CHAPTER 1
What is social psychology: What does it try to do?
- Jean-Paul Sartre o Humans are “first of all beings in a situation
o “Cannot be distinguished from our situation, for they form us and decide our possibilities”
- Social psychology is a science that studies the influences of ...
PSY 220
COURSE
NOTES
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
CHAPTER 1
What is social psychology: What does it try to do?
- Jean-Paul Sartre o Humans are “first of all beings in a situation
o “Cannot be distinguished from our situation, for they form us and decide
our possibilities”
- Social psychology is a science that studies the influences of our situations, with
special attention to how we view and affect one another o Is the scientific study
of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another
- Social psychology focuses more on individuals with methods that
more often use experimentation
- Compared with personality psychology, social psychology focuses less on
difference among individuals, and more on how individuals, in general, view and
affect one another
- Our social behaviour varies not just with the objective situation, but with how we
see it
- Social psychologists study attitudes and beliefs, conformity and
independence, love and hate
Major themes in social psychology
1. We construct our social reality
- We humans have an irresistible urge to
explain behaviour, to attribute it to some
cause, and therefore make it seem orderly,
predictable, and controllable
- How we see the world, and ourselves, matters
o Our answers influence our emotions and
actions
2. Our social intuitions are
often powerful but sometimes
dangerous
- Our intuitions shape our fears, impressions, and relationships
,- A fascinating unconscious mind—thinking occurs not onstage, but offstage, out of
sight
- Thinking, memory, and attitudes all operate on two levels o One conscious and
deliberate, the other unconscious and automatic o “Dual processing” – We
know more than we know we know
- Our social intuitions are noteworthy for both their ineffable(too great or sacred)
powers and their troublesome hazards
- Psychologists aim to strengthen our thinking
3. Social influences shape
our behaviour
- We are social animals
- We long to connect, to belong, to be well thought of
- We respond to our immediate contexts
,- Evil situations sometimes overwhelm good intentions, other situations
may elicit great generosity and compassion
- Whether for good or ill this much is evident: Our situations matter
- Our culture help define our situations
- We adapt to our social context
- Our attitudes and behaviour are shaped by external forces
4. Personal attitudes and
dispositions also shape
behaviour
- Attitudes affect out behaviour o Smoking attitudes
influence our susceptibility to peer pressures to smoke
Personality dispositions affect our behaviour as well
o Facing same situation, different people may react differently
5. Social behaviour is biologically rooted
- Biology and experience together create us
- If every psychological event (every thought, every emotion) is simultaneously
a biological event, then we can also examine the neurobiology that underlies
social behaviour
- Social neuroscience is an integration of biological and social perspectives that
explores the neural and psychological bases of social and emotional
behaviours
- To understand social behaviour, we must consider both under-the-skin
(biological) and between-skins (social) influences
- We are bio-psycho-social organisms
6. Relating to others is a basic need
- We want to fit in with outs and our relationship with others can be an
important source of stress and pain as well as joy and comfort
- University students can feel the pain that many school children experience
when they are not included o Acts of aggression and prejudice inflict this sort
of pain
- When we form romantic relationships, and when we promote harmony
between groups, interpersonal relations can be an important source of joy
and comfort
- Our relationship with others form the basis of our self-esteem
- Relating to others is a basic need that shapes all our social actions
7. Social psychology’s principles
are applicable in everyday life
- Social psychology is all about life—your life: your beliefs, your attitudes, your
relationships
Social psychology and human values
Obvious ways in which values enter
- Trends reflect the social concerns of certain times
, - Values differ not only across time but also across cultures
- Values also influence the types of people attracted to various disciplines
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