Module 4: Social Psychology

Social Psychology

studys how people affect eachother

• these psychologists look into all aspects of personality, interaction, interpretations and relations

• study both intra and interpersonal topics

Intrapersonal topics

things within the individual

• emotion, attitudes, self and social cognition

• how we thing about ourselves and others

Interpersonal topics

things within dyands and groups

• helping behaviour, agression, prejudice,discrimination, attraction, relations, annd group processes

Situationalism

believes that our behaviour are determines by the immediate environment

• social psychologists often believe in this

Dispositionism

believes that our behaviour is determined by internal factors

• personality psychologists often believe in this

Internal factor

includes personality traits and temperaments

Fundamental attribution error

where people believe that people are in control of their habits and behaviours

• changes caused by internal factors

• people often overemphasize internal factors impact

• peple may overlook situational impacts

Quizmaster study

a study where students were assigned as the questioner or contesttant in a quizing game

• questioners preparent difficult answers

• contestants only answered 4/10 questions right

• questioners and contestants were asked to rate their general knowledge after the game

  • questioners did not rate themselves above average, but the contestants rated the questioners higher than theirs

  • observators also rated questioners as being more knowledgable

individualistic culture

a culture that focuses on individual acheivement

• more likely to commit fundamental attribution error

• often western societies

collectivistic culture

a culture that focuses on relations

• less likely to commit fundamental attribution error

• Asian, latin, and african countries

actor observer bias

phenomena of attributing others behaviour as internal factors and our behaviour to situational forces

Self serving bias

tendancy to explain our sucess due to internal charactoristics, but failures as situational factors

• protect self esteem

just world hypothesis

the belief that one receives the outcome they deserve