Social Psychology - W. J. Wilson (Spring 2000)

  1. Attribution theory
    1. Internal attribution
      1. She behaves that way because of the kind of person that she is
    2. External attribution
      1. She behaves that way because of the situation she is in
    3. Fundamental attribution error
      1. People tend to overuse internal attributions
        1. Especially when judging the behavior of others
  2. Helping behavior (Latane & Darley)
    1. Presence of others inhibits helping
      1. Pluralistic ignorance
      2. Diffusion of responsibility (or guilt)
    2. Bystander calculus
      1. Costs and benefits weighed to determine whether to help or not
    3. Learning theory approach
      1. Past reinforcement or punishment determines helping
    4. Model increases helping
  3. Conformity (Asch)
    1. More people in the group, greater conformity
      1. As group size increases to 5 or so
    2. More cohesive the group, greater conformity
    3. Presence of an ally (someone else who goes against the group) decreases conformity
      1. Even if ally wrong or incompetent
    4. Group dislikes nonconformist
      1. Disbelief
      2. Laughter
      3. Derision
  4. Attitude change (Cognitive dissonance theory - Festinger)
    1. Two inconsistent cognitions produce dissonance
      1. Aversive
      2. Reduce dissonance by changing a cognition
    2. Decisions leading to dissonance
      1. "I said I would serve sweetbreads to my family, and I haven't done it yet."
        1. Can't change your stated decision, so change behavior and serve sweetbreads
      2. "I rated the toaster and the waffle-iron as equivalent, but I chose the toaster"
        1. Justify choice of toaster by deciding it's better than you initially rated it
      3. "I just bet my hard-earned money on GreyNag in the third race, and GreyNag might not win."
        1. You wouldn't bet on a loser, so your opinion of the horse goes up
        2. You are much more confident in the horse after placing the bet than before
    3. Payments leading to dissonance
      1. People paid a small amount of money to lie about something change their opinion about the topic more than do people paid a lot of money to lie
        1. College students paid $.50 to write essay about the benefits of a rule that prohibits opposite sex friends in your dorm room later support the rule more than people paid $5
        2. Subjects paid $1 to convince someone that a boring experiment is interesting actually decide that the experiment was more interesting than people paid $20
    4. Adversity leading to dissonance
      1. People who pass a hard test for entry into a club like the club more than people who pass an easy test
        1. Initiation rites
        2. Hazing
        3. Boot camp
  5. Obedience to authority (Milgram)
    1. Many people obey an authority figure even in a relatively trivial situation
    2. Obedience increased by salience of authority figure
    3. Obedience decreased by salience of "victim"