What is Social Psychology Flashcards
what is the definition of social psychology
the scientific study of the nature and causes of individual behavior and thought in social situations (general definition)
what are the three areas of interest
social perception
- how we view ourselves and others
- eg. how can you tell when someone is lying to you
social influence
- understanding how we influence one another
- eg. how far would you go to obey someone
social interaction
- understanding why we interact the way we do with others
- eg. do opposites really attract
social perception
forming impressions of others and interpreting information about them
- eg. are people who wear glasses more intelligent than those who don’t
- often leads to stereotyping
social influence
the process by which ones thoughts and actions are affected by others
- eg. how does the presence of others influence our willingness to help in emergency situations (in this case it can lead to bystander affect)
social interaction
the relationship between 2 or more individuals and how those relationships change our perceptions and behaviours
- eg. do group meetings lead to better decisions (sometimes yes/no)
what are some cases wear social psych can be seen
- feral children/ human development
- mass shootings
- persuasion
- crime and punishment (solitary confinement)
- mental health
social psych’s overlap with other domains
persplies on a spectrum between traditional psychology (focus on the individual) and sociology (focus on groups)
- example: academic achievement
- psychology: personality psych measures individual differences in need for achievement
- social psychology: social psychologists manipulates academic achievement feedback to examine effect on self image (self fulfilling prophecy)
- sociology: sociologists compare how different cultures value academic achievement
perspectives of social psychology
- sociocultural perspective (socio=micro, cultural=macro)
- relationship between social behaviour and culture
- ex. differences in table manners
- individualistic cultures: cultures that value autonomy, doing it on your own
- collectivist cultures: focus on group relies on help/assistance from others - evolutionary perspective
- physical and biological predispositions that result in human survival
- based on survival of the fittest - social cognitive perspective
- cognitive processes that influence and are influenced by behavioral associations
- how does your thinking interact with your social interaction - social learning perspective
- social reinforcements and punishments as the basis of learning (from parents/teachers)
- Albert Bandura’s observational learning (bobo doll)
- you look at models in your environment , observe it, then imitate it)
modern perspectives on why people steal
each perspective can work together to address the same issues
- evolutionary: gaining stuff we don’t have can help us survive
- sociocultural: we live in a society that places high value on material possessions (cultural pressure to gain things from any means)
- social cognitive: someone steals because they don’t believe it is wrong
- social learning: someone steals because they saw others do it and see it as an acceptable behaviour
social psychology and other disciplines
the premises of social psychology are valuable to many other fields
- economics and business
- neuroscience ( brain and social behaviour)
- government
- health care
- other areas of psych
- culture: the ultimate social experiment
is social psychology just common sense
- if all we need is common sense what need is there for social pysch
- “common sense” knowledge is often belied by social psychology research
example: opposites attract
- NO
- couples are more likely to be similar in terms of:
- religious beliefs
- political attitudes
- values
don’t we all have common sense?
- common sense is subjective, and not uniform across all people
- eg. the false consensus effect (the assumption that everyone shares ones opinion, but in fact different people judge circumstances differently
how do we minimize bias
- confirmation bias: paying attention only to information that supports our beliefs
- disconfirmation belief: disregarding information that conflicts with our beliefs
- self serving bias: take credit for success (I got an A because im smart) deny responsibility for failure (I got an F because the test was unfair)
- the scientific method: a process for conducting research that minimizes different types of bias
the impact of WW1
a- the actions of Hitler brought many social psychologists to the United States
- the premises of social psychology were key to U.S. wartime efforts
- the study of conformity and obedience (and their roles in the war) peaked interest
