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SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY
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Branch of psychology concerned with the way individuals’
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by others
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DEF: the process of forming impressions of
others
Factors that influence perception: physical
appearance, cognitive schemas, stereotypes,
and subjectivity
PERSON PERCEPTION
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We attach desirable personality characteristics
to the good looking
We tend to view the attractive as more
intelligent
Baby-faced people are seen as honest,
submissive, and naïve
Chameleon effect: tendency to unintentionally
mimic other’s movements
EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL
APPEARANCE
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Social schemas: organized clusters of ideas about
categories of social events and people
Helps to process info
COGNITIVE SCHEMAS
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DEF: widely held beliefs that people have
certain characteristics b/c of their membership
in a particular group
Commonly based on sex, age, ethnic, or
occupational group
Broad overgeneralizations; inaccurate
STEREOTYPES
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Illusory correlation: when people estimate that
they have encountered more confirmations of
an association btwn social traits than they have
actually seen
We recall facts that fit our schemas and
stereotypes
SUBJECTIVITY IN
PERSON PERCEPTION
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Helps to separate friend from foe
Ingroup: a group that one belongs to and
identifies with
Outgroup: group that on does not belong to or
identify with
EVOLUTIONARY
PERSPECTIVE ON BIAS
ATTRIBUTION
PROCESSES
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Attributions are inferences that people draw about the
causes of events, others’ behavior, and their own behavior
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Internal attributions: ascribe the causes of
behavior to personal dispositions, traits,
abilities, and feelings
External attributions: ascribe the causes of
behavior to situational demands and
environmental constraints
INTERNAL VS.
EXTERNAL
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Harold H. Kelley
Assumes that people attribute behavior to
factors that are present when the behavior
takes place and absent when it does not
Consider 3 types of info:
1) Consistency
2) Distinctiveness
3) Consensus
KELLEY’S
COVARIATION MODEL
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Bernard Weiner
Believes people often focus on the stability of
the causes underlying behavior
Stable-unstable dimension to attribution
ATTRIBUTIONS FOR
FAILURE AND SUCCESS
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Fundamental attribution error: observers’ bias in
favor of internal attributions in explaining
others’ behavior
Observers may not know history of actor to
make correct judgment about the behavior
being seen
ACTOR-OBSERVER BIAS
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DEF: tendency to blame victims for their
misfortune, so that one feels less likely to be
victimized in a similar way
Attributes negative traits on the victim
DEFENSIVE
ATTRIBUTION
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DEF: tendency to attribute one’s success to
personal factors and one’s failures to situational
factors
Observers attribute your failures to your
internal factors; actor will blame external
factors
SELF-SERVING BIAS
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Cultural differences in individualism and
collectivism
Individualism: putting personal goals ahead of
group goals and defining one’s identity in
terms of personal attributes rather than group
membership
Collectivism: putting group goals ahead of
personal goals and defining one’s identity in
terms of the groups one belongs to
CULTURE &
ATTRIBUTION
CLOSE
RELATIONSHIPS:
LIKING AND LOVE
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Interpersonal attraction refers to positive feelings
toward another
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Physical attractiveness influences course of
commitment
Matching hypothesis: proposes that males and
females of approximately equal physical
attractiveness are likely to select each other as
partners
PHYSICAL
ATTRACTIVENESS
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Do “opposites attract”?
NO
Couples tend to be similar in almost every
aspect
SIMILARITY EFFECTS
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Reciprocity: liking those who show that they like
you
Flattery will get you somewhere
Couples will tend to “idealize” their partner
RECIPROCITY EFFECTS
PERSPECTIVES ON
THE MYSTERY OF
LOVE
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Blah, blah, blah
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DEF: a complete absorption in another that
includes tender sexual feelings and the agony
and ecstasy of intense emotion
PASSIONATE LOVE
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DEF: warm, trusting, tolerant affection for
another whose life is deeply intertwined with
one’s own
Divided into:
Intimacy: warmth, closeness, and sharing in a
relationship
Commitment: intent to maintain a relationship
in spite of the difficulties and costs that may
arise
COMPANIONATE LOVE
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Cindy Hazan and Phillip Shaver
Attachment to caregiver as an infant translates
to romantic relationships in adulthood
Secure-attachment leads to secure relationships
Anxious-ambivalent = intensely emotional
relationships
Avoidant = casual sex
LOVE AS ATTACHMENT
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Passionate love in a romantic relationship is not
a pan-cultural emphasis
Arranged marriages still exist today
CULTURE AND CLOSE
RELATIONSHIPS