Social Psychology
Objectives:
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Describe the importance of attribution in social behavior and the dangers of the fundamental attribution error.
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Identify the conditions under which attitudes have a strong impact on actions.
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Explain the foot-in-the-door, door-in-the-face and low-balling phenomenon’s and the effect of role playing on attitudes in terms of cognitive dissonance theory.
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Discuss the results of experiments on conformity and distinguish between normative and informational social influence.
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Describe Milgram’s controversial experiments on obedience, and discuss their implications for understanding our susceptibility to social influence.
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Describe the conditions in which the presence of others is likely to result in social facilitation, social loafing or deindividuation.
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Discuss how group interaction can facilitate group polarization and groupthink, and describe how self-fulfilling prophecies and minority influence illustrate the power of individuals.
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Describe the factors involved in prejudice and discrimination.
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Describe the impact of biological factors, aversive events, and learning experiences on aggressive behavior.
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Discuss the effects of watching violence and pornography on social attitudes and relationships.
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Explain how social traps and mirror-image perceptions fuel social conflict.
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Describe the influence of proximity, physical attractiveness, reciprocal liking, association, and similarity have on interpersonal attraction.
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Explain the impact of physical arousal on passionate love, and discuss how compassionate love is nurtured by equity and self-disclosure.
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Describe and explain the bystander effect, and explain altruistic behavior in terms of social exchange theory and social norms.
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Discuss effective ways of encouraging peaceful cooperation and reducing social conflict.
Vocabulary: social psychology, attribution theory, fundamental attribution error, attitude, foot-in-the-door phenomenon, cognitive dissonance theory, conformity, normative social influence, informational social influence, social facilitation, social loafing, deindividuation, groupthink, group polarization, self-fulfilling prophecy, stereotypes, prejudice, ingroup, outgroup, ingroup bias, scapegoat theory, just-world phenomenon, aggression, frustration-aggression principles, conflict, social trap, mere-exposure effect, passionate love, compassionate love, equity, self-disclosure, altruism, bystander effect, social exchange theory, superordinate goals,
