Unit 9: Social Psychology
Human beings are social animals. As psychologists, we acknowledge this fact by studying how our social environment impacts our emotional and mental functioning. This discipline is called social psychology – the focus of this unit. We will discuss the social behavior of individuals, groups, and entire societies, as well as how our relationships with these entities influence us as individuals.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 3 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- define social psychology;
- describe self-presentation, attitudes, and persuasion;
- compare conformity, compliance, and obedience;
- explain prejudice and discrimination; and
- explain the theories and types of aggression and prosocial behavior.
9.1: What Is Social Psychology?
The subfield of social psychology is concerned with human behavior and our interactions in a social context. Social psychology examines how we affect one another and the power of the situation. The American Psychological Association states that social psychologists "are interested in all aspects of personality and social interaction, exploring the influence of interpersonal and group relationships on human behavior".
Read this text, which introduces this subfield and explores situational versus dispositional influences on our behavior. Pay attention to the explanations of fundamental attribution error and actor-observer bias. Finally, we examine self-serving bias and the just-world hypothesis.
Watch this introductory lecture on social psychology.
Watch this video, which provides details of the attribution errors we tend to make.
9.2: Self-Presentation
How do social roles, norms, and scripts influence and guide our behavior? In this section, we analyze the famous Stanford prison experiment, which explored the impact of the roles that we play on our current attitudes and behaviors.
Read this text, which defines what psychologists mean by social roles, norms, and scripts and how they can influence our behavior. It describes Philip Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment (1971), where participants were randomly assigned to the roles of prison guards or prisoners in a fake prison set up in a basement at the university. Zimbardo wanted to explore the power of social roles and norms. The experiment ultimately had to be cut short due to participants' increasingly aggressive behaviors.
9.3: Attitudes and Persuasion
How do psychologists define attitude? In this section, we examine how cognitive dissonance (the discomfort we feel when our attitudes and our behaviors are inconsistent with each other) and persuasion (how attitudes can change based on some kind of communication) affect our attitudes. We will also learn the difference between and the effectiveness of the central and the peripheral routes to persuasion.
Read this text, which explores how we can change our attitudes: internally through cognitive dissonance (a psychological discomfort that arises from holding inconsistent attitudes, behaviors, or cognitions – thoughts, beliefs, or opinions) and externally through persuasion. It also describes peripheral and central routes to persuasion.
Watch this video, which provides details of the attribution errors we tend to make.
9.4: Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience
In this section, we examine the difference between conformity (going along with the group, even though there was no specific request for us to do so) and other types of social influence. What is the Asch conformity effect? When do we obey authority? You will learn about Milgram's obedience experiment and its implications, as well as groupthink, social facilitation, and social loafing.
Read this text, which describes two famous experiments.
Solomon Asch (1907–1996), a Polish-American pioneer in social psychology, focused on group behavior – specifically persuading members of a group to change their attitudes even if it is wrong. In his classic experiment, he found a conformity effect ("Asch effect") that occurs when a group convinces a member of an untrue fact. The person changes their attitude to conform to the consensus of the group.
Stanley Milgram (1933–1984), an American social psychologist, researched obedience to authority in his famous study at Yale University. He used confederates to pressure study participants to administer (fake) electric shocks to other people. The participants did not know the shocks were never administered, so many left his experiment assuming they had caused great bodily harm to another person.
Pay attention to the definitions for groupthink, group polarization, and social loafing.
Watch this video, which provides details of the Asch Conformity Study.
Watch this video, which provides details of the Milgram Obedience Experiment.
9.5: Prejudice and Discrimination
Humans have a tendency to jump to conclusions about other people. These conclusions can lead us to assume negative things about people we hardly know. In this section, we discuss how to distinguish between the concepts of prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination. We will also examine why prejudice and discrimination exist in most societies.
Read this text, which explains how prejudice and discrimination often result in instances of racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, and transphobia. However, in extreme situations, these misconceptions can prompt individuals and groups to engage in crime, war, mass murder, and genocide. Eliminating these beliefs that lead to social injustice has become a rallying cry for our generation.
Watch this video, which provides an introduction to prejudice and stereotyping.
Watch this video, which explains the three components of prejudice.
9.6: Aggression
What is aggression? Why do humans treat each other badly? In this section, we examine the definitions of aggression (both hostile and instrumental), bullying, and cyberbullying. Then we explore the bystander effect, which describes the tendency of witnesses to fail to intervene when there are additional witnesses at the scene.
Read this text, which analyzes hostile and instrumental aggression and the bystander effect. It also studies bullying and cyberbullying, a common form of aggression in our society.
9.7: Prosocial Behavior
What is altruism? In this section, we explore human relationships, the conditions that influence the formation of relationships, and the factors that attract people to each other. We will learn about the triangular theory of love, which asserts that all relationships are comprised of some combination of intimacy, passion, and commitment. Finally, we will apply the social exchange theory to relationships to determine how the balance of positives and negatives determines satisfaction.
Read this text, which investigates prosocial behavior, such as altruism, a desire to help others even when the costs of helping another outweigh the benefits. Why do we form friendships and romantic relationships? In 1986, Robert Sternberg (1949– ) proposed that there are three components of love: intimacy, passion, and commitment. These three components form a triangle that defines multiple types of love: it is known as Sternberg's triangular theory of love. We also explore the social exchange theory of relationships.
Watch this video, which discusses aggression and prosocial behavior.
Unit 9 Assessment
- Receive a grade
Take this assessment to see how well you understood this unit.
- This assessment does not count towards your grade. It is just for practice!
- You will see the correct answers when you submit your answers. Use this to help you study for the final exam!
- You can take this assessment as many times as you want, whenever you want.