Introducing Social Psychology Chapter One Introducing Social Psychology

Social Psychology Defined The study of how our thoughts, feelings, and actions are influenced by other people a science of people, rather than other species others don’t need to be physically present to influence us outward social behavior and inner mental life are both of interest to social psychologists social psychology is a science, and as such relies on the scientific method to answer its questions of interest

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How Other People Affect Us Other people affect how we interpret events behavior occurs in a social context Other people affect how we feel about ourselves social comparison theory is an example of this Other people affect how we behave the presence of others can change how we act in a situation deindividuation is an example

Social Psychology and Common Sense Social psychology is not just common sense many social psychological findings confirm people’s intuitions about social behavior many other findings, however, disconfirm intuition intuitions can differ across people intuitions can be vague intuitions can be wrong science trumps intuition Hindsight appears clearer than it is the hindsight bias describes our tendency to believe that we had predicted an outcome ahead of time, after learning of the result

Some Benefits of Studying Social Psychology Being an informed citizen using scientific findings to form strategies for dealing with social problems and social issues Applying social psychological knowledge applications to health, business, politics, law, and other areas show the breadth of social psychology Understanding the influences on your own life learning about social psychology assists in learning about oneself

Social Psychology’s Connections to Other Areas Social psychology relates to several other areas of psychology Personality psychology Developmental psychology Cognitive psychology Clinical and counseling psychology

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Social and Personality Psychology Personality psychologists study traits or dispositions in order to understand human behavior Social psychologists study the situations that impact human behavior The intersection between dispositions and situations nicely informs both personality and social psychology

Social and Developmental Psychology Developmental psychology examines human growth and change over the lifespan social development represents the overlap between the disciplines

Social and Cognitive Psychology Social psychology overlaps considerably with cognitive psychology social cognition examines perception, memory, language, reasoning, and other cognitive processes in a social context both disciplines also use similar research methods both disciplines embrace similar theoretical approaches

Social, Clinical, and Counseling Psychology Social cognition informs research on self-esteem, depression, social anxiety, loneliness, shyness, and other types of mental disorders More extreme forms of psychopathology fall outside the realm of social psychology

Social Psychology’s Connections to Other Disciplines Social psychology relates to several other disciplines Sociology Anthropology Political science

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Social Psychology and Sociology “Two social psychologies” psychological social psychology is the focus of this book sociological social psychology emphasizes the role of larger social structures in influencing behavior significant overlap between the two until WWII more divergence between the two currently

Social Psychology and Anthropology Both fields focus on cultural and evolutionary influences on behavior Little overlap between the fields, however cultural anthropologists prefer cultural immersion and participant observation, rather than experimentation physical anthropologists have long relied on evolutionary models; social psychologists have embraced such an approach only relatively recently

Social Psychology and Political Science Both fields have grown independently into well-developed disciplines Political psychology has emerged as a hybrid of the two voter behavior, political decision making, perceptions of candidates, operation of political systems are some examples

The History of Social Psychology Ancient Greek philosophers suggested some elements of modern social psychology tripartite experience of thought, feeling, action social contract: implicit rules of social conduct the nature of personality and identity Social psychology evolved into an empirical science World War II provided a boost to the discipline

Classical Problems of Social Psychology Basic issues theory and experimentation inform social psychology Perceiving the social world cognition, judgment, attribution drive social behavior The person in the situation self-concept and attitudes affect behavior Social influence personality and persuasion shape social behavior Harmful and helpful social behavior people demonstrate the capacity for both

Many Contexts of Social Psychology Cultural context cultural differences and similarities help us understand social behavior Health context social psychological research offers many insights for health maintenance and illness prevention Law context social psychology helps shape our understanding of the legal system

It’s Alive! It’s Alive!! Social psychology is all around us personality scales allow for self-understanding do-it-yourself research projects are fun and informative read more about it in scientific journals watch television…sensibly, with an eye toward understanding social behavior read newspapers and magazines gather information from the Internet observe the behavior of others observe your own behavior