Chapter 1 - Introduction to Social Psychology Flashcards
What is social psychology?
The scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people.
Construal
The way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social world.
How do social psychologists explain social behaviour?
They focus on individual differences
What are individual differences?
The aspects of people’s personalities that make them different from other people.
What is the fundamental attribution error?
The tendency to explain people’s behaviour in terms of personality traits and to underestimate the power of the situation.
What is behaviourism?
A school of psychology maintaining that to understand human behaviour, one need only consider the reinforcing properties of the environment.
The emphasis on construal, the way ppl interpret the social situation has its roots in which approach?
Gestalt Psychology
What is Gestalt psychology?
A school of psychology stressing the importance of studying the subjective way in which an object appears in people’s minds, rather than the objective physical attributes of the object.
What is self-esteem?
People’s evaluations of their own self-worth
What is social cognition?
How people think about themselves and the social world; more specifically, how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information
What are the two main motives underlying our thoughts and behaviours?
- The need to feel good about ourselves
- The need to be accurate
How do individuals maintain a positive picture of themselves?
By justifying their past behaviours
