Social psychologists examine how the presence of others impacts how a person behaves and reacts and believe that a person’s behavior is influenced by who else is present in a given situation and the composition of social groups
Base Assumption of Social PsychologyA person’s behavior is influenced by who else is present in a given situation and the composition of social groups
Behavior is a product of both the situation (e.g., cultural influences, social roles, and the presence of bystanders) and of the person (e.g., personality characteristics). Subfields of psychology tend to focus on one influence or behavior over others. Situationism is the view that our behavior and actions are determined by our immediate environment and surroundings. In contrast, dispositionism holds that our behavior is determined by internal factors (personality traits and temperament of person). Modern approaches to social psychology, however, take both the situation and the individual into account when studying human behavior
Fundamental Attribution Error
In the U.S., the predominant culture tends to favor a dispositional approach in explaining human behavior, because people there tend to think that people are in control of their own behaviors, and, therefore, any behavior change must be due to something internal, such as their personality, habits, or temperament. This is called fundamental attribution error
Prevailing Implicit Assumption of Western Social PsychologyPeople tend to assume that the behavior of another person is a trait of that person, and to underestimate the power of the situation on the behavior of others. They tend to overemphasize internal factors as explanations - or attributions - for the behavior of other people and tend to fail to recognize when the behavior of another is due to situational variables, and thus to the person’s state.
For example, Jamie returns home from work, and opens the front door to a happy greeting from spouse Morgan who inquires how the day has been. Instead of returning the spouse’s kind greeting, Jamie yells, “Leave me alone!” Why did Jamie yell? How would someone committing the fundamental attribution error explain Jamie’s behavior? The most common response is that Jamie is a mean, angry, or unfriendly person (traits). This is an internal or dispositional explanation. However, imagine that Jamie was just laid off from work due to company downsizing. Would the explanation for Jamie’s behavior change? The revised explanation might be that Jamie was frustrated and disappointed about being laid off and was therefore in a bad mood (state). This is now an external or situational explanation for Jamie’s behavior.
Such a culture in western countries, such as the U.S. and UK, that focuses on individual achievement and autonomy is called individualistic culture, which has the greatest tendency to commit the fundamental attribution error. In contrast to the western countries’s individualistic culture, the east Asia countries, Latin American, and African countries focus on the group more than on the individual, forming a collectivistic culture, which takes into account both situational and cultural influences on behaviors. The table below summarizes their differences:
| Individualistic Culture | Collectivistic Culture |
|---|---|
| Achievement oriented | Relationship oriented |
| Focus on autonomy | Focus on group harmony |
| Dispositional perspective | Situational perspective |
| Independent | Interdependent |
| Analytic thinking style | Holistic thinking style |
One consequence of westerners’ tendency to provide dispositional explanations for behavior is victim blame. When people experience bad fortune, others tend to assume that they somehow are responsible for their own fate. A common ideology, or worldview, in the United States is the just-world hypothesis. The just-world hypothesis is the belief that people get the outcomes they deserve. In order to maintain the belief that the world is a fair place, people tend to think that good people experience positive outcomes, and bad people experience negative outcomes. The ability to think of the world as a fair place, where people get what they deserve, allows us to feel that the world is predictable and that we have some control over our life outcomes. For example, if we want to experience positive outcomes, we just need to work hard to get ahead in life.
Negative Consequence of the Just-World HypothesisPeople tend to blame poor individuals for their plight. Blaming poor people for their poverty ignores situational factors that impact them, such as high unemployment rates, recession, poor educational opportunities, and the familial cycle of poverty
Extension of FA: Actor-Observer Bias & Self-Serving Bias
Returning to our earlier example, Jamie was laid off, but an observer would not know. So a naïve observer would tend to attribute Jamie’s hostile behavior to Jamie’s disposition rather than to the true, situational cause. One reason is that we often don’t have all the information we need to make a situational explanation for another person’s behavior. The only information we might have is what is observable. Due to this lack of information we have a tendency to assume the behavior is due to a dispositional, or internal, factor. When it comes to explaining our own behaviors, however, we have much more information available to us. If we came home from school or work angry and yelled at our dog or a loved one, what would our explanation be? We might say we were very tired or feeling unwell and needed quiet time - a situational explanation. The actor-observer bias is the phenomenon of attributing other people’s behavior to internal factors (fundamental attribution error) while attributing our own behavior to situational forces. As actors of behavior, we have more information available to explain our own behavior. However as observers, we have less information available; therefore, we tend to default to a dispositionist perspective.
Following an outcome, self-serving biases are those attributions that enable us to see ourselves in a favorable light (for example, making internal attributions for success and external attributions for failures). When we do well at a task, for example acing an exam, it is in our best interest to make a dispositional attribution for our behavior (“I’m smart”) instead of a situational one (“The exam was easy”). Self-serving bias is the tendency to explain our successes as due to dispositional (internal) characteristics, but to explain our failures as due to situational (external) factors. Again, this is culture dependent. This bias serves to protect self-esteem. We can imagine that if people always made situational attributions for their behavior, they would never be able to take credit and feel good about their accomplishments
Case Study - World War II Germany
During World War II, Germany exhibited characteristics of a collectivist culture, particularly under the Nazi regime. While Germany is generally considered an individualistic culture today, the Nazi regime emphasized collective identity, national unity, and obedience to the state, prioritizing the needs of the nation above individual desires. This was achieved through propaganda, strict social control, and suppression of dissent.
Nazi Ideology and Collectivism
The Nazi regime promoted a strong sense of national identity and collective purpose, emphasizing the “Volksgemeinschaft” (people’s community). This involved subordinating individual interests to the goals of the state, particularly in areas like military service, economic production, and racial purity.
Propaganda and Social Control
The Nazi regime used extensive propaganda to shape public opinion, glorify the nation, and demonize its enemies. This propaganda often appealed to a sense of collective identity and purpose, fostering a sense of unity and shared destiny. Strict social controls were also implemented to ensure conformity and suppress dissent, further reinforcing the collective mindset
Suppression of Individualism
The Nazi regime actively discouraged individualism and independent thought, particularly among those deemed “undesirable”. Dissent was met with harsh punishment, including imprisonment and execution. This suppression of individual expression and critical thinking contributed to a culture of conformity and obedience to the state.
Self-Presentation
As we have discussed earlier, both dispositional and situational factors affect one another’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. In this section, we set the dispositional factors aside and examine situational forces that have a strong influence on human behavior. These include
Social Roles
Social RoleA social role is a pattern of behavior that is expected of a person in a given setting or group
Social Norms
Social NormA social norm is a group’s expectation of what is appropriate and acceptable behavior for its members - how they are supposed to behave and think
Each one of us has several social roles. One may be, at the same time, a student, a parent, an aspiring teacher, a son or daughter, a spouse, and a lifeguard. These social roles influence our behaviors.