Social Psychology: Key Concepts

• Social psychology studies how people think about, influence, and relate to others
• It explores how individuals influence groups and vice versa
• The field's research origins are traced to the U.S. Civil War
• Sociology studies human societies, organizations, and institutions, focusing on the group level, while social psychology centers on individual behavior within groups
• Social psychology aligns with personality psychology and shares interests such as understanding and predicting behaviour
• It uniquely connects to real-life events and relies on experimental methods

Key Topics in Social Psychology

• Racism

• Prejudice

• Stereotypes

• Attitudes

• The bystander effect describes the decreased likelihood of help in an emergency when others are present

• There are five steps to helping in an emergency: notice the event, understand it is an emergency, take responsibility, know how to help, and then help

Social Cognition

• Social cognition explores how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information

Importance of Person Perception

• Person perception uses social stimuli to form impressions
• The face is an important social cue
• Physical attractiveness is a powerful social cue
• Attractive people are assumed to have positive traits and achieve superior job performance, a concept known as the "beautiful is good" stereotype
• Stereotypes generalize group characteristics without considering individual variation
• Self-fulfilling prophecies occur when social expectations cause an individual to act in ways that fulfill those expectations
• Increased attention to a face enhances its attractiveness
• Attribution is the process of understanding the causes of behavior and forming impressions

Attribution Theory

• Attribution theory views people as motivated to discover the underlying causes of behavior
• Attributions vary along three dimensions: internal/external, stable/unstable, and controllable/uncontrollable
• The actor produces the behavior, while the observer offers a causal explanation
• The fundamental attribution error involves overestimating internal traits and underestimating external situations when explaining behavior
• The false consensus effect overestimates the degree to which others think or act like we do

Variables Related to Self

• Self-esteem is the degree of positive or negative feelings about oneself
• Positive illusions are favorable self-views not rooted in reality; those with positive illusions are healthier and judged positively
• Self-serving bias is the tendency to take credit for successes and deny failures
• Self-objectification is the tendency to see oneself as an object in others' eyes
• Objectification can induce body image concerns and depression
• Stereotype threat is the fear of being judged based on a negative stereotype
• Social comparison is the process of evaluating oneself in relation to others
• Upward comparisons involve those who are better off
• Downward comparisons involve those who are less fortunate
• Attitudes are opinions and beliefs about people, objects, and ideas that influence how we think and feel

Attitudes and Actions

• Attitudes guide actions when they are strong, when they are rehearsed, and when the person has a vested interest
• Social psychologists offer two main explanations for how behavior influences attitudes: cognitive dissonance theory and self-perception theory
• Cognitive dissonance is psychological discomfort caused by inconsistent thoughts
• Effort justification is a type of dissonance reduction where the value of something difficult to attain is increased
• Self-perception theory states that individuals infer their attitudes by perceiving their behavior
• Persuasion involves trying to change someone's attitude and behavior

Elements of Persuasion

• The communicator (source)

• The medium

• The target (audience)

• The message

• The elaboration likelihood model identifies two routes to persuasion: central and peripheral

• The central route uses logical arguments

• The peripheral route involves factors like attractiveness or emotional appeals

Persuasion Techniques

• The foot-in-the-door technique starts with a smaller request before a larger one
• The door-in-the-face technique starts with a large request that is likely rejected before making a smaller one
• Altruism and aggression represent the extremes of human social activity
• Altruism is unselfish interest in helping another
• Aggression is behavior intended to harm another
• Egoism involves giving to ensure reciprocity, gain self-esteem, present oneself positively, or avoid censure
• Ethology studies animal behavior and finds altruism in nonhuman primates

Factors in Prosocial Behavior

• Empathy is the feeling of oneness with another's emotional state
• Personality/agreeableness is strongly associated with prosocial behavior
• Mood can determine engagement in kind behaviors
• Socioeconomic status and media influence prosocial behavior
• Reactive aggression is more susceptible to environmental effects, while proactive aggression is more influenced by genes
• Testosterone is implicated in aggressive behavior
• Psychological influences on aggression include personality, circumstances, cognitive determinants, and learning
• The frustration-aggression hypothesis states that frustration always leads to aggression
• Physical pain, insults, crowding, and weather can lead to aggression
• The weapons effect describes how firearms enhance aggression
• Violent pornography reinforces the rape myth - the false belief that women desire sex
• Conformity is changing behavior to match a group standard
• It can be positive or negative, destructive, and is a powerful social force
• Informational social influence occurs because we want to be right and believe others have knowledge we lack
• Normative social influence occurs because we want others to like us

Obedience

• Obedience is behavior that complies with explicit demands
• Milgram's experiment studied obedience to authority and showed people harm others when ordered
• The Stanford Prison Experiment studied how social roles and power dynamics influence behavior
• Situational forces and assigned roles can influence human behavior Reactance is the motivation to reject attempts to control us; it occurs when choices are taken away
• Deindividuation is the reduction in personal identity when part of a group
• Social contagion is imitative behavior involving the spread of actions, emotions, and ideas

Group Behavior

• Social facilitation improves performance due to the presence of others
• Social loafing is the tendency to exert less effort in a group due to reduced accountability
• Risky shift is the tendency for a group decision to be riskier than individual decisions
• Group polarization strengthens individual positions as a result of group discussion
• Groupthink impairs decision making when maintaining harmony is prioritized over the right decision
• The majority exerts influence through informational and normative influence
• The minority can't win through normative pressure when outnumbered but majority rules
• Social identity is how we define ourselves in terms of group membership
• Social identity theory states that group membership is crucial for self-image and positive feelings
• Ingroups refer to groups individuals belong to, while outgroups have special value in comparison
• There are five types of social identity: ethnicity and religion, personal relationships, vocations, political affiliations, and stigmatized identities
• Ethnocentrism is favoring one’s ethnic group; it involves asserting the group's superiority
• Prejudice is an unjustified negative attitude toward an individual based on group membership
• Implicit racism refers to attitudes that exist on a deeper level Reasons for prejudice includes: conflict between groups, cultural messaging and limitations on information processing abilities
• Discrimination is negative action toward a member of a group because they belong to said group
• It occurs when negative reactions combine with prejudices
• Proximity/closeness is a strong predictor of attraction
• Mere exposure effect= the more someone encounters something, the more probable they like it.

Types of Love

• Romantic love has strong components of sexuality and infatuation with a romantic partner
• Affectionate love is love that occurs when individuals desire to have another person nearby
• Social exchange theory views social relationships involving an exchange of goods with objective to minimize costs and maximize benefits
• success is equity- the part of each individual and their "fair share"
• Investment Model is a model of long term relationships that assesses how commitment, investment, and the attraction of alternative patterns affects stability and satisfaction

Health Psychology

• Health psychology emphasizes psychology's role in establishing and maintaining health and treating illness and focuses on behavioural social and cognitive influences

• Behavioural Medicine focuses on the study and integration of biomedial to promote and reduce illness

• Health promotion occurs when helping people make lifestyle choices to maintain balance Public Health is concerned with the study of health of a large population to assist policy makers and also ensures help is accessible to those who need it.

• Health Behaviours are:

  • approach stress in a healthier manner
  • exercising
  • eating right
  • practising safe sex

• Is defined by the World Health Organization as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being The mind-body connection is bidirectional( our minds effect bodies and vies versa)

• Health psychology helps individual identify ways to enact change for the better using

• Theory of Reasoned Action= effective change requires a specific desire for behaviors, well as positive attitudes about them, and to see that group looks on them favourably

Stages of The Theory of Reasoned Action

• have intent for behaviors
• Attitude is positive to a new behavior
• Social groups look on behavior favourably
• Theory of Planned Behavior is the basic ideas of "Reasoned Action" but adds personal control

Stages of Change Model

• Identifies ways someone gives up bad behaviors while creating healthier lives

• 5 stages of change,

  • Precontemplation
  • Contemplation
  • Preparation
  • Action
  • Maintainence

• Individuals that aren't thinking of genuine change: precontemplation can occur

• Acknowledgement of the problem but not ready for change is contemplation

• Preparation occurs when people want to change.

• Action is the stage involving when people work to fix the issue, and rewards can allow healthier alternatives for action phase

• Maintenence individuals successfully avoid temptations and stick towards health, reminders are often a plus.

• One challenge is relapse- return to unhealthy patterns Implemented Intentions deals with making strategies for changing life, and coming up with rules such as how certain behavior only occur with situation

• Social support contains feedback with others that shows one is cared for, valued, and is in communication

• Social Support has three main types of benefits: Tangible assistance, information, and emotional support

  • Tangible assistance: ability to produce service in stressful situation -Information : Support to propose ideas in times that need management -Emotional: Ability to improve depression and anxiety by providing empathy

• Religious activity can help prevent anxiety/depression, loneliness and prevent isolation

Although relationship with activity can be inconsistent with well-being, has spirituality is linked with well being.

• People with levels of spirituality typically:
  • deal with stress and age fine
  • decrease anger
• Self: determination states intrinsic motivation is doing something because you want to, and extrinsic is something for an outside reward
• Short -term stress is a valuable and healthy response
• Distress is the experience of negative stress.
• Eustress is the experience of positive stress.

General Adaption

• Body's effects using stress uses 3 stages; alarm( state of shock to prevent illness), resistance (release hormones), and exhaustion (wear on the body using disease)

Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal axis

• Interactions among hypothalamus, gland, and adrenal glands: regulate stress
• This is for psychological factors, the system, and the immune system
• Chronic stress uses serious ways and impacts immune
  • Acute( Sudden and stressful stimuli.)
  • stimuli chronic( agents of stress.)
• Recognition is how our experience should be with resources to deal with the event
  • Coping is use of helping to reduce problem by solving in stressful environments

Key Coping Strategies

• Problem and Emotion focused
  • help to solve issues.
  • involves a response to emotions in action
• Hardiness is a trait that determines the use of problems when they are challenges rather than stressors
  • Has control of their lives
  • Sees stress as challenge
  • Has a meaning with many relationships

Personal traits

• positive psychological with resilience when adisversity is concerned Stress management regimens include: learning to rate stressful times, cope, use, it in life. Attitudes with consciousness; seeing things as curiosity, not judgment with awareness of movement, with compassion, not clinging, gentle with oneself with praise, and giving self without clinging.
• Exercise is physical action to better health.
  • Aerobic exercise: action to improve the respiratory system.
  • For more actiivty do not limit activity
• Alcohol Use Disorder is genetic. “Continuum of risk” associated with weekly alcohol consumption:
  • 0 drinks: benefits 2 or less: avoid negative 3-6 drinks:risk 7 or more drinks: heart issue risk, Additional drink: risk grows

Method to quit smoking

• stop

• use substitute

• ask help of professional

• For well being is caring for others.

For increasing well-being:

• Realizing can better happiness
• Having a great with those the ones in need
• mindful.
• Doing routine exercise, grateful, being spirtual
• Sleep, meditate, and is helpful to.be positive.