SOCIAL ANIMAL- INTRO

what is social psychology ?

the scientific study of how people think about and influence to relate to one another

study of the feelings thoughts and behaviors of individuals in social situations

how does social psych differ from abnormal, personality, and cognitive psychology?

• abnormal: different from the norm, extreme narcissism

  • school shootings, bombings

• personality

  • society for personality and social psych

• cognitive

  • perception .. how people think mentally

how does social psych differ from other fields like anthropology and sociology

• anthropology

  • examines cultural, structural, and holistic aspects of human groups while social psych is an individual process

• sociology

  • focused on large scale group level behavior

what is the person x situation matrix and how does it relate to personality and social psychology?

• personality psych is interested in how people respond differently than others, but consistently to one another

• social psych- interest in the columns how situations lead people to respond similarly to one another

importance of construal, culture, natural selection, and people

• construal

  • subjective vs objective situations

  • phenomenological assumption

    • stimulus (observed behavior) = response (emotional reaction)

• culture

  • individualism (independent, wester/ euro countries, desire to grow)

  • collectivism (asian and latin, self as linked to another)

  • evolution vs culture

    • evolutionary approach emphasizes continuity with other species

    • evolution is NOT strict genetic determinism , not incompatible with cultural perspective

• natural selection

  • universality vs relativity

    • universality - treated as law of nature applied beyond bio to any system with variation such as chem evolution

    • relativity - - dependent on the observer and the environmental context — what fits the situation