🌍 UNIT 4: Social Psychology, Personality, Motivation, and Emotionology Unit 4
1. 🌟 Social Psychology Overview
Definition: Study of how we think about, influence, and relate to others.
Focuses on:
Attribution Theory
Attitudes and Persuasion
Compliance
Stereotypes, Prejudice, Discrimination
Group Behavior
Helping Behavior
Aggression and Attraction
2. 🧠 Attribution Theory
Attribution = Explaining someone’s behavior.
Type | Description |
|---|---|
Dispositional Attribution | Behavior caused by personality traits. |
Situational Attribution | Behavior caused by environment or situation. |
Key Factors:
Consistency: Does the behavior happen regularly?
Distinctiveness: Is the behavior unusual across situations?
Consensus: Do others behave similarly?
🔥 Errors in Attribution
Fundamental Attribution Error: Overestimating dispositional factors for others' actions.
Self-Serving Bias: Taking credit for success, blaming external factors for failure.
3. 🗣 Attitudes and Behavior
Attitude: Feeling that predisposes response.
Attitudes affect actions when:
External influences are minimal.
Attitude is stable, specific, and easily recalled.
🎯 Persuasion Routes
Route | Description |
|---|---|
Central Route | Persuasion based on arguments and facts. |
Peripheral Route | Persuasion based on emotional appeals or attractiveness. |
🎭 Cognitive Dissonance
When behavior and attitudes clash → discomfort.
We change our attitudes to reduce discomfort.
Study:
Festinger and Carlsmith: Boring task + $1 payment led to more attitude change than $20.
4. 🤝 Compliance Strategies
Strategy | Description |
|---|---|
Foot-in-the-Door | Small request first, then larger request. |
Door-in-the-Face | Large request denied, then smaller one accepted. |
Norms of Reciprocity | Feeling obligated to return a favor. |
5. 👥 Stereotypes, Prejudice, Discrimination
Term | Description |
|---|---|
Stereotype | Generalized belief about a group. |
Prejudice | Negative attitude toward a group. |
Discrimination | Negative action toward a group. |
👀 Implicit vs. Explicit Bias
Explicit Bias: Conscious prejudice.
Implicit Bias: Unconscious attitudes.
6. 👨👩👧👦 Group Influence
Concept | Description |
|---|---|
Deindividuation | Loss of self-awareness in group settings. |
Social Facilitation | Better performance on easy tasks when others are watching. |
Social Inhibition | Worse performance on hard tasks with an audience. |
Group Polarization | Strengthening of group’s prevailing opinion after discussion. |
Groupthink | Desire for harmony suppresses dissenting views. |
Risky Shift | Groups tend to make riskier decisions. |
7. 🚨 Helping Behavior
Bystander Effect: Presence of others reduces helping behavior.
Diffusion of Responsibility: Assuming someone else will act.
Study:
Darley and Latané: Smoke-filled room study — fewer people helped in groups.
8. 🧨 Aggression
Definition: Behavior intended to hurt or destroy.
Theory | Description |
|---|---|
Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis | Blocking goals creates anger → aggression. |
Social Learning Theory | Aggression learned by observing and imitating others. |
Study:
Bandura’s Bobo Doll: Children imitated aggressive models, both physical and verbal.
Media Violence: Viewing aggression increases aggression.
9. 💕 Attraction
Factor | Description |
|---|---|
Proximity | Physical closeness breeds liking (mere exposure effect). |
Similarity | We like those similar to us. |
Reciprocal Liking | We like those who like us. |
Physical Attractiveness | Beauty standards influence attraction. |
✨ Personality Overview
10. 🧠 Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
Id: Unconscious drives, seeks immediate pleasure (pleasure principle).
Ego: Reality-oriented, negotiates between Id and Superego (reality principle).
Superego: Internalized ideals, conscience (morality principle).
🛡 Defense Mechanisms
Mechanism | Description |
|---|---|
Repression | Pushing anxiety-provoking thoughts to unconscious. |
Regression | Retreating to earlier behavior. |
Reaction Formation | Expressing opposite of true feelings. |
Projection | Attributing own faults to others. |
Rationalization | Justifying bad behavior. |
Displacement | Shifting aggressive impulses to safer targets. |
Sublimation | Channeling impulses into acceptable activities. |
11. 🧠 Trait Theories
Theory | Description |
|---|---|
Big Five Traits | Personality measured across 5 factors: |
- Openness | Imagination and creativity. |
- Conscientiousness | Organization and dependability. |
- Extraversion | Sociability and assertiveness. |
- Agreeableness | Compassion and cooperativeness. |
- Neuroticism | Emotional instability. |
12. 🧠 Humanistic Theories
Theory | Key Figures | Description |
|---|---|---|
Self-Concept | Carl Rogers | Positive self-concept → healthy personality. |
Self-Actualization | Abraham Maslow | Reaching full potential is the ultimate goal. |
13. 🔄 Social-Cognitive Theories
Theory | Key Figures | Description |
|---|---|---|
Reciprocal Determinism | Albert Bandura | Personality shaped by interaction of behavior, cognition, and environment. |
Self-Efficacy | Bandura | Belief in one’s ability to succeed. |
🔥 Motivation Overview
14. 🔥 Theories of Motivation
Theory | Description |
|---|---|
Drive-Reduction Theory | Behavior motivated by biological needs (hunger, thirst). |
Incentive Theory | External rewards motivate behavior. |
Arousal Theory | We seek optimal levels of arousal (Yerkes-Dodson law). |
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs | Pyramid from basic needs → safety → belonging → esteem → self-actualization. |
15. ❤ Social Motivation
Type | Description |
|---|---|
Achievement Motivation | Desire to achieve mastery. |
Affiliation Motivation | Desire to belong to a group. |
Aggression Motivation | Desire to dominate or confront. |
😄 Emotion Overview
16. 📖 Theories of Emotion
Theory | Description |
|---|---|
James-Lange Theory | Emotions follow physiological responses. |
Cannon-Bard Theory | Emotions and physiological responses happen simultaneously. |
Two-Factor Theory | Schachter-Singer: Emotion = physiological arousal + cognitive label. |
17. 🎭 Expressing Emotion
Nonverbal Expressions:
Facial expressions (universal across cultures).
Body language.
Tone of voice.
Example: Smiling universally shows happiness.
Facial Feedback Hypothesis:
Facial movements can influence emotional experience (e.g., smiling makes you feel happier).