Social Psych 100 level

"Man is by nature good and only intitutions make him bad"

"Man is by nature solitary, poor, nasty and brutish." "If not for the civilizing constraints of society there would a war against all"

Scientifically testable vs socially good

characterisitic peculiar to individual or group

• Cognitive perspectives
• Learning perspectives
• Motivational perspectives
• Biological perspectives

Emphasis on evolutionary past and genetic predisposition

Intrapersonal, interpersonal, intergroup, societal level

experimenter can 1. infer cause 2. rule out other causes 3. analyze complex phenomen

See if exposure to violence leaded to increased aggression

1. Study of the unconscious 2. Study of sexuality 3. Developmental aspects of personality

• Hobbes claimed these instincts were curbed by external restraints
• Freud believed the external restrains of society were internalized during childhood and may later return to cause conflict between instincts and demands of society

ID, EGO, SUPEREGO

• primitive part of psyche that contains most basic of urges
• main concern is to gain sexual pleasure
• demands satisfaction now not later, ignores consequences

• Moral policeman
• Internalized rules of society
• Powerful and gives out punishment if rules are broken resulting in intense anxiety, guilt, self-reproach

• works to satisfy reality principle
• tries to satisfy ID and societal demands

ID is repressed most of the time, but sometimes outlets are found other ways and the impulses re-emerge. Defense mechanisms are needed to avoid this happening

forbidden impulse rechannelled into a safer course

repressed impulse breaks through into consciousness

where original wish is supplanted with the opposite

where forbidden urges are projected onto others

awareness of memories but not emotions

Oral (0-2), Anal (2-4), Phallic (4-6). Latency (6-12), Genital (12+)

• When a boy wants to sexually possess his mother & so hates father. Castration anxiety. Boy gives up on mother and relates with father.
• Occurs in phallic stage (4-6)

During the phallic stage (4-6) a girl develops 'penis envy' and turns to father, hates mother, anxiety over desires resolved by identifying with mother

uses restricted sample, never studies children, concepts little more than metaphors so not easily tested, little experimental evidence, ideas unable to falsified

Relation between thumb sucking and children who weren't breast fed, no relation

Authoritarian personalities may be harsh and say maybe to harming minorities, however the aggression they display has been shown to be caused by observational learning as opposed to redirection of repressed impulses (Bodo doll study)

Cognitive, affective, behavioural

• The bogus pipeline
• Electromyography (EMG)
• The lost letter technique

Electromyography (cacioppo et al. 1986) measuresactivity of facial muscles (happy = aggree with attitude) (angry = disagree with attitude)

Respondants believe the machine they are attached to can measure minute changes in their muscles. The thought being that they would be less likely to give socially desirable attitudes as opposed to their own.

LaPiere (1934) studied racist attitudes and behaviour - face to face, letter

unlikely

• 1. the intention to behave
• 2. the consquences of behaviour

Attitudes are relatively stable

Attitudes can change

inconsistency between attitude and behaviour may lead to this uncomfortable state

• Someone has a conservative attitude towards drugs but partakes in them... behaviour is irrevocable so attitude changes.
• Chances of winning bet? Those who placed bet more confident of winning
• Behaviour changes --> attitude changes

If the source is credible, trustworthy, attractive, likeable, sunny days

• the threatened outcome is believable
• the recommended change is attainable
• the induced emotion is motivating and not debilitating

Attitude resilience - to show we're not at the mercy of those who are trying to infuence us, to avoid attitude change counter arguments are effective

The idea that people's perception of an event affect what they do and how they feel

Internal vs external

• Internal ---- external (locus)
• Stable ---- Unstable (stability)
• Contrallable ---- Uncontrolable (contrallability)

• Optimists explain negative events using external facotrs
• Pessimists explain negative events with theyr own qualities

Internal characteristics

Experience poorer health later in life --> how we interpret events in our early life affects us later

Functions to control 1. self esteem 2. control

Control function of attributions --> used to maintain the belief that the negative event will not happen to themselves (so they can behave to avoid negative outcomes)

• Correspondence Inference (Jones & davis 1967)
• Covariation and Configuaration (Kelley 1967)

• Consistency (is he always hostile to you?)
• Consensus (are other people hostile towards you?)
• Distinctiveness (is he hostile to other people?)

• the 'actor observer effect' (cause of their actions to external, cause of other to internal eg slipping)
• the 'self serving bias' (take credit for success but external attributions for failure)

• Western culture - attribute behaviour dispostionally
• Non western culture - environmental explainations for behaviour

Exposure effect- the more exposure to a stimulus the more appealing it becomes

When a person is considerable private, repeated exposure may then lead to dislike

emotionally aroused people find others more attractive

When emotionally aroused people look around to find something to attribute their arousal to

• childlike profile, big eyes, small nose, small chin
• medium bust, hips waist and bottom
• age and height: younger and smaller

• Expression of dominance, small eyes, square jaw, thrusting chin
• Vshaped, broad shoulders tapering into smaller bottom
• Age and height: older and taller

Pupil dilation

Similar

Attitudes, values, activity similarities

A year after

People judge it to arise from transitory, controllable uases

the idea that simple task performance (esp when task is well practised) improves in the presence of others

The larger the crowd the more we eat at weekends

Schmitt 1986 found that complex task performance decreases in the presence of others

• The presence of others leads to increased arousal
• Increased arousal leads to increased dominant response
• If the dominant response is approriate performance is enhanced

As group size increases individual responsibility decreases

The idea that when surrounded by others people lose self awareness and this disinhibits impulses (usually kept in control)

A decrease in self-awareness leads to an increase in antisocial behaviour

Used to describe the person in an experiment who is unaware of the purpose of the experiment - presented in good faith, authentic

Pairs of cards of different lengths (1 bonafide, the rest confederates who cgave the wrong answers) - 75% went along with the majority (conformity)

She was kidnapped by the SLA became influenced by them and later denounced parents and critised the US imperialism of oppressing people - influence can change beliefs

Zimbardo - stanford prison

People will act to obey authority indicating when people are told to hurt someone they will

The personality of the person

deferential to authority, overbearing and hostile to those seen as inferior

High authoritarian personailty israeli's opposed Arab autonomy (independence to freedom), opposed handing back occupied territory (opp for low authoritarian)

realistic conflict theory - attitudes and behaviour of ingroup members towards outgroup reflect objective interests of ingroup

Eg prizes may be introduced for winners between two groups