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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Social Psychology Video Screencast Notes

Social Psychology Video Screencast Notes

Is this something that was useful?
Let me know. I can do a few of these for review over the next 2 weeks and help prepare you for the AP Test if this is something that might help you out.

Social Psych Discussion, Notes, & Video:
What is Social Psych? (Group influences on individuals, cooperation/altruism, aggressive behavior/violence)
1. Social Psychology refers to how groups influence the behavior of the individual.
2. Attribution theory refers to how we make judgements about others.
3. Obedience and conformity both refer to influences of others on our behavior.
4. Milgram did studies in social psychology that seem to be on the ethical edge.
5. Behavior can be influenced by the presence of a group.

Impression Formation:
Stereotypes - used to determine behavior or what course of action to take. Can have positive and negative outcomes.
---The Simpsons---
States of Confusion - stereotypes in different American states. Are they true of EVERY person in that state?

Cognitive-Confrimation Bias & Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Fundamental Attribution Theory - FAE - Suggests we make "attributions" about causes of behavior being internal and not external. We often believe that someone does something because of who he is, not because of the situation.
Actor-Perceiver Bias - If we are doing something, we believe our behavior is due to external causes; if we are watching someone else, we believe behavior is internally motivated.
Self-Serving Bias - We attribute causes of behavior to external causes if we fail and internal causes if we succeed.
Interpersonal Relations - Research has shown that proximity, affect (emotions), similarity, and reinforcement all contribute to attraction.
Pro-Social Behavior is engaging in behavior that leads to some good outcome.
Altruism - helping behavior that is motivated by helping others for the sake of helping.

--60 Minutes: The Baby Lab ~ What can babies teach us about Altruism?--
Are human beings inherently good? Are we born with a sense of morality? Or could it be worse - we start out nasty selfish devils that need "education" to whip us into shape?
The research is quite interesting!

--Stanford Prison Experiment-- Mock prison in the basement of the Stanford University building. The experiment had to be ended after only 6 days. The 'guards' because very abusive towards the 'prisoners'? But why? Human nature and social conformity is very powerful. The prison experiment is viewed as crossing an 'ethical edge.'
More information here: http://www.prisonexp.org/

--The Bystander Effect--
Why do good people stand by and do nothing? Would you help or intervene? Or what keeps most people from intervening and helping others when in need?
Two conflicting rules: 1 - we ought to help; 2 - we ought to do what everyone else is doing (sadly #2 usually wins out - especially when the number of people in the area are very large in number)

--The Asch Experiment--
Do you think of yourself as a conformist or a non-conformist? If you are like most people, you probably believe that you are non-conformist enough to stand up to a group when you know you are right, but conformist enough to blend in with the rest of your peers.
Imagine yourself in this situation: You've signed up to participate in a psychology experiment in which you are asked to complete a vision test. Seated in a room with the other participants, you are shown a line segment and then asked to choose the matching line from a group three segments of different lengths. The experimenter asks each participant individually to select the matching line segment. On some occasions everyone in the group chooses the correct line, but occasionally, the other participants unanimously declare that a different line is actually the correct match.

group dynamics is one of the most powerful forces in human psychology