Social Psychology Overview

Social Psychology

• Focuses on how individuals think, influence, and relate to one another.
• Social intuitions:
  • Conscious, deliberate thought
  • Unconscious, automatic processes
• Social influences shape behavior:
  • Locality
  • Educational level
  • Media consumption
  • Culture
  • Ethnicity
• Personal attitudes and dispositions:
  • Internal forces (inner attitudes)
  • Personality differences

Research Methods in Social Psychology

• Social facilitation: Increased performance when others are present.
• Social loafing: Decreased effort in group settings.
  • Triplett's study showed cyclists performed better when competing.
• Social psychology research:
  • Steady but slow development
  • Focuses on underlying constructs
  • Primarily applied, therefore faster progress
• Designing research:
  • Determine purpose: basic or applied?
  • Observe patterns, develop hypotheses, test hypothesis, interpret, refine (if needed)

Correlation

• Shows relationship between two sets of data.
  • Strong positive, weak positive, strong negative, weak negative, no correlation.
• Descriptive designs:
  • Archival data: Examine existing information.
  • Naturalistic observation: Observe behaviors in natural settings.
  • Descriptive surveys: Self-report scales.
• Correlational analysis: Examines relationships between two variables (e.g., study hours, grades).
• Experiments:
  • Pre-experimental: One group is assessed.
  • Quasi-experimental: Comparisons between naturally occurring groups.
  • True experimental: Equivalent groups, random assignment.

Self and Social Perception

• Self-awareness: Understanding oneself as separate from others and the world.
• Self-recognition: Recognizing oneself.
• Self-concept: Personal summary of qualities, relationships, memberships, and beliefs.
  • Formation through schemas (mental frameworks).
• Self-schema: Summary of self-relevant information.
• Social identity theory: Personal identity vs. group memberships and relationships.
  • Influence of cultural expectations and traditions.
• Culture:
  • Personal identity: Autonomy, independence, assertiveness.
  • Social identity: Relatedness, collectivism, interdependence, self-effacement.
    • Different expectations based on regional or cultural differences.
• Independent self: Personal qualities, competition, success.
• Interdependent self: Social qualities, group membership.
• Self-perception: Inferences about oneself from observing one's own behaviors.
• Self-discrepancy: Comparing the actual self to the ideal and ought selves.
  • Disappointment, shame, guilt, anxiety, self-contempt.

Self-Expansion and Self Presentation

• Self-expansion: Growing self-concept through close relationships.
• Self-presentation: Managing the image of oneself in various situations.
  • Impression management: Shaping perceptions through behaviors and attitudes.
• Collective self-esteem: Evaluating the worth of social groups.
• Optimal margin theory: Complex minds with vast skill sets.
• Self-serving cognitive biases: Overestimating oneself or own group's importance.
• Self-esteem: Personal evaluation of self-worth.
• Self-efficacy: Confidence in ability to succeed in a task.
• Social perceptual processes:
  • Person perceptions: Initial judgments based on observations.
  • Micro-expressions: Involuntary displays of emotions.

Attribution, Attitudes and attitude change processes

• Attribution theory: Explaining others' and own behavior.
• Internal attributions: Person-based explanations.
• External attributions: Situation-based explanations.
• Fundamental attribution error: Overestimating internal factors and underestimating external factors when explaining others' actions.
• Actor-observer bias: Explaining own behavior through external factors. Self-serving attributions:
• Self-serving bias: Attributing success to internal factors and failures to external factors.
• False consensus bias: Overestimating how many others share one's opinions or behaviors.
• False uniqueness bias: Underestimating how many others share one's desirable traits.
• Attitudes: Inner evaluations or judgments towards people, objects or events.
• Dual Attitudes: Contrasting evaluations about the same attitude object.
• Attitude functions: Instrumental, value expression, ego-defensive, and social.

Attitude Development

• Attitudes come from nature and nurture.
• Classical conditioning: Learning through association.
• Operant conditioning: Learning through consequences.
• Impression management: Adjusting behavior to influence others' perceptions.