Social PsychologyInterpersonal Attraction

Behavioural attributions in self and others

Attitude formation

Effect of the group on the individual

Interpersonal AttractionWhat determines your liking/disliking of someone?

1) Similarity of personality and attitudes

2) Physical attractiveness

3) If they like us, or at least, start off disliking then liking us

4) If we have low self-esteem

5) Familiarity

6) First impressions

Attribution Processes

For others: Fundamental Attribution Error (but occasionally the discounting principle)

For yourself: Self-serving bias

Attitude Formation

2) Cognitive dissonance: when behaviour and attitudes/knowledge are at odds

-what can you do?-alter behaviour, find cognitive support for behaviour, or change opinion

-e.g. Smoking

-boring study, grasshopper-eating study

Formal communication:-source of the message-message itself

Theories of attitude change1) Balance Theory

Group Behaviour-in competition: Triplett (1897)-when cooperating: social loafing-with an audience: it depends...

-Zajonc settles things

-when in the audience: bystander intervention-pluralistic ignorance-diffusion of responsibility

-normative function: we follow the group to fit in, or not look dumb

-comparative function: we look to the group for information about ambiguous situations

Popular explanation for why we do this: social comparison theory

The effect of the group on bystanders even applies when individual is threatened with harm

(smoke study)

What about overt activity? Asch line length study

Social roles as defined by the groupZimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment (1974)

-the setup:-ads placed on Stanford University campus, for a 2-week study they would be paid $15/day to participate in -students who answered were randomly assigned to be a guard or a prisoner-study began with a real police officer showing up at the “prisoners” houses and arresting them

Behaviour influenced by an authority figure

Milgram’s obedience study

-people are less conforming today, aren’t they?-what is your evidence?

-I could argue people might conform more (video games)

-what were you laughing at?

-Milgram was successfully replicated in 2009

Cults

Group brainwashing

-sleep deprivation-love bombing-under-isolation-physical exertion-peer pressure-milieu control

1st stage softens you up:

2nd stage: ego manipulation-mystical manipulation & sense of superiority-need for purity-confession-loading the language-doctrine over individuals

Moonies Scientology Army