social psychology Flashcards
definition of social psychology
‘scientific investigation of how thoughts, feelings & behaviour of individuals influenced by actual or imagined presence of others’ Allport (1935)
what is social psychology?
attempts to explain human behaviour, thoughts/feelings can be inferred from behaviour, suggests a behaviour will occur 95% of time
what is social behaviour?
behave differently when observed/believe we’re observed, consider what others think of our behaviour
what is social cognition?
‘how people select, interpret, remember and use social information’ (Aronson et al. 1994), making sense of social world, builds on the attribution theory
what is the attribution theory?
how information is selected/used to arrive at causal explanations for behaviour
what is actor observer behaviour?
people put their own behaviour down to internal factors but are critical when another person displays the same behaviour (Jones & Nisbett, 1972)
what is self-serving bias?
individuals credit their success to external/internal attribution and blame their failure on situational factors, confirms personal intentions to succeed enhancing self-esteem
how do we process information about people?
use all kinds of information we gain about an individual which leads ton impression formation
what is impression formation?
create stereotypes of individuals using prior knowledge/experience to develop schemas, focus on central v peripheral traits which influence perception/recall of a person
what is a schema?
a mental framework which helps organise information and describes behavioural patterns of people to interpret the world
what is salience of situation?
a behaviour is more prominent than a situation
what is the attribution process?
use observed behaviour to make rational judgements about people using ascribing characteristics i.e. personality
what are the factors of impression formation?
primacy, recency, positivity, negativity
what is primacy in impression formation?
Asch (1946), information presented first leaves the strongest impression
what is recency in impression formation?
Jones et al. (1968), information presented last has the greatest effect
