South African Supplement to Social Psychology

146 Pages·2009·27.876 MB·English

by  J.C. Mynhardt, R.A Baron, N.R Branscombe, D. Byrne

-
-
-
I
-
I
J.e Mynhardt
South African Supplement to
•
• •
Third Edition
PEARSON
Education
This One
Sou th Africa
It is illegal to photocopy any pages from this book
without the written permission of the copyright holder.
Copyrighted material
Contents
Pr e face . .... . . .... . . ..... . ... .. .. . .. ... . ........ . . . ..... . ........ . . . . ···
III
1 Social psychology: The science of the social side of life . . . . . . . . . • . . • . • . . . . . . 1
2 Social cognition: How we think about the social world . . . . . . . . . • . ..... . . .. . 3
3 Social perception: Perceiving and understanding others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4 The self: Answering the question 'Who am 17' ..............• ....... •. ... . 16
5 Attitudes: Evaluating and responding to the social world .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
6 Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination: The causes, effects, and cures. . . . 44
7 Interpersonal attraction and close relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
8 Social influence: Changing others' behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . 77
9 Prosocial behaviour: Helping others . . ... . . . . . . . . • . . . . ... ........ . ... . . 87
10 Aggression: Its nature, causes, and control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 95
11 Groups and individuals: The consequences of belonging ................. 113
12 Social psychology: Applying its principles to law, health, and business . . .... 121
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Copyrighted malorialj
Preface
Over the past decade or two, international students are enrolled fo r social psychology
social psychologists have demonstrated the courses, at various levels, at our universities.
importance and reievanceof context, content, Although excellent international textbooks
and culture in our quest to understand are available, issues such as the ever-present
behavio ur. With this in mind, PhilipZimbardo, time faClor and the principles of o utcomes
the well-known social psychologist, says based education need to be addressed. Many
thai the discipline has moved from its once of our students arc studying part-Umc and
marginal position to the centre of modern almost all have a variety of other courses
psychology. Social psychology has also come to master during any particular year. This
a long way In South Africa. My personal often leads to situations where students
experience in this regard, during the early rush through their courses without giving
1970$, was 10 have been the only student in themselves time to reflect on newly acquired
the honours social psychology class at my knowledge.
university. The advantage of this solitary Experience has taught me that It Is possible
experience was that my lecturer gave me to overcome the time problem by structuring
relalive freedom regarding the content of the courses better, by setting certain goals for
course, but insisted on extensive reading. different study areas, and by highlighl'ing
One lasting impression from this period the essence of each area, so that students are
was the need for SOCially relevant social immediately aware of what they arc expected
psychology in South Africa and it is therefore to know and understand. To deal with this
not surprising that my flrst research proje<:t issue in the supplement, each chapter of
dealt with prejudice and factors associated Baron, Branscombe and Byrne's text has been
with It. nyO months after I started teaching extensively reworked. To accommodate out
social psychology in 1976, the Soweto comes-based education principles, there are
uprisings began and my second project, in specific section outcomes at the beginning
collaboration with two colleagues, was an of each subsection. All the important issues
attempt to gauge the effects of this major in each subsection of the main text arc high
incident on social attitudes. lighted, so that students will know what to
Shortly aftl'rwards, we coi ncidentally concentrate on. This should be very valuable
rcceived a copy of the second edition of Social for revision purl>oses, and will also help to
I'syclwlogy. Being conscious of the faetthat our accommodate South Africa's diverse student
discipline ought to be ma rc relevant, and that population.
complicated mailers should be made more The writing style, Including usage of key
easily understood, we Immediately det:idcd phraS{'s similar to those In the main text, is
to prescribe the book fo r our undergraduate deliberate, to keep readers from feeling that
course. /I has been our prescribed text they are reading a totally different book. The
ever Since. aim is 10 help the reader to remember, by
Baro n, Branscombe and Byrne's work associatio n, what the crux of the issues in
must be seen as o ne of the most successful the main text is. References in the reworked
textbooks ever published in the field, with sections arc informal and readers should rely
more than IWO millio n copies sold worldwide. on Baron and Byrne's original reference list. It
Fortunately, things have progressed since is extremely important to keep in mind that
my university days, and the chances that the supplement has been written with the
only onc student will be enrolled for a social assumption that a student I/(/s a/ready read the
psychology course In South Africa today chapters In the main Baron, Branscombe and
arc very slim. In fact, literally thousands of Byrne text. Reading the supplement alo ne,
•••
III
Cop)llighted material
without reading the main text first, will not and seJf·esteem; attitudes and prejudice;
be sufficient for students to pass examination interpersonal attraction and close relation·
papers that have been set properly, and will be ships; affil iation tendencies and loneliness;
a waste of time. social inOuence; prosocial behaviour and
Although the twelfth edition of the main aggression; groups and group po larisation;
text aga in represents an enormous effort and, finally, health·related issues and job
to incorporate a multicultural perspective, satisfa ction. The terms Black, o loured,
the reported research is still mainly orth Indian, and White in these studies arc as
American . To address this problem, the described in the Employment Equity Act of
supplement aims to famili ari se readers 1998. Literature referred to in the 'A South
with a sa mple of South Afri can research in Africa n perspective' sections appea rs at the
specific sections entitled 'A South Afri can per· end of this supplement.
spective'. Certain areas are better resea rched This book could not have been written
locally than others, however. There is, without the support of my friends and,
for instance, more South Afri can research especially, my two Children, Diaan and
available in the areas of identity, attitudes, Sunette.
prejudice, and aggression than in, say, social Finally, a special word of thanks to all at
cognition. Examples of South African research Pearson Education South Africa who have been
in cluded in the supplement are studies involved in bringing this supplement into
dealing with the seJf·serving bias; identity being.
About the author
Professor Johan C. Mynha rdt is a psychologist who teaches social psychology
and organisational behaviour at the University of South Africa (Unisa).
Copyrighted material
Social psychology
As an aside, the view that biological factors
Chapter 1 addresses the following bsues:
playa role In social behaviour comes from the
• The definition of social psychology,
field o f evolutio nary psycho logy, which is a
its focus, application, and purpose.
branch of psychology that seeks to investigate
• The importance of understanding
the role of genetic factors in various aspects
basic research principles, including
of human behaviour. Biological evolution
deception, before studying the
involving l'(I,i(lI;QII, illheritance, and selection
main text.
evcnlually resulted in a number of evolved
psychological mechanisms that help us to deal
Brief overview with survival problems. Social psychologiSts
Chapler I consists of six ma jor sccliom. Social who adopl an evolutionary perspective
psychology is defined in the fi rst section, suggest that this proccss applies to as]>Cti S of
while the second deals with new perspectives social behaviour such as mate preference. The
and methods in the flcld . The third section evolutionary perspective does not imply that
we inherit specific patterns of social behaviour,
deals with a brief history of social psychology.
The fourth section deals with clementary but rather, that we Inherit predispositions
research methods and the role of theory is that may becomc reality, depending on the
environment or social sctting.
discussed in the fifth section. A related topic
- nndlng a balance betwccn til(' quest for
knowledge and the rights of Individuals - is Social psychology: Its cutting edge
evaluated In the last set::Uon. The 'Summary In the early days, social psychologists were
and Itcvlcw' of key points, 'Key Terms', and interested in two things: how peoplc behave
'Connections' segments should be regarded in social situations (social behavIour) and
as a last malor section in all the chapters. how I>cople attempt to understand the social
world, themselves, and other people (SOCial
Social psychology: What it Is and
cognition). Social behaviour and cognition
what It does
were studied separately. In contemporarysoclal
Social is the scientific field that p5)'cholog)', behaviour and cognition arc seen
psycholo~'Y
seeks to understand the nature and causes of as much more intimately and continuously
individual behaviour and thought in social connected. It is now accepted that we cannot
situations. Being scielltific rd ers to a SCt of undcrSland behaviour unless, right from the
values and methods used to study a wide range start, we also consider people's thoughts,
of topics. Core values that have to be adopted memories, I>ciicfs, altitudes, intentions, and
in order to be considered scientific arc accuracy, emotions. In addition, social psychologists
objectivity, scepticism, and opcnmindedness. have started studying the neural foundations
Social psychology deals with the of social thought and behaviour - the field
behaviour of individuals and. as Implied of social neu roscience. Interesting topics
by the definition, the focus is on the social investigated include the neural basis of social
behaviour and thought of these individuals in categorisation. Although social neuroscience
social settings. Factors which may influence cannot answer all our questions regarding
our social behaviour include the behaviour social thought and behaviour, it proved to
and appearance of others. various be a useful <lpproilch regarding certain toples.
COgllWI't'
!"ocesses (Including memories and illrm'II((·s). A third new area involves the studying of
the physIcal environment, the (1I1t1lml context impliCit, nonconscious processes. Topics
in which the behaviour takes place (norms, studied here r<lnge from implicit egollsm to
etc.). and biological factors. the impact of moods on memory. A fourth
1
Social psychology
and final perspective is the multicultural therefore familiar with most of the concepts
perspective, which focuses o n understanding discussed in this section. It Is imperative,
the cultural and ethnic factors that influence however, that students familiarise themselves
social behaviour. This perspective recognises with all the main concepts before studying
the importance of cultural factors in cogn ition the main text. These are the following: sys·
and behaviour, which is of special importance tematic observation; survey method; corre·
in a diverse COUlllry like South Africa. lational method; hypothesis; experimental
method; independent variable; dependent
The origins and early development
variable; random assignment; experimenter
of social psychology
effects; external validity; mediating va ri·
William McDougall's book, A" IlIlrodllctiotl to abies; and theories (see a depiction of the role
Soci(/I Psyrlw/oSY, which focused on the idea of theory in .social psychological research in
that social behaviour largely siems from basic Figure 1.14 in the main te"t).
i/lstillers, WilS published in 1908 and marks
the beginning of formal social psychology. The quest for knowledge and the
Floyd Allport's Social I'sycllOlogy. published in right. of Individual.
1924, had a much wider scope. He saw social Social psychologiSts usc the same research
behaviour as stemming from many different principles and techniques as researchers
factors and he also stressed the value of in other fields of psychology. The use of
experimentation. After Floyd Allport, Muzafer deception, where researchers withhold
Sherif studied the influence of II0n1lS and information about Ihe purposes, or procedures,
collfonllity, while Kurt Lewin and his colleagues of a study from persons participating in it,
studied leadership and other group processes. is fairly unique to social psychology. An
During the late 19405 and 1950s, the link example, where research reqUires at teast
between social behaviour and personalily temporary deception, is studil'S designed to
traits such as authoritarianism was keenly investigate the effects of heat on aggresSion
studied. In the mid·1950s, Leon Festinger, a (sec Chapter 10).
student of Kurt Lewin, developed coS"itiw The use of deception usually raises ethical
t/issomlllCf theory, which proposed that people issues. There Is, for instance, always a chance
dislike inconsistencies between cognitions that deception could cause some harm to the
and attempts to reduce it. During the 1960s, respondents (such as in the case of some of
the field expanded rapidly and many topiCS the research on helping behaviour; see
discussed later in the main text started then. Chapter 9). Or, respondents may be offended
Attributio/l I hoory, which looks at the processes by being fooled during studies, and acquire
through which we understand the causes of negative attitudes towards social psychology
others' behaviour and why people behave as as a result. The dilemma can be resolved
they do, started and was expanded during the by ensuring that deception is never used
19705. Finally, the 19 80s and beyond saw the to persuade people to partake in a study.
growing influence of a cognitive perspective Secondly, deception can be acceptable
on social psycholob'Y and applications of its when there is informed consent, and the
basic principles in various fields. participants are provided with as much
information as possible about a project,
Research as a route to Increased
before deciding whether or not to participate
knowledge and the role of theory
in it. A complete debriefing at the conclusion
South African students usually do their social of a research session, when participants are
psychology course or module on either a given fu ll information about the nature of the
second· or third·year level. By this time, they research and the hypothesis, or hypotheses,
are busy with, or have completed, an intra under investigation, is also an important part
ductory research methodology course, and arc of the process.
Cop)'lighted material
Social cognition
informatio n. TIley innuence social thought
Ch.ptfl' 2 .c:k:IresHS the fotlowfng luues:
by having an effect on attention, encoding,
• The impact of schemas on social
and the retrieval o f Information. Attention
cognition and reality.
refers to the information we notice, for which
• How we reduce our effort in social
schemas act as fi llers. Encoding refers to the
cognition.
process by which info rmation gets stored
• The mistakes people make in social
in memory. Information consistent with
cognition.
existing schemas gets encoded more readily,
• The influence of cognition on affect.
but information unexpectedly inconsistent
and vice versa.
is also encoded. Regarding the retrieval of
informatlon frolll memory, people generally
Brief overview
report info rmatio n consistent with their
This Chapter consists of fivc major sections.
schemas. However, information inconsistent
Schemas, their impact on cognition, primin&
with schemas is also present in memory.
and t.he persistence of SChCIll3S are discussed in
The eventual effect that schemas have on
the first section. Sectio n two covers heuristiCS,
social cognition is strongly Innuenced by the
while the third sectio n covers automatic and
strength of the schemas themselves, and by a
controlled processing. In the fourth section,
high cognitive load.
potential sources of crror in social cognition
are discussed, and lastly. section five covers the
Priming
relationship between affect and cognitio n.
Priming is when specific stimuli or events
The introductory section in the main lext
increase the availability of specific types of
defines social cognition as the manner in
information held in memory. The eventual
which we interpret, remember, and usc
anal~,
effect of priming is that conspicuous recent
information about the social world. Heuristics
experiences make some schemas more active
are defined as simple rules for making
than they would otherwise be. Priming tends
complex decisions or drawing inferences in a
to have very long-lasting effects, but If a
rapid and ostenSibly effortless manner. Affect
schema is somehow CXI)ressed in thought
points to our current fcclings and moods.
or behaViour, unprlmlng might occur and
tile impact of the schclll:l may subside -
Schemas
see Sparrow and Wegner's (2006) research,
illustrated in Figure 2.3 In the main text.
After studying this section, you will
know the following:
Schema persistence
• Schemas have strong effects on
attention, as well as the encoding and Although schemas help us to make sense
retrieval of information. of intricate SOCial information, they have
• Priming tends to have long-lasting a downside too in that even d iscredited
effects. information can sometimes innuence our
• There is a downside to schemas: they thoughts and behavio ur - the perseverance
can distort social reality and can be
effect . In this case, we place new information
self-fulfilling.
in a special category rather than adapting thl'
schema. Schemas can also be self-fulfilling.
The impact of schemas on social cognition The research by Rosenthal and Jacobson
Schemas are mental frameworks centered o n (1968), discussed in the 'Building thl' Science'
a specific theme that help us to organise social section, illustrates this point.
Copyrigh' 'Id material
2
Social cognition
Heuristics and automatic It depends on the judgement we are making:
processing if our judgement involves feelings, we tend
to rely on the ease with wh ich we remember
After studying this section, you will something; if our judgement invo lves factual
know the following:
informatio n, then we tend to rely on the
• We often experience information amount we remember.
overload.
• Representativeness, availability,
Anchoring and adjustment
and anchoring and adjustment are
We also use the an chorin g an d ad justme nt
important types of heuristics that we
h euristic. This is when we use a number,
use to process information.
value, o r personal experience as a starting
point, to which we then make adjustments.
Those of you driving your car in a busy
The strong effect of ancho ring was illustrated
street, while talking on a cellphone should
in the study by Englich et al. (2006), where
know what informatio n overload is. High
experienced legal professionals in Germany
levels of stress can also lead to information
learned about the sentences for a defendant
overload . To cope with information or
from a journalist, an experienced prosecutor,
cogn itive overload (instances in which our
or randomly (see Figure 2.6 in the main
ability to process information is exceeded),
text). The reason why anchors influence our
we adopt simple and effective strategies called
judgements seems to be our strong tendency
cognitive shortcuts. We may also revert to
to avoid effortfu l work when making
automatic processing.
adjustments to the anchor.
One effective shortcut is our use of simple
rules to make complex dedsions, or to draw Automatic and controlled
in ferences rapidly. This is known as heuristics. processing
Representativeness
After studying this section, you will
The represen tativeness heuristic is a strategy know the following:
for making judgements, based on the extent to • Two distinct systems for evaluating
which current stimuli or events resemble other social stimuli have been located in
the brain.
stimuli or categories. We use this heuristic
• Automatic information processing
when we evaluate people. If someone closely
might sometimes be superior to
resembles a typical member of a group, we
careful thought.
assume that this person must belong to that
group. These judgements are not always
correct. base rates, or the frequency Social thought OCcurs through controlled
So~caJled
with which given events or patterns occur in processing when it occurs in a systematic,
the total population, are often ignored. logical, and effortful manner, or we may also
get engaged in automatic p rocessing. This
is when we, after extensive experience with a
Availability
We sometimes make judgements based on how task or type of information, can perform the
easily specific information can be brought to task or process the information in a seemingly
mind. This is known as the availability effortless and automatic manner. These two
heuristic. Relying on the availability heuristic basic modes of thought might often occur
can lead to errors. together.
Research suggests that the ease with which Social neuroscience research shows that
something can be brought to mind, as well as these two evaluating systems invo lve different
the amount of information that is raised, are parts of the brain (see the end of this chapter
important factors when we use this heuristic. for more detail).
Copyrighted material
Automatic processing and automatic social Basic 'tilts' in social thought
behaviour The negativity bias refers to the fact that
Once schemas are activated, they can exercise we show greater sensitivity to negative
automatic effects o n behaviour. This effect info rmation than to positive information.
was demonstrated by Uargh and his cOlleagues This tendency. which stro ngly influences
(1996), where groups of respondents were our social thought, makes sense from an
primed to behave either rudely or politely eVOlutionary perspective. It enables us, for
in one study, and primed to the stereotype instance, to detect negative facial expressions
for the elderly in another. The overall showing hostility faster and more accurately
implications of their rindings are that when than positlve o r no n·threatening o nes.
stereotypes (schemas) arc activated, people However, research by Smith and his colleagues
may even behave negatively towards others (2006). where respondents' brain activity was
without the conscious intention 1'0 do so. measured after being positively or negatively
Subsequent research by Cesario et al. (2006), primed, showed that the negativity bias
where respondents were primed with photos was eliminated by frequent positive stimuli.
of men labelled gay or straight showed that in This indicates that the negativity bias Is not
addition to triggering behaviours consistent universal and that it may be eliminated if we
with schemas, these cognitive fra meworks, find ourselves in sltuatlons In which paying
once acti,'ated, may also trigger motivated attention to positive information is useful.
efforts to prepare individuals for interacting The optimistic bias describes o ur
with people who are the focus of thesc schemas predisposition to expect things to turn out
(see Figure 2.7 In Ihe main text). well. Most people believe that they are more
likely than others to experience positive events
The benefits of automotic processing and less likely to experience negative events.
Automatic processing might sometimes be In addition, we often have greater confidence
superior to careful thought. This was shown in our own judgements than Is justified, such
in t.he research by Dijksterhuis and Van Olden as when entrepreneurs trust that their chances
(2006), where students had to make decisions of being successful arc higher than is actually
in immediate, conscious, or unconscious true. This is referred to as the overconndence
conditions. Those who were prevented from barrier. An overall optimism also manifests
thinking consciously about their preferences itself in our tendency to make optimistic
(the unconscious condition) were found to be predictions concerning how long a given task
more satisfied with their choices (see Figure 2.8 will take to complete, known as the planning
in the main text). This mighl be so because fal lacy. The planning fallacy occurs for several
of cognitive overload or fa iling to weigh reasons. First of ali, we tend to focus more on
various dimensions accurately during careful, the future (how we will perform the task) and
conscious thought situations. less o n the past (how long it took last time).
Secondly, we make external attributions when
Potential sources of error In social
we do take past experiences into account (we
cognition blame factors outside of our control). Thirdly,
when we are highly motivated to complete
After studying this SKtlon, you will a task, we tend to make overly optimistic
know the following:
predictions regarding its completion. Finally,
• We make various types of errors when sec
we also tend to a 'golden', positive future
we process information.
and forget a 'rocky' or difficult past.
• Despite this, we are reasonably
In total, people seem to be inclined to
successful in making sense of the
pay special attention to negative information
social world.
and, simultaneously, imagine things to turn
OUI well.
Copyrighted malerial