Download Ch. 1: Introduction - Gordon State College

Social
Psychology
Chapter 1: Introduction
Definition
 Social
psychology is the scientific study of the
way in which people’s thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors are influenced by the real or
imagined presence of other people.
Social Science “Cousins”
– more emphasis on the group as a
unit and the function of larger groups and
organizations
 Sociology
psychology – more emphasis on
personal, individual differences to explain
differences in behavior
 Personality
psychology – looks at the person in the
situation.
 Social
What is a construal?


- the way in which people perceive,
comprehend, and interpret the social world
- “Well, that’s just the way that I see it.”
 Originated
in the Gestalt theories of
psychological perception.
realism (Lee Ross) – the conviction that
we perceive things as they really are
 Naïve
What is human nature/
 Why
do we respond the way that we do?
 What are our motives?
 Dual:
1) We have tendencies to respond in
certain ways. 2) Culture may trigger those
tendencies. e.g., What is funny; what is
insulting
Short history of Social
Psychology
– Herbert Spencer – instinctive behavior
 William McDougall – 1908 First Textbook
 1920 – Sigmund Freud – hidden desires
 1930 – Behaviorist John B. Watson
 - Opposed instinct theory; behavior shaped
by experience (reward/punishment;
pleasure/pain principle)
 1924 – Floyd Allport Social Psychology
 1853
Short history of Social
Psychology
Also shaped by historical events.
WW II
Cultural revolution of the 1960s
Beliefs about the nature of reality (postmodernism)
Existential perspective – meaning, identity
Neuroscience
Short history of Social
Psychology
and 80s – cognitive psychology How
do we perceive, remember, interpret and
understand our own world?
 1970s
 1990s
 What
– cognitive, evolutionary, cultural
is our own symbolic conception of
reality? Meaning, identity, free will
Core Assumptions
 1.
Behavior is a joint product of the person
and the situation.
The importance of the situation is the
great lesson of social psychology. (Kurt Lewin,
1936)
Each of us is unique, but we have similar
tendencies to react.
Core Assumptions
– Behavior depends upon a socially
constructed view of reality.
2

Experience, assumptions, values, beliefs
Core Assumptions
– Social Cognition shapes behavior (Fritz
Heider, 1958)
3
 How
we think about other people, especially
causal explanations of behavior.
Core Assumptions
4
- The use of science is the best way to
understand.
Cultural Knowledge
 Intuitive
encyclopedia – from experience
 Becomes
sense
common knowledge or common
What is a culture?
- system of order
 - self-evidently true
 - accepted naturally and automatically

-
a set of beliefs, attitudes, values, norms,
morals, customs, roles, statuses, symbols,
rituals shared by a self-identified group whose
members think of themselves as a group
What are the elements?
– accepted ideas about reality
 Values – guiding principles
 Norms – shared beliefs about what is
appropriate or expected
 Attitudes – preferences, likes/dislikes,
opinions about good/bad
 Morals – social role obligations, response to
authority, group loyalty, rights
 Beliefs
What are the elements?
 Social
roles
 Is there a basic, universal structure to a
culture?
 Are there better and worse cultures?