Introduction of social psychology

Question 1

What is social psychology

Answer 1

involves the use of scientific methods to explore the ways in which a person’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours are influenced by the actual imagines or implied presence of others

Question 2

what are the broad themes in social psychology?

Answer 2

How individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are
influenced by other people – the SOCIAL influences.

Question 3

How does the social world influences the individual?

Answer 3

one’s thoughts and feelings about the world
one’s thoughts, feelings, and actions toward other
people
one’s thoughts and feelings about oneself
one’s attitudes, values, and beliefs

Question 4

How does the social world influences relationships?

Answer 4

-everyday interpersonal interactions
-close relationships
-helping others
-prejudice
-cultural influences

Question 5

What are the 4 levels of understanding the individual-environment interaction?

Answer 5

Personality Psychology
1. Intra-individual -What happens within the
individual as a result of their interaction with the
social world
2. Inter- individual -How interpersonal relationships
are influenced by the interaction with others
3. Intra-group -Focuses on the dynamic within a
group
4. Inter-group -Focuses on the dynamic of the
interactions between social groups
Sociology

Question 6

What are the 3 main focuses of social psych?

Answer 6

WHAT: study of affect, behaviour, and
cognition (the ABCs of social psychology)
WHAT: focus on situational forces,
especially other people
HOW: the use of scientific methods

Question 7

What are the 2 fundamental axioms?

Answer 7

1. People create their own reality (i.e, construral)
2. Situations influence people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours

Question 8

Why do we emphasize the situation?

Answer 8

-We tend to overemphasize personality
-Explanations based solely on personality are incomplete
-We tend to underestimate the power of the situation

Question 9

What is motives?

Answer 9

social behaviour that is goal-oriented
Deep motives may not be conscious

Question 10

What are principles of social psychology?

Answer 10

-To establish social ties
-Groups provide rewards
-Define reality
-To understand ourselves and others
-Desire predictability and mastery
-To gain and maintain status
-To defend ourselves and those we value
-To attract and retain mates

Question 11

What are the 4 main points of the theoretical frameworks?

Answer 11

-Self-esteem perspective
-Socio-cultural perspective
-Evolutionary perspective
-Socio-cognitive perspective

Question 12

What purpose does the theoretical frameworks serve?

Answer 12

They frame research questions; they guide what is being investigated

Question 13

What is the ‘self-esteem perspective’ purpose?

Answer 13

Look for the cause of behaviour within the individual (focus on affect/emotions)

Question 14

What are some of the main points of ‘self-esteem perspective’?

Answer 14

-Focuses on how people evaluate their own self-worth
-The way we view ourselves influences the way we view the world

Question 15

How does ‘self-esteem perspective’ influence one’s self?

Answer 15

• Strong focus on justifying our past behaviour
• We are motivated to maintain a positive picture of ourselves
  -This influences our behaviour

Question 16

What is the ‘socio-cultural perspective’ purpose?

Answer 16

Looks for the cause of behaviour within the culture or social environment

Question 17

What are some of the main points of ‘socio-cultural perspective’? What are 3 examples of this?

Answer 17

Focuses on the effect from or within large social groups such as:
-Norms within cultural groups
-Social class differences
-Nationality/ethnicity

Question 18

Define ‘social norms’

Answer 18

Rules and expectations for appropriate social behaviour

Question 19

Define ‘culture’

Answer 19

Beliefs, customs, habits, and language shared by the people
living in a particular time and place

Question 20

What is the ‘socio-cognitive perspective’ purpose?

Answer 20

Looks for the cause of behaviour within a person’s cognitions

Question 21

Present 3 classic social psychology experiments

Answer 21

-Milgram’s study on obedience
-Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment
-Daley and Latané’s by-standard effect

Question 22

What is the main points of ‘socio-cognitive perspective’? What are 3 examples of this?

Answer 22

Focuses on how people think about the world:
-What we pay attention to
-How we interpret and judge social situations
-What we expect from a situation
-What we retrieve from memory

Question 23

What is the ‘evolutionary perspective’ purpose?

Answer 23

Looks for the cause of behaviour within a person’s predispositions (biology, genetics, etc.)

Question 24

Define ‘genetic disposition’

Answer 24

It is inherited from our
ancestors that promoted their survival and reproduction, such as the ability to automatically recognize an angry face