Social Psychology - Daniel W. Barrett

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dogs associated a neutral stimulus—the sound of a tone—with meat powder and began salivating in anticipation of receiving it. The dogs learned that the tone signalled the impending release of the meat powder. Thereafter, a sound that had nothing to do with food became a proxy for food and created the salivation response. Okay, so that is all fine and good when it comes to dogs, but how does that apply to people? Well, let’s say that McDonald’s is your favorite fast food restaurant. You are driving down Main Street and spot a McDonald’s. You may begin feeling hungry, and perhaps you will salivate a little. Why? Because McDonald’s golden arches act like the tone for the dogs and signals to you that food may be on the way (it is unlikely that you were born with this association already in mind!).

      Instrumental conditioning was pioneered by John Watson and B. F. Skinner and occurs when a person becomes more likely to engage in a behavior after being rewarded for doing it (reinforcement) or less likely after being penalized for it (punishment) (Watson, 1925/1998; Weiss, 2014). Instrumental conditioning helps to explain why people bring coupons to the grocery store (reward: saving money) and students try to get their papers in on time (punishment for failing to do so: F). A final type of learning that gained prominence in the latter half of the 20th century, social learning, takes place when a person observes or hears that someone else was reinforced or punished for engaging in a particular behavior (like robbing a bank) and then behaves accordingly either to gain a reward (free money) or avoid a penalty (going to prison) (Bandura, 2012; Bandura & Walters, 1963). The contemporary debate about whether exposure to violence on TV and in films leads to real-world aggression centers around whether these media exhibit a social learning effect on viewers (Anderson et al., 2004).

      One major type of individual-level explanation focuses on the social cognitive processes occurring in the individual just prior to or during the phenomenon under study. In the 1970s, social psychology experienced a “cognitive revolution” (North & Fiske, 2012). Psychologists rejected simplistic behavioral and psychoanalytic explanations and discovered the role of conscious mental processes, such as a person’s stated attitudes and beliefs, in generating social behavior. Social psychologists acknowledged how individual interpretations—called construals—of social situations affect social behavior (Kruglanski, 1989; L. Ross, 1977). For instance, whether failing your first exam in social psychology leads you to work harder or simply give up on the class can depend upon how you interpret that failure. If, on the one hand, you believe that your poor grade was a result of not studying and that if you study for the next one you will do better, then you are more likely to increase your effort. If, on the other hand, you think that the professor is unfair, her tests are too difficult, and that no amount of studying will pay off, then you may withdraw from the class.

      Pavlov discovered the power of classical conditioning during research on the salivary responses in dogs.

      Sovfoto Universal Images Group/Newscom.

      Social cognition can be defined as the “mental processes involved in perceiving, attending to, remembering, thinking about, and making sense of” oneself and others (Moskowitz, 2005, p. 3). As you read these words, your mind is switching among the multiple mental processes required to focus on and comprehend them, interpret their meaning, glance at the time, remember you have a lunch date, make a quick decision about whether to answer the text message you just received, and choose between continuing to read or getting your third cup of coffee.

      Although each of these activities is conscious, social cognitive processes often take place beneath the surface, nonconsciously (Carlston, 2013). Recall the research mentioned earlier that involved unscrambling sentences: Participants exposed to elderly related words walked more slowly (Bargh et al., 1996). Were they aware of this? Certainly not. Even when specifically asked if they thought that the task affected their behavior in any way, they denied it. It is not that the students were lying about the influence of the elderly related words. Rather, they were simply unaware of that influence.

      Let’s say your lunch date is with your new boss who you have only seen in passing. One of your coworkers told you that the boss is usually late, wears shabby clothes, has terrible body odor, and talks with her mouth full. What kind of expectations would you hold of your boss? Imagine, instead, that the boss has a reputation for being timely, generous, well groomed, and polite. Would your expectations change? Regardless of which expectations you held, your behavior during lunch is likely to be affected by them. In the one case, you might not worry about being a few minutes late, you may dress casually, decide not to eat at all (so you don’t get grossed out), and wear extra cologne to mask undesirable smells. In the other, you’d be on time, dress well, plan to eat, and wear the usual amount of cologne (or none at all). This simple example demonstrates how expectations—another component of social cognition—can affect behavior. Chapter 3 is devoted in its entirety to explaining the centrality of social cognitive processes to virtually everything that we do. What we have learned and how we think about ourselves and others have repercussions for the kinds of romantic relationships that we seek, as we will see in Chapter 11.

      Classical Conditioning: Form of learning in which a previously neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus

      Instrumental Conditioning: Form of learning in which reinforcement is given or punishment is administered in order to increase or decrease a specific behavior

      Social Learning: Learning by observing or hearing that someone else was reinforced or punished for engaging in a particular behavior

      Social Cognition: Mental processes involved in perceiving, attending to, remembering, thinking about, and making sense of oneself and others

      Social Psychology in Europe

      As mentioned above, the bulk of the empirical research in social psychology has focused on North American, white, educated males, and was conducted by North American scholars (Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010). Nevertheless, social psychologists from Europe and elsewhere have had and continue to have a very important impact on the theory and research. From a historical perspective, two of social psychology’s founding “fathers”—Sherif and Lewin—in addition to many other, lesser-known scholars, were immigrants to the United States. Moreover, European social psychologists have made significant contributions to our understanding of social identity, intergroup relations, minority influence in groups, and many other topics discussed later in this text (Jahoda, 2007; Moscovici & Markova, 2006).

      Emerging Trends

      Social psychology is a dynamic and exciting field that continues to move in new directions. The final chapter of this book highlights three of these emerging topics and offers insights into where the field may be heading in the next 10 to 20 years. First we’ll describe the rise of positive psychology and incorporation of “happiness studies” into social psychology. Second, we’ll explore the renewed interest in the study of religion and will explain how we can scientifically investigate religious phenomena. Finally, we’ll discuss the emergence of the social psychological study of environmental sustainability—how social psychological insights can help us create a greener, cleaner, future.

      Integrating Explanations

      As you can see, there are many approaches to understanding the causes of social behavior. Which one is correct? The answer is that, on its own, none is: Social behavior cannot be reduced to a single cause. Not only is every social phenomenon a product of both personal and situational factors—which right away suggests more than a single cause—but virtually any behavior can be examined from each of these three levels of analysis. A complete understanding of a particular behavior will involve utilizing multiple explanations (see Figure 1.3). Let’s take obedience to authority as an illustration. From an evolutionary perspective, we could ask whether it was adaptive for our ancestors to

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