Social Psychology definition (LO 1.1)
Scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by real or imagined presence of other people
Social influence (LO 1.1)
Words, actions, or the presence (or the lack of presence) of other people have an impact on our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors.
Construal (LO 1.1)
How people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social world
Fundamental attribution error (LO 1.2)
The tendency to explain our own and other people’s behavior in terms of personality traits
Behaviorism (LO 1.2)
How reinforcements (positive or negative) influence and change our behaviors
Gestalt psychology (LO 1.2)
Studying the subjective way in which an object appears in someone’s mind rather than the way in which the objective and physical attributes of the object combine
- varies on how we construe something
Kurt Lewin (LO 1.2)
Believed it was more important to understand how people perceive, comprehend, and interpret each other’s behavior, than it is to understand its objective properties
Naïve realism (Lee Ross) (LO 1.2)
Perceiving things as they really are and underestimating how much we are interpreting what we see
Two motives of primary importance (LO 1.2)
the need to be accurate and the need to feel good about ourselves
- when these two pull in opposite directions, we gain the most valuable insight as to how the mind works (Lee Festinger LO 1.3)
Self-esteem
confidence in oneself
- may cause people to justify their actions rather than learn from them
- we are motivated to maintain a positive image of ourselves by justifying behavior to protect our self esteem
Social cognition (LO 1.3)
study of how people select, interpret, remember, and use information to make judgments and decisions
“WEIRD” participants (LO 1.3)
Western
Educated
Industrialized
Rich
& Democratic backgrounds
- Typically social psychology-related studies are limited to these participants
Why study social psych? (LO 1.4)
Desire to understand human social behavior on the deepest possible level
Contribute to solution of social problems today such as violence and prejudice
