Social Psychology

The branch of psychology that studies how people think, feel, and behave in social situations

Two Basic Areas of Social Psych Social cognition –the study of the mental processes people use to make sense out of their social environment Social influence –the study of the effect of situational factors and other people on an individual’s behavior

Making Sense of Others How you form your judgments

Social Cognition The mental processes that people use to make sense out of their social environment: –Person perception –Social categorization –Implicit personality theory –Attribution –Attitudes –Stereotypes

Person Perception Mental processes we use to form judgments and draw conclusions about the characteristics and motives of others

This is an active & subjective process that occurs in a interpersonal context that has three components: –The characteristics of the person you are sizing up –Your own characteristics as a perceiver –The specific situation the process occurs in

Person Perception’s Four Basic Principles Factors that determine your person perception of others: You treat others according to how you perceive them to be, not by who or what they really are Your goals determine the amount and kind of information you collect You evaluate people partly in terms of how you expect them to behave (social norms) Your self-perception influences how you perceive others

Social Categorization Mental process of classifying people into groups on the basis of their shared characteristics. Categories are usually broad: gender, race, age, occupation.

Implicit Personality Theories A network of assumptions about the relationship among various types of people, traits, and behaviors. Form cognitive schemas through our previous experiences that we begin to associate with different “types” of people.

Prior Information Effects Mental representations of people (schemas) can effect our interpretation of them H.H. Kelley’s study

Physical Attractiveness Implicit cultural message is “beautiful is good” Attractive people are perceived as more intelligent, happier, and better adjusted Really NO difference between attractive and less attractive people on these characteristics

Effects of Personal Appearance Attractiveness Bias Physically attractive people are rated higher on intelligence, competence, sociability, and morality Baby-face Bias People with rounder heads, large eyes, small jawbones, etc, rated as more naïve, honest, helpless, kind, and warm than mature-faced people

Attribution Process of inferring the causes of people’s behavior, including one’s own The explanation given for a particular behavior

Attribution Theory People tend to give a causal explanation for someone’s behavior, often by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition

Types of Attributions Classified along two dimensions: –internal (dispositional) vs. external (situational) –stable vs. unstable

Internal vs. External In an internal, or dispositional, attribution, people infer that an event or a person’s behavior is due to personal factors such as traits, abilities, or feelings. In an external, or situational, attribution, people infer that a person’s behavior is due to situational factors.

Stable vs. Unstable stable attribution, infers that an event or behavior is due to stable, unchanging factors unstable attribution, infers that an event or behavior is due to unstable, temporary factors

Effects of Attribution

Attribution Bias Fundamental attribution error Just-world hypothesis Self-serving bias Self-effacing bias

Fundamental Attribution Error The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to attribute other people’s behavior to internal factors such as personality traits, abilities, and feelings People tend to blame or credit the person more than the situation. It is common in individualistic cultures

The Just World Hypothesis Just-world bias –a tendency to believe that life is fair, people get what they deserve and deserve what they get –it would seem horrible to think that you can be a really good person and bad things could happen to you anyway Just-world bias leads to “blaming the victim” –we explain others’ misfortunes as being their fault, –e.g., she deserved to be raped, what was she doing in that neighborhood anyway?

Self-Serving Bias Tendency to attribute successful outcomes of one’s own behavior to internal causes and unsuccessful outcomes to external, situational causes Individualistic Cultures do this

Self-Effacing Bias Involves blaming failure on internal, personal factors, while attributing success to external, situational factors –Collectivist cultures do this. –Less likely to commit the fundamental attribution error –More likely to attribute the causes of another person’s behavior to external, situational factors rather than to internal, personal