Social Psychology: Core Principles

Week 1: Introduction to Social Psychology

• Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.
• Social influence is how the presence of others shapes behavior, even without physical presence.
• Social psychology looks at shared psychological processes, not individual variances.

Core Principles of Social Psychology

• Behavior is often more influenced by the situation than individual traits or intentions.
• The fundamental attribution error (FAE) is overestimating personality influence, underestimating situations in explaining behavior.
• Social psychology avoids FAE, showing the power of context and social cues.
• Interpreting a situation often matters more than the situation itself.
• Construal is how people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the world.
• A neutral face can be threatening or friendly depending on context and expectations.
• Social psychology emphasizes external influences and acknowledges internal factors like values, beliefs, attitudes, and personality traits.
• Individual differences interact with social forces to create behavior.
• Every psychological event is a biological event.

Biological Influences in Social Psychology

• Evolutionary psychology looks at how genetic inheritance influences behavior patterns; examples are mate selection and aggression.
• Social neuroscience explores the biological underpinnings of social behavior, like brain activity during social rejection.

Applications and Scientific Method

• Social psychology applies to prejudice reduction, conflict resolution, health behaviors, relationship building, and marketing.
• Rigorous experimentation is key, using random assignment, hypothesis testing, reproducibility, and ethical guidelines.

Social Psychology vs. Personality Psychology

• Social psychology examines how anyone might behave in a situation, personality psychology focuses on what makes people different.

Case Study: Jonestown (1978)

• Over 900 people committed mass suicide at Jim Jones' command.
• This case showed how situational and dispositional factors interact.
  • Situational: Isolation, group pressure, obedience to authority.
  • Dispositional: Faith in Jones, loyalty to the group, cognitive dissonance.

Key Research Example: Milgram's Obedience Study

• The aim was to test how far people would go in obeying an authority figure.
• Participants ("teachers") were told to deliver electric shocks to a "learner" for wrong answers.
• 65% of participants delivered the highest level shock despite moral discomfort.
• People are highly susceptible to authority and situational cues.
• This study demonstrates the power of the situation.

Historical Roots of Social Psychology

• Kurt Lewin (modern social psych founder)
  • Field theory: Behavior = Person × Environment.
  • Emphasized studying behavior in real-world social contexts.
• World War II stimulated interest in obedience, propaganda, conformity, and prejudice.

Sample Research Questions in Social Psychology

• Why do people conform even when wrong?
• What makes romantic relationships succeed/fail?
• How can racism be reduced?
• What motivates altruistic behavior?

Summary: Why This Field Matters

• Social psychology reveals interconnectedness, even in seemingly self-determined actions.
• It shows to understand people, we must understand both their inner lives and the social environments they navigate.

Week 2: Understanding the Self and Others

• Social psychology treats the self as a subject (how we think of ourselves) and an object (how others shape who we are).
• The self is a social construct and is shaped through interactions.

William James' Tripartite Model of the Self (1890)

• Describes the self in three categories
  • Individual Self: Personal traits, preferences, skills, and values.
  • Relational Self: Identity from close relationships.
  • Collective Self: Identity from group membership.
• The self is multi-layered and contextually activated.

The Self in a Social World

• Self-awareness is the capacity to reflect on oneself as an object.
• The spotlight effect is the belief that others are paying more attention to us than they are and it is a form of self-focused bias.

Self-Concept

• The self concept is the collection of beliefs, traits, and roles that people use to describe themselves.
• Working Self-Concept: Only a subset of broader self-concept is activated at any moment.
• Self-schemas are mental structures that organize self-info and guide attention, memory, and behavior.

Self-Reference Effect

• Memorizing information more easily when it relates to ourselves.

Social Sources of Self-Knowledge

• The looking-glass self was coined by Charles Horton Cooley.
• Self-concept develops perceiving how others view us.
• Internalized reflected appraisals may not be accurate.
• Socialization agents, such as family, teachers, peers, and media shape norms, expectations, and self-perception.
• These include explicit instruction and implicit modeling.

Situationism and the Self

• The self is not static different contexts bring out different aspects of identity.
• Self-concept differentiation is how people adjust their self-descriptions across roles.
• Scoring levels of differentiation:
  • 0: Highly differentiated (detailed, role-specific)
  • 6: Low differentiation (blurry or indistinct roles)
• Greater differentiation show social flexibility, while lower reflect a unified sense of self.
• Distinctiveness and Identity: In social situations, traits that make us unique are highlighted .

Social Comparison Theory (Festinger)

• Comparing ourselves to others helps us evaluate ourselves.

Types of Social Comparison

• Upward comparison: Comparing to someone better, and it may inspire or discourage you.
• Downward comparison: Comparing to someone worse off, and boosts self-esteem.

Culture and the Self

• Independent Self-Construal (Individualism)
  • Seen in Western cultures.
  • The focus is on uniqueness, autonomy, and internal traits.
  • Prioritizing personal goals over group goals.
• Interdependent Self-Construal (Collectivism)
  • Seen in East Asian, African, and Latin American cultures.
  • The focus is on connectedness, roles, and group harmony.
  • Identity is defined through relationships and obligations.
• Cultural frameworks shape how self-concept is structured, what is valued, and how emotions are expressed.

Brain Activity and the Self

• Medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC) is consistently active when people reflect on traits related to themselves.
• mPFC also responds when thinking about close others, suggesting overlapping processing between self and others.

Self-Knowledge: Introspection and its Limits

• Introspection is examining one's own thoughts and feelings.
• However, introspection is often unreliable.

Deficiencies in Introspection

• One may lack access to our motivations.
• One may inaccurately explain behaviors.

Planning Fallacy

• Underestimating how long it takes to complete tasks.

Affective Forecasting Errors

• Predicting how you will feel in the future is hard.
• People overestimate the intensity and duration of emotional reactions.
  • Impact Bias: Overestimating how the outcome will affect one.

Summary: The Self Is...

• Multidimensional: Has personal, relational, and social layers.
• Socially Constructed: Built through interactions and cultural context.
• Flexible: Adjusts based on situation and role.
• Often Misunderstood: We make errors in introspection and emotion prediction.
• Biologically Grounded: The brain plays a major role in self-reflection and social identity.
• It focuses on the systemic and contextual nature of human behavior.

Week 3: Emotions, Well-Being, and Morality

• Emotion is a brief, specific psychological and physiological response to goal-relevant events.
• Emotions can be triggered by unmet goals/needs or changes in the environment.

Key Components of Emotion:

1. Physiological Response: changes in heart rate, respiration.
2. Psychological Experience (Appraisals): evaluation of if the event is good or bad.
3. Facial Expressions: observable signs of internal state.
4. Action Tendencies: impulses to act in certain ways.

Emotion vs. Mood

Functions of Emotions

• Emotions motivate behavior by helping resolve or pursue goal-related outcomes, such as Fear = escape. Anger = advocacy or defense. Guilt = reparation or apology.
• Emotions prepare the body.
  • "Fight or flight" response increases blood flow to muscles, sharpens attention.
• Emotions communicate internal states, shaping social bonds.

Theories of Emotion

• Appraisal Theory states emotions are based on subjective evaluations of situations relative to goals.

Two Stages of Appraisal:

• Primary Appraisal: Is this relevant to me?
• Secondary Appraisal: Why do I feel this way? What can I do?
• Example:
  • “Dangerous?” à Fear.
  • “Unfair?” à Anger.
  • “Delicious?” à Joy.

Universality of Facial Expressions

• Paul Ekman identified 6 basic emotions with universal facial expressions: Happiness, Sadness, Fear, Anger, Disgust, Surprise.
• They are recognized across cultures, even pre-literate tribes and people born blind. Suggests emotions are biologically innate, not learned.

Cross-Species Similarity

Facial expressions resemble those of primates. Suggests an evolutionary origin in emotional expression.

Evolutionary vs. Cultural Views

• Evolutionary View (Darwin, Ekman):
  • Emotions are adaptive behaviors that help humans survive.
    • Fear helps avoid threats.
    • Love fosters bonding and child-rearing.
    • Disgust protects from pathogens.
• Cultural View:
  • Culture shapes emotional experience, expression, and regulation
    • Display Rules: norms about when/how emotions should be expressed.
    • Focal Emotions: emotions emphasized in a culture.
    • Ideal Affect: Western cultures value high-arousal positive emotions (excitement); East Asian cultures value low-arousal positive emotions (calm).
• Emotions are universal at core, but culturally sculpted in form and use.

Emotions in Social Relationships

• Social Functional Theory says emotions promote group bonding and cooperation.
• Gratitude fosters reciprocity.
• Compassion enhances support.
• Shame repairs social damage.
• Mechanisms that Strengthen Social Bonds:
• Oxytocin: "love hormone," promotes trust/closeness.
• Emotional Mimicry: non-conscious imitation of others' expressions.
• Touch: reinforces intimacy/safety.

Emotions and Social Cognition

• Emotions prime how events are interpreted.
• Fearful people see more threats.
• Happy people perceive others as more trustworthy.

Broaden-and-Build Hypothesis (Barbara Fredrickson)

• Positive emotions broaden attention, cognition, and behavior, to
  • Increase creativity, resilience, and openness.
  • Build personal resources over time.

Remembering and Predicting Emotions

• Remembering Emotions:
• Duration Neglect: Tendency to ignore the length of an emotional experience.
• Peak-End Rule: Evaluate experiences based on the peak moment and the end.
• Affective Forecasting:
  • Predictions about future emotions are often inaccurate.
  • Impact Bias: Overestimating how much events will affect us emotionally.
  • Immune Neglect: Underestimating resilience.
  • Focalism: Narrowly focusing on the event, ignoring other influences.

Happiness and Well-Being

• Two Components:
  • Life Satisfaction: cognitive evaluation of one's life.
  • Emotional Well-Being: balance of positive and negative emotions.
• Cultural Differences:
• American View: pursue happiness via individual goals and excitement.
• East Asian View: value harmony and balance of calm emotions.
• Predictors of Happiness:
  • Older people report more life satisfaction.
  • Income: beyond basic needs, wealth has diminishing returns.
  • Freedom and rights: happiness is higher in societies with more freedom/equality.

Ways to Increase Happiness:

• Gratitude: journaling increases joy/health.
• Expressive Writing: puts emotions into words, lowers stress.
• Compassion/Forgiveness: lowers anxiety, higher life satisfaction.

Emotions and Morality

• Emotions serve a moral purpose such as
• Guilt: corrects wrongdoings.
• Shame: avoidance in social exclusion.
• Disgust: respond to violations of purity/norms. Help to instinctively assess what is right and and wrong.

Summary Key Takeaways:

• Emotions are adaptive, not irrational: drive survival and morality.
• The emotional system is universal and malleable culturally.
• Guide meaningful lives.
• Happiness is infulenced by culture, perspective and practice.

Week 4: Attitudes and Behavior (and Automaticity)

• Attitude is a psychological tendency expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor.

Attitudes components (Tripartite Model):

• Affect: How we feel (I like ice cream).
• Cognition: What we believe (Ice cream is sweet and fattening).
• Behavior: How we act/intend to act (I eat it often).

Targets of Attitudes

• Objects
• People
• Ideas
• Ambilvalent Feelings

Explicit vs. Implicit Attitudes

How Are Attitudes Formed?

• Classical Conditioning: Pairing a neutral with + or - stimulus.
• An ad featuring a celebrity makes the product transfer those positive feelings.
• Observational Learning: Adopting attitudes adopted by others.
• Mere Exposure Effect: Liking by repeated exposure.

Heuristics

• Simple mental short-cuts (Trust attractive People)

Strengthening of Attitudes

• Attitudes become stronger through:
  • More cognitive accessibility through repetition.
  • Validation via likeminded support.
  • Confirmation bias, and seeking info to existing beliefs.
  • Integration into Core Self concept and makes it harder to change.
• NOTE* Key conditions must be must be met

When Do Attitudes Predict Behavior? (Not Always)

• Key conditions must be met:
• Low Social Influence
  • People hide attitudes to manage impressions.
  • Implicit measures are reliable people that may conceive them.
• Attitude Behavior Specificity
  • General attitudes product general behavior
  • Specific attitudes product specific behaviors. Principle of Aggregation: Attitudes bettter predict (Average) over time.

Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein)

Widely used framework attitude leads to behavior

Key components:

1. Toward Behaviors
2. Subjective norms
3. Percieved behavioral control

Form behaviorial intent that predict the best ones

When Behavior Influences Attitudes

• Behavior shapes attitude when:
• Role Playing
  • Stanford Prision that assigned conforming to role attitudes
• Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenion Agreeing to small request increase likelying and adjust attitude to past behavior
• Cognative Dissonance Theory Contradict attitude, epxeirneced pyschological discofmot.

Automacity & Attitudes

• Behaviors are automactic responses trigger by environemtn not deliberate intentiosn

Priming

Cues that activate associated behaviors or attitudes

• Priming elderly leads to slow.

Embodied Cognition

• States or gestures influence emotional experience.

Moral Limits

People act contrary to state value

Week 5: Social Influence and Persuasion

• Social Influence is the way people affect eachothers feelings and behavior ( intentionally and un)
• Cues range from subtle cues to explicit pressure
• Idea that that others influence automatically and without awareness

Types of Social Influence

• Automatic social that is the chameleon effect.
  • Mimicry of behavior
  • Enhances Social Bonds
• Compliance- yielding to requests
  • Request framing or social context

Techniques

• door-in-the-face
  • large (REJECT) follow smaller.
• small follow larger with consistancy

Reciprocity

• Feeling obligoted or giver Minor favors trigger

Langer 1978 places info

increase compliance of framed a reason

Norm Influence

• Descriptive vs presictive

Social Norm

what do

Social vs Plu

• miskatken feeling you are different
• static norms* current behavior Dynamic Behavior increaded numbers

emotion Approach

• maintain good mood increase more likely
• Trust others more more positives
• ** Guilt apologize increase asking help

Hypothesis

• helping decrease more good state
• affect relive emotions

Identification INternalization and Belonging

Accepting values

belifs

emulate to liking

scarily shorten delivery time

Goal Strategy Dependants

• **

Week 6: Relationships and Attraction

• Humans are social/psychologcal wellbeing
  • sources of supports and identities
  • meaning survical

Defined relationship

_love friendship respect.

Why study relationship?

Anmial Research

• monkey cloth or food
• comfort affection importnat

Observation Natural

• social depress harms Development

Basis for relatuonship

• food or sleep
• belogn social learning

Belong Leany and Baumi

• universial

Effects from Rejection and Lonelineness

• lead to self esteem

Impariements

• higher chornic paion

theories

maximial rewards

level comps

alternatives

ratios costs rewards

exchanges

communal realuonshpos

Attachment

_theory j bolwby _attachment caregiver

• ** _Mary Strange sitaution _Style

Secure

_stree independenc secure attachment and like

Effects

• higher divoce * emotional insatbiltiy
• **

Attraction

• distance importnat

Similarity

like that feel simaili

Matching helpotethesis

• **

Key

• Need to belogn is fundamental
• emotional childhood

week 7 Sterotypes, P and discrim

• attitudes
• **

Intergroup Bais

• Componenets of attitudes base

components of Attitudes

• Stereotypes
• Group Share
• Prejudice the negative beahviors affect or action the un fair modern are subtle benevolent racism
• limit freedom

What importanc Bias

IAT

• people associates groups

Key Points

• not reject prejudiced

week 8 Group Behavior

• What is Group* collection of 2 orinterated dependance dependance
• **small / homo
• **cohess
• group dynamic* evolutionary phycodinamivall efficiency
• facilitate individual performamce* simple well practiced complex familiar
• za jong social facilitates*
• arousal presence increase of evaluation
• imparied more*
• Tests Social facilitators and Evaluations*
• Evaluation apprehensive test
• atentative worst
• social law* less effort group

how reduced groups cohesion

• *Task DE Invidutal Loss selfs antisocial behavior anonymity, masks
• **

week 9 Aggression

• harms to another person Type is Hostile

Instrumental

• to ean end.
• *more often occurs in hot

violence

short and term

##Disposition Factor Culture norms about * dominance influence pro social behavior intended to benefit other altusrim to desire help without

• sacrafice

Empthetic-Altusricm Helplessness is similar victim need better clear.

Situational factors

time decrease bysatnders resposbility

Cooperation

• Definition* _working towards joint action. Ant bullys action

Climat