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Chapter 1
Introducing Social
Psychology
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
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Prepared By
Fred W. Whitford
Montana State University
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Chapter Outline
I. What is Social Psychology?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
What is Social Psychology?
Social influence is the effect that
words, actions, or mere presence of
other people have on our thoughts,
feelings, attitudes, or behavior.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
What is Social Psychology?
Social Psychology is defined as the
scientific study of the way in which
people’s thoughts, feelings, and
actions are influenced by the real or
imagined presence of other people.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
What is Social Psychology?
Other people can influence us either
through direct attempts at
persuasion, or more indirectly
through their presence and the
transmission of cultural values.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
What is Social Psychology?
• The Power of Social Interpretation
Social psychology is distinct from other
social sciences because of its emphasis
on people’s construals, or personal
interpretations.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
What is Social Psychology?
• How Else Can We Understand Social
Influence?
We can understand social influence
through journalists, instant experts, and
social critics.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
What is Social Psychology?
• How Else Can We Understand Social
Influence?
Social psychology is distinct from
philosophy because it is an empirical field.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
What is Social Psychology?
• Social Psychology Compared with
Personality Psychology
Individual differences are defined as the
aspects of people’s personalities that
make them different from other people.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
What is Social Psychology?
• Social Psychology Compared with
Other Social Sciences
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Chapter Outline
II. The Power of Social Influence
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
The Power of Social Influence
• Understanding the Power of Social
Influence
People are prone to the fundamental
attribution error, the tendency to
overestimate the role of traits and
underestimate the role of the situation in
determining people’s behavior.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
The Power of Social Influence
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
The Power of Social Influence
• The Subjectivity of the Social
Situation
Behaviorism is a school of psychology
maintaining that to understand human
behavior, one need only consider the
reinforcing properties of the
environment.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
The Power of Social Influence
• The Subjectivity of the Social
Situation
Gestalt Psychology is a school of
psychology stressing the importance of
studying the subjective way in which
objects appear in people’s minds, rather
than the objective, physical attributes of
the object.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Chapter Outline
III. Where Construals Come From:
Basic Human Motives
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Where Construals Come From
• The Self-Esteem Approach: The Need
to Feel Good about Ourselves
Self-esteem is a person’s evaluation of
their own self-worth.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Where Construals Come From
• The Social Cognition Approach: The
Need to Be Accurate
Social Cognition is how people think
about themselves and the social world.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Chapter Outline
IV. Social Psychology and Social
Problems
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Social Psychology and Social
Problems
Whereas social psychologists are
often motivated by curiosity to study
social behavior, they are also
motivated by the desire to help
resolve social problems.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Social Psychology and Social
Problems
Example: Social psychologists have
contributed important insights to
AIDS education and prevention.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
What do social psychologists
study scientifically?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
What are some examples of social
influence?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
What is contained in a person’s
construal of the world?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
Although they may share the same
questions, what advantages
does social psychology have
over folk wisdom and philosophy
in answering these questions?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
What do sociologists study?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
Which branch of psychology
studies how individual
differences between people
explain their behavior?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
What are some examples of
individual differences?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
What is the fundamental
attribution error?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
What are some consequences of
committing the fundamental
attribution error?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
According to behaviorism, what
do we need to consider to
understand human behavior?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
What has Gestalt psychology
contributed to social
psychology?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
What is the relationship between
people’s motive to be accurate
and their expectations about the
social world? What can result
from people’s expectations?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.