Lecture 01: Introducing Social Psychology

Question 1

Social Psychology

Answer 1

The scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people.
- Social Thinking
- Social Influence
- Social Relation

Question 2

Social Thinking

Answer 2

• How we perceive ourselves and others
• What we believe
• Judgments we make
• Our attitudes

Question 3

Social Influence

Answer 3

• Culture
• Pressures to conform
• Persuasion
• Groups of people

Question 4

Social Relation

Answer 4

• Prejudice
• Aggression
• Attraction
• Helping

Question 5

Social Psychology Vs. Philosophy

Answer 5

• Address many of the same questions
• But social psychology explores them scientifically

Question 6

Social Psychology Vs. Common Sense

Answer 6

• Common sense = folk wisdom
• Social psychologists predict behavior by forming hypotheses and testing them scientifically

Question 7

Personality Psychology

Answer 7

The set of psychological TRAITS and mechanisms within the individual
- Organized
- ENDURING
- Influences his or her INTERACTIONS with, and adaptations to, the ENVIRONMENT
- Including the intrapsychic, physical, and social environment
- Focus on individual differences
- Ignores social influence

Question 8

Social Psychology Vs.
Other Social Sciences

Answer 8

Difference in level of analysis
- Other social sciences: BROAD social, economic, political, and historical factors influence events in a given society
- Social psychology: INDIVIDUAL in a social situation

Question 9

Social Psychology Vs. Sociology

Answer 9

Level of analysis
- Sociology focus on SOCIETY at large, identify why a PARTICULAR SOCIETY or group within a society produces behavior (e.g., aggression) in its members- Social psychology: the INDIVIDUAL in a social situation, identify UNIVERSAL PROPERTIES of human nature

Question 10

Fundamental Attribution Error

Answer 10

• The tendency to explain other people’s behavior entirely in terms of PERSONALITY TRAITS
• Underestimating the power of social influence

Question 11

Consequence of Underestimating Social Influence

Answer 11

• False security: increases PERSONAL VULNERABILITY to possibly destructive social influence (lowering our guard)
• Oversimplify complex situations
• Decrease our understanding of the true causes
• Blame the victim

Question 12

Construal

Answer 12

• Perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social world
• Influence human actions

Question 13

Gestalt Psychology

Answer 13

• Subjective appearance of an object appears in people’s minds
• Rather than the objective, physical attributes of the object

Question 14

How does construal affect socio-political issues?

Answer 14

Each side thinks that it sees the issues clearly but that the other side is “biased.”

Question 15

Two Central Motives: How construals are shaped

Answer 15

• The need to be ACCURATE
• The need to (SELF-ESTEEM)

Question 16

What will happen when the two central motives conflict?

Answer 16

• Cognitive Dissonance
• Distort the world in order to feel good about themselves instead of representing the world accurately.

Question 17

Self-Esteem

Answer 17

People’s evaluation of their own self worth, good, competent, or decent

Question 18

Social Cognition

Answer 18

• How people THINK about themselves and the SOCIAL WORLD
• How people select, remember, interpret, remember, and use SOCIAL INFORMATION to make judgments and decisions

Question 19

Social cognition perspective
views people as…

Answer 19

“Amateur sleuths”
- Doing their best to understand and predict their social world.

Question 20

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

Answer 20

Teacher who expects certain students to do well may cause those students to do better

Question 21

Social psychology in contemporary problems includes…

Answer 21

• Prejudice
• Energy consumption
• AIDS
• Unhealthy habits
• Violence in schools

Question 22

Hindsight Bias

Answer 22

The tendency to exaggerate, after learning an outcome, one’s ability to have foreseen how something turned out.