{ SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Branch of psychology concerned with the way individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by others

PERSON PERCEPTION  DEF: the process of forming impressions of others  Factors that influence perception: physical appearance, cognitive schemas, stereotypes, and subjectivity

EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL APPEARANCE  We attach desirable personality characteristics to the good looking  We tend to view the attractive as more intelligent  Baby-faced people are seen as honest, submissive, and naïve  Chameleon effect: tendency to unintentionally mimic other’s movements

COGNITIVE SCHEMAS  Social schemas: organized clusters of ideas about categories of social events and people  Helps to process info

STEREOTYPES  DEF: widely held beliefs that people have certain characteristics b/c of their membership in a particular group  Commonly based on sex, age, ethnic, or occupational group  Broad overgeneralizations; inaccurate

SUBJECTIVITY IN PERSON PERCEPTION  Illusory correlation: when people estimate that they have encountered more confirmations of an association btwn social traits than they have actually seen  We recall facts that fit our schemas and stereotypes

EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE ON BIAS  Helps to separate friend from foe  Ingroup: a group that one belongs to and identifies with  Outgroup: group that on does not belong to or identify with

{ ATTRIBUTION PROCESSES Attributions are inferences that people draw about the causes of events, others’ behavior, and their own behavior

 Internal attributions: ascribe the causes of behavior to personal dispositions, traits, abilities, and feelings  External attributions: ascribe the causes of behavior to situational demands and environmental constraints INTERNAL VS. EXTERNAL

 Harold H. Kelley  Assumes that people attribute behavior to factors that are present when the behavior takes place and absent when it does not  Consider 3 types of info:  1) Consistency  2) Distinctiveness  3) Consensus KELLEY’S COVARIATION MODEL

ATTRIBUTIONS FOR FAILURE AND SUCCESS  Bernard Weiner  Believes people often focus on the stability of the causes underlying behavior  Stable-unstable dimension to attribution

 Fundamental attribution error: observers’ bias in favor of internal attributions in explaining others’ behavior  Observers may not know history of actor to make correct judgment about the behavior being seen ACTOR-OBSERVER BIAS

DEFENSIVE ATTRIBUTION  DEF: tendency to blame victims for their misfortune, so that one feels less likely to be victimized in a similar way  Attributes negative traits on the victim

SELF-SERVING BIAS  DEF: tendency to attribute one’s success to personal factors and one’s failures to situational factors  Observers attribute your failures to your internal factors; actor will blame external factors

CULTURE & ATTRIBUTION  Cultural differences in individualism and collectivism  Individualism: putting personal goals ahead of group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group membership  Collectivism: putting group goals ahead of personal goals and defining one’s identity in terms of the groups one belongs to

{ CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS: LIKING AND LOVE Interpersonal attraction refers to positive feelings toward another

PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS  Physical attractiveness influences course of commitment  Matching hypothesis: proposes that males and females of approximately equal physical attractiveness are likely to select each other as partners

SIMILARITY EFFECTS  Do “opposites attract”?  NO  Couples tend to be similar in almost every aspect

RECIPROCITY EFFECTS  Reciprocity: liking those who show that they like you  Flattery will get you somewhere  Couples will tend to “idealize” their partner

{ PERSPECTIVES ON THE MYSTERY OF LOVE Blah, blah, blah

PASSIONATE LOVE  DEF: a complete absorption in another that includes tender sexual feelings and the agony and ecstasy of intense emotion

COMPANIONATE LOVE  DEF: warm, trusting, tolerant affection for another whose life is deeply intertwined with one’s own  Divided into:  Intimacy: warmth, closeness, and sharing in a relationship  Commitment: intent to maintain a relationship in spite of the difficulties and costs that may arise

LOVE AS ATTACHMENT  Cindy Hazan and Phillip Shaver  Attachment to caregiver as an infant translates to romantic relationships in adulthood  Secure-attachment leads to secure relationships  Anxious-ambivalent = intensely emotional relationships  Avoidant = casual sex

CULTURE AND CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS  Passionate love in a romantic relationship is not a pan-cultural emphasis  Arranged marriages still exist today