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Attitude

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Predisposition to respond to a particular object in a favourable or unfavourable way

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Classical Conditioning

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- learning a new behaviour or attitude via process of association - 2 stimuli are linked together to produce a new learned response. - Involves unconditioned stimulus that produces an unconditioned response paired with a conditioned stimulus to produce a conditioned response - Ex. Little Albert - 11 month old infant had neutral stimuli of words white rat, rabbit, and mask (CS) paired with loud sound of hammer (US) which produced a negative emotional response (UR) that led to him becoming afraid of those objects (CR)

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Components of an attitude

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- cognitive: schemas - evaluative: whether the attitude is positive, negative or neutral - behavioural: extent to which you will act on the attitude

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Formation of attitudes

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- reinforcement (instrumental conditioning) - classical conditioning - observational learning - strengthened through experiences

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Cognitive Dissonance Theory

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- a psychological social psych theory proposed by Festinger in 1959 - Psychological tension arises when two cognitions (attitudes and behaviours) are inconsistent. We strive for cognitive consistency by resolving dissonant cognitions

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Sources of cognitive dissonance

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- post-decisional dissonance: when we make a decision, some cognitions are consonant with it and others are dissonant - counter-attitudinal behaviour: when our behaviours contradict existing attitudes

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Strategies for reducing dissonance

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- disregard one of the beliefs (ex. conveniently forgetting about a test you failed) - change or flip one of the beliefs (ex. changing the belief that you are an A student) - distort one to match the other (ex. claiming the test was too hard) - add a third belief that resolves the conflict (ex. saying you were sick on the day of the test)

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\"When Prophecy Fails\" study

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- conducted by Festinger in 1956 - participant observation of a doomsday cult in Chicago who worshiped alien beings known as \"The Guardians,\" who would supposedly save them from a global flood at 12am on a certain date - the time came and went with no flood so cult members engaged in cognitive dissonance reduction strategies - remained in the cult despite this because they had dedicated most of their lives to it and renouncing their beliefs would have caused dissonance

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Festinger and Carlsmith Cognitive Dissonance Study

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- participants made to do boring task and then convince the next participant that the task was interesting for an incentive of either $1 or $20 - They were then asked to rate the experiment and the $1 group rated it more interesting than the $20 group - The $1 group experienced dissonance from lying to the next participant. They couldn't justify their actions using the measly $1 incentive so they changed their attitude to reduce the dissonance and thus convinced themselves the study was more interesting than it actually was - the $20 group reduced their dissonance through the added extra cognition of \"I did it for the money\" to justify their actions

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Aronson and Mills study

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- 3 sets of college students chosen to join a group - 1st set underwent extreme initiation rites, 2nd mild initiation rites, 3rd no initiation rites - they were then asked to rate how much they liked the group after participating in a boring group activity. The 1st set said they liked the group the most - The extreme effort put into getting into the group created dissonance (\"was it really worth it?\") so they changed their attitude to believe that they liked the group to resolve dissonance

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Criticisms of cognitive dissonance theory

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- not everyone experiences dissonance when their attitudes and behaviours don't match up - ignores situational influences on behaviour

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Balance Theory

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- similar to cognitive dissonance theory in that it involves cognitive consistency - There are three components in a cognitive system: the person, the object, and the impersonal object - people have a desire to maintain balance across the three components - Ex. you (the person) like John (the object), who likes the Leafs (impersonal object), but you dislike the Leafs. To maintain balance, you can either decide that you don't like John, that you do like the Leafs, or convince John to hate the Leafs

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Relationship between attitudes and behaviour

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- there is little correlation between attitudes and behaviours - Ex. one study by Corey found that there was almost 0 correlation between attitudes about cheating on tests and actual cheating behaviour - this is due to 4 factors: 1. activation of the attitude 2. characteristics of the attitude 3. correspondence between attitude and behaviour 4. situational constraints on behaviour

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2003 Strip Search Prank Call

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- guy called McDonald's in Georgia pretending to be a police officer and convinced manager to strip search an 18 year old female employee supposedly suspected of theft and drug possession - manager complied with all of the dude's demands over the phone even as they became increasingly ridiculous simply because he was an authority figure (seriously don't ever read the wikipedia article on this incident your faith in humanity will be forever crushed)

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Authority

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Hierarchy of roles that we accept as right. Capacity of one individual to issue orders to other by invoking rights vested in their role

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Power

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the ability to influence and control the behaviour of others even against their will

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Compliance

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when target's behaviour conforms to the source's requests

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Order

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tacit acceptance of laws/rules/norms

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Milgram Experiment

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- participants made to believe they are delivering shocks of increasing intensity to a person in another room when they fail a learning task under direct orders of experimenter - 63% of people went all the way to the highest (deadly) voltage, despite obvious distress from the \"person\" being shocked - shows how people view science as a legitimate authority and are unwilling to disobey that authority - deferral to authority reduced perceived personal responsibility - people less likely to comply when participant was physically closer to the person they were supposed to be shocking, when experimenter was not in the room, and when experiment was held in back alley office unconnected to Yale - compliance higher when participant was delivering orders to another shocker - diffusion of responsibility

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Factors influencing obedience to authority

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- Proximity and visibility of consequences - shape perceived personal responsibility - Proximity and credibility of authority - power of a role contingent on the extent to which there is consensus about its associated rights and legitimacy

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Stanford Prison Study

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- simulated prison conditions - participants randomly assigned to either guard or prisoner role - after a few short days, participants began to take their roles too seriously - guards abused prisoners and prisoners became extremely distressed. None of the prisoners had acted like this prior to the study - identity of prisoners was taken away - referred to only by numbers. This prevented them from forming solidarity - anonymity of guards - wore sunglasses, allowed to diffusion of responsibility - participants acted how they thought the experimenter wanted them to act - demonstrated power of the situation to override personality - often considered to be unethical

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Groups

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- Fundamental building blocks of society. A social unit that consists of 2 or more individuals and has the following attributes: 1. Membership 2. Interaction among members 3. Shared goals 4. Shared norms

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Group Cohesion

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Extent to which members desire to remain in group

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Social Cohesion

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Extent to which one enjoys interacting with group members

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Homophily

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Tendency for individuals to associate with similar others

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Task cohesion

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Extent to which one enjoys group activities

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Group goal

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an outcome viewed by group members as desirable and important to attain. Not always the same as individual goals

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Isomorphism

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Similarity between group and individual goals. Groups function best when there is high isomorphism because members are motivated to pursue group goals and contribute resources and effort to the group

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Ringlemann Rope Pulling Task

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- Participants were asked to pull a rope either alone or in groups - As the number of group members increased, the individual effort of each person decreased

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Social Loafing

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Motivation loss that occurs when an individual's contribution becomes less clear to the group

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Diffusion of responsibility

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deindividuation, or loss of self awareness, that occurs as groups get larger

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Dispensability

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When contribution to group is perceived as smaller and more redundant

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Sucker effect

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If people perceive that they are doing more than their fair share of the group's work, they may reduce effort or wait to see the effort of other members

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Social facilitation

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- Being in the presence of others causes a heightened state of arousal that will increase performance on dominant tasks and decrease performance on complex or unfamiliar tasks - Ex. Studies have shown that people reeling in fishing lines, performing word association tasks, and easy hand writing tasks did better in the presence of others while one study showed that learner drivers were less likely to pass their test if another individual was in the back seat - Another study found that skilled pool players had a higher shot-making rate in the presence of others while less skilled players' shot rate decreased

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Conformity

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type of social influence involving a change in belief or behaviour in order to fit in with a group

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Allport Odour Study

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- original lab study of conformity - Participants rated pleasantness of odours either alone or with others. Ratings were more extreme when individuals were alone and less so in the presence of others (moderation effect)

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Sherif Autokinetic Effect

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- Participants were asked to stare at a small, stationary point of light in a dark room that appeared to move due to involuntary eye movements - They were asked to say how much they thought it had moved, first alone, then in a group of 3, then alone again - When alone, there was a large variation in answers among individuals but when together, answers converged on a group average and remained there when tested alone again, showing they were influenced by other's estimates

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Asch Line Study

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- Participants, 7/8 of which were actually confederates, were asked to judge which of 3 comparison lines is closest in length to a standard line - Confederates unanimously gave an obviously wrong answer and 75% of participants conformed at some point - participants either didn't conform because they knew the others were wrong (distortion of judgement), conformed because they convinced themselves they saw what the majority saw (distortion of perception), or conformed because they wanted to fit in (distortion of action)

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Normative influence

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when a group member conforms to expectations held by others in order to receive rewards or avoid punishment

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Informational influence

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When a group member accepts information from others as valid evidence about reality. Occurs especially when members need to reduce uncertainty

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Factors shaping conformity

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- size of majority - unanimity - commitment to future interaction - anonymity - strength of group norms - individual motivation - attractiveness to group - task uncertainty and individual skill

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Groupthink

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When group members fail to realistically evaluate alternative courses of action because they are overwhelmed by pressures for conformity, and thus they make poor decisions Ex. 9/11 office tower victims, Challenger disaster, Bay of Pigs in Iraq

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Aggression

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Any behaviour intended to harm another person that the target wants to avoid

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Altruism

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helping behaviour that is intended to provide aid to someone else without any expectation of reward

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Sociobiological theory

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- Applies Darwinian ideas to human and animal behaviour by stating that altruistic and aggressive behaviour is selectively targeted to increase the chances that our own genes will be passed on to subsequent generations - Criticized because it is largely based on animal studies and may not be generalizable to humans and because there are cross-cultural variations in rates of altruism and aggression

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Social Learning Theory

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- States that aggressive and altruistic behaviours are learned, particularly from parents - Ex. Bandura doll study - children who watched adults play aggressively with a doll also played aggressively with the doll; longitudinal study found preteen boys who experienced harsh parenting practices were more likely to engage in violent dating relationships at 16; children of parents who volunteered were more likely to volunteer

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Violence and the Media

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- studies consistently report mild positive correlation between violent television watching and aggressive behaviour - however, this calls into question causal order - does violent television watching lead to aggression or does aggression lead to violent television watching? - If violent TV leads to aggression, it may cause imitation, cognitive priming, legitimization, desensitization, and arousal - if aggression leads to violent TV viewing, then is the process circular?

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Darley and Latane study

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- participants believed they were participating in a discussion with a number of other people over intercom (although in reality they were just recorded voices) - one of the other \"participants\" has a seizure and calls for help and researchers see how quickly the participant responds - participants reacted less quickly the greater the number of other people they believed could hear the seizure

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The Bystander Effect

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- The greater the number of bystanders there are in an emergency, the less likely any one bystander is to help - Affected by noticeability, interpretation (pluralistic ignorance - looking to others to determine whether it's really an emergency), and diffusion of responsibility (thinking others must be better equipped to help) - less likely to occur if the person in need directly calls someone out to help or if there is certainty among bystanders about situation

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Social Norms

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- norms associated with social roles shape meaning of situation and influence people's decisions to help - Ex. study in which people witnessed a fight between a man and a woman who were either strangers or husband and wife. They were less likely to intervene in husband and wife condition

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Social Responsibility Norm

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We should help other who are dependent on us

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Norm of reciprocity

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We should help those who have helped us

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Norms and aggression

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\"an eye for an eye\"

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Pinker Study

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- contrary to popular belief, we as a society are not becoming more violent - homicide rates in the 20th century were much lower than in the Middle Ages - it just seems like there is more violence because of improvements in reporting it that makes it easier for us to recall, giving the illusion that it happens often - violence actually declining because rise of nation-states and central authority has eradicated the need for preemptive violence, improvements in life expectancy has changed view that \"life is cheap,\" benefits of cooperation, and expanding circle of kin and friends with rise of globalization

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Collective behaviour

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two or more persons engaged in behaviour judged to be common or concerted on one or more dimensions (spatial, temporal, scale)

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Crowds

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Temporary gatherings of people in close physical proximity, engaging in a joint activity. Members of a crowd may think, feel, and act in ways that are different than if they were alone

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Contagion Theory

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- first proposed by Gustave Le Bon - crowds create deindividuation that allows for anonymity and reduces perceptions of personal responsibility - there is a tendency for people to imitate others, leading to a \"contagion\" of behaviours spreading quickly - this theory may have been influenced by ideological factors - developed during time of rapid industrialization and urbanization, French Revolution, growing fear of the working class. Crowds were seen as threat to the existing social order and were to be repressed - influenced Hitler :/

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7 myths about crowds

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1. irrationality 2. emotionality 3. suggestibility 4. destructiveness 5. spontaneity 6. anonymity 7. unanimity

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Evidence against Contagion Theory

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- crowd action not always chaotic, often patterned in ways that reflect existing norms and cultures - people act in ways that reflect their collective belief systems - Ex. Thompson's study of food riots in 18th century England - rioters insisted on the idea of a moral community that was obliged to feed them and their families

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Convergence Theory

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- proposed by Allport - similar and like minded individuals come together to form crowds and this is how crowd behaviour emerges

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Emergent Norm Theory

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- Proposed by Turner and Killian - The structure of the situation has more to do with the emergence of crowd behaviour than transformative contagion or amoral, individualistic behaviour - Emergent norms are the definition of the situation that results from interactions in an initially ambiguous situation. Usually involves a modification or transformation of a preexisting norm

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Causes of collective behaviour

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- usually involves underlying conditions in larger society - strain: when goals are not achievable so people riot or protest - relative deprivation: comparing your situation to others'. People will not rise up if they have known nothing but poverty - grievances - precipitating incidents - temperature

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1980 St. Paul's Riot

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- UK riots that occurred in response to police raid on black owned cafe in St. Paul's area of Bristol - Certain features refute Le Bon's \"group mind\" theory: fighting was only with police, geographical boundaries were established, only attacked certain establishments, rioters were not anonymous

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2011 UK Riots

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- Rioting that occurred for almost a week across major UK cities in response to police shooting of black man - initially just peaceful protests by family and friends that escalated into riots when a girl was attacked and gradually spread to more and more cities. Eventually people were just taking advantage of the situation - causes: people emulating ringleaders (emergent norms), ability to communicate through technology, socioeconomic inequality and youth unemployment (strain theory)

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2011 Vancouver Riots

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- Vancouver Canucks game 7 defeat against Boston Bruins - Exact causes were unclear - people usually riot when their team wins, not loses - most likely cause by large number of people in close proximity who were emotionally tense and ramped up, mostly young white males, availability of alcohol, police underestimation of attendance, and encouragement from surrounding crowd (which also made it difficult for police to gain control of situation)

Social Psych 1Z03 Exam

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