Lecture notes
Whole of Social Psychology Year 2 Course
- Institution
- University Of Reading (UoR)
A book of noted gathered from year 2 of social psychology. Good revision material for most basic topics in social.
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Social and Differential Psychology30 September 2020 12:42
Upload Date: Thursdays 12:00 noon Assessments:
Online Q&A: Weeks 4, 7 & 9 CAQ's - 20% - 270/320 = 84%
Seminar Essay - 30%
Topics: Summer Exam - 50%
1. Social Cognition
2. Social Perception Lecturers:
3. Prosocial Behaviour - Dr Julia Vogt: j.vogt@reading.ac.uk
4. Self-regulation - Dr Lorella Lepore: l.lepore@reading.ac.uk
7. Intergroup Behaviour - Dr Zola Dean: z.p.c.dean@reading.ac.uk
8. Prejudice & Discrimination
9. Improving Intergroup Relations 1
10. Improving Intergroup Relations 2
1. The self
2. Self-esteem
3. Attitudes
4. Attitude change
7. Emotion
8. Emotion regulation
9. Intelligence
10. Emotional intelligence
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08 May 2021 14:05
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,Social Cognition
03 October 2020 18:34
Social Psychology: Scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are influenced by the real, imagined, or implied presence of
others and the social situation.
- Social Cognition: Applying cognitive methods and theories to social psychology.
□ How people use social information to make judgements and assumptions
□ i.e. someone who is depressed may have a more negative outlook on themselves than someone who is not
depressed.
○ Social Categorization:
▪ a tendency to group people into discrete groups based on shared characteristics common to those individuals.
▪ Humans are good at picking up these categories:
□ Race, age, gender, occupation, body size.
- Types of Social Cognition:
○ Automatic Thinking:
▪ Fast, non-conscious, unintentional, uncontrollable (i.e. reading: if we were presented with a word on a screen it would
be impossible not to read the word) and effortless thinking.
▪ Often prejudice is automated thinking which is hard to control.
○ Controlled Thinking:
▪ Slow, conscious, intentional, controlled and effortful thinking.
▪ i.e. Difficult text or maths problems.
- Limits of categorisation:
○ Some races may have difficulties telling other race people apart. (Hence the comment they all look the same).
▪ Out-group homogeneity.
○ Schemas influence our perception of the information around us thus can negatively influence social categorisation.
▪ Schemas help us understand the world and reduce ambiguity, yet they can be problematic or even dangerous when
incorrect.
○ When applied to people, schemas are often referred to as stereotypes:
▪ A generalisation about a group of people, in which certain traits are assigned to virtually all members of the group,
regardless of actual variation among the members
▪ A stereotype is not by definition negative, it can also be positive. i.e. African-American males are often negatively
stereotyped as dangerous/crime related, but some African-American people are also positively stereotyped as good at
sports or good at music. However it still overlooks individuality and portrays a generalised image.
○ Where stereotypes come from:
▪ Cultural learning
▪ Hamilton & Gifford, 1976: Illusionary correlations
□ Two statistically infrequent events co-occur, Those distinctive vents then grab attention which leads to observers
overestimating the frequencies of the co-occurrence of such events.
□ i.e. Form stereotypes which associate Muslims/Muslim regions with terrorism. One small subset of an event is
associated and over-exaggerated by observers thus all Muslims get assumed to be terrorists.
○ Consequences of stereotype activation:
▪ Stereotypes can be applied rapidly and automatically when we encounter other people
□ Stereotype consequences are best seen in African-Americans and police brutality. How stereotypes are activated
and police assume that any movement is a dangerous one.
□ Correll et al. (2002):
Police officer dilemma
DV: shoot or not? Testing fast reactions
IV1: Race - White vs. Black
IV2: Object - Weapon vs. Non-weapon
Participants: white US residents.
Found: Ps made more errors (shot when they shouldn’t have) when black targets were unarmed (17%), and
made more errors (didn’t shoot when they should have) when white targets were armed.
○ What activates a schema:
▪ Cues
▪ A series of events
▪ Temporarily accessible due to motivations, goals or expectations
▪ Some due to recent experiences (priming)
- Priming:
○ Activating an idea in a person's mind
○ Macrae & Johnstone (1998):
▪ Ps asked to solve a scrambled sentence task
▪ Conditions: suggestion of helping in one, a statement in the other.
▪ DV: helping - would those in the helping condition pick up a pen that the experimenter dropped.
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, ▪ DV: helping - would those in the helping condition pick up a pen that the experimenter dropped.
▪ Found: Thinking about (being primed) helping, led to them helping the experimenter (93.7%)
○ Another study:
▪ IV: normal Vs leaking pen
▪ DV: helping
▪ Found: primed participants were less likely to help out than the control group (6.2% vs. 12.5%)
▪ Shows that we cannot be primed for everything
○ Occurs when we are exposed to a prime. This can include:
▪ People, objects, abstract thought, body posture, real or imaginary, etc
○ Can lead to judgements, behaviours and motivation.
▪ What is influenced depends on the task at hand.
○ Shown that priming only occurs when its automatic:
▪ Awareness of being primed will not lead to you being primed.
- Priming depends on:
○ Context
○ Observer (those who know of a person might be rimed by the thought of them, those who don’t won't be)
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