01 Intro to Social Psychology

Tufts University, Arielle Allen, Fall26

Social Psychology

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 Cognition

the study of how people select, interpret, remember, and use information to make judgements and decisions.

Social influence

the effect that the words, actions or mere presence of other people has on our thoughts feelings, attitudes or behavior

“Batman Effect”

a study done where kids persevered more when doing difficult/mundane tasks when pretending to be a competent character (Batman or Dora the Explorer)

Availability Heuristic

making judgements based on the ease with which information comes to mind

Fundamental attribution error (FAE)

the tendency to explain behavior entirely in terms of personality and underestimating the power of the situation

Gestalt psychology

a school of psychology stressing the importance of studying the subjective way in which an object appears in people’s minds rather than the objective attributes of the object. (ex. is it a picture of a duck or a rabbit?)

Naïve realism

the conviction that we perceive things “as they really are,” (underestimating how much we are interpreting or “spinning” what we see)

Self-esteem

people’s evaluation of their own self-worth

Evolutionary perspectives

explains social behavior in terms of genetic factors that have evolved overtime according to the principles of natural selection

Sociocultural perspectives

explains social behavior in terms of the society we live in (social norms and expectations)