﻿ The Nerd in the Classroom

Student Objectives
The Students Will:

Comprehend Social psychology's history and contribution to the understanding of behavior.
Identify the significance of Solomon Asch's study on social conformity.
Describes Stanley Milgram's obedience to authority experiment.
Display knowledge of Philip Zimbardo's study of roles within a prison scenario.
Understand the need for the ethical review of experiments.
Describe how culture impacts social behavior.
Demonstrate knowledge of how social forces influence individual behavior.
Discuss social pitfalls and how to recognize and counteract them.


Social Psychology


Social Psychology
   Scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.

1897 - Émile Durkheim
     Social influence on individual behavior: Strength of family, friends, and church affiliation affected the decision making process.

1951 - Solomon Asch
   Conformity experiments: An individual will give an obviously wrong answer because a group gives the wrong answer.

1961 - Albert Bandura
   Social Learning: The Bobo Doll experiment found we learn by observing the behavior of others.

1961 - Stanley Milgram
   Obedience to authority: Over two thirds of the population will Shock a stranger when told to by an authority figure.

1971 - Philip Zimbardo
   The power of the situation: In the the Stanford Prison, it takes six days to turn normal normal people into monsters.

Attribution Theory
   Theory that we explain someone's behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition.

Fundamental Attribution Error
   The tendency for observes, when analyzing another's behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition.

Central Route of Persuasion
   Attitude change in which interested people focus on the actual argument and respond with favorable thoughts.

Peripheral Route of Persuasion
   Attitude change in which people are influenced by incidental cues.

   Set of expectations (norms) about a social position that define how those in the position ought to behave.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory
   Theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent; change our attitudes rather than our behaviors.

   Adjusting one's behavior/thinking to coincide with a group standard.

Normative Social Influence

Social Facilitation
   Stronger responses on simple/well-learned tasks in the presence of others.

Social Loafing
   Tendency for people in a group to exert less effort toward attaining a common goal than when by themselves.

Group think
   Mode of thinking that occurs when desire for unanimity in a decision making group overrides realistic appraisal of the situation .

   The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal or anonymity.

Group Polarization
   Tendency of group members to move to an extreme position after discussing an issue as a group.

   The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted through generations.

   Understood rule for accepted/expected behavior.

   An unjustifiable attitude toward a group and its members; generally involved stereotyped beliefs.

   Generalized belief about a group of people.

   Unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members.

Out Group
   Them; those perceived as different or apart from our in group.

In-Group Bias
   Tendency to favor our own group.

Scapegoat Theory

Just World Phenomenon

   Any physical/verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy.

Frustration-Aggression Principle
   The principle that frustration, the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal, creates anger which can generate aggression.

Mere-Exposure Effect

   Unselfish regard for the welfare of others.

Bystander Effect

Social Exchange Theory
   Theory that our social behavior is an exchange process; the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs.

Reciprocity Norm

Social Trap

Mirror-Image Perceptions

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
   An expectation that causes you to act in ways that make that expectation come true.

The Wave

•What was Mr. Ross' motive for the experiment?
•List two positive and two negative effects of The Wave.
    •Do you agree with this statement?
    •Why or why not?
    •Why is decision-making so difficult?
•What does this film say about authority and power?
•Are there situations where obedience is necessary? Explain.
•What would happen to Mr. Ross if he ran The Wave today?
    •How has American society changed from 1967 to 2018?
    •Is it a change for the better or worse? Explain.

Professor Murphy's PsychoVox Podcast Season Fourteen