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Social Psychology
Social Psychology studies how people think about, influence,
and relate to one another.
Humans are the most social of the animals (i.e., we have the
greatest complexity of interactions with each other)
When we define ourselves, we usually do so with respect to
the social roles we play. (I’m a man, a professor, a husband,
a citizen, etc.)
Person Perception
Person perception refers to the evaluations and feelings we
develop to other people in our world. But what are the
bases for the formation of the impressions we develop?
Obviously we base how we feel about another individual
based upon their appearance and the actions they take.
Four principles of person perception:
1. Reactions to another person are based on
perceptions not reality
2. Our goals in the relationship determine what we
notice about another person
3. Evaluations are based on expectation of how we
believe the other person should behave
4. How you perceive yourself strongly influences how
you perceive others
Initial Impressions
Physical Attractiveness is the most obvious and most
primary factor in our initial reaction to others
Social Categorization refers to a rapid process that speeds
our evaluation of others. Your early perceptions of another
person cause you to lump that person into a category or
grouping of like people you have known. Based on very little
information, we draw many conclusions about an individual.
Social Categorization
The attitudes that we develop toward a person depend on the
categorization we make of another person.
We show In-group bias, i.e., the more similar someone is to
ourselves the more we like them. Other individuals are
considered to be the Out-group (less desirable, disliked, or
even despised).
The result of social categorization is stereotyping, prejudice,
and discrimination.
Stereotyping (Cognitive) – we assign common characteristics
to all members of a social categorized group.
Prejudice (Emotional) – we develop negative attitudes toward
members of the outgroup
Discrimination (Behavioral) – we treat members of the outgroup in some negative or demeaning manner
Attribution
Attributions are inferences that people draw about causes of
events and behaviors.
Internal Attributions ascribe the causes of behavior to
personal traits, abilities, and feelings.
External Attributions ascribe the causes of behavior to
situational demands and environmental factors.
The Fundamental Attribution Error - The tendency to
overestimate the role of traits and underestimate the role of
the situation in determining other people’s behavior.
Self Attribution
How do we explain the things that happen to us? Are
experiences that we have brought on by ourselves or are they
caused by situations beyond our control?
How you answer these questions will have important impact
on your psychological health (Seligman’s research on
optimism/pessimism)
Pessimists explain/see negative events as
Global
Nothing goes right in my life
I’m a loser
I can’t do anything right
Internal
it’s always my fault…
Stable
it’ll always be that way…
Self Attribution
The Self-Serving Bias is the tendency to explain one’s
successes in terms of internal attributions (I’m smart, I’m
skilled) and to explain one’s failures are the result of external
causes (the market turned against me).
Attitudes
Attitudes are our opinions and beliefs about people, objects,
and ideas.
Attitudes have a cognitive component (i.e., we are aware of
what our opinions are).
Attitudes have an affective component (i.e., each opinion is
slanted positively or negatively – we like or dislike).
Attitudes may have a behavioral component creating
predispositions within us to act in certain ways.
Attitudes can be altered by a variety of processes including
persuasion.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger)
There is an attitudinal effect that results from the interaction
of cognitive elements (beliefs, opinions, knowledge).
I believe marital fidelity is good
I smoke cigarettes
Dissonant
I am faithful to my spouse
I believe smoking causes lung cancer
Cognitive Dissonance is when attitudes we harbor are
inconsistent with each other. Dissonance is an aversive state
which the subject will do something to reduce or eliminate.
•Stop smoking
•Deny the belief that smoking causes cancer
•Add new cognitions (Lung cancer curable)
Persuasion (Attitude Change)
The Communicator – trustworthiness, power, attractiveness,
likeability, and sameness to self
The Nature of the Message – messages that create emotion
are the most effective
The Medium – Television more effective than radio
The Target Audience – younger audience more likely to be
persuaded
Group Influence
Conformity – change in a person’s beahvior to coincide more
closely with a group standard
Obedience – adjustment of an individual’s behavior to
correspond to the demands of an authority figure
Helping – the act of an individual within a group to aid an
individual in distress.
The Bystander Effect – individual is less
likely to help the larger the group
(Diffusion of Responsibility)