CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

 What is psychology for you?
 What do you understand by social psychology?
 To which discipline social psychology more related?
 Why do you think we need to study social psychology?
 How can you differentiate social psychology and sociology?
1.1 Definition
Psychology is the scientific study of human and animals’ behavior with a focus to human
behavior. Social psychology is one of the sub fields of psychology which emphasizes on how
individual’s behavior is influenced by others. Social psychology is the joint of sociology and
psychology fields.
Based on the above theme, different scholars defined social psychology as follows. Hogg and
Vaughan (1998) defined social psychology as scientific methods to understand and explain how
the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of individuals influenced by the actual, imagined or implied
presence of others. It is a scientific study of how people think about, influence and think about,
influence and relate to one another (Myers,1999).it is the study of the interaction between
individual characteristics and social situations. it studies how people affect and are affected by
others. Baron and Byrne (1997) defined social psychology as a scientific field that seeks to
understand the nature and causes of individual behavior and thought in social situation.
To sum up social psychology focuses on how individuals think, feel and behave and how this are
affected by others. This focus contrasts it with sociology which focuses on group or whole
societies.
1.2 Social psychology and other related disciplines
Social psychology is poised at the crossroad of a number of disciplines and sub disciplines. it is
different from individual psychology in that it seeks to explain social behavior.
In dealing with groups, social and cultural norms and inter group behavior social psychology has
links with sociology and social anthropology. in general sociology focuses on how groups,
organizations, social categories and societies are organized, how they function and how they
change.
Sociology deals with the group as a whole.

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Social psychology deals with the individual within the group.

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1.3 Theories of social psychology

Brian storming
 What do you understand by a
theory?

Theories summarize countless factual observation by capturing underlying principles. Theories

in social psychology are bodies of related concepts and prepositions about social interaction,
between individual processes in social stimulus situations and the social structure in relation to
individuals. The theories of social psychology are more relied on the following questions.
 Is human being is simply a more intelligent animal than other animals or do social
interaction and humans prolonged dependence on cooperative activities create in him
unique psychological characteristics?
 Is humans’ behavior determined by egocentric motives?
 Is human behavior largely irrational and fixed by arbitrary experiences of reward and
punishment?
 Is human behavior rooted in a man’s biological predisposing or do social conditions
largely determine the form and the content of the human action?
 Is adult behavior primarily a reflection of experiences during child hood or does man
develops and remains responsive to his current surrounding throughout his/her life?
There are five theories of social psychology discussed hereunder.

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1.3.1 Genetic theory
They assume that large component of social behavior is related to un learned genetic causes.
Research on genetic effect revealed that, similarities in identical twins more than fraternal, and
fraternal more than other siblings more than distant relatives clearly demonstrating effect of
genetics on social behavior.
1.3.2. Learning Theories
Social phenomena are thought to arise through learning. It deals with observable behavior.
Most of social behaviors are learned through;
 Reinforcement
 Social modeling
 Operant conditioning
 Classical conditioning
1.3.3 Psychoanalytic theory
The founder of this theory is Sigmund Freud. According to this theory social behaviors are a
result of unconscious activities. Early experience during childhood is also play a great role for
social behaviors of an individual and it is considered as a crucial in shaping adult behavior.
1.2.4 Role theory
This theory explains social behavior by the role society provides for certain roles we are assigned
for. There are behaviors we expect from a priest, police, teachers, medical practitioners and so
on. Thus, people are expected to behave in accordance with these expectations and social
behavior developed in this manner.
1.3.5 Cognitive approach
This theory assumes that the thinking process and perception of social world are examined to
explain social behavior. It states that how people come to understand, represents the world
and this help to develop social behavior. Internal mental process is focused. Such processes
are
 Assimilation to existing schemata
 Accommodation and
 Adaptation
To sum up it is not possible to approach all social behaviors by using a single theory rather it is
advisable in combining these theories which called Meta theories

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1.4 Goals of social psychology
Psychology has four goals
1) Understanding and describing social behavior; what are some of the behaviors people
manifest? What is the nature of this behavior? What are the similarities and unique behavior
people manifest?
2) Explaining behavior; after understanding and describing certain social behavior then we
proceed to explaining that behavior. This goal deals with why these behaviors happen? And what
caused it.
3) Predicting behavior; after explaining the cause of behavior, we would enable to predict what
would happen in the future in similar situation. If one able to predicts certain phenomena
proactive measure could be taken.
4) Controlling and changing behavior; this refers to helping, limiting, influencing and
changing social behavior.
Some important concerns of social psychology today are
Theory development: theory is an integrated set of principles that explain and predict
observed events. Thus, social psychologists engage in relentless efforts to develop new ones
and substantiate the available theories in the various topics of foci to the discipline.
Research: rigorous research is another concern of tremendous value in social psychology.
The ever-changing facets of social behavior require systematic investigation of knowledge in
the area. Since many theories and findings considered vital would be obsolete if they are not
supported by updated research.
Application: while defining social psychology we have categorized it under applied
psychology, this is so because the discipline is not mainly meant to accumulate knowledge and
understanding in the area but to apply the understanding to solve human problems. We shall
see this in more details in each unit.
1.5 A Scientific Approach to Social Psychology
A scientific method is a standardized set of rules to investigate events and communicate
findings. Science aims at describing, predicting, explaining, and controlling events. Science
refers to a systematized body of knowledge, the methods used to develop this knowledge and
the application of this knowledge to solve life problem. So, a scientist is versed with the

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knowledge, practice and method of science. In other words, a scientist is a theoretician, a
practitioner, and a researcher.
 As a theoretician: he/she teaches, publicizes, and disseminates scientific
knowledge.
 As a practitioner: he/she applies his/her theoretical knowledge in real life
situations.
 As a researcher: he/she improves existing knowledge or discovers new ones.
Scientific research is therefore a systematic, controlled, empirical, and critical
investigation of hypothetical propositions about educational, natural, behavioral and
social phenomena.
Science can be seen as a never-ending quest for understanding. Each answer we find raises new
questions and challenges for scientific inquiry. In an effort to expedite these goals and to guide
inquiry scientists develop theories and hypothesis. A theory is a systematic statement that seeks
to explain why two or more events are related. A hypothesis expresses an educated guess
about the relationship between events. Unlike theories hypothesis do not attempt to explain
why two events are interrelated, it rather express what the relationship between two events will
be.

In using scientific method, the social psychologist becomes like a detective. The task is to track
down information that will verify or refute the theory or hunch. As a detective the social
psychologist collects ample data to convince a judge or jury, that a hunch is correct beyond
reasonable doubt. The social psychologist must obtain enough support for a theory or
hypothesis to convince critics. In doing so there are various designs for social research.
Science involves the formulation of a hypothesis (predictions) on the basis of prior knowledge,
assumption and causal or systematic observation. A hypothesis is a testable proposition that
describes a relationship that may exist between events. Hypotheses are formally stated about
what factor may cause something to occur, and are stated in such a way that they can be
empirically tested to see if they are true.

For example, one might hypothesize that ballet dancers perform better in front of an audience
than when alone. This hypothesis can be empirically tested by assessing performance alone and

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in front of an audience. If a hypothesis is supported, confidence in its accuracy increases and
one may generate more finely tuned hypothesis. For example, if we find that ballet dancers do
indeed perform better in front of an audience; we might then go on to hypothesis that this effect
only occurs when the dancers have already very well-rehearsed their acts before. To wind up it
seems imperative to put what Marcus Aurelius has said about the role of research. “Nothing has
such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that
comes under your observation in life.”
Research methods in Social psychology
Psychology employs the scientific methods to study behaviors. A scientific method is a
standardized set of rules to investigate events and communicate findings. Scientific research is a
systematic, controlled, empirical and critical investigation of hypothetical prepositions about
phenomena
Research Methods in psychology are generally classified in to two.
A) Experimental methods
B) Non experimental methods
1.5.1 Experimental methods (knowledge through intervention):
Experimental methods are a research method in which one or more factors are systematically
engaged to determine whether such variation affect one or more variables.
 It tries to understand the cause of some effect
 It is about manipulation of independent variable (s) and measurement of dependent
variable (s)
 The factor that the researcher manipulates or control is called independent variable (Iv)
and the variable that is measured as the effect of these factors is called dependent variable
(DV).
 Random assignment of the participants ensures that there are no systematic differences
between participants in the two conditions. There might be a confiding variable that cause
the DV. Confiding/ extraneous variable is one or more IVs that have effect in addition to
the manipulated variable.
For example, the researcher wanted to see the effect of collaborative learning on students’
achievement. Collaborative learning is serving as IV and student’s achievements serving

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 as DV. Other variables such as sex, socio economic status, motivation can also affect
student’s result. These variables are called extraneous variable.

Characteristics of experimentation
Experimental design has the following 3 characteristics.
 Control of variables
 Randomization
 Replication
Control of variables. Those variables of interest in the research are controlled by identifying
them as IV and DV. Those of no interest will be either removed or made uniform by matching
cases across group to maintain their effect.
Randomization; this refers to avoiding systematic differences by assigning participants in to the
experimental group randomly.
Replication; replication refers to by using different research participant at a different time and in
a different setting so as to arrive at conclusions that are constant with the previous studies.
Design of Experimentation
Selection of the design is based on:
 The purpose of the experiment
 Type of variables to manipulated
 Conditions under which it is conducted
The design deals with:
 How participants are to be assigned
 The way variables are to be manipulated and controlled
 The way extraneous variables to be controlled and
 How observation will be made
Some major designs in experimental studies

I. Single group design (A-B-A within group design)

II. Control group design
III. Quiz experimental Design
IV. Factorial design

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  Single group design (A-B-A within group design)
In this design a single group is taken and the change in DV is measured before administration of
IV, after administration of IV and after termination of IV.
The advantage of this design is that Inter group differences are measured.
 Control Group design
This design consists of two groups; experimental and control group design
IV is given for experimental group but not for control group and the comparison is made on the
two groups in relation to DV.
In this design differences between groups may affect the generalizability of the result.
 Quiz experimental Design
Quiz experimental Design involves procedures that resemble those that characteristics of true
experiment. It involves some types of treatment and provides a comparison but it lacks the
degree of control found in true experiment .it lacks randomization.
 Factorial Design
When more than one IV is included in the experiment a factorial design is used.
Some advantages of experimental design
 It shows causation
 Extraneous variables are controlled
 More reliable
 More precise and replicable
Some limitation of experimental research
 Usually artificial difficult to apply in real world.
 It usually based on animal behavior so that generalization is under question.
 More time consuming and costly.
 It violates some ethical issues.
 Manipulation of human beings is not an easy task.
1.5.2 Non – experimental design (Knowledge through systematic observation):
systematic experimentation may be preferred in a number of situations; however, there are
circumstances where it is impossible to conduct an experiment to test a hypothesis.
None – experimental designs include;
 Case study

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  Survey
 Correlation research and
 Observational research
A) Case Study Research: Case study uses few respondents and analyzes their reaction in
depth. The tools of data gathering are;
 Interview
 Observation
 Focus group discussion and
 Questionnaires
Its’ advantages are: cases are studied deeply, role of participants in the research, researcher’s
immersion in with participants and so on.
Its’ limitation includes: information from few individuals can’t be generalized to the
population, researcher’s bias etc.
B) Survey Method
It consists of large samples that represents the geographical, socio- economic, educational back
ground of the population and ask questions the sample taken from the population.
Representative sample is chosen to generalize the results to the whole population. Survey is used
to describe people’s attitude, feelings and reported behavior. Tools of data gathering in survey
are:
 Questionnaires and
 Structured interviews
Advantages of survey research are the following:
 Results can be generalized
 Not time consuming
Limitations of survey method include:
 lacks depth study as compared to case study
 response set is high
 low rate of return questionnaires and
 socially desirable behaviors
C) Correlation Study
 This design helps to see relationships.

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  In any social phenomena are highly interrelated
 It used to see the relationship between two or more variables
 The correlation result ranges from -1 to +1
 Positive correlation shows an increase in both variables or a decrease in both
variables
 Negative relationship shows inverse relationship
 Zero correlation shows no relationship
 Note that correlation does not show cause effect relationship.
D. Observational Research:
This method is concerned with systematic observation of behavior as it occurring naturally.
Psychologists systematically observe and record the behavior by using such tools as
observational check list.
Ethics of Research in Social Psychology
Some of the researches conducted in human subjects are dangerous and life threatening. Ethics
in experimental researches raise questions regarding the effects they have if they are not taken
with proper care. Many experiments conducted in social psychological studies in previous times
laid grounds for the developments of ethical guidelines (see examples of Milgram`s obedience
experiment). Generally experimental research should not be conducted at the expense of the
safety of human participants. The following five ethical considerations should be addressed and
given emphasis during experimental research.
i. Physical harm or damage. When conducting an experimental research, make sure that you
do not threaten the safety of the participants. In no way should human subjects be suffering
as a result of the experiment such as administering electric shocks, jolting, physical injuries,
etc.
ii. Informed consent. Experiments should more or less get an informed consent from
participants if possible written papers about their consent. They should be clearly informed
about the procedure, the time it is needed to conduct the experiment, and similar topics.
Assure participants about the possibility that they can quit participating if they are not
comfortable at any point of time.

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iii. Confidentiality. No information of and about participants should be given for third party or
be used for other than the intended research purpose. This should be stated at the beginning
of the experimental research that encourages the participants to give their genuine answers.
iv. Deception. Even though this is very controversial issue, many of the social psychological
experimental researches involve some forms of deceits. Deceiving the participants should
however be in such a way that does not affect or harm the participants. Sometimes if
participants are not deceived, the result of the experiment can be flawed. Generally, it is not
advised that participants should not be deceived to an extent it jeopardizes their well-being.
A very good example of deceit in experimental research is the classic experiment by Stanley
Milgram`s obedience experiment where participants were initially told the purpose of the
study was studying memory that later turned out to be the study of obedience dangerous.
v. Debriefing. Participants have the right to get debriefed about the purpose of the experiment
if initially deceived or if they were not clearly told about the experiment. They should also be
informed that the findings of the study will be revealed to them with confidentiality.

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 CHAPTER TWO
SOCIALIZATION
Objectives; at the end of this chapter learners will be able to;
 Define socialization
 Explain the agents of socialization
 Describe the major theories of socialization
 Discuss the effect of isolation
Questions of discussion
 How can you define socialization?
 What would happen to an individual’s if not have interaction with others?
 What are the agents of socialization?
Definition of socialization; one of the most significant and remarkable process occurring in
human beings is the transformation of helpless infant in to a mature adult. As he/she develops he/
she learn one or more languages and varieties of social skills and bodies of knowledge. The
process by which these relations are developed is called socialization.
 Socialization is an interaction process whereby an individual’s behavior is modified to
conform to expectations held by members of the group to which s/he belongs. It is the
process by which some one learns the way of the given society or social group well
enough so that he/she function within it.
 Socialization is a lifelong development processes where by an individual become a
member of the society.
 It is a means by which we become fully human.
 It is a way of transmission of culture from one generation to another.

2. Theories of Socialization

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 Based on the role of heredity, importance of early age and evaluation of human nature,
social psychology employs the following theories.
2.1 Psycho analytic theory
The major prominent of this theory is Sigmund Freud. It gives emphasis for early age
experiences as influential factor for psychological and social development. The early age
is divided into different stages.
These are the:
 Oral stage
 the anal stage
 the phallic stage
 the latent stage and
 genital stage
It also states that human beings are usually moved to their biological desire for sex. The year’s
birth to sixth are assumed to play a tremendous role in one’s socialization.
2.2 Cognitive theory
Developed by Jean Piaget. It focuses on stages of mental development. These are
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development
1) Sensory motor stage (birth- 2 years)
Infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences such as
seeing, hearing with motor action. They believe that ‘out of sight is ‘out of mind’.
Object permanence; refers to objects and events continue to exist even when they cannot
directly be seen, heard or touched. Object permanence developed through sensory motor stage.
When children initially understand that objects exist even when out of sight, they look for them
but if they do not, they have not developed object permanence.
2) Pre operational development(2-6Years)
During pre-school age, children begin to represent the world with words, drawings and images.
This stage is characterized by thoughts become more symbolic, egocentric, and intuitive rather
than logical. Children at this stage cannot operate things. Operation refers to a term for mental
representation that are ’reversible’. Whether a child can think operationally is to present a child
with two identical glasses, A and B filled with water to the same height. Next, to them a third
glass C which is taller and thinner. Water is transferred from A to B. Look A and B is exactly the

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same. Next, the water is transferred from B to C glass. A four years child thinks that water in
taller glass is greater than a shorter one. Piaget said such a child has not grasped the concept of
conservation. Conservation is a ted for belief in the permanence of certain attributes of object or
situations despite superficial changes.

3) Concrete operational stage (7 to 11 years)

Concrete operational refers to thoughts become operational, replacing intuitive thought with
logical reasoning in concrete situation. For instance, if the child is presented with identical two
balls, and then if one is elongated the concrete operational children responses still the balls have
equal amount of clay.
4) Formal operational stage (11 to 15 and adult years)
Formal operational stage thought is more abstract, idealistic and logical than concrete
operational thought. Piaget called this type of logical problem solving as hypothetical-
deductive reasoning
2.3 Social Learning Theory of Socialization
This theory is proposed by Albert Bandura.it focuses on
 Modeling
 Identification
 Imitation and
 Role learning
The theory more argues that throughout life socialization takes place and man is more
characterized by being cooperative and helpful
Purposes of socialization
 Survival
 Obtain affection
 Core values and social roles
 Personality formation
Deferential socialization
Are individuals socialized similarly?
In no society where children brought up in similar way.

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Effects of socialization
When we say socialization has its own roles in making one a full human this would be better
understood by looking in to what would happen if one lacks human interaction.
In 1938 Anna a girl of 13 in Pennsylvania was found enclosed in the second-floor storage
room. She was born from abnormal lady who was living with her parents. The parents
disappointed with their abnormal daughters giving birth. When police discovered she could
not laugh, smile, speak, and even show anger. She was unresponsive as if the world around
her did not even exist. Not surprisingly, people initially thought she was deaf and blind
(Davies,1940, taken from John.M1993)

What can you understand from the above case?

Agents of socialization
The agents might be people, media, or organizations described as follow.

People media organization

Family TV school
Friends RADIO church
Teachers books sports team
Neighbors arts political organization
…. etc ……etc.

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CHAPTER THREE
THE SELF
WHAT IS SELF?

It is really important for individuals to develop a sense of person that they use it for self-
enhancement. People have different types of selves: self-concept (self-knowledge) is the way
people think about themselves or self-concept is a set of beliefs people have of themselves; and
self-esteem is the way people evaluate themselves and the meanings they attach the evaluations.
People with high self-esteem use feedback as means for self-enhancement, have clear picture of
their purposes while those with lower self-esteem are pessimistic about themselves and the
world, prone to different psychological problems and do not have clear goals. People can have
either explicit self-esteem, i.e., they know clearly how they feel about themselves and are aware
of. They can also have implicit self-esteem where information which is below awareness
influences the self-esteem of the individuals.

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Parts of Self

What is the source of such knowledge we have about ourselves? Self is not what persons choose
to have or not to have. Without self, people cannot live in a society, perform activities, can get
social acceptances and execute different functions. Self has three main jobs or parts, which
correspond to several main things that the self does. The first part consists of self-knowledge
(self-concept) – the sets of belief about oneself. Self-concept includes information about the self
as self-awareness, self-esteem and self-deception. The interpersonal self or public self, is a
second part of the self that helps the person connect socially to other people. Interpersonal self
(public self) comprises self-presentation, relationship self, social roles and membership of a
group. The third important part of the self, agent self or executive function, is the part of the
self-involved in control, including both control over other people and self-control. Agentic
(executive) self includes decision making, self-control/ regulations, active situations and taking
charge of responsibilities.

Who makes up the self: The Individual or Society?

Self is considered as impulse of a person’s inner thoughts and feelings and self can also be
perceived as institution the way a person acts in public, especially in official roles. Cultures also
shape self to as independent self-construal which is a self-concept that emphasizes what makes
the self-different and sets it apart from others. Interdependent self-construal which is a self-
concept that emphasizes what connects the self to other people and groups. In conclusion,
probably the best account of the origins of selfhood is that the self comes into being at the
interface between the inner biological processes of the human body and the sociocultural
network (that is, the other people in the society, plus its “general store” of common beliefs and
practices) to which the person belongs (e.g., James, 1892).

Sources of Self-Concept (Self-Knowledge): Where self-knowledge comes from?

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The biggest source of the way we think about ourselves is socialization. Socialization is the
process of transferring values, attitudes, and knowledge and core cultural concepts from
generation to generation through learning of infants and children where they internalize them as
part of their self-concept.

Looking Outside: The looking-glass self. This concept was driven from the works of Charles
Horton Cooley (1902) where he stated that people (1) imagine how they appear to others, (2)
how people judge them, and (3) develop feelings associated with such judgments (such as pride
or failure, positive or negative). The looking-glass self proposes that people learn about
themselves by imagining how others will view/ judge them or by imagining how they appear to
others. It is as if other people hold up a mirror (a looking glass) in which you can see yourself.
The self-derived from seeing ourselves as others see us.

Looking at others: Social comparison: A source of social knowledge involving how we

compare our reactions, abilities, and attributes to others. People make comparisons of their
feelings, reactions and behaviors with others are important for the development of their self-
concept. People sometimes make up-ward comparison where they compare themselves with
people better than them (which is threatening/discouraging when the gap is huge). Sometimes
people engage in downward comparisons where they compare themselves with persons who are
below them (which can make them feel good) based on certain standards or criteria.

Looking inside: Introspection: This is another source of self-knowledge which is evaluating

our internal feelings which most of the time give us biased information about ourselves.
Introspection is the process by which we develop our own knowledge by looking into the
contents of our inner thoughts and mental processes. People possess a distinctive privilege of
their own inner feelings and thoughts that any other person does not know but if wise enough
only can they infer from the expression and behaviors. Sometimes introspections are not reliable
where people can have behaviors which contradict with what they think and feel. The distinctive
theory of self-concept forwards that people most of the time incorporate into their self-concept
that make them distinct or unique from others rather than those they share commonly with
others.

Reflected appraisal or feedback: We use several sources of social information to forge our self-
concept. One comes from our view of how other people react to us. These reflected appraisals
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shape our self-concept (Cooley, 1902; Jones & Gerard, 1967). The amassed knowledge people
have about themselves is accrued from the feed backs or appraisal they get from others. Reflect
appraisal is the reaction people have of how people evaluate them.

Self-perception theory: Daryl Bem (1967) proposes the theory that people observe their own
behavior to infer what they are thinking and how they are feeling. People learn about themselves
in the same way they learn about others - by observing behavior and drawing conclusions. In
fact, Bem proposed that when people did have such information, they might not rely on self-
perception processes. But sometimes looking inside is not adequate, and in those cases, people
are swayed by self-perception Along with self-perception theory, there is the concept of over
justification effect where the effect of intrinsic motivation gets weaker as extrinsic motivation
or external rewards are given for activities that were performed for their own sake previously.

Why do people need self-knowledge?

People want to learn about themselves. Three main motives shape the quest for self-knowledge.
These three motives sometimes compete against each other, and different motives predominate
in different people or different circumstances. The first motive is the simple desire to learn the
truth about oneself, whatever it is. This can be called the appraisal motive/self-assessment
motive - a desire to know about oneself whatsoever it is. The second motive, called the self-
enhancement motive, is the desire to learn favorable or flattering things about the self. Self-
enhancement motive is important in order to learn flattering or acceptable behaviors about one`s
behaviors in a given situation. The third motive, the consistency motive/self-verification
motive, is a desire to get feedback that confirms what the person already believes about himself
or herself. Consistency motive is the need of the person to get feedback which is consistent with
what the person believes is true about him or herself.

Self-Knowledge and the Duplex Mind: There is an automatic egotism attribute of the duplex
mind that states there is an automatic egotism which claims “everything good is me, and
everything bad is not me”. Thus, the different parts of the duplex mind may cultivate self-
knowledge in different ways. The automatic system favors automatic egotism “I’m good in
general” while the conscious system can make corrections and strive toward a more balanced,
accurate appraisal of the facts. On the other hand, people engage in self-handicapping which is

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putting obstacles in the way of one’s own performance so that anticipated or possible failure can
be blamed on the obstacle instead of on lack of ability or effort.

Self-awareness

Self-awareness is the attention we have directed at ourselves. It is the psychological state in

which people are aware of their feelings, thoughts and behaviors. People have both private and
public self-awareness. Private self-awareness is what persons have an inward look of their inner
feelings, thoughts, motives, desires, emotions and personal traits that are only accessible to
themselves. Public self-awareness is what people are aware of when interacting with others, that
others can examine and evaluate it. Self-awareness theory, proposed by Duval and Wicklund
(1972), suggests that some situations, such as looking in a mirror, lead to self-awareness.

Self-aware people feel bad because they notice any discrepancies between who they are and
standards. They can either “change” by matching the behavior to the standard, or “escape” by
trying to escape the self-aware state. Simply put, self-awareness theory states feel unpleasant
because of discrepancies from the standard. When there arises a discrepancy, people will engage
in either of the following two things: try to change in accordance with the standard or escape
from being self-aware. Self-awareness makes people to behave better and shape their behaviors.
Better self-awareness makes people to regulate their behaviors and try to meet the standards-
are sets of ideas or criteria against which persons measure their behaviors. Self-awareness is
important in self-regulation- the process people use control and change their feelings, thoughts
and behaviors. However, self-awareness does NOT always make people regulate their behavior
and them better. Alcohol consumption reduces self-awareness. When people are aware of
disturbing thoughts, they might be destructive, to the extent of committing suicide.

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Self-esteem and Positive Illusions

Self-esteem is how favorably someone evaluates himself or herself. There are people with high
and low self-esteem. Here are some of the main conclusions about people with low self-esteem:

* They do not want to fail. (This is contrary to some early theories, including those based on

consistency, which assumed that people with low self-esteem would seek to confirm their
bad impressions of themselves.) Indeed, people with Low self-esteem have the same goals
and strivings that people with high self-esteem have, such as to be successful and to get
others to like them. The difference is mainly that people with low self-esteem are less
confident that they can achieve these positive goals (McFarlin and Blascovich, 1981).

* Their ideas about themselves are conflicted and uncertain, a pattern called “self-concept
confusion.” When asked questions about themselves, people with low self-esteem are more
likely than other people to say they do not know or are not sure; more likely to give
contradictory answers, such as being both “calm” and “nervous”; and more likely to describe
themselves differently on different days (Campbell, 1990).

* They focus on self-protection instead of self-enhancement. (Self-protection means trying to

avoid loss of esteem.) People with low self-esteem go through life looking to avoid failure,
embarrassment, rejection, and other misfortunes, even if this means not taking chances or
pursuing opportunities (Baumeister et al., 1989).

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* They are more prone to emotional highs and lows. Events affect them more strongly than

other people, and so they are more vulnerable to mood swings and other emotional
overreactions (Campbell, Chew, and Scratchley, 1991).

In 1988, social psychologists Shelley Taylor and Jonathon Brown provided an influential
summary of the ways in which well-adjusted, mentally healthy people distort their perception of
events. They listed three “positive illusions” that characterize the thought processes of these
normal people.

People overestimate their good qualities (and underestimate their faults). Normal people
think they are smarter, more attractive, more likable, more virtuous, easier to get along with,
and in other ways better than they actually are. This explains the “above average effect”
already noted, by which most people claim to be better than the average person.
People overestimate their perceived control over events. Normal people tend to think they
are largely in control of events in their lives and that what happens to them is generally the
result of their own actions. They believe they have the power to make their lives better and to
prevent many misfortunes and problems from occurring.
People are unrealistically optimistic. They think their own personal chances of getting a
good job, having a gifted child, acquiring a great deal of money, and experiencing other
positive events are better than the chances of the average person like themselves. Conversely,
they think their chances of being unemployed, getting a divorce, having a retarded child,
losing a lot of money, being severely injured in an accident, and experiencing other
misfortunes are lower than the average person’s chances. Each person tends to see his or her
own future as somewhat brighter than other people’s.

Self-presentation

Self-presentation is any behavior that seeks to convey some image of self or some information
about the self to other people. Any behavior that is intended (even unconsciously) to make an
impression on others is included. Self-presentation thus encompasses a wide range of actions,
from explicit statements about the self (e.g., “You can trust me”), and to how you dress or what
car you drive, to making excuses or threats, to trying to hide your fear or anger so that other
people will think you are cool.

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The other purpose of self-presentation is to develop and claim identity. Presenting oneself as
competent, friendly, honest, kind, loyal, strong, warm, helpful, and so on, makes for a good
self-presentation (Schlenker, 1980). The main problem with defining what makes a good self-
presentation arises when the values of the self-presenter and the audience diverge. Then the self-
presenter faces a tradeoff between being true to his or her own values and making a good
impression on the interaction partner (also called the audience).What the person does depends on
a variety of factors, including the importance of one’s relationship to the audience and the
importance of the issue to the self.

Behavioral Control of the Self

Freedom and choice

Making choices is a major part of life. Human beings have a far more complex inner capacity for
making choices - which is good, because humans face very complex choices. Think of all the
choices you make: what courses to take, whom to date and marry, whom to vote for, how to
handle your money. Understanding choice and decision making is a vital part of any effort to
understand human life.

Freedom of Action

The question of whether people have free will has been debated for centuries, and its importance
has been recognized in philosophy (e.g., Kant, 1797). Psychologists are divided on the issue.
Many believe that psychology must explain all behavior in terms of causes, and if a behavior is
caused, then it is not truly or fully free. Others emphasize the fact that people make choices and
could have chosen differently under other circumstances, and in that sense, they believe people
do have freedom.

More or Less Free:

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Whatever the ultimate decision is about free will, there is little disputing that people perceive that
they make some choices and that some of these are freer than others. In particular, people have
the subjective experience that sometimes they are constrained by external factors whereas other
times they can freely choose what they think is best. In other words, although absolute freedom
is debatable, relative freedom is an important feature of social behavior. Among humans, greater
freedom is marked by greater behavioral flexibility, controlled processes (as opposed to
automatic ones), and self-regulation.

Free Action Comes from Inside

Self-determination theory is an important perspective on freedom of action. The theory states

people need to feel at least some degree of autonomy and internal motivation. It builds on the
research on intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation.

Having an Out, Versus No Escape:

One of the most profound illustrations that perceived freedom produces benefits is the panic
button effect: believing that one has an escape option can reduce stress, even if one never makes
use of this option. In an early demonstration of this effect, participants were exposed to highly
aversive noise stress—blasts of loud noise, delivered at random, unpredictable intervals for
irregular lengths of time—while they were trying to solve puzzles.

Self-Regulation

Self-regulation or self-control refers to the self’s capacity to alter its own responses. It is
essential for cultural animals to adapt too many different demands.

The three components of self-regulation are standards (concepts of how things should be),
monitoring (keeping track of behaviors), and willpower/capacity for change (bringing behavior
into line with standards).

The TOTE model refers to the self-regulation feedback loop of Test, Operate, Test and Exit.
Willpower is like a muscle, getting depleted after it is used, but getting stronger with exercise.

Irrationality and Self-Destruction

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Self-defeating behavior is defined as any action by which people bring failure, suffering, or
misfortune on themselves. People engage in self-defeating behavior because they are making
tradeoffs or because they are using ineffective strategies, but not usually because they were
directly seeking failure. The capacity to delay gratification is the ability to make short-term
sacrifices in order to get long-term rewards. Suicidal people focus on the immediate present at a
time when present circumstances may be changing for the worse.

CHAPTER FOUR
THE MEANING OF ATTRIBUTION
4. Attribution and Biases in Attribution
4.1 Definitions on Attribution

Since lot of research has been carried out on attribution, the Baron in 2007 is, “the process
through which an individual seeks to identify the causes of others behavior and so gain
knowledge of their stable traits and dispositions.

Attribution: is referred as an individual’s efforts to understand the causes behind others

behavior on some occasions. The theories of attribution analyses how people explain other
persons behavior. The process through which an individual collects the information about others
is termed as attribution. In fact, everyone takes some effort to understand the causes relating to
other person’s behavior and at times, his/her behavior as well.

4.2 Theories of Attribution

The meaning and definition of attribution is such a complex one different person have come out
with various kinds of theories to elaborate attribution. People tend to attribute someone’s
behavior or the outcome of an event either to internal factors or to external factors. The internal

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factor means dispositional factors such as the particular person’s biological or psychological
causes. On the contrary the external factor means situational factors such as, environment and
other persons are the causes.

 Dispositional Attribution

Attributing behavior to the person’s disposition and traits. For example, the motivation, the
intelligence and the effort of the individual are considered as dispositional factors. for example,
if a student fails in exam, internal attributions will be such as lack of motivation, intelligence,
laziness or carelessness of the student.

 Situational Attribution

Attributing behavior to the environment. For example, good weather, parental support, good
friends and effective teacher are considered as situational factors. The following interesting
example will clearly explain the dispositional and situational factors people use in understanding
the causes of other’s behavior. A teacher may wonder a child’s underachievement is due to lack
of motivation and ability (a dispositional attribution) or to physical and social circumstances (a
situational attribution).

Though there were different theories of attribution explaining and giving reasons for the
behaviors of others, the commonest theories are:

1. The correspondent inference theory (by Edward Jones and Keith Davis, 1965)

2. The co-variation theory or the attribution cube (Harold Kelley, 1967)

3. The dual-processing theory (Trope, 1986).

1. Jones and Davis (1965) Theory of Correspondence Interference

According to the correspondent inference theory, the explanations for perceptions of social
behaviors, perceivers are faced with unclear information. We make a correspondent inference if
we determine that an individual entered in to behavior:

(1) By the free choice of the individual or the performer [opposed to being forced or coerced]
(2) By the conclusion that the person intended the behavior.

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If we believed that the person did the behavior on his or her will and intended to do it, we give
the cause to an internal attribution. If on the contrary, we assign the situational factors. Human
beings mostly employ cognitive miser where they mostly underestimate the role of situational
factors. This theory tries to explain the specific traits or dispositions that remain fairly stable
over time in an individual, which are the causes for that person’s behavior in day-to-day life
situations. The authors emphasis that by observing others behavior directly for a quite some time
people come to a conclusion for the reasons other’s behavior. This idea may seem to be a very
easy one but it is not so. The reason is that every individual come out with complex of behavioral
patterns every time. A person may act in a particular manner not because of his or her own
preferences but may also be due to external pressure. For example, if a child is crying, it doesn’t
mean that it needs sweet but it may be due to his mother might have gone to next room leaving
her alone. The child may behave calm and quite in general the crying behavior may be rare
occurrence. Situations like this are quite common in a family. If one doesn’t know the child’s
normal behavior, he/she may mislead the attribute the reasons.

2. The Co-Variation Theory or The Attribution Cube (Harold Kelley, 1967)

On the other hand, the co-variation theory, using the co-variation principle- states that people
decide the most likely cause for any behavior is the factor that co-varies or occurs at the same
time when the behavior happens or takes place. Co-variation theory suggests that people rely on
consensus [Is every one doing the behavior?], distinctiveness [Is the behavior of the individual
unique or not] and consistency [Is the behavior of the person consistent or similar across
different situations?] of the behavior or the information. Look at the following table that shows
how, according to co-variation theory of attribution, behaviors are attributed- external or internal
based on the three variables.

Attribution Variables

Consensus Distinctiveness Consistency

External High High High

Attribution Consensus Distinctiveness Consistency

Internal Low Low High

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 Attribution Consensus Distinctiveness Consistency

Ambiguous Low High Low

attribution Consensus Distinctiveness Consistency

This theory attempts to explain why people behave in a particular manner and what are the major
reasons for their behavior. Everyone wants to know why other persons have behaved in a
particular way? Unless a person is able to understand the causes behind others behavior, he/she
may not be able to manage the social world appropriately. To understand others behavior,
generally, persons think either the other person behaves mainly from his/her internal causes such
as traits motives and intentions or from external causes such as physical world society norms etc.
At times, people may also think both causes in combination might have contributed for a
particular behavior.

Kelly explains people use three major sources of information in order to understand the causes of
others behavior. They are:

 Consensus: The extent to which other persons react to some stimulus or even in the same
manner as the person we are considering.
 Consistency: The extent to which an individual respond, to a given stimulus or situation
in the same way on different occasions.
 Distinctiveness: The extent to which an individual respond in the same manner to
different stimuli or events.
3. The Dual-Processing Theory (Trope, 1986).

Heider`s attribution model was developed on the basis of internal or external attribution. Bernard
Weiner (1971), another attribution theorist, developed attribution model based on stable versus
unstable attributions. The behaviors used in such a classification are ability, and effort [internal
attributions], and tasks difficulty and luck [external attributions].
Trope`s two stage dual process model of attribution recognized that the initial stage of assigning
causality is automatic categorization of the behavior; a second stage may lead to readjustment
of that initial categorization, when especially the behavior or the situation is ambiguous. We
may, for instance, attribute an angry behavior of somebody by automatically categorizing it that

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anger is disgusting [categorization], but recheck the behavior by trying to look at the situations
that made the individual angry where the attribution will be adjusted again. Gilbert and
associates, later on developed the dual process model of attribution into three phases: automatic
categorization, characterization of the behavior [less effortful process but not conscious or
controlled processing]; finally readjusting the causes of the behavior.

4.3 ATTRIBUTION BIASES

Biases in Attribution: Errors of Causal Analyses

When making attributions, we err where we commit biases about our attributions of our own and
other person`s behaviors. Both correspondent inference theory and co-variation theory of
attribution posit that people generally fail to make the correct causal analyses. The following are
the commonest types of attributions biases mostly encountered by most people.

1. Fundamental Attributions Error [FAE]. The FAE highlights that people mostly prefer to
give internal or personal attributions than external or situation attributions where we
underestimate the influence of situational factors and overestimate dispositional factors.
Mostly we engage in confirmation bias where we try to find out evidences that support our
hypotheses even though we are mistaken.
2. Ultimate attribution error. This is a type of fundamental attribution error where internal
attribution is given for group behaviors irrelevance of individuals.
3. Actor vs. Observer Bias. The actor vs. observer bias occurs when observers emphasize
internal attributions whereas actors favor external attributions when the behaviors are not
pleasant or rewarding. When, for example, we fail, we attribute to external factors, but for the
same failure or undesirable behavior of others, we attribute it internally.
4. Self-Serving Bias. Self-serving bias happens when we take credit for our successes but fail
to take blames for our failures. Out in other words, people attribute internally when
successful but externally when they fail.
5. Self-Defeating Bias. People, most common in depressed persons, take blames for their
failures and credit others when they succeed.
6. False Consensus Bias. False consensus bias is a condition where people tend to believe that
others think and feel the same way they do.

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 CHAPTER FIVE
Attitude and Attitude Change (Persuasion)
Attitude:
An Attitude: is defined as a general and enduring positive or negative feeling about some
person, object or issue. It is an evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, events
and people. By its nature the attitude one has might be positive or negative or neutral. It is a
tendency to respond to certain event, object or people favorably or unfavorably.
Attitude, belief and opinion
The concept of attitude as an organization of beliefs shows that all attitudes incorporate beliefs
but not all beliefs are necessarily part of attitude. Beliefs are feelings that something is true or
something is really existing (e.g. belief in God.). Beliefs are stronger than attitude. In other hand,
opinion is a verbal expression of some belief, attitude or value.
Y Opinions: are what a person thinks about something, based on personal judgment.
Y Beliefs: are acceptance of the statement or propositions and state or habit of mind in
which trust is placed in some person, thing, and conviction of the truth or reality.
Attitude and Behavior
 Are attitude and behavior/action related? Which comes first?

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Attitude is assumed to be the key factor in predicting behavior. But some researchers noticed that
attitude and behavior do not always go hand in hand. For example, a person who has a strong
negative attitude toward abortion may go to clinic that assists abortion and may assault doctor.
The effect of attitude on behavior is influenced by aspects of the context, strength of the attitude
and aspects of the individual.
Components of the Attitude
There are three major components of the attitude. These are;
a) Cognitive component- this represents a person’s knowledge, about what is true or
false, good or bad, desirable or undesirable. This component is thoughts, information,
and understanding of the object, person and situation.
b) Affective component- it includes the emotions, feeling and sentiment component of
the attitude. An attitude here is capable of arousing effect of varying intensity
centering on the objects of the belief.
c) Behavioral component; this is the action component of the attitude. The kind of
action taken is dictated by the content of the belief. it refers to the response through
action, and activity which is an expression of the cognitive and affective components.

31
 Example; we might analyze the attitude of rural people about the use of
contraceptives. The people’s knowledge about the various types of
contraceptives, the use and where to acquire them is related to the cognitive
component. The feeling of comfort in buying and using contraceptives are
related to the affective component. Finally, the tendency to use contraceptive
for the intended purpose is related to the behavioral component.

Measurement of Attitude
Brian storming questions
 How attitudes are measured?
 What are tools measuring attitude?
 Can we see, touch, observe a person’s attitude

Since attitude is more abstract which we cannot be usually touch, see, or directly observe it, its
measurement is so difficult. The most common ways of measuring attitude are by asking people
about their opinion, feeling and emotion. These are called self-report methods.
Two ways of attitude measurement procedures.
A. Direct measure;
 Likert scale; it measures the degree of strength and weakness of attitude. it can be
stated as liking or disliking/ agree or disagree.
 Thurston equal appearing intervals with usually nine scales which indicates one’s
level of favoring an expressed attitude.
B. Indirect measures:
 Inferring attitude from people’s performance on objective test (shows liking or
disliking of the subject)
 Inferring from people’s psychological

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  Using bogus pipeline: subjects are induced to report honestly their true attitude
in the belief that a machine already registered their attitude.
Despite all these, validity and reliability of attitude scales is usually less due to the subjective
nature of attitude.
Attitude Formation
Attitudes are learned rather than innate. The learning of attitude is an integral part of
socialization and direct experience with the attitude object or vicariously interactions with other.
Attitude can be formed through various forms.
 Effects of direct experience: through touching, seeing, tasting, talking the attitude object
 Classical conditioning: association of social happenings.
 Instrumental conditioning: attitude is learned from consequences.
 Social learning or observational learning: one learns attitudes by modeling, imitating,
and identifying oneself with parents, peers, and others.
 Genetic endowment:(some researchers indicate that identical twins breed in different
places were found to have similar atti tude than fraternal twins, siblings)
Influential factors to the development of attitude:
1. Family influence: parents mediate between the child and the culture. Parents
spend a good many hours with their children. Attitude towards religion and
politics do have high correlation between parents and children.
2. Culture: it consists of the customs, values, attitudes and tradition of people.
These cultural values influence each individual in diverse ways: through one’s
social class, social groups, schools, family. One is the product of his/her culture.
3. Peer influence: when the child gets older spends less time with parents but,
outlooks would be influenced by friends, to a larger extent. They rely on peers for
the satisfaction of their desires.
4. Information: modern life is so intertwined with a lot of challenges and that
information the most important backbone of other communication systems; media
is important source of information and mould attitude of adolescents.
5. Education: education is the most influential factor of attitude formation.
Educated person is more liberal than uneducated or less educated person, or less

33
 educated person is more conservative than highly educated person. Schools are
important agent that shape attitude of people.
Attitude change
Attitude change is any modification of an individual’s attitude. People are always adapting,
modifying, and relinquishing attitudes to fit with ever changing interest. Acceptance of new
attitudes depend on who is presenting the knowledge? how it is presented? how the person is
perceived, credibility of the communicator and the condition under which the knowledge is
perceived. Therefore, it is difficult put distinction between attitude formation and change. This is
because when we are changing one form of attitude, we are forming a different form of attitude.
Thus, the two are inseparable. There are every day attempts the attitude of people. Advertisers,
police and other propagandists.
Attitude can be changed when……………….
 One receives new information which is largely a cognitive change
 One has direct experience with attitude object. forcing a person to act that or this way
To change our attitude, there are certain sources. Such as family, media, religious, institutions,
neighbors etc. In the attitude change process, there are four sequential steps.
1. Attention- refers to giving focus on attitude object
2. Comprehension- is understanding the issue
3. Retention- maintenance and elaboration of the attended information
4. Action-a way of manifest something/some activity
Factors that increase or decrease attitude change
In attitude change
who said?
what to whom?
Under what condition?
with what media?
with what effects are essential?
1. Factors related to the source of communication
 Prestige of the communicator
 Intentions of the communicator
 Likability of the communicator

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  Similarity of communicator to audiences
 Reference group: belonging to the group
In bringing about attitude change who is the communicator plays a crucial role. The more
prestigious, likable and similar to audiences the more we change our attitude. On top of this,
credibility, trustworthiness, and expertise of the communicator are essential in attitude change.
2. Factor related to the communication (message itself)
 Discrepancy between old and new information
 Nature of the organization of the message
 One sided versus two-sided communication
 Stating a conclusion for the communication
 Nobility of the information
 Order of the information: primacy and recency effect
 Semantics or language use
3. Factors in the surrounding environment (situational factors)
 The effect of reinforcement or reward
 Fear arousal message is more effective
 distraction
 use of various channels
4. Factors involving the characteristics of the target audience
 personality factors
 Self Esteem
 Intelligence
 Sex Difference
 Defensive Style
 commitment of the audience the attitude
 inoculation and support
 forewarning
Persuasion
Persuasion refers to efforts to change attitudes of others. Persuasion occurs when a source
deliberately use communication to change a receiver’s attitude.
Propaganda

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Propaganda is systematic wide spread promotion of certain set of ideas, doctrines. It is a
celebrate attempt on the part of individuals or group to influence the attitudes, beliefs, opinion
and action. There are two types of propaganda.
 Command propaganda: which seeks a specific immediate response as buy this, sell this,
vote for this and others that require you to do it here and now,
 Conditioning propaganda: This aims at mould public opinions, assumptions and
attitude on a long term wide spread base.
Propagandist use several techniques commonly associated with propaganda.
1. Plain folks: an approach often used by individuals to show humble beginnings and
empathy with average citizen.
2. Testimonial: is a frequently used devise to achieve credibility. A well-known expert,
popular celebrity, or average citizen give testimony about the value of a product or
wisdom of a decision.
3. Bandwagon: the implication or the statement that everyone wants the product or that
the idea has overwhelming support. When Pepsi Company advertises “Pepsi is the
choice of new generation” it is presenting people as a member of new generation to
have Pepsi.
4. Card staking: the selection of facts and data to build an overwhelming case on one
side of the issue, while concealing the other side.
5. Transfer: associating the person, product or organization with something that has
high or low credibility depending on the intention of the message.
6. Glittering generalities: associating a cause, product, or idea with favorable
abstraction such as freedom, justices, democracy, wisdom
7. Name calling and use of loaded words
8. Appealed to prejudice and needs:
Brain washing
Brainwashing is a conversion of an individual from an established orientation to another
orientation. For example, to bring individual from communist to capitalist. There are some
techniques of brainwashing. These are:
1. Debility: this is placing people in a physically weaken state or harsh physical conditions
like placing them in concentration camp or isolation from access to social interaction

36
 2. Dependency: this is subjecting people under complete dependency on the good will of
the captures(person)
3. Dread: consistently frightening in physical punishment
Resistance to attitude change
People maintain or preserve their attitudes and resist changing once they have been well formed.
Some principal causes for self-preservation of attitude are:
 Selective interpretation
 Avoidance of information
 Social pressures
 Inoculation: making people resist to persuasion by providing them with a diluted counter
argument, they can build up effective refutation to later stronger attitude.

Cognitive dissonance
Two cognitions are to be dissonant if one cognition follows from the opposite of the
other .example, a man who believe in a women’s right to terminate her pregnancy makes an anti-
abortion speech. Cognitive dissonance is an unpleasant state that.

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 CHAPTER SIX
SOCIAL INFLUENCE/INTERPERSONAL INFLUENCE
What is social influence?

Social influence is the exercise of social power by a person or groups to change the attitudes or
behaviors of others in a particular direction. Social power is the force that is available for the
influencer [such powers that can either be personal or organizational or from the society power
that uses legitimate, reward, coercion, punishment or authority]. Social influence is a means of
interpersonal interaction that helps to get what you want from others. Social influence has
behavioral consequences, viz., conformity [a yielding to the standard behaviors and beliefs of
others], compliance [which includes both internalization of or internal compliance and external
compliance, is acting according a direct request from others] and obedience [obedience is the
performance of an action because of authoritative command direction from hierarchies].

CONFORMITY

As mentioned before, conformity is a yielding to perceived pressure from others and copying
their behaviors and beliefs. There are two kinds of conformity: Normative influence and

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Informational influence. Normative influence takes place when persons conform to behaviors of
others in order to get acceptance and/ or avoid rejection. On the other hand, informational
influence happens when persons are in ambiguous situations or when they believe that others
have better information than what they already have. Such types of conformity result in either
private acceptance where the person being influenced believes that others actually have better
information than him/her self and is convinced to behave like others or they can result in public
compliance where persons simply comply to what others say or do because of fear of rejection
and ostracism but one has private opposite belief. There are classic experiments of conformity
namely:

a. Muzafer Sherif`s norm development research analyzed conformity to an ambiguous

reality.
b. Solomon Asch`s line judgement research analyzed conformity to a unanimous majority.
c. Stanley Schachter’s “Johnny Rocco” study investigated the rejection of the
nonconformist.

NOTE: Please students do go through the above experiments conducted and synthesize on how
they could be viewed in Ethiopian cultural contexts.

Factors Influencing Conformity

Both situational and personal factors influence the extent to which a person is going to conform.

Situational Factors Impacting Conformity

i. Group size. Though there is a limit to the size of the influencers, large group size pressures
individuals to conform than fewer individuals. As the group size increases, the possibility of
conformity also increases, and then levels off.
ii. Group cohesiveness and topic relevance. For the reason of either normative influence or
informational influence, cohesive groups are more likely to be conformists and avoid
nonconformists. When the issues are more relevant to the group members, they are likely to
exert maximum effort to influence the deviants.
iii. Social support. When s dissenter or a deviant gets support from others, conformity is
dropped off by a certain level.

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Personal Factors Influencing Conformity

i. Self-Awareness. When people have high private self-awareness, their conformity is reduced
and when they have high public self-awareness their conformity increases.
ii. Self-Presentation. Conformity is also determined by what meaning is attached to conformity.
When self-presenters are alone with the social influencers, they are likely to conform as a sign
of intelligence and open mindedness. However, when people other than the influencers are
present; and if conformity is believed as surrendering, conformity is difficult to do
[Baumeister, 1982].
iii.The need for individuation. This contends that people do not conform to others` in order to
assert their personal identity, uniqueness and to be different from others.
iv. The desire for personal control. The theory of psychological reactance states that
individuals do not conform to show their exercise of personal freedom and will resist attempt
that evade such a personal freedom. This could well be exemplified by parental interferences
with sons` or daughters` preferences of dating partners, people crave for what they are
prevented to show their personal control. Those with high desire for person control [DPC] are
less susceptible to conformity. Non conformity can be either because of independence which
means the non-conformity is not due the desire not to conform rather due strong conviction in
their own behavior that cannot be explained by the psychological reactance. The other reason
is anti-conformity explained by the psychological reactance theory. So, the same behavior can
be motivated either by independence or anti-conformity.
v. Gender differences in conformity. Though there are no well-established research findings
regarding gender differences on conformity, partly because of gender roles stereotypes and
socializations, women are more likely to conform that men.

There are differences in conformity of people from their cultural backgrounds: collectivists
versus individualists. Mostly persons from collectivist cultures are conformists to in-groups but
non conformists to out-groups.

Minority influences over majorities are effective if they meet the following conditions: [a]
Consistency of behaviors over time; [b] strong stand of issues they hold and showing confidence
in front of the majority; and [c] if the issues raised by minorities goes along with the ongoing

40
global social, political and overall held world views which are sought by others but not achieved
yet such as the cases of movements of equality of races, sex, ethnicity in the later 20th centuries.

COMPLIANCE

As conformity is behaving and believing like others because of social pressures, compliance is
being influenced by a direct request from others. There are different conditions that facilitate
compliance to a direct request by others. These are [a] positive or good moods of the target of the
request; [b] reciprocity or giving and taking of requests, and [c] giving reasons- just a mere
reason let alone justifiable reasons facilitate compliances.

There various two-step processes of compliance which are useful in social influences based on
different techniques.

Techniques based on commitment and consistency

When people are once committed, they experience both internal and external pressure to be
consistent which unless causes a form of psychological discomfort called cognitive dissonance.

a) Foot-in-the-Door Technique [FITD]. This technique based on commitment and consistency

where the requestor initially proposes small request as a means paving a way for another
bigger request.
b) Low-Ball Techniques. Low-ball technique is a commitment and consistency-based approach
of compliance where a person is made to comply with an initially low cost where hidden
costs will be revealed later.
c) Bait-and-Switch Technique. This technique offers targets of compliance with an initially
attractive offer which is unavailable and then makes them switch to less attractive [costly]
offers that are available.
d) Labeling Technique. This technique involves labeling persons with certain attribute to live
up to and when a request that is consistent with the attribute is made, people generally
comply.

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e) Legitimization-of-Paltry-Favors Technique. This is a method where a requester makes
even a small amount of response is useful or helpful. For example, ‘Would you contribute for
children with heart diseases? Even a penny will help’ kind of request.
Techniques based on reciprocation
Reciprocity is a technique where people will give if they are given; take of others if they were
taken care of, and simply reciprocity is ‘scratch my back and I will scratch yours’. Though some
people might use reciprocity for exploiting others, it is one of the most important moral and
cultural values. There are two techniques based on reciprocity: Door-in-the-Face techniques and
That-is-not technique.
a. Door-in-the-Face Technique [DIFT]. This technique is based on the principle of reciprocity
or gains and concessions where in order to get a small request, the same person should start
asking the target an inflated requested.
b. That-is-not-All Technique. A that-is-not-all technique is another means of getting
compliance where the requester or persuader comes up with a bonus or reduction of costs
before the target responds to the request. The bonus or the discount sweetens the deal and
facilitates compliance.

Techniques based on scarcity

Aristotle once said that “what is rare is a greater good than what is plentiful”. Most of the time
people respond to and are influenced by scarce resources and materials. For example, in the
business world things are bought so fast if they have deadlines or if there is no possibility of
getting the materials back. People also give much value to rare resources [Gold, Diamond, etc].
Techniques based capturing and disrupting attention
a. Pique Technique. It is a technique of social compliance where requesters try to put their
requests in a novel way so that they can get help of influence others.
b. Disrupt-and-Reframe Technique. This is a technique where targets` attentions will be
disrupted first and then the request will be reframed in a positive way.

OBEDIENCE

Obedience is an active form of social influence where individuals respond to a direction,

instruction from authorities in hierarchies to behave in a particular way in a particular situation.

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One of the most known and controversial studies of obedience where many researches spring out
is from the classic Milgram`s experiment on obedience.

Though researches show that there are different factors that facilitate obedience, observing others
defying the authority and disobeying significantly reduces obedience. This has been confirmed
by William Gamson and associates` research [please students have a reading on that].

Factors Influencing Obedience

Why do people obey can be explained by various personal and situational factors?
a. Diffusion of personal responsibility
b. The perception of legitimate authority
c. Not knowing how to disobey
d. Socialization from significant others
e. The power of social situations [powerfulness versus powerlessness]

Social Impact Theory

Social impact theory suggests that the influence of people is determined by the people`s number,
strength and immediacy.

Milgram also recommended some ways of reducing obedience.

a. Educating people about the consequences of blind obedience

b. Encouraging people who take orders to question authorities
c. Exposing them to the actions of disobedient models.

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 CHAPTER SEVEN
INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS
7.1 Interpersonal Attraction and Close Relationships
Attraction and Intimacy: Liking and Loving Others
This unit concerns with the concepts of affiliation, attachment, friendship, liking and loving
others, and forms of love.
Intimacy an attraction is one of the common facets of human life and interaction. We like and
love others and we are liked and loved by others. So as a feature of human life we need to
examine how and why we affiliate and what factors influence our affiliation. This chapter is all
about attraction and intimacy.

Pre-assessment questions

1. Why do you think we like or love others?

2. Do you have a boy or girl friend? If yes how do you come to love her/him?

3. How do you differentiate between passionate and companionate love?

4. What kind of people attract you more? 44

Lesson 1- Interpersonal Attraction
From birth to death, relationships are at the core of human experience. Humans are social
animals who spend most of their lives in the presence of other people. Cross-cultural studies
find that children and adolescents around the world also spend about three quarters of their time
with other people. Our lifelong dependence on one another puts relationships at the core of our
existence.
Interpersonal attraction is our evaluation of other people with respect to how much we like or
dislike them. Such evaluations are made along an attitudinal dimension that includes strong
liking (towards a friend), mild liking (towards superficial acquaintances), mild dislike (toward
an annoying acquaintance), and strong dislike (towards someone considered undesirable).
Attraction is a positive attitude held by one person toward another.

Some indicators of the power of attraction

For our ancestors, mutual attachments enabled group survival. When hunting game or
erecting shelter, ten hands were better than two.
For a woman and a man, the bonds love leads to children, whose survival chances are
boosted by the nurturing of two bonded parents who support one another.
For children and their care givers, social attachments enhance survival. Unexplainably
separated from one another, parent and toddler may each panic, until reunited in tight
embrace.
Finding a supportive soul mate in whom we can confide, we feel accepted and prized as
we are. Falling in love, we feel irrepressible joy. Longing for acceptance and love, we
spend billions on cosmetics, clothes, and diets.
For the jilted, the widowed, and the sojourner in a strange place, the loss of social bonds
triggers pain, anger, or withdrawal. Reared under extreme neglect or in institutions
belonging to nobody, children become pathetic, anxious creatures. Losing a soul mate
relationship, adults feel jealous, lonely, distraught, or bereaved. Exiled, imprisoned, or in
solitary confinement, people ache for their own people and places. We are indeed social

45
 animals. When we feel supported by close intimate relationships-we tend to be healthier
and happier.
Factors Influencing Attraction
What factors nurture liking and loving? Let’s start with those that help initiate attraction these
are: proximity, physical attractiveness, similarity, and feeling of being liked. What factors
nurture liking and loving? Does absence make the heart grow fonder? Or is someone who is out
of sight also out of mind? Is it likes that attract? Or opposites? How much do good looks
matter? What has fostered our close relationship with a friend? Let’s start with those factors that
help a friendship begin and then consider those that sustain and deepen a relationship.
Why Affiliate?
The need to affiliate or be with others underlies the way in which we form interpersonal
relationships. Of course, an apparent opposition to affiliation is the need we all show at times to
avoid interacting with others. There is a conflict of motives and balancing act of how we try to
regulate our privacy in a busy world where we want some space to ourselves while at other
times, we seek out company. Some reasons are:
1. No one is an island- one way to learn what it means to affiliate is to ask what happens when
people are prevented from being with others. Even separation from others for a relatively
short term can have serious consequences and more compelling long-term separation can
have serious consequences and, in the case of the young, permanently damaging outcomes.
2. Reducing Anxiety- sometimes we seek to affiliate with others, even strangers, for brief
moments in order to cope with a particular set of circumstances particularly the role that the
company of others can play in reducing anxiety. Research by Schachter 1959 as cited in
Hogg and Vaughan 1998 supported the hypothesis that a greater preference for company
would occur among high anxious participants.
Why are some people attractive?
Attraction refers to the power that makes one person feel positively about another. When we are
attracted to, allured by, charmed by someone we want to know that person, to spend some time
with him/her. Attraction is necessary for friendships to begin, and yet we meet many people
who do not become friends. Some of the reasons for our friendship choices are discussed below
A. Physical Attractiveness- the first thing we notice about others is usually how they look,
and this tends to form the basis of the first evaluation we make. Although we might think

46
 that evaluating someone on the basis of their physical attractiveness is a superficial
strategy, evidence shows that we often do precisely this. An attractive person, for example,
is less likely to be judged as maladjusted or disturbed, more likely to be recommended for
hiring on a job interview, and likely to receive higher evaluations of written work.
B. Proximity- Mundane as it might seem, the physical proximity sometimes referred to us
propinquity of one person to the other is a potent factor which facilitates attraction. Chance
occurrences, such as who is allocated the adjourning room in a hostel, or who catches the
same bus, play an important role in determining friendships. In a study carried in a housing
complex, more people choose those living on the same floor for their friends than those on
other floors or in more distant buildings. Why is this so? A variety of studies point to
several factors that hinge on the simple fact of being physically close.
i. Familiarity- proximity generally leads to repeated exposure and, therefore, more liking.
Repetitive presentation of a variety of stimuli increases liking for them. Familiarity refers
to the fact that one becomes more familiar with a stimulus (another person), one feels more
comfortable with it and shows more liking for it. The Amharic proverb “Yemiawkut Saytan
Kemayawkut Meleak Yeshallel” which means the Devil you know well is better than the
Angel you don’t; depicts how we feel comfortable even with the worst thing we are
familiar with than something strange.
ii. Availability- people who live close by are easily accessible, so that interaction with them
requires little effort. Therefore, rewards of social interaction are available at a low cost,
remember the principle of closure in social exchange. Think what happens when a friend
shifts to a distant place. Do you keep up the often-promised contacts? Not much, many
friendships including marriage fail when there is distance shift.
iii. Expectation of continued interaction- Heider’s (1958) balance theory predict that it
would be an uncomfortable experience not to get on with one’s neighbors. More
specifically this includes the process of being aware that neighbors are people with whom
further interaction is anticipated.
C. Reciprocity- liking and disliking often follows the reciprocity principle:
that is, we tend to like those who like us and dislike those who dislike us. Reciprocity depends on
various situations; for example, people of low self-esteem liked people who accept them more
than those who do not where as high self-esteem ones showed not much significant difference on

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 whether others accepted them or not to like or dislike compared to low self-esteem ones. Further
if praise comes from a flatterer with ulterior motives, its value will be low and we will not
respond with liking. We also attach lower value if the praise comes from a friend rather than a
stranger, as we expect praise from friends. The pattern in which praise is received is also
influential; for example, we tend to like most those who initially dislike us but then warm up to
us, and we dislike most those people who initially like us but turn cold, this is called the gain loss
hypothesis (Aronson and Linder 1965).
D. Similarity- similarity of attitudes, values, and even age and other
backgrounds is one of the most important determinants of attraction. A study by Newcomb
(1961) on college students indicated that among freshman student’s attraction in the first few
weeks was more related to proximity, however, as the semester progressed, attraction was related
more closely to similarity of pre-acquaintance attitudes. Anything that other people do that
agrees with your perception of things is reinforcing. The more people have in common the
greater the degree of interpersonal attraction. According Brewer (1968) as cited in Hogg and
Vaughan (1998), perceived similarity was found the top affecting variable for intertribal
attraction among thirty tribal groups in East Africa as highlighted by 1,500 participants. When
another tribe was thought to have quite different attitudes, social contact was avoided; if they
were perceived as quite similar, intimate contact was possible.
E. Need complementarities- in contrast to the theory of similarity, Winch (1958) has formulated a
theory of complementarity of needs. Winch hypothesized that we seek others who can best
satisfy our needs-for example the pairing of apparent opposites, as when a dominant person is
attracted to a submissive partner. Support for this theory comes from Lipetz et al. (1970) who
found that complementarity of needs relating to marriage, did correlate with marital satisfaction.
For example, a short man may be attracted to a tall lady that will also help for medium sized
child/ren/.
Theories of Attraction
Rarely in psychology does a single theory account for the totality of a phenomenon. More often,
several theories will contribute different perspectives, which focus on different aspects of the
same process. Theories of attraction are no exception. Three theories advanced in attraction are
Balance theory, reinforcement theory, and social exchange theory. Balance theory focuses
on peoples need for consistency. The reinforcement theory assumes that we are attracted with

48
people who were present while we receive a reward even if they have nothing to do with the
reward. The social exchange theory argues that we are attracted to people based on the cost-
reward ratio the relationship has. The minimax strategy which is the idea that we try to
minimize the costs and maximize rewards that accrue in our relations with others works in
attraction too.
Love relationships
Liking and Loving; are they different?
What indeed is love, and is it a qualitatively different experience from liking? Intuition tells us:
yes! Let’s explore this?
There is not yet a great deal known about what we call ‘love’. We use terms such as passion,
romance, companionship, infatuation, and sexual attraction, but what are the differences
between these states? This coupled with the way love is usually reasoning process, and it is
almost impossible to take the phenomenon into the laboratory makes it very difficult to easily
describe it. Most research that has been carried out in this area has been conducted through
survey and interview methods. Hatfield and Walster 1981 distinguished two forms of love:
Passionate love or romantic love- this is an intense absorption in another person involving
physiological arousal. Passionate love is intensely emotional state and a confusion of
feelings: tenderness, sexuality, elation, and pain, anxiety and relief, altruism and jealousy.
Companionate love- it is a less intense emotion, combining feelings of friendly affection
and deep attachment. It is characterized by friendship, understanding and a concern for the
welfare of the other. Companionate love is caring and affection for another person which
usually arises from sharing time together. In couples after marriage they report that their
passion evolves into a relationship marked more by attachment and affection, and reduced
sexual excitement which shows evolving from passionate to companionate love.
Though many writers have attempted to answer the elusive question ‘what is love’ social
psychologists tend to stick more to descriptions of behavioral and cognitive tendencies that are
indicative of the state of being ‘in love’. Such things may be: thinking of the loved constantly,
wanting to spend as much time as possible with her/him, and often being unrealistic in
judgements about the loved. This usually results in the lover becoming the focus of the person’s
life, to the exclusion of other friends. It is perceived as a very intense emotion, and, moreover,
one over which the individual has very little control. Love can be strongly affected by the

49
beliefs about love that are present in a given culture. These beliefs can be either functional or
dysfunctional. Particularly dysfunctional beliefs include those emphasizing that love is blind,
external and beyond the control of the lovers.
Maintaining Relationships
Most literatures in relationships focus on marriage. But marriage is only one of a number of
love relationships. Of course, marriage involves other factors which make it unlike most others.
Marriage is a contractual arrangement; it can be a financial partnership with accumulating
assets; it usually involves parenting and the nature of the initial attraction transforms over a
lengthy period of time. Marriage is more than a union of two individuals-it includes interaction
of the partners with, and overlaps between, two larger networks of people (husband’s network
and wife’s network). A network refers to brothers, sisters, parents and friends of both sides.
Satisfaction is higher because individuals who might have been ‘worlds apart’ become ‘worlds
together’.

Here, it is essential to question whether a love relationship is ever maintained. Some works of
literature lead us to believe that ‘love endures’. In some cultures, and societies marriage till
death is still the ideal. There is a general agreement that a relationship that survives time is one
in which the partners adapt and change with respect to what they expect of each other. What
counts in maintaining a relationship is companionate love, which involves deep friendship and
caring, and arises from the sharing of lives and the myriad experiences which only time can
provide. Security is a critical variable which can exert influence in several different ways. When
one partner feels insecure, the emotion of jealousy can follow, a state expressed by extreme
possessiveness and suspicion that accelerate the deterioration of the relationship. Of course,
security might also lead to boredom and a consequent search for new stimulation, often away
from the partner.
Ending a relationship
Deterioration of a relationship involves the perception by one or both partners that it is not as
desirable as it once was. This is indicator of the ending of a relationship. Indicators of ending of
the relationship include:
 A new life seems to be the only solution
 Alternative partners are available

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  There is an expectation that the relationship will fail
 There is a lack of commitment to a continuing relationship

Rusbult and Zembrock (1983) as cited in Hogg and Vaughan (1998) believe that once
deterioration is identified. It can be responded in any of four ways. A partner can take a passive
stance and show:
 Loyalty, by waiting for an improvement to occur; or
 Neglect by allowing the deterioration to continue.
Alternatively, a partner can take an active stance and show:
 Voice behavior, by working at improving the relationship; or
 Exit behavior, by choosing to end the relationship.
It is not easy to determine whether the passive or the active approach leads to more pain at the
final break-up, as many other factors are involved, such as previous levels of attraction, amount
of time and effort invested, and the availability of new partners. It can also depend on the
person’s general level of social contact, such as support from family and friends. It is often
loneliness that adds to the pain and makes life seem unbearable; if this is minimized, recovery
from the end of a relationship can be faster.

Duck (1992) as cited in Hogg and Vaughan (1998) has offered a detailed relationship
dissolution model of four phases that partners will pass through when a break-up occurs. A
relationship dissolution model is a proposal of the sequence through which most long-term
relationships proceed if they finally break down.
The phases are:
1. The intra-psychic phase- which starts as a period of brooding with little outward show,
perhaps in the hope of putting things right. This can give way to needling the partner and
seeking out a third party to be able to express one’s concerns.
2. The dyadic phase- which takes the person to the point of deciding that something needs to
be done. Arguments show that differences between the pair in attributing responsibilities for
what is going wrong.
3. The social phase- this involves a new element in saying that the relationship is near an end,
the partners may negotiate with friends, both as a means of social support for an uncertain

51
 future and for reassurance of being right. The social network will probably take sides,
pronounce on guilt and blame and, like a court sanction to the dissolution.
4. The final is grave-dressing phase: which can involve more than leaving a partner, to
include the division of property and of access to children, also a further working towards an
assurance for one’s reputation. In the individual’s community it will probably be important to
emerge with a self-image of relationship reliability for the future. The partners know that the
relationship is dead. Its burial is marked by erecting a tablet. This grave dressing activity
seeks a socially acceptable version of the life and death of the relationship. For example, in
marriage, divorce is the final phase where we make a legal end to it.
Note: most researches in interpersonal relations and attraction focus on heterosexual relations
and more of marriage or couples. But the generalizations refer to any sort of relations.

7.2 Pro-social Behavior

Prosocial Behavior [Helping Others]
Prosocial Behavior
 Helping behavior mostly known as altruistic behavior
 Voluntary actions to help others without expectation of reward from external sources
 Acts positively valued by the society
Basic Motives
 Altruistic: Unselfish desire/motive to help others
 Egoism: Helping based on a person’s own sense of self gratification
Why do we help?
 To enhance reproductive success (mate selection, kin selection - blood relatives)
 Social norms (norm of reciprocity – people expect that anyone helping another will have that
favor returned at some future time, norm of social responsibility – a social norm sating that
we should help when others are in need and dependent on us, norm of social justice - a
social norm stating that we should help only when we believe that others deserve our
assistance).
Approaches to Altruistic Behavior

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1. Evolutionary Approach
 Believes altruistic as a genetic endowment (a motive for survival)
 A predisposition to help is part of our genetic and evolutionary heritage
2. Socio-cultural Approach
 Proposes altruism as a normative behavior
 The importance of social norms that dictate when people to help
3. Social Learning Approach
 Proposes altruism as a social context-oriented phenomenon
 People learn to be helpful following the principle of modeling and imitation
4. Decision Making Approach
 Altruism as a moral value-oriented behavior
 The process that influence judgment about when help is needed
5. Cognitive Development Approach
 Altruism as mental orientation
 Personal sets of beliefs and values which oblique them to provide help
Factors Affecting Altruism
 Personality variables (locus of control, mood, empathy etc.)
 Gender difference (females are more altruistic than males)
 Effects of religion
 By stander effect (diffusion of responsibility - the belief that the presence of other people in a
situation makes one less personally responsible for events that occur in that situation)
7.3 Aggression
Aggression is any behavior that intentionally harms another person who is motivated to avoid
the harm. Aggression can be either hostile or instrumental aggression. There are also active and
passive aggressions. Violence is aggression that has extreme harm as its goal.
Is Aggression Innate or Learnt?
Freud (and others) proposed that people have an innate instinct that causes them to behave
aggressively [two instincts are Eros- the sexual desire or instinct and Thanatos-death instinct].
According to social learning theory, aggression is not an innate drive but rather a learned
behavior. When people observe and copy the behavior of others, this is called modeling.
Inhibitions against aggression can be overcome if a model acts out aggressively.

53
Learning and cultural socialization can subdue or encourage innate aggressive impulses and
aggressive action. Aggression is a product of both nature and learning.
Inner Causes of Aggression
The original frustration-aggression hypothesis states that the occurrence of aggressive
behavior always presupposes the existence of frustration and the existence of frustration always
leads to some form of aggression. The closer you are to a goal, the more frustrating it is when
someone interferes with your progress. There can be aggression without frustration, and
frustration without aggression, but aggression is increased by frustration.
Unpleasant moods increase aggression, but being in a bad mood is neither a necessary nor a
sufficient condition for aggression. Anger does not directly or inevitably cause aggression, but
the belief that aggression will help get rid of anger does increase aggression. The hostile
attribution bias is the tendency to perceive ambiguous actions by others as intentionally hostile.
The hostile perception bias is the tendency to perceive social interactions in general as being
aggressive. The hostile expectation bias is the tendency to expect others to react to potential
conflicts with aggression.
The magnitude gap refers to the fact that perpetrators of aggressive acts don’t gain as much as
the victims lose. Relational aggression is defined as intentionally harming someone’s
relationships with others.
Interpersonal Causes of Aggression
Selfishness and Influence: Aggression is used as means of social influence in some cultures
where people will use aggression or force in order to get what they want.
Domestic violence (also called family violence) is violence that occurs within the home,
between people who have a close relationship with each other (such as parents and children,
spouses, and siblings). The sibling relationship is the most violent relationship in the world. In
1984, the U.S. Surgeon General declared domestic violence to be the number one health risk in
the United States. Women attack their relationship partners slightly more often than men do, but
women don’t cause as much harm.
Displaced aggression (also called the kicking the dog effect) is a matter of substituting one
target of aggression for another.
Triggered displaced aggression involves an angry person aggressing against someone who has
committed only a minor offense.

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External Causes of Aggression
People behave more aggressively in the mere presence of a weapon. Exposure to violent media
increases aggression.
Hotter temperatures are associated with higher levels of aggression and violence.
Unpleasant environmental events, such as noise, crowding, foul odors, air pollution, and
secondhand smoke, can increase aggression. Increases in testosterone, junk food, and alcohol
lead to increased aggression. Decreases in serotonin and increases in vitamins reduce aggression.
Self and Culture
Poor self-control is an important cause of crime. Violent individuals, rather than having low
self-esteem, typically think themselves better than other people and have grandiose or inflated
opinions of their own worth. The term narcissism describes the condition of thinking oneself
superior or special, feeling entitled to preferential treatment, being willing to exploit others,
having low empathy with “lesser” human beings, and entertaining grandiose fantasies or other
ideas about oneself as a great person.
Much aggression involves wounded pride, so narcissists are especially likely to become
aggressive. The southern United States has a culture of honor, which accepts and even calls for
violent responses to threats to one’s honor.
Humiliation (a state of disgrace or loss of respect) appears to be a primary cause of violence and
aggression in cultures of honor.
Reducing Aggression
1. Punishment can both increase and decrease aggression
2. Inducing incompatible response can reduce likelihood of aggression [self-control]
3. Teaching non-provocative response to aggression can effectively control aggression
i. Social modeling: Teaching by example
ii. Internalizing anti-aggression beliefs
iii. Apologies as aggression controllers
iv. Social skills training: Role playing of non-aggressive behaviors, Modeling the pro-
social actions of others; Generating nonaggressive alternative solutions of conflict
(negotiation, compromising, cooperative problem solving)

55
The adoption of nonviolent philosophy practiced by civil right leader (man must evolve for all
human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of
such method is love.)
Antisocial behavior refers to behavior that either damages interpersonal relations or is culturally
undesirable.
Y Aggression is universal, but cultural rules restrict and govern aggression in different ways.
Y Aggression evolved to help social animals deal with their social lives, but culture, as a better
way of being social, offers new, nonviolent ways of resolving conflicts and problems.
7.4 Stereotype, Prejudice and Discrimination

Stereotype: - are fixed ways of thinking or false belief we have about others through
generalization that does not allow individual differences. Stereotypes, mostly negative, are
attributes given to individuals because they are members of a given group as ethnic group, race,
affiliation, etc. Stereotypes make people fit into certain traits or collective behaviors to label the
group they belong to. According Fiske and others (2002) the contents of stereotypes have two
dimensions: warmth [liking or disliking] and competence [respect or disrespect] where any
combinations of which result in either positive or negative stereotypes. Stereotypes create social
categorization that facilitates group distortions as out group homogeneity effects.
The stereotypes or false beliefs we hold can either be explicit which we are aware of, and we
process the information with effort or they can be implicit which are below the level of
awareness and threshold where the information is processed at the level of unconscious. On the
other hand, stigmatized groups respond to negative stereotypes with anger and opposition.
Stigma is an attribute serving to discredit a person in the eye of others. In the process of
stigmatization, stereotype threat might hinder the future of individuals by misidentifying the
expectations of out majority groups. Stereotype threat occurs and puts pressure on individuals
especially those who themselves experienced discrimination.

Prejudice [bigotry]: - is a negative attitude developed against members of a group of any kind
where their personal qualities are disregarded or individual differences are no given emphasis.
Based on such negative attitudes formed, we judge others prematurely, and it leads to
discrimination.
Discrimination: - is unequal treatment of persons based merely on their social categorization or
their membership to groups or based on their social statuses. However, discrimination can take
place without prejudice where a case in point is a beauty pageant or contest criteria is girls whose
height is higher than 1.75 and weight more than 70 pounds.
What Are the Social Causes of Prejudice and Discrimination?
Social Dominance Theory [Prejudice can develop as a means of justifying oppression]: There
are societal hierarchies that delineate the boundaries between those who are powerful and those
who have no power. Powerful groups will take their shares of resources and societal assets not
proportionally and the liabilities are given for the powerless. Those powerful justify their

56
oppression through prejudice such as denigrating and disparaging the victims or oppressed and
discriminating against them.
Intergroup Competition Could Lead to Prejudice: Competition among groups intensifies in
group loyalty and out group hostility which in turn lead to prejudice and conflicts. When groups
compete over scarce resources such as land, business, food, and other necessities, the success of
one group will be at the cost or failure of the other group that leads to prejudice. Such conflicts
over scarce resources are explained by the realistic group conflict theory. When competitions
over resources lead to increased hostility of out-groups and intensified feelings of loyalty to in-
groups, it breeds ethnocentrism.
A Desire to Enhance Social Identity Can Lead to Prejudice: Unlike the realistic group
conflict theory, the social identity theory developed by European Social Psychologist Henri
Tajfel contends that there is no need for competition to take place to create ethnocentrism or in-
group favoritism, simply categorizing individuals into random groups will make them develop
prejudice and discrimination. This is asserted by evidences from the researches on Minimal
Group Paradigm theory. Similarly, Social Identity Theory by Tajfel and John Turner asserts
that minimal groups create social esteem and identity as a component of self-concept.
Authoritarian Personality Induces Out-group Hatred: Persons with authoritarian personality
are prone to hatred toward out of groups and display prejudices. Authoritarian personality is
characterized by submissiveness and obedience to authority, rigidity and adherence to moral
values and out group prejudices. Such authoritarian personalities are believed to stem from early
childhood conflicts and learnt through observation or modeling.
Religious Beliefs Breed Prejudices: Though some religious beliefs encourage and teach
tolerance, some others teach and encourage intolerance, prejudice and outright discrimination.
There are two kinds of persons based on their religion: intrinsic are those who live their religion
and extrinsic those who use their religion. Those with intrinsic religious beliefs are more tolerant
and less bigoted than those who are extrinsic.
The history of human beings had been characterized by lots of stereotypes, prejudicial attitudes
and discrimination based on race [racism], sex [sexism] and sexual orientation [heterosexism] to
mention some.
Combating Prejudice and Discrimination
Coming to dealing with and managing stereotypes, prejudices or bigotry and discrimination,
there are controversies regarding the nature of stereotypes as such stereotypical thinking [which
are unconscious and automatic processes] is a basis for prejudicial attitudes. Some social
scientists believe that stereotypes are adaptive and help us in making social judgements by
categorization.
Stereotypes Can Be Monitored. Social psychologist Patricia Devine contends that though it is
human nature to categorize, it is possible to change such automatic and spontaneous stereotypic
thinking through self-regulation, self-consciousness, and rational thinking. Look at the following
depiction.

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The “Contact Hypothesis” Reduces Intergroup Conflicts. The contact hypothesis asserts that
intergroup contact, for groups with previous history of conflicts, reduces prejudice and
discriminations if the following four conditions are met.
a. Equal social status: Groups with prejudices and history of conflicts should assume equal
power or status that prevents the potential prejudices and discriminations.
b. Persistent close contacts: The out and in-groups should have a sustainable and lasting
relationships so that they can know the behaviors and attributes of the out groups.
c. Intergroup cooperation: The groups should be involved in cooperation as recommended
by the Robbers Cave Experiment where competing or conflicting groups should work on
super-ordinate tasks.
d. Social norms favoring equality: Resocialization or learning and social norms should
bring about equality of groups and the norms stated should be favoring equality of groups
in all respects.

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