Social Psychology - Social Cognition

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Social Cognition

• Social cognition involves the processes of remembering, interpreting, and processing information about ourselves and others.
• Impression formation refers to the mental process of forming judgments about other people.
• The primacy effect is a cognitive bias where people recall and emphasize the information presented earlier in a sequence more accurately than information presented later.
• Impression management refers to the process by which individuals attempt to control the perceptions others have of them.

Attribution

• Attribution refers to the process by which individuals explain the causes of behavior and events.
• Types of attribution:
  • Situational attribution (external attribution): interpreting behavior as a response to a situation.
  • Dispositional attribution (internal attribution): interpreting behavior as a reflection of personality or character.
• Biases in attribution:
  • Fundamental attribution error: overemphasizing internal characteristics to explain someone else's behavior.
  • Actor-observer bias: attributing one's own actions to external factors, but attributing others' actions to internal factors.
  • Self-serving bias: attributing successes to internal factors and failures to external factors.

Attraction

• Attraction refers to the action or power of evoking interest, pleasure, or liking for someone or something.
• Factors affecting attractiveness:
  • Proximity: physical or frequent closeness increases familiarity and liking.
  • Reciprocal liking: people tend to like others who show that they like them in return.
  • Physical attractiveness: cultural standards of beauty influence physical attraction.
  • Halo effect: assuming that someone is good in one aspect, they are also good in other aspects.

Intimate Relationships

• Factors contributing to the formation and maintenance of intimate relationships:
  • Romantic attraction
  • Matching hypothesis
  • Joyful temperament
  • Emotional stability and maturity
• Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love:
  • Intimacy
  • Passion
  • Commitment

Conformity, Obedience, and Compliance

• Conformity: changing or modifying behavior or attitudes to match the social norms of a group or the expectations of others.
• Obedience: acting according to rules or orders from authority figures.
• Compliance: changing one's behavior due to the request or direction of another person.
• Techniques for getting compliance:
  • Foot-in-the-door technique
  • Door-in-the-face technique
  • Low-balling strategy

Group Influence

• Social facilitation: tendency for people to perform differently when in the presence of others compared to when alone.
• Social loafing: phenomenon where individuals exert less effort when working in a group compared to when working alone.
• Group decision making:
  • Group polarization: taking more extreme positions after participating in discussions with group members who strongly agree with one's views.
  • Groupthink: irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome due to the desire for harmony or conformity in the group.

Attitudes and Attitude Change

• Attitude: relatively stable evaluation of a person, object, situation, or issue, ranging from positive to negative.
• Components of attitude:
  • Cognitive factor: thoughts or beliefs about an object
  • Emotional factor: feelings about the object
  • Behavioral factor: tendency to behave towards the object
• Cognitive dissonance: mental discomfort or tension that arises when a person holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time.
• Resolving dissonance:
  • Changing beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors
  • Adding new beliefs or thoughts
  • Minimizing the importance of the conflict

Prosocial Behavior

• Prosocial behavior: behavior that is beneficial to others, such as helping, cooperation, and compassion.
• Reasons for helping:
  • Altruism
  • Empathy
  • Commitment
• Bystander effect: social psychological phenomenon in which individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present.

Aggression

• Aggression: intentional infliction of physical or psychological harm to another person.
• Biological components of aggression:
  • Genetics: aggressive tendencies are influenced by genetics.
  • Low level of arousal of the autonomic nervous system: people with low arousal levels seek stimulation and excitement to increase arousal.### Biological Factors Influencing Aggression
• High levels of testosterone have been linked to aggressive behavior, including intimate partner violence, in both men and women.
• Brain tumors and other neurological disorders have been associated with aggressive behavior.

Other Factors Influencing Aggression

• Frustration aggression hypothesis: aggression is the result of blocking or frustrating a person's efforts to achieve a goal, leading to frustration and aggressive behavior.
• Personal space, crowding, and social exclusion can also influence aggression.

Social Learning Theory of Aggression

• People learn to behave aggressively by observing aggressive models and having their aggressive responses reinforced (Bandura, 1973).
• Aggressive behavior can be learned through observation and reinforcement.