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Social Psychology I
Obedience To Authority: Commands And Demands
Before reading further, were you surprised by Milgram's findings?
Why do you think so many people obeyed?
Reactions to the obedience studies
Do you think Milgram's ends justified his means?
Was the knowledge gained from Milgram's experiment worth the risks he took?
If experiments such as Milgram's can no longer be conducted, how can the problem and psychological processes he sought to investigate be studied?
Group polarization
Can you think examples of dangerous, risky, or unwise decisions that you have made in consultation with friends?
Do you think the "group nature"of these decisions made them more or less risky?
Groupthink: When good people make bad decisions
In this section we have highlighted some of the problems with group decision making. Nevertheless, group decisions are often very effective and they are the cornerstones of our legal system. Can you think of reasons why important decisions (e.g., guilt or innocence in a criminal trial) might best be left to groups rather than individuals?
Forming impressions
Are first impressions accurate?
How can you tell?
What evidence could you use to confirm the accuracy of your first impressions?
Social schemas
What kinds of schemas might you develop about other people?
Can you think of examples where employing those schemas might be useful or advantageous?
Can you think of examples where employing those schemas might be a hindrance or dangerous?
External versus internal causes
Think about the reasons that led you to take a psychology class. Would you classify them as internal or external causes?
Think about the reasons that one of your friends is taking a course. Would you classify their reasons as internal or external?
The fundamental attribution error
Can you think of examples where people probably commit the fundamental attribution error?
Can you think of situations where people are unlikely to commit the fundamental attribution error?
Do attributions really matter?
It is easy to see how excuses make people feel better about themselves. But what does it mean to say "excuses ease social interaction?"
Can you think of examples where excuses make it easier to interact?
Can you think of other examples of self-handicapping behavior?
Appearance
Imagine that one of your friends asks you to make predictions about the kind of person with whom he or she will become romantically involved. What factors would you rely on in making your predictions?
Do you think there are universal standards of attractiveness?
Do you think cultures play a role in defining standards of attractiveness?
Do either cultural or instinctual explanations of these standards make them "right"?
Passionate love and companionate love
How would you measure love?
What kinds of questions would you ask?
What behaviors would you include?
Attitudes and Attitude Change
If you were trying to determine the attitudes of your friends toward a movie actor, what kinds of things would you want to know?
Would you be more interested in hearing what they have to say about the actor or in how they behave (e.g., how many of the actor's movies they have seen, how many interviews they have read)?
The communication approach to persuasion
Imagine you were asked to design an effective advertisement based on the communication approach to persuasion. What would the advertisement look like?
What factors would you consider?
The cognitive approach to persuasion
Imagine you were asked to design an effective advertisement based on the cognitive approach to persuasion. What would the advertisement look like?
Attitudes and behavior
What factors might have contributed to the low level of consistency observed by LaPiere?
Balancing things out — cognitive dissonance
Because attitudes often fail to predict behavior, some psychologists have argued that the attitude concept is not useful.
Do you agree?
Why or why not?
