?
    • Freud: We have a death instinct (Thanatos)
    • Lorenz: Aggression is an innate, instinctual motivation.
    o Instinct Theory: Similar to evolutionary
    • Evolutionary Theory: example?
    o Similarities between Lorenz’s instinct theory and evolutionary psychology.
    o Emphasis placed on genetic survival rather than survival of the individual.
    • Innate characteristic that has evolved from natural and sexual selection pressures.
    o Accounts for inhibition of aggression against genetically related others.
    • Gender differences in aggression can be traced to competition for status (and the most desirable mates) and
    sexual jealousy.
    • Why gender differences?
    ! Males aggress to achieve and maintain status.
    ! Females aggress to protect offspring
    o E.g., preschool children living with stepparent or foster parent were 70 to 100 times more likely to be fatally
    abused (Daly & Wilson, 1988; 1994; 1996; 2000)
    • Hormones: Testosterone and the neurotransmitter serotonin
    o The sex hormone testosterone and the neurotransmitter serotonin appear to play roles in human aggression.
    • Are there specific biological factors that influence aggression?
    ! Strong positive correlation between testosterone levels and aggression.
    • But correlation is not causation!
    • And aggression can cause temporary increases in testosterone
    • The neurotransmitter serotonin appears to restrain impulsive acts of aggression.
    ! Low levels of serotonin associated with high levels of aggression.
    ! Boosting serotonin can dampen aggressiveness.
    ! But is the lack of serotonin an innate cause of aggression?
    Is Aggression Learned?
    • Aggressive behavior is strongly affected by learning.
    • Aggression can be positively as well as negatively reinforced.
    ! Positive reinforcement: Aggression produces desired outcomes.
    ! Negative reinforcement: Aggression prevents or stops undesirable outcomes.
    ! Physical punishment of children is associated with increases in their subsequent aggressive behaviour.

    • Growing up in a household or community with a lot of aggression and violence increases the likelihood that one will
    become an aggressive person.
    • Biological factors interact with social factors in producing or regulating aggression.
    • Social learning theory:
    • Emphasizes the influence of models on the behaviour of observers.
    ! Behaviour is also learned through the observations of others.
    ! Bandura et al.’s (1961) inflatable doll study.
    ! Aggression most likely to increase if models are rewarded and not punished for their aggressive
    behaviours.
    ! By watching aggressive models, people:
    ! Learn specific aggressive behaviours.
    ! Develop more positive attitudes and beliefs about aggression in general.
    ! Construct aggressive “scripts.”
    ! Nonaggressive models decrease aggressive behaviour.
    • Punishment and Aggression
    • Punishment is most likely to decrease aggression when it:
    ! Immediately follows the aggressive behaviour;
    ! Is strong enough to deter the aggressor;
    ! Is consistently applied and perceived as fair and legitimate by the aggressor.
    • Research Example: Straus et al (1997)
    ! Researchers recorded the number of times in a week that children were spanked
    ! Measured change after 2 years in children’s antisocial behaviour
    • Aggression models:
    • Models who obtain desired goals through the use of aggression and are not punished for their behaviour are the most
    likely to be imitated. But even punished models may encourage aggression by observers.
    • Aggressive models teach not only specific behaviours but also more general attitudes and ideas about aggression and
    aggressive “scripts” that guide behaviour.
    • Peaceful models can decrease aggressive responses by observers.
    Gender Differences and Socialization: “Boys Will Be Boys”
    • Gender and cultural differences in human aggression may be due in part to differences in socialization practices—lessons
    taught, reinforcements and punishments given, models offered, and roles and norms emphasized.
    Culture and Socialization: Cultures of Honour
    • A culture of honour promotes status-protecting aggression among white males in the American South and West, as well as
    among men in other parts of the world, such as in Brazil.
    Nature Versus Nurture: A False Debate?
    • Human aggression clearly is affected by learning and experience.
    • In aggression, as in all human behaviour, biological and environmental influences interact.

    Situational Influences on Aggression


    Frustration: Aggression as a Drive
    • Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis:
    • Frustration produced by interrupting a person’s progress to a goal will always elicit the motive to aggress.
    ! According to the frustration-aggression hypothesis, displacement occurs if aggression against the source of
    frustration is inhibited.
    • Proposes that frustration produces the motive to aggress and that aggression is caused by frustration.
    ! All aggression is caused by frustration.
    ! But, in fact, frustration produces many motives, and aggression is caused by many factors.

    • Catharsis:
    • The frustration-aggression hypothesis holds that engaging in any aggressive action reduces the motive to engage in
    further aggression, a process called catharsis.
    • Viewed as a two-step sequence
    1. Aggression reduces the level of physiological arousal.
    2. Because arousal is reduced, become less angry and less likely to aggress further.
    • Influences on Aggression
    • Type of emotion (positive or negative)
    • Intensity of arousal
    ! Role of excitation transfer.
    • Arousal Affect Model: Aggression is influenced by:
    ! Intensity of arousal;
    ! Type of emotion produced by a stimulus.
    • In the long run, however, aggression now is likely to increase aggression later.
    • Automatic Cognition: Situational Cues
    • • Weapons Effect:
    ! The tendency for the presence of guns to increase aggression.
    • Potential aggression-enhancing situational cues are associated with:
    ! Successful aggression, or
    ! The negative affect of pain or unpleasantness.
    • Frustration is related to aggression, But…
    o But frustration does not always produce aggressive inclinations.
    o There are other causes of aggression besides frustration.
    • Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis Revised (Berkowitz, 1989)
    o Frustration is but one of many unpleasant experiences that can lead to aggression by creating negative,
    uncomfortable feelings.
    o It is the negative feelings, not frustration itself, that can trigger aggression.
    ! Negative feelings can also result from a wide variety of noxious stimuli
    • The motive to aggress is a psychological drive that resembles a physiological drive.
    • Can lead to displacement.
    • Catharsis is the reduction of this motive.
    ! Some studies support the idea of displacement of aggression; however, most research does not support the idea
    of catharsis as an effective means to reduce aggression.
    Negative Affect
    • A wide variety of noxious stimuli can create negative feelings and increase aggression.
    • Hot temperatures are associated with increased aggression and violence.

    • Experiencing social rejection is particularly aversive and can increase aggressive responses.
    • Positive emotional responses are incompatible with negative affect and reduce retaliatory aggression.
    Arousal: “Wired” for Action
    • Highly arousing stimuli increase retaliatory aggression.
    Thought: Automatic and Deliberate
    • Higher Order Cognition: Cognitive Control
    • Deliberate, thoughtful consideration of the situation can influence aggression.
    ! Situational cues associated with aggression, such as the presence of a gun, can automatically activate
    aggression-related thoughts and increase aggressive behaviour
    • Aggression can be reduced because of mitigating information.
    ! Information the person should not be held fully responsible for aggressive actions.
    ! Deliberate thoughts that affect aggression include the perception of the cost or appropriateness of aggression.
    • Some people exhibit a hostile attribution bias.
    ! The tendency to perceive hostile intent in others
    ! The extent to which individuals perceive hostile intent in others is an important factor in predicting aggression.
    • Alcohol and Aggression
    • High arousal impairs the cognitive control of aggression, as does alcohol.
    • How does alcohol increase aggression?
    ! Alcohol reduces anxiety, which lowers inhibitions against aggression.
    ! Intoxication causes alcohol myopia, a disruption in the way
    we process information
    • Factors Associated with Sexual Aggression Among Students
    • Research Example: "
    • Marx et al (1999)
    ! Male Ps listened to an audiotape of a mock date rape
    ! Before listening to tape, ½ consumed alcohol, ½ did not
    ! Measured Ps’ judgments of when the man on the tape should
    stop sexual contact with woman
    ! Results?
    •
    Situational Influences: Putting It All Together
    • Aggression is influenced by separate and interactive influences of affect,
    arousal, and cognitions.

    Media Effects
    Violence in TV, Movies, Music Lyrics, and Video Games
    • The Extent of Media Violence:
    • By the end of elementary school, a typical North American child will have seen:
    ! 8,000 murders
    ! More than 100,000 other acts of violence.
    • 2003 study found 534 separate episodes of primetime violence during a 2 week period.
    • The most violent TV shows are targeted to children (e.g., cartoons).

    • Exposure to TV violence in childhood is related to aggression later in life.


    • Media Violence across types of studies

    o In laboratory and field experiments, exposure to aggressive models increases aggressive behaviour among adults and
    children
    • Media Vs. Violence

    o A large number of studies, using a variety of different methods, have shown a significant positive relationship
    between exposure to media violence and real-world aggressive cognitions and behaviour
    o Because we habituate to familiar stimuli, repeated observations of violence desensitizes people to violence, reducing
    physiological arousal to new incidents. This desensitization can increase aggressive behaviour and decrease helping
    behaviour.
    • Immediate Effects of Media Violence
    o Aggressive models increase aggressive behaviour among children and adults.
    ! Models can be live or on film.
    o Violent imagery in the music industry associated feelings of hostility and aggressive thoughts.
    o Playing violent video games can increase aggressive thoughts and behaviour
    • Long-Term Effects of Media Violence
    o Exposure to TV violence at ages 6-9 positively correlated with aggression as adults.
    ! No gender difference.
    o Cross-cultural study found relationship between early viewing of TV violence and later aggression

    o Book
    ! Habitual viewing of media violence can suggest that aggression is rewarded, encourage imitation, and promote
    aggressive scripts, which can guide subsequent behaviour
    ! Through cultivation of a social reality, the mass media can intensify fear of aggression and encourage
    aggressive behaviour.
    ! Prosocial song lyrics, TV programs, and video games can increase prosocial behaviour.
    Pornography and violence
    • Violent pornography increases aggression, particularly male-to-female aggression.
    • When a female is portrayed as enjoying violent sex, even unprovoked men become more aggressive and more accepting it
    • The combination of interest in violent pornography and negative attitudes toward women is a strong predictor of
    self-reported sexual aggression in the past and sexually aggressive intentions for the future.
    Intimate Violence: Trust Betrayed
    Sexual Aggression Among University Students
    • Men are more likely than women to engage in sexually coercive behaviour.
    • Alcohol consumption is involved in a majority of sexually aggressive incidents.
    • Sexual Aggression Among University Students
    o Of the 3187 females surveyed on 32 university campuses:
    ! Over 25% reported having experienced either an attempted or completed rape since age 14.
    ! Over 50% of these assaults occurred during a date.
    o Majority of women and about a third of men say they have experienced coercive sexual contact.
    Domestic Violence: Partner and Child Abuse
    • Sexual jealousy and distrust fuel a great deal of violence between intimate partners.
    • National surveys reveal that women engage in more aggressive behaviour against a partner than do men; but women are
    more likely to be killed, seriously injured, or sexually abused by a partner.
    • A shockingly high number of children are victimized—often by parents and caretakers.
    • Children who witness parental violence or are themselves abused are more likely as adults to abuse their partners and their
    own children. But most people escape from this cycle of family violence.

    Reducing Violence
    Multiple Causes, Multiple Cures
    • Aggression has multiple levels of causes
    • Factors that can help reduce violence
    • Avoidance of negative affect, aggressive thinking, the presence of weapons, competitiveness, minor acts of
    aggression and vandalism, and social rewards for aggressive behaviour.
    • Models of non-violent responses to social problems are also useful in reducing violent behaviour.
    • Educational efforts emphasizing the unrealistic nature of violent pornography
    • Sex-education and rape-awareness programs can be effective in helping prevent sexual aggression.
    • Universities should have programs to prevent alcohol abuse
    Conclusions
    • Communication and social support are critically important factors in reducing violence.

    Appendix: Law
    Trials
    • How does a Trial Work?
    o Embedded in a large criminal justice system, relatively few cases come to trial.
    o Yet the trial is the heart and soul of the system
    Jury Selection
    Voir Dire
    • Once called for service, prospective jurors are questioned by the judge or lawyers in a process known as voir dire.
    • 3 Stages:
    o Master list of eligible jurors
    o Random Selection
    o Petrial Interview
    • Those who exhibit a clear bias are excluded. Lawyers may also strike a limited number through the use of peremptory
    challenges.
    Trial Lawyers as Intuitive Psychologists
    • Pressured to make juror selections quickly, lawyers rely on implicit personality theories and stereotypes.
    o Peremptory Challenges
    o Challenges for cause
    o Implicit Personality Theories
    o Stereotypes
    • But general demographic factors do not reliably predict how jurors will vote.
    The Courtroom Drama: Types of evidence
    Confession Evidence
    • Interrogation: The police employ various methods of interrogation.
    o Methods: One method is to befriend the suspect and “minimize” the offence; a second is to scare the suspect into
    believing that it is futile to deny the charges.
    • Pressure Confession: Under pressure, people sometimes confess to crimes they did not commit.
    o Although juries are supposed to reject coerced confessions, their verdicts are still influenced by such evidence.
    • 9 Steps of Interrogation:

    The Lie-Detector Test


    • Polygraph: By recording physiological arousal, the polygraph can be used as a lie detector.
    o Crime Relevant questions
    o Control Questions
    • Can you fool a polygraph?
    o Polygraphs report high rates of accuracy; but truthful persons are too often judged guilty; the test can be fooled.
    Eyewitness Testimony
    • Eyewitness memory is a three-stage process involving
    o Acquisition
    ! Refers to the witness’s perceptions at the time of the event in question
    ! Factors influencing acquisition?
    • One’s emotional state
    o During acquisition, witnesses who are highly aroused zoom in on the central features of
    an event but lose memory for peripheral details.
    • Weapon-focus effect
    o When a criminal pulls out a gun, razor blade, or a knife, witnesses are less able to identify
    culprit than if no weapon is present
    o Cross-race identification bias
    o Tendency for people to find it difficult to identify members of a race other than their own
    o Witnesses have trouble recognizing members of a race other than their own.
    o Storage
    ! Refers to getting the information into memory to avoid forgetting.
    ! Memory for faces and events tends to decline over time.
    • But, not all memories fade over time.
    • However, the “purity” of the memory can be influenced by postevent information.
    ! During storage, misleading post-event information biases eyewitness memory.
    • Young children are particularly suggestible in this regard.
    o Retrieval
    ! Lineups are biased when a suspect is distinctive, when the police imply that the criminal is in the lineup,
    when witnesses make relative judgments, and when the suspect is familiar for other reasons.
    • Lineup construction; Lineup instructions; Format; Familiarity-induced biases
    o Research Example: Malpass & Devine (1981)
    ! Ps witnessed a crime
    ! Received biased instruction: culprit was in lineup or unbiased instruction: might not be in lineup
    ! Ps then viewed lineup- culprit present/not present • Measured % of false identifications
    ! Results?

    •
    • Why do jurors often overestimate the accuracy of eyewitnesses?
    o Lack knowledge about human memory.
    o Base judgments largely on witness’s confidence
    • Research Example: Wells & Bradfield (1998)
    o Ps shown security tape of man who shoots guard
    o Presented with a set of photographs that did not contain gunman for identification
    o Ps received confirming feedback/no feedback
    o Measured Ps feelings about eye-witness experience
    o Results?

    • In court, jurors overestimate eyewitnesses’ accuracy and cannot distinguish between accurate and inaccurate witnesses.

    Non-evidentiary Influences
    • Misinformation Effect: The tendency for false postevent information to become integrated into people’s memory of an
    event.
    o Repetition, misinformation, and leading questions can bias a child’s report, particularly for preschoolers.
    o The more pre-trial knowledge people have about a case, the more likely to prove the defendent guilty
    • Once inadmissible testimony leaks out in court, the jury is contaminated by it
    • A judge’s cautionary instruction may worsen the situation by drawing attention to the info

    The Judge’s Instructions?


    • The judge’s instructions often have little impact, in part because they are often incomprehensible.
    • The instructions are usually delivered after the evidence—after many jurors have formed an opinion.
    • Jurors may not follow instructions that conflict with their own conceptions of justice, a phenomenon known as jury
    nullification.
    Jury Deliberation
    Leadership in the Jury Room
    • Dominance hierarchies develop in the jury room
    The Dynamics of Deliberation
    • Jury deliberations pass through three stages:
    o Orientation
    ! Open conflict
    o The period of open conflict is filled with informational and normative pressures
    o Reconciliation
    ! When it comes to outcomes, the initial majority typically wins.
    • Deliberation
    o Leniency bias
    o Informational influence, normative influence
    Jury Size
    • The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the use of 6-person juries is acceptable in criminal trials
    • The norm in Canada is still 12.
    • Smaller juries do not deliberate for as long as 12-person.
    Post-Trial: Sentencing
    • Juries determine verdicts; judges determine sentences.
    • Sentencing disparity:
    o Part of the problem is that people have different views of the goals of sentencing and punishment.
    Perceptions of Justice
    Justice as a Matter of Procedure
    • Satisfaction with justice depends not only on winning and losing, but also on the procedures used to achieve the outcome.
    • People of all cultures prefer models of justice that offer participants a voice in the proceedings and the opportunity to be
    judged by an impartial decision maker.
    Culture, Law, and Justice
    • Reflecting cultural and religious values, countries set different laws in an effort to regulate behaviour

    Appendix: Health
    Stress and Health:
    • What is stress?
    o An unpleasant state that arises when we perceive that the demands of an event strain our ability to cope
    effectively.
    • What determines your reaction to stress?
    o A person’s appraisal of a situation determines how stress is experienced and how he or she copes.
    • Coping with stress?
    o Coping responses consist of the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours in an attempt to reduce stress
    • What three factors cause stress?
    o Crises and Catastrophes
    ! Harmful and long-term effects on mental and physical health.
    o Major Life Events
    ! Only negative events are harmful.
    o Micro-stressors: The Hassles of Everyday Life
    ! The most common sources of stress are minor everyday hassles.
    Stresses Affect the Body:
    • Who coined the term stress?
    o Selye coined the term stress upon observing that different stressors produce similar physiological effects on the
    body.
    • What is The General Adaptation Syndrome?
    o The body responds to stress in three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.
    o Does not apply to acute stress.

    • What Does Stress do to the Heart?


    o Stress is a major risk factor in cardiovascular heart disease.
    o Type A Vs. Type B?
    ! Research suggests:
    ! The hard-driving Type A personality (Aka: coronary behaviour pattern) is associated with heart
    disease.
    ! Hostility is now known to be the “toxic” element in the Type A behaviour pattern.
    • What Does Stress do to the Immune System?
    o Lymphocytes:
    ! White blood cells = lymphocytes
    ! They detect and destroy foreign substances in the body.
    ! Stress leads to a weakened immune response from these cells.
    o Stress can cause people to behave in unhealthy ways or by triggering the release of stress hormones that suppress
    immune cell activity.
    • What is the Link Between Stress and Illness?
    o Stress weakens the immune system, so people under stress are more likely to catch a cold when exposed to a
    virus.
    Processes of Appraisal
    • Attribution Styles
    o Learned Helplines Model of Depression:
    ! Exposure to an uncontrollable event sparks passive, apathetic, depression-like symptoms.
    o Research shows:
    ! The attributions people make for their lack of control are of central importance.
    • The Human Capacity for Resilience:
    o Hardiness
    ! The key ingredient of hardiness is the belief that one has the power to control future outcomes through
    one’s own behaviour
    o Self efficacy
    ! Depending on the situation, people may have a high or low self-efficacy—the belief that they can perform
    the behaviours needed to produce positive outcomes
    o Optimism
    ! Some individuals are characteristically more optimistic than others, and optimism at one point in time is
    predictive of later positive health outcomes.
    Ways of Coping with Stress:
    • What is Problem-Focused Coping?
    o Reduce stress by overcoming the source of the problem.
    ! Better than avoiding
    o When can it not be effective?
    ! Exerting control is physiologically taxing and can increase stress.
    ! Both behavioural and characterological self-blame are associated with increased distress.
    • What is Emotion-Focused Coping?
    o Manage the emotional turmoil produced by a stressful situation.
    ! How?
    ! Positive emotions
    ! Shutting down
    ! But, suppression from awareness of unwanted thoughts and feelings can backfire, causing
    us to become preoccupied with them
    ! Opening Up
    ! Research shows that opening up and confronting one’s feelings about upsetting events
    improves mental and physical health.
    ! Self-Focus
    ! Among people with low self-esteem, self-focus worsens their mood and heightens their
    distress.
    o In contrast, it is helpful to become absorbed in demanding external activities such as reading, exercise, and
    gardening.

    • What is Proactive Coping?


    o Up front efforts
    ! As a first line of defense, people can ward off stress through proactive coping efforts such as the
    accumulation of resources.
    o Social Support
    ! Friendships and other sources of social support have strong beneficial effects on well-being.
    ! Social support is healthy, but research measures it in different ways
    ! Number of social contacts
    ! Diversity of social network
    ! Quality of relationships
    • Culture and Coping?
    o Stress in Individualistic vs Collectivist Cultures?
    ! Stress is universal
    ! Collectivist cultures appear to rely less often on social support as a means of coping than do individualist
    cultures.
    o Seeking social support/Explicit vs implicit social support?
    ! Recent research has identified that acceptance, avoidance, family support, religion, and private emotional
    outlets are the coping styles members of collectivist cultures use.
    Treatment and Prevention of stress:
    • Treatment: The “Social” Ingredients:
    o Social Support
    ! Medical treatment includes an important social component.
    o Hope
    ! Health care workers provide patients with social support and a ray of hope.
    ! Positive expectations: Placebo effect
    o Choice
    ! Choice of treatment is also an important factor, particularly when patients choose an effortful treatment,
    which increases commitment.

    • Prevention: Getting the Message Across:

    o
    • Many causes of death are preventable through changes in lifestyle and behaviour.
    o The recognition that a threat to health exists
    o Imitating the healthy behaviours of others
    o Conforming to a subjective norm favoring healthy behaviours
    o A sense of self-efficacy about ones ability to perform healthy behaviours
    o Accurate beliefs that healthy behaviours will have the desired effect
    The Pursuit of Happiness:
    • Well Being is Subjective: Three important factors determining it
    o Social relationships
    o Employment
    o Physical and mental health
    • Can Money buy happiness?
    o Evidence that money can buy happiness is mixed.
    o More affluent nations tend to have happier citizens than less affluent nations
    o Correlations with groups of citizens within nations are modest.
    • Theories about happiness:
    o Social comparison theory:
    ! One reason for the limited association between wealth and happiness is that our perceptions of wealth are
    relative:
    ! We compare ourselves to others and to what we have become accustomed to
    o Adaptation level theory:
    ! Tendency people have to quickly adapt to a new situation, until that situation becomes the norm.
    ! Research suggests that each of us has a baseline level of happiness toward which we gravitate over time.

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