Chapter 13: Social Psychology

Attribution theory provides a framework for understanding how people assign causes to observed behavior, distinguishing between situational factors and personal characteristics, though the fundamental attribution error reveals a systematic tendency to overvalue dispositional explanations. Attitudes are shaped through persuasion pathways including central route processing, which relies on careful consideration of arguments, and peripheral route processing, which depends on superficial cues. The reciprocal relationship between attitudes and behavior manifests through mechanisms like the foot-in-the-door technique, where initial compliance facilitates larger requests, and cognitive dissonance theory, which predicts attitude change when behavior conflicts with existing beliefs. Social influence operates powerfully through conformity, demonstrated in classic experimental paradigms, and obedience to authority, as illustrated in controversial behavioral studies. Group dynamics introduce social facilitation effects, where performance improves on well-learned tasks, and social loafing, where individual effort decreases in group settings. Deindividuation describes the loss of self-awareness in crowds, while group polarization and groupthink represent outcomes of collective deliberation that can impair decision making. Prejudice develops through ingroup preference biases, scapegoating processes, and cognitive heuristics that simplify but distort social perception. Aggression emerges from biological predispositions, frustration responses, and acquired aggressive scripts through social learning. In contrast, prosocial behavior is encouraged through the mere exposure effect, attachment bonds characterized as passionate or companionate, and internalized social norms emphasizing reciprocity and social responsibility. The bystander effect demonstrates how diffusion of responsibility among observers reduces individual helping behavior. Social conflicts decrease through contact between opposing groups, cooperative interdependence, dialogue, and the GRIT model, which employs graduated reciprocal concessions to de-escalate tensions.