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C8202 Social and Health Psychology
Introduction to Social Psychology
Social Psychology – The scientific study of how individuals think, feel and behave in a
social context
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It begins with a hypothesis, set a question and work out how to test the question and
measure the results
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Statistical analysis supports the evidence in a scientific way
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o Influence of Social factors - How do other people influence our behaviour
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Problems with Common Sense
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Not the same as scientific evidence: ‘I knew it all along’ phenomena
For most common sense notions there is an equally sensible sounding notion that say
the exact opposite i
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Two heads are better than one; Too many cooks spoil the broth
o Common sense can’t answer this, empirical evidence can
Common sense can be wrong
o Punching things is a good outlet for aggression and so you will be less aggressive in
your life
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Not True, people
generally have a positive bias towards attractive people in all aspect
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Most questions never have a simple
answer and depend on context, inter-personal behaviours, ability etc
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Involved in every aspect of our lives, can influence every decision we make
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Existence of an attitude is unobservable and can only be seen by examining cognitive
processes – hypothetical construct

3)
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Three Components
An attitude consist of cognitive, affective and behavioural components – CAB
This threefold view also believes that feelings and action are basic to human nature
Emphasises that attitudes are relatively permanent and persist across time and situation
o A momentary feeling is not an attitude
Attitudes are limited to socially significant events or objects
Can be generalizable to at least some degree – each attitude is made up of thoughts an
ideas, like and dislikes, feeling and behavioural intentions
This model presents a problem providing a link between attitude and behaviour because
attitude does not always lead to behaviour

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Three Component Model – Bohner (2001)
C - Cognitive
A - Affective
B - Behavioural

Aggression
Definition: Intent to harm another living being
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e
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Has been argued that these analogues lack external validity as they may not show
evidence for links to aggressive behaviour

Theoretical Perspectives
As with most aspects of psychology, it comes down to a nature vs nuture debate
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Humans have the ability to
harm others easily and with very little effort

3) Evolutionary Social Psychology
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Assumes an innate basis for aggression as well as all social behaviour
Aggression is helpful to the species and so it evolves through generations
For humans – aggression can lead to social and economic advantages (aggression is
there to either keep resources or gain more)

Limitations of the Biological Perspective
•
•
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Only supported by limited, biased empirical observations of actual human behaviour
Has little help to the prevention and control of aggression
No importance placed on environmental factors!

Social & Biosocial Explanations
Social psychologists don’t like purely biological explanations
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1) Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis (Dollard et al
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Used to
explain prejudice and intergroup aggression
Aggression is targeted at the source or displaces (scapegoat)
This displacement occurs when the source of frustration is too powerful (i
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teacher), not
available (dead relative) or an indeterminate object (walking into a wall)
Limitations: Too simplistic, empirical evidence inconclusive, measurement of
frustration not good enough

2) Cathartic Hypothesis (Bushman et al
...
e
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, 1999
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Students wrote an essay that was heavily criticised (anger inducing)
Experimental condition: punch-bag exercise
Control condition: no punch bad exercise
Participants were then asked to select the degree of punishment to deliver (noise vol,
length of time etc)
Found that the experimental group were more aggressive, punching doesn’t work!

3) Excitation-Transfer Model (Zillmnn 1979, 1988)
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Arousal in once situation can transfer to another (residual arousal)
This residual arousal can lead to aggression in another situation (if triggered by a cue)

4) Cognitve Neoassociationalist Model (Berkowitz, 1969, 1989)
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Aggressive thoughts and feelings triggered by cues in the environment (priming effect)
Examples – people, objects, the media

Weapon Study – Berkowitz & LaPage 1967
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Does the presence of a weapon increase the likelihood of aggression?
Male uni students received varying numbers of electric shocks from the confederate –
High Anger = More Shocks, Low Anger = Less Shocks
Participants given the opportunity to shock the confederate
There was a situation cue: presence of a weapon, and a control condition
Found that the angrier people were more affected by the presence of a weapon

5) Operant Conditioning (Skinner, 1963)
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People are blank slates
Stimulus-response / reward-punishment
For Example: Child takes toy of child 2 (stimulus), child 2 hits child 1 (response), child 2
does not get scolded for bad behaviour, they behave the same again

6) Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977)
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Behaviour learned through observation (vicarious experience)

Bobo Doll Study – Bandura, 1977
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Children 4-5
Experimental: Child watched adult play with the bobo doll aggressively
Control: Children watched them play with doll normally
Children then left in the room to play with the doll
Experimental children were more aggressive toward the doll
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Aggressive
behaviour is viewed differently from culture to culture and has a lot of significance all
over the world, illustrated throughout history
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This essay will look further into two theories of aggression; the Fristration-Aggression
Hypothesis and the Cognitive Neo-association Model
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2) Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis (Dollard et al
...
Used to
explain prejudice and intergroup aggression
Aggression is targeted at the source or displaces (scapegoat)
This displacement occurs when the source of frustration is too powerful (i
...
teacher), not
available (dead relative) or an indeterminate object (walking into a wall)
Limitations: Too simplistic, empirical evidence inconclusive, measurement of frustration
not good enough

3) Cognitve Neoassociationalist Model (Berkowitz, 1969, 1989)
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Aggressive thoughts and feelings triggered by cues in the environment (priming effect)
Examples – people, objects, the media

Study 2 - Weapon Study – Berkowitz & LaPage 1967
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Does the presence of a weapon increase the likelihood of aggression?
Male uni students received varying numbers of electric shocks from the confederate –
High Anger = More Shocks, Low Anger = Less Shocks
Participants given the opportunity to shock the confederate
There was a situation cue: presence of a weapon, and a control condition
Found that the angrier people were more affected by the presence of a weapon

Describe Attribution Models
1) Introduction
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Attribution theory is how the social perceiver uses information to arrive at causal
explanations for events
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For example if Bob failed an exam he could attribute this to not studying enough
(internal) or the examiner making the test too hard (external)
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Three Principles Include
a
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So we look for the causes and reasons of other peoples behaviour to discover their
motives
c
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Heider & Simmel (1944) - People tend to look for causation even when there is none
Found that when we explain other people behaviour we look for enduing internal
attributions, such as personality
When we explain our own behaviour we tend to make external attributions (situational)

3) Model 1 – Kelly’s Covariation Model (1967)
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Model based on the idea that a person has information from multiple observations, at
different times and situations, and can perceive the covariation of an observed effect
and its causes
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a
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Distinctiveness – Does someone behave this way towards one person or with
other people too? With other people = Low, Only one person = High
c
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Lack of distinction b/w intentional and unintentional behaviour and its influence
b
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Also says being an actor or observer makes a difference as well as the effect of selfserving bias and distinction b/w rational and reasoning as important factors

4) Study 1 – McArthur (1972) – Test of Covariation Model
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Participants asked to make internal and external attributions for a range of behaviours
For each behaviour, participants were give either one of 8 possible configurations
Shows that: Supports the theory but participants tend to under-use consensus info
Limitations: Are the three measures simply high or low as in experiments – lack of
ecological validity

5) Model 2 – Jones & Davis Correspondence Inference Theory (1965)
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Jones and Davis (1965) thought that people pay particular attention to intentional
behaviour (as opposed to accidental or unthinking behaviour)
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For
example when we see a correspondence between someone behaving in a friendly way
and being a friendly person
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The correspondent inference theory: It is an internal attribution (i
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the tendency for
people to attribute behaviour to a dispositional cause, like a person’s personality)
We make correspondence inference theories based of 5 pieces of info:
a
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Accident vs
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Social Desirability: Non-conformin behaviours are internal, vice versa
d
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Hedonistic Relevance: If persons behaviour has a direct impact its seen as internal

6) Study 2 – Jones & Davis (1967) – Fidel Castro
7) Model 3 – Weiners Attribution Theory (1979, 1985)
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Attribution is a three stage process: (1) Behaviour is observed (2) Behavior is determined
to be deliberate (3) Behaviour is attributed to be due to either internal or external causes
Achievement is an important influencing factor with attribution
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Locus of Control – Is the cause coming from within the person (internal) or the
environment (external)?
b
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Controllability – Is the cause seen as controllable by the individual or not?
Future expectations are related to the stability
a
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High future expecations for success if Failure + Unstable & Success + Stable
c
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Social psychologist are concerned with this particular area of psychology
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For example if Bob failed an exam he could attribute this to not studying enough
(internal) or the examiner making the test too hard (external)
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These are called attribution biases
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Study by Moore at al, 1979 shows people
more likely to forget external factors easier than internal
o Cultural and Developmental Factors – An indiviudals cultural background can affect
this
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Actor focuses more on the situation (it is more salient)
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healthy) and therefore whether they seek medical help
Means that prevention attempts try to encourage us to take responsibility for our health
We use attributions to explain our own behaviour as well as the behaviour of people
around us – short explanation of Heiders Theory of Naïve Psychology and internal vs
external attributions

2) Relation to illness
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This relates to illness and how we think about it
Research shows that the way we think about illness will be a major determinant of help
seeking, coping behaviours and disability, for example
o Is the pain because of the operation or because the cancer is spreading?
Attributions can be either; internal vs external, stable vs unstable, global vs specific and
controllable vs uncontrollable
Illness attribution can be defined an explanation of the cause of an illness

3) Locus of Control
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Great importance placed on taking control of your own health i
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smoking
WHO says by 2020, smoking will have the highest death toll in developing contries and it
is entirely preventable
Health locus of control is realted to whether an individual will change their behaviour
Patients attributions for responsibility of their illness influences the choice of treatment
o Study – Bradley 1985 – Patients given three treatment choices; inulin pump, daily
injections, or diet and exercise regime
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, 1978) i
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it was my
fault, it will never change anything, it affects everything
Telling ourselves that bad things happening are out of our control = learned helplessness
This depressive attribution style = low self-esteem and lack of motivation to change
Knowing that someone has this attribution syle helps treatment
Abraham & Martin (1981) suggest this;

Reverse the perceptions of control (negative events should be attributed to external,
non-global and unstable factors rather than internal, global and stable factors)
o Set realistic goals (unrealistic goals perpetuates helplessness)
o The importance of unattainable goals must be decreased
o The balance between perceiving external/internal control must be rectified
This approach makes sense but not sure the importance of each method
o

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5) Attributions Errors
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FAE – tendency to overestimate role of dispositional factors and underestimate the role
of situational factors
Actor-Observer
o Actor Bias – Patients make external attributions about the cause of their illness
o Observer Bias – Observers make internal attributions about other people illnesses
These errors occur because of self-protection and relate to how much help we are willing
to give i
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smoking and lung cancer
Thse attribution biases can affect level of care and attitudes towards patients, it can also
affect how much effort we put into trying to get better and how much effort we put into
trying to help other people

6) Influence on patient care
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If patient attributes illness to external factors, telling them to change their behaviours in
less likely to work
Medical students more likely to prescribe anti-depressants to a patient who appears to
have little to no control over their illness
Study – Marteau & Riordan (1992)
o Nurses and doctors shown 5 different case histories ranging from lung cancer to
breast cancer and asked to tell the interviewer what they thought of them
o Doctors viewed patients who had engaged in relevant preventative measures (i
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They can also show real world insights into patterns of
behaviour and why they occur, sometimes with devastating consequences for the human
race
Social influence can be defined as the process where people directly or indirectly
influence the thoughts, feelings, attitudes and beliefs and behaviour of others, adhering
to these behaviours is called conformity
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Individuals working in groups develop group norms
When working alone subsequently, little evidence of divergence
They have not simply changed their behaviour (compliance) they have adapted their
judgements (conversion)
Sherif's subjects were not aware of this social influence
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Limitations;
o The group used was only three people, may not be sufficient
o There was no right or wrong answer, it was an ambiguous task and the Sherif told
them he was going to move the light, so they were likely to change their mind

3) Study 2 – Asch Conformity Study – 1951
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Line experiment, shown 3 lines of different lengths, and asked which was the same
length as the example line, answer unambigous
In control condition with no confederate, errors very rare (0
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One of those critics happened to be Stanley Milgram, who felt that the task was trivial
and lacked clear consequences for conforming or resisting
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This experiment has come to be
regarded as another classic experiment
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(1966)
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2%)
Milgram said that the results show the possibile cruel side of obedience that human are
capable of, especially facing a malevolent authority
After conducting another experiment, Milgram found: when given the power to choose
the level of punishment, the great majority of people delivered very low, usually painless,
shocks
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(1966)
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The procedure involved a naturalistic field experiment involving 22 (real) night nurses
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Smith (a stooge) phones the nurses at hospital (on 22 separate occasions) and asks
them to check to see if they have the drug astroten
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When they reported to the ‘Doctor’, they were told to administer 20mg of the drug to a
patient called ‘Mr
...
Dr
...
Jones later on
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The medication was not real,
though the nurses thought it was 21/22 of the nurses obeyed the telephone instruction
and began to prepare the medication
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A strength of this study is that it has high levels of ecological validity, due to the fact it
was conducted in a real life environment
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4) Study 3 - Zimbardo (1971) Stanford Prison Experiment
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Participants recruited via newspaper ad, offered $15 to take part in 2 week “study of
prison life”, 70 responded; 24 most psychologically and physically healthy chosen,
Young white middle class mainly, Randomly divided into prisoners and guards
Mock jail in Stanford Psych Department
Zimbardo set up conditions for as much disorientation, depersonalisation and
deindividualisation, people reverted to their roles quickly
There were riots by the 2nd day, experiment quickly gets out of hand, has to be shut
down after a mere 6 days
Results
o Guards were hostile and dehumanizing, aggressive and abusive
o Prisoners became passive and depressed with 5 of them experiencing such severe
negative emotions including crying and anxiety they had to be removed
o Experiment shows powerful role of the situation
Limitations
o Lack of ecological validity
o Unrepresentative sample (mostly white middle class males)
o Not possible to completely replicate prison environment
Still a very important study and relates to Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses in Iraq

5) Conclusion
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“Conformity” and “obedience” are two forms of social behaviors and influences that are
evident in human interactions and group formations

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