SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Introduction to social psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of the way people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are
directly or indirectly influenced by the real or imaginary presence of other people. Major part of it is
social influence: the effect that the words, actions, or mere presence of other people have on our
thoughts, feelings, attitudes, or behavior.
Isn’t it just common sense?
Yes, as a human you know stuff about humans.
No, you’re often wrong as we tend to overestimate how much we know.
We also have multiple approaches to situations: out of sight out of mind or absence makes
the heart grow fonder? Social psych also focuses on what behavior is likely to take place
under which conditions.
Hindsight bias: the tendency to exaggerate prediction or outcome after knowing that it
occurred.
Sociology Social psychology Personality psychology
Study of groups, organizations, Study of the psychological Study of the characteristics
and societies, rather than processes people have in that make individuals unique
individuals. common that make them and different from one
susceptible to social influence. another.
The power of the situation
The importance of explanation:
Why study social influence?
1. Basic science: we are curious
2. Applied science: we want to solve problems
contemporary problems including AIDS, prejudice, violence in schools, etc. When
recommending interventions, it is imperative to act on the basis of scientifically grounded
theories, as science is the best tool we have and prevents us from being wrong easily.
Fundamental attribution error: the tendency to explain our own and other people’s behavior
entirely in terms of internal, dispositional factors (personality traits), resulting in underestimating the
power of social influence / the situation. By failing to fully appreciate the power of a situation we
tend to
1. Oversimplify complex situations.
2. Decrease our understanding of the true causes.
3. Blame the victim when people are overpowered by social forces.
The social situation: It’s not about the objective properties of the situation, but about how these are
perceived.
Construal: The way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the world.
Example: When someone bumps on you, you act on it according to your interpretation.
Behaviorism is a school of psychology maintaining that to understand human behavior,
one need only consider the reinforcing properties of the environment.
, Naïve realism: Type of construal; the conviction that we perceive things ‘as they really
are’, underestimating how much we are interpreting what we see.
Emphasis on construal has its roots in gestalt psychology, a school of psychology that
stresses the importance of studying the subjective way in which an object appears in
people’s minds rather than the objective, physical attributes of the object.
Liberman, Samuels, & Ross (2004) experiment showed that when the name of the game was
Community Game players were far more likely to behave cooperatively than when it was the Wall
Street Game – regardless of their own cooperative or competitive personality traits. The game’s title
conveyed social norms that trumped personality and shaped the players’ behavior.
Basic human motives (where construals come from)
1. social cognition: the need to be accurate
How people think about themselves and the social world; how people select, interpret,
remember, and use social information to make judgements and decisions. We try to gain
accurate understandings in order to make effective judgements and decisions.
But thinking is hard, time-consuming, and sometimes we lack all needed information, so
even if we want to create an accurate view of the world, we rely on shortcuts.
Our beliefs about the world can result in expectations that can, in turn, shape the world (self-
fulfilling prophecy).
Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968/2003) found that teachers who expect certain students to do
well may cause those students to do well by treating them as if they will.
2. self-esteem: the need to feel good about ourselves
People’s evaluations of their own self-worth; the extent to which they view themselves as
good, competent, and decent. Most people have a strong need to maintain reasonably high
self-esteem.
They often get upset when they receive negative feedback and sometimes distort the world
in order to feel good about themselves instead of representing the world accurately. Can
impede change and self-improvement if people use this motive to justify their actions.
Example: hazing.
Others:
1. Affiliation: have friends, social advantage
2. Maslow’s pyramid of needs
Different motives may tug in different directions, which
one is dominant (per person, per situation)?
Evolutionary approach
Evolutionary theory by Charles Darwin: natural selection
(heritable traits that promote survival/reproduction in a
particular environment are kept and passed on through
generations).
Evolutionary psychology
, Attempts to explain human behavior in terms
of (genetic) factors that have evolved over time
according to the principles of natural selection
Core idea: human behaviors prevalent today
are due, in part, to adaptations to past
environments.
Revised pyramid of needs: similar but more
motives. Main goal in people is to find a
partner, have children, and raise them.
CHAPTER 3 SOCIAL COGNITION
Social cognition
Human feats: Humans are exceptional thinkers! Evidence: difficult to program our level of thinking
(AI). We rule the world, mostly by being smart (domestication, technology, cooperation). However,
we do still make many mistakes.
(Social) cognition: How people think about themselves and the social world. How people select,
interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgement and decisions.
Need to select information because there’s too much.
Need to interpret because the world is often ambiguous.
Need to remember past experience to help interpretation of current experience.
Need to make decisions.
Two kinds of thinking (dual processing)
1. Controlled / high-effort thinking: Effortful and deliberate
Why so much focus on automatic thinking? Research suggests it’s a prevalent way of
thinking. Due to replication failure, more focus on high-effort thinking.
Example: mathematics, what house to buy, what statistics to use. Involved in:
Deliberating / decision making
Counterfactual thinking
Allows us to think about ‘what could have been?’, enabling learning.
Also has downsides: is a 5.4 or a 5 worse? Saying 5.4 would be counterfactual.
Perspective taking
Overriding impulses
Reflection
Causal attribution
Improving human thinking:
have to be humble, not overconfident, in what we know to be true or falls and what we
think to understand.
Consider a point of view opposite of their own and draw conclusions from there: less
judgement errors.
Teach basic statistical principles
2. Automatic / low-effort thinking: Quick and effortless
