1. What is Social Psychology? Flashcards
Define social psychology and distinguish it from other disciplines.
At the heart of social psychology is social
influence.
What is Social influence
the effect that words, actions, or mere
presence of other people have on our
thoughts, feelings, attitudes, or behavior
Social psychology versus philosophy
Address many of the same questions
–Social psychology explores them scientifically
Social psychology versus common sense
-Common sense = folk wisdom
–Social psychologists predict behavior by
forming hypotheses and testing them
scientifically
Personality Psychology
-Focuses on individual differences
–Ignores the powerful role played by social
influence
Social Influence on Behavior
- Personality psychologists study qualities of the individual
- Social psychologists study the powerful role of social
influence on how all of us behave
Difference in level of analysis of social psychology vs other social sciences
Other social sciences
▪concerned with how broad social, economic,
political, and historical factors influence events in a
given society
–Social psychology
▪the level of analysis is the individual in the context
of a social situation
Social Psychology versus Sociology
Sociology
– Focuses on society at large
* Social psychology
– Focuses on the individual in the context of a
social situation
The Influence of Groups on Individuels
Sociologists study the group or institution. Sociology looks toward society at large rather
than the individual
*Social psychologists study the influence of
those groups and institutions on individual
behavior.
What is Fundamental attribution error (FAE)
The tendency to explain our own and other
people’s behavior entirely in terms of
personality traits
The tendency to explain our own and other
people’s behavior entirely in terms of
personality traits
Fundamental attribution error (FAE)
Underestimating he Power of Social
Influence
- false
security.
–Lulls us into lowering our guard
–Increases personal vulnerability to possibly
destructive social influence
*By failing to fully appreciate the power of
the situation, we tend to
–Oversimplify complex situations
–Decrease our understanding of the true
causes
–Blame the victim when people are
overpowered by social forces
Why the Name of the Game Matters
In this experiment, when the name of the game was the “Community Game,”
players were far more likely to behave cooperatively than when it was called the
“Wall Street Game”—regardless of their own cooperative or competitive
personality traits. The game’s title conveyed social norms that trumped personality
and shaped the players’ behavior.
The Importance of Construal
*We are constantly interpreting things
–How humans will behave in a given situation
is not determined by the objective conditions
of a situation but rather how they perceive it
(construal).
Constual
interpreting the actions of others
Behaviorism
*Behaviorism
–A school of psychology maintaining that to
understand human behavior, one need
consider only reinforcing effects of
environment
–Chooses not to deal with cognition, thinking,
and feeling. Thinks these concepts are too
vague
–Ignores construals of the situation.
Subjectivity of the Social Situation
*Emphasis on construal
*Has its roots in Gestalt psychology
Gestalt Psychology
A school of psychology stressing the
importance of studying the subjective way in
which an object appears in people’s minds
(the gestalt or “whole”) rather than the
objective, physical attributes of the object
Explain what happens when people’s need to feel good about themselves
conflicts with their need to be accurate.
Construals shaped by two basic human
motives:
1. The need to be accurate
2. The need to feel good about ourselves
*Motives may tug in opposite directions
Edward Snowden: Traitor or
Patriot?
Edward Snowden, a former computing contractor for the
National Security Agency.
* He released thousands of classified documents related to
the U.S. government’s surveillance programs
* Some have argued that Snowden is a spy, a traitor, and a
criminal.
* Others view him as a whistleblower, a patriot, and a hero
fighting to protect privacy rights
* Where do differing construals come from, and what are
their consequences?
The Self-Esteem Motive: The Need to
Feel Good About Ourselves (1 of 2)
*Most people have a strong need to maintain
reasonably high self-esteem.
*People will often distort the world in order to feel
good about themselves instead of representing
the world accurately.
The Self-Esteem Motive: The Need to
Feel Good About Ourselves (2 of 2)
*Self-Esteem
– People’s evaluations of their own self-worth
– The extent to which they view themselves as
good, competent, and decent
Suffering and Self-Justification (1 of 2)
The more unpleasant the procedure the
participants underwent to get into a group,
the better they liked the group
1. Human beings are motivated to maintain a
positive picture of themselves, in part by
justifying their past behavior
2. Under certain conditions, this leads them to
do things that at first glance might seem
surprising or paradoxical
For example, they might prefer people and
things for whom they have suffered to people
and things they associate with ease and
pleasure
Hazing: Hazardous but Cohesive
These first-year students are being “welcomed” to their
university by seniors who subject them to hazing. Doing
silly or dangerous things as part of a hazing ritual may
be, well, silly or dangerous. At the same time, it does
build cohesiveness
Social cognition motive
Takes into account how people think about
the world
▪We try to gain accurate understandings so we can
make effective judgments and decisions
▪But we typically act on the basis of incompletely
and inaccurately interpreted information
Social Cognition
*How people think about themselves and
the social world
*How people select, interpret, remember,
and use social information to make
judgments and decisions
Cereal Box Short-Cuts
We rely on a series of expectations and other mental
short-cuts in making judgments about the world around
us, from important life decisions to which cereal to buy at
the store, a conclusion with which advertisers and
marketers are very well aware.
Why study social influence?
–We are curious.
–Some social psychologists contribute to the
solution of social problems.
Social psychological theories about human
behavior have been applied to a range of
contemporary problems, including:
-Prejudice
–Energy shortages
–AIDS
–Unhealthy habits
–Violence in schools
Is TV Violence Tied to Aggression?
- Social psychology can help us study social problems and
find ways to solve them. - Social psychologists might study whether children who
watch violence on television become more aggressive
themselves—and, if so, what kind of intervention might
be beneficial.
