PSYC602 Social Psychology

social psychology

the scientific investigation of how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others

everything we do is affected by…

1. our social interactions with others

2. cultural norms

3. the context of our interactions

social psychology

the scientific investigation of how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others

everything we do is affected by…

1. our social interactions with others

2. cultural norms

3. the context of our interactions

social psychology aims to…

to identify universal properties that influence everyone, regardless of culture, social class, or personality variables vulnerable to social influence

scientific method

the process of research that aims to describe and explain a phenomena, predict an outcome based on theory, and apply it to the real world

empirical

based on observation or experience

rational

logical, has good reasoning

falsifiable

the ability for experiments to be tested and proven wrong

parsimonious (psychology)

how easily a theory can be described

generalisability

how widely can the results be applied to a population

tentative (psychology)

the ability for an experiment to be revised

rigorous evaluation

measuring the impact of an experiment by comparing the experimental group from the control (zero) group

quantitative design

using numbers, data is analysed in a statistical manner; data is collected from a group of people on a specific topic through a survey

observational/experimental design

manipulating a variable and observing the effects; frequencies are graphed

qualitative design

data is descriptive, undergoes thematic analysis; often done via interviews or focus groups

physical welfare (ethical issue)

participants should not be harmed for the sake of research

right to privacy (ethical issue)

participants are allowed to withhold information if they are not comfortable sharing

use of deception (ethical isue)

malicious use of deception is not allowed

informed consent (ethical issue)

participants should know what the study entails and be allowed to withdraw without penalty

debriefing

participants should be informed of the results after the study, especially if deception was used

theory

a set of interrelated concepts and principles that explain a phenomenon

social influence

the process whereby attitudes and behaviour are influences by the real or implied presence of others

social cognition

the study of how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgements and decision; involves largely automatic processes

social cognition aims to…

1. understand how we process social information

2. understand how we form impressions

3. understand how we think about ourselves and others and ourselves in relation to others

thinking

conscious process involving language or symbols we use to communicate with ourselves; how we reason, make judgements, and decide what to do and how we talk about ourselves

cognitive consistency (types of social psychologists)

people are motivated to reduce inconsistency in cognition because it is unpleasant

naive scientist (types of social psychologists)

people try to make meaning by attributing cause to events and behaviour; assumes people are rational and able to make judgements without error

cognitive miser (types of social psychologists)

people take mental shortcuts because of limited capacity to process information; bias and errors are part of making judgements

motivated tactician (types of social psychologists)

our goals, motives, and needs impact on how we select information and make judgements

schema

cognitive structures that bundle together knowledge in an organised way, including its attributes and the relations among those attributes; stored in memory; allow efficient and quick decisions to help us interpret the world

categories

follows prototype, fuzzy sets organised around prototypes

prototype

follows schema, defining feature of the category

stereotypes

widely shared and simplified evaluation based on group membership

salience (social encoding)

characteristics of a stimulus that makes it stand out in relation to other stimuli and attract our attention

vividness (social encoding)

characteristics of a stimulus that, on its own, makes it stand out and attract attention; this depends on how-

1. emotionally attention grabbing

2. concrete and image provoking

3. close to you in time and place

accessibility (social encoding)

how easily schemas and categories can be recalled when facing a stimulus

Asch’s configural model

the idea that we latch onto certain pieces of information to create a first impression

central traits (Asch’s configural model)

the main trait that influences the meaning of other traits and the perceived relationship between them; has a disproportionate influence on other traits

peripheral traits (Asch’s configural model)

smaller traits that are insignificant and dependent on the properties of the main traits

primacy and recency (impression biases)

what we see or hear first (primacy) or last (recency) has a disproportionate impact on evaluations of others

positivity and negativity (impression biases)

negative first impressions make more of an impact regardless of later positive actions taken

implicit personality theories (impression biases)

personality theories we have created based on certain descriptives e.g. sporty, humourous, funny, etc.

physical appearance (impression biases)

how a person looks

stereotypes (impression biases)

how group membership affects people’s perceptions of us e.g. ethnicity

social judgement (impression biases)

whether or not it is appropriate to judge someone in the current context e.g. Karens

sub-typing

schema change as a consequence of schema-inconsistent information, causing the formation of subcategories

social inference

the process of making judgements and forming impressions about others based on available information

decision-making can involve…

relying on schemas or stereotypes as mental shortcuts, but it can also involve more deliberative and thoughtful processes

information gathering (bias errors)

over-reliance on schemas and information is overlooked

law of small numbers (bias errors)

reliance on the law of small numbers that are not representative

regression to the mean (bias errors)

initial experiences are more extreme than subsequent observations

base rate information (bias errors)

ignoring factual or statistical information

covariation (bias errors)

searching for schema-consistent information on how strongly two things are related e.g. stereotypes

illusory correlation (bias errors)

belief that two things are related when they are not e.g. superstitions

heuristics

Tversky and Kahneman (1974) made this list of mental shortcuts that people take to simplify decision-making

representative heuristic

a cognitive shortcut in which instances are assigned to categories or types on the basis of overall similarity or resemblance to a category e.g. trees

availability heuristic

a cognitive shortcut in which inferences are tied to initial standards or schemas e.g. plane crashes = fear of flying

achoring/adjustment heuristic

a cognitive shortcut that causes people to favor information they received early in the decision-making process e.g. discounts

attribution

inferences (judgements or conclusions) that we make about the causes of behaviour. We make attributions about-

1. our own behaviour

2. other people’s behaviour

3. the behaviour of groups

attribution theory (Heider, 1958)

individuals make causal attributions to understand the behaviour of others, emphasised the distinction between internal and external attributions

theory of correspondent inference

Jones and David (1965); individuals draw inferences about others’ personality traits based on observed behaviour because our physical actions have been freely chosen, unexpected or socially undesirable behaviour is more likely to be attributed to internal dispositions or the person’s true characteristics

covariation model

Kelley (1967); consistency (behaviour that remains the same), distinctiveness (how behaviour varies in different situations), and consensus (how others react to similar situations) guide attribution

theory of emotional lability

Schachter (1964); the context in which we perceive a threat influences how we attribute our physiological response to that stimulus, affects how we label the subsequet emotion that we experience

theory of self-perception

Bam (1967); we can observe our own behaviour and make inferences about the causes, whether internal or external

attribution theory (Weiner, 1979)

whether the outcome was caused by internal/external and stable/unstable factors

internal attribution

when an individual uses a personal reason to explain their success or failure e.g. I didn’t study enough and that’s why I failed

external attribution

when an individual uses environmental factors or other people’s actions to explain their success or failure e.g. the test was too hard and that’s why I failed

stable attribution

when an individual perceives a situation as constant, never changing e.g. an increasingly worsening traffic jam

unstable attribution

when an individual perceives a situation as changeable e.g. knowing the traffic jam will clear up soon

global attribution

when an individual generalises the situation

theory of learned helplessness

Seligman (1967); individuals who experience learned helplessness and attribute negative events to internal, stable, and global causes are more susceptible to developing depression

positive behaviours are usually given the following attribution traits:

internal, stable, global, and controllable

negative behaviours are usually given the following attribution traits:

external, unstable, specific, and uncontrollable

false consensus effect (attribution bias)

we overestimate the number of people that share our opinions, attitudes, values, or beliefs and tend to see one’s own behaviour as being more common than it really is

actor-observer effect (attribution bias)

tendency for the person to favour external or situational attributions for their own behaviour, especially if negative

fundamental attribution error (attribution bias)

tendency to overestimate the extent to which other people’s behaviour is due to internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the role of situational factors

Jones and Harries (1967)

a study made to demonstrate the fundamental attribution error; highlights how we tend to attribute others’ behaviour to internal factors, even when aware of external influences

self-serving bias

attributions that protect or enhance self-esteem; success is attributed to the abilit or effort of a person / failure is attributed on bad luck or task difficulty

self-enhancing bias

the tendency to attribute success to internal factors

self-protecting bias

the tendency to attribute failure to external factors

self-handicapping

putting obstacles in the way of our own performance so that anticipated or possible failure can be blamed on the obstacle instead of on a lack of ability

illusion of control

the belief that we have more control over our world than we do

belief in a just world

belief that the world is a just and predictable place where good things happen to ‘good people‘ and bad things happen to ‘bad people‘

base-rate information

pallid, factual, and statistical information about an entire class of events

collective self

attributes shared with ingroup members and distinct from outgroup members and where we derive our sense of self from group membership

individual self

attributes that make one unique relative to other people that we derive from experiences and self-perceptions

relational self

the relationships that one has with specific other people that we derive through real or imagined interactions

Mead’s looking-glass self

our self-concept develops through our interactions with others and taking on their perspectives

Cooley’s looking-glass self

our self-concept is influenced by how we think others perceive us; “I am not what I think I am, I am not what you think I am, I am what I think you think I am.“

private self

your thoughts, feelings, and attitudes

public self

how others see you and your public image

self-discrepancy theory

Higgins (1987); explores how discrepancies or gaps between the actual, ideal, and ought selves impact emotional well-being and motivation

actual self (self-discrepancy)

also known as the real self, how a person sees themselves as they currently are

ideal self (self-discrepancy)

what the person ideally wants to be, embodies their dreams, hopes, and goals; conflicts between this and the actual self can create depressive feelings

ought self (self-discrepancy)

what the person believes they should be based on external expectations, societal norms, and moral standards; conflicts between this and the actual self can create anxious thoughts

self-regulation

strategies to help match our behaviour to an ideal or ought self

social comparison theory

Festinger (1954); when we lack an objective measure to learn about ourselves, we determine our worth by comparing ourselves to others who are usually from our own group; people engage in social comparison as a way to evaluate their abilities, opinions, and beliefs

upwards comparison

comparing oneself to others perceived as better in certain aspects

downwards comparison

comparing oneself to others perceived as worse off in certain aspects

self-enhancement

the motivation to develop and promote a favourable image of the self

self-assessment

the motivation to seek out new information about ourselves in order to find out what sort of person we really are