Chapter 1: Introducing Social Psychology – summary – Flashcards

What is social psychology? Social Psychology, Science, and Common Sense How Social Psychology Differs from its Closest Cousins

Social Psychology is defined as the scientific study of the way in which people's thoughts feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people. Social psychologists are interested in understanding how and why the social environment shapes the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of the individual.

Social psychologists approach the understanding of social influence differently from philosophers, journalists, or the layperson. Social psychologists develop explanations of social influence through empirical methods, such as experiments in which the variables being studied are carefully controlled. The goal of the science of social psychology is to discovery universal laws of human behavior, which is why cross-cultural research is often essential.

When trying to explain social behavior, personality psychologists explain the behavior in terms of the person's individual character traits. Although social psychologists would agree that personalities vary, they explain social behavior in terms of the power of the social situation to shape how one acts. While social psychology is rooted in the study of the individual's internal psychological processes, the level of analysis for social psychology is the individual in the context of a social situation. In contrast, sociologists focus their analysis on groupings of people organized in social categories such as family, race, religion, and economic class. Social psychologists seek to identify universal properties of human nature that make everyone susceptible to social influence regardless of social class or culture. Sociologists seek to explain properties of societies.

The Power of the Situation. Individual behavior is powerfully influenced by the social environment, but many people don't want to believe this. Social psychologists must contend with the fundamental attribution error, the tendency to explain our own and other people's behavior entirely in terms of personality traits and to underestimate the power of social influence. But social psychologists have shown time and again that social and environmental situations are usually more powerful than personality differences in determining an individual's behavior.

The Power of Social interpretation. Social psychologists have shown that the relationship between individuals and situations is a two-way street, so it is important to understand not only how situations influence individuals, but how people perceive and interpret the social world and the behavior of others. These perceptions are more influential than objective aspects of the situation itself. The term construal refers to the world as it is interpreted by the individual.

Where Construals Come from: Basic Human Motives. The Self-Esteem Approach: The need to Feel Good about ourselves The Social cognition approach: The need to be accurate

The way in which an individual construes (perceives, comprehends, and interprets) a situation is largely shaped by two basic human motives: the need to be accurate and the need to feel good about ourselves. At times these two motives tug in opposite directions; for example, when an accurate view of how we acted in a situation would reveal that we behaved selfishly.

Most people have a strong need to see themselves as good, competent, and decent. People often distort their perception of the world to preserve their self-esteem.

The social cognition perspective is an approach to social psychology that takes into account the way in which human beings think about the world. Individuals are viewed as trying to gain accurate understandings so that they can make effective judgments and decisions that range from which cereal to eat to whom they will marry. In actuality, individuals typically act on the basis of incomplete and inaccurately interpreted information.

Social Psychology and Social Problems. Social psychological theories about human behavior have been applied effectively to deal with a range of contemporary problems that include prejudice, energy shortages, the spread of AIDS, unhealthy habits, and violence in the schools. The best interventions for serious social problems are those based on scientifically grounded theories about human construal and behavior.