Introduction to Social Psychology

Question 1

What are levels of social explanation in social psychology?

Answer 1

Doise (1986);

1. The Intra-Personal level - things that are going on within the person (cognitive processing, e.g. conflicting beliefs).
2. The Inter-Personal and Situational level.
3. The Positional level - have social hierarchy. Compare selves to people in the hierarchy, & analyse the consequences of this.
4. The Ideological level - systems of ideas & beliefs, and how this influences people’s psychology, e.g. cultural & societal belief systems.

Question 2

What three principles did Ross & Nisbett propose (the ‘tripod on which social psychology rests’)

Answer 2

1. The Principle of Situationism - the importance of social context in influencing people’s psychology - the power of the situation.
2. The Principle of of Construal – not actually the situation itself, but the meaning of the situation and the individual interpretation.
3. The Concept of Tension Systems – levels of tension within groups, within an individual etc.

Question 3

What is person perception?

Answer 3

Asch - it doesn’t take long to make an impression of someone, and then this alters the interpretation of information we receive from that person.

Question 4

What information did Gustav Ichheiser propose allows us to make a judgement?

Answer 4

Physical appearance, behaviour, situational factors (e.g. where you live, your friends, your job), communications from other people, communications from the person themselves.

Question 5

What 6 things did Gustav Ichheiser say were the “typology of personality misinterpretations”?

Answer 5

The tendency to overestimate the unity of personality, success & failure as sources of misinterpretations, stereotyped classification as sources of misinterpretations, limits of insight as sources of misinterpretations, mechanisms of rigidity, and fundamental attribution error.

Question 6

What is the tendency to overestimate the unity of personality?

Answer 6

Reasons why we get our judgements about other people are wrong. Tend to believe that people in one situation will act in the same way in another situation.

Question 7

What is success & failure as sources of misinterpretations?

Answer 7

Success and failure in life is used as a guideline to judge personalities.

Question 8

What are stereotyped classifications as sources of misinterpretations?

Answer 8

Attribute certain characteristics of groups of people and apply them to individual members of that group, leading to misjudgements about people’s personalities.

Question 9

What are limits of insight as sources of misinterpretations?

Answer 9

As don’t have insight in how other people live, judge them based on their social situations as don’t have details.

Question 10

What are mechanisms of rigidity?

Answer 10

Expect people to be the same across their life; personality is something that is fixed. Judge people based on how they were like in the past – this underestimates the change people go through.

Question 11

What is fundamental attribution error?

Answer 11

Tend to overestimate the role of personality factors and underestimate the role of social factors.

Question 12

What did Snyder, Take & Berscheid (1977) find?

Answer 12

Ppts were male and female students (51 of each). Ppts provided some info about themselves and led to separate rooms where they would engage with convos together. All participants were told that a folder containing such information would be given to the other partner in order to get the conversation underway. Male given picture of what they thought the female partner would look like (wasn’t real). Given either attractive or unattractive picture. Males judged attractive partners as more friendly, social skilled, poised and humours. Judged unattractive as relatively unfriendly, socially inept, awkward and serious.

Question 13

What does this study show?

Answer 13

Shows have when have incorrect initial impressions of people, this leads to a difference in behaviour of both people.

Question 14

What did Synder & Swann 1978 find?

Answer 14

Male students take part in groups of three. Used a reaction time task to auditory signal (involving use of a ‘noise weapon’). Attribution manipulation: disposition attribution (said that use of the noise weapon reflect their own personality characteristics) vs. situation attribution (said use of the noise weapon reflects the way their opponent treats them). Label manipulation: hostile label (labelling perceiver has access to [supposedly] opponent’s hostile trait survey) vs. nonhostile label (nonhostile trait survey). Believe partner is either hostile or non-hostile (false expectation).