1. Social Psychology
Sharon Evans

2. Think back to someone you have spoken to in the last 48 hours…
What ways was your behaviour influenced by that person?
How might you have influenced them?
Did you find them friendly, kind, attractive, repulsive or cool?
Did they make you feel positive or negative
Did you show your feelings?
If not, why not?
Did you conceal how you really felt?

3. Social Psychologists
Use a tremendous variety of methods to investigate social behaviour, ranging from:
Experiments
Observations
Questionnaires
Case studies
Huge crossover with Sociology!

4. Health Pathway Learners Humanities Pathway Learners

5. Forming impressions of others
Asch (1946) discovered that some descriptions of people influence our judgement about them more than others

6. Asch (1946)
Gave groups of participants two lists of words describing different individuals.
Person A was described as: being intelligent, warm, skilful, industrious, determined, practical and cautious
Person B was described as: being determined, cold, cautious, skilful, practical, industrious and intelligent
Participants were then asked to rate both on a number of personality characteristics: such as kindness, humour and generosity.

7. The Results
The two lists contained exactly the same words except ’warm’ and ‘cold’.
Would they produce the same results?

8. The Results
Asch found that the words ‘warm’ and ‘cold’ had a huge effect on the impressions formed by the participants
Person A was described as being generous by 90% of the participants and humourous by 75%
Person B was only described as being generous and humourous by 10% of the participants.

9. Findings from last week’s experiment…
Person A: was described as
Generous by 89% of the group
Humourous by 100% of the group
Humane by 78% of the group
Person B: was described as
Generous by 66% of the group
Humourous by 66% of the group
Ruthless by 58% of the group

10. Central Traits
Asch (1946) concluded that some traits were much more influential than others with regards to impression formation
Not so important polite v blunt
Very important warm v cold (but think of different situations)
He called these central traits

11. Central traits
A central trait is an attribute in someone’s personality that is considered particularly meaningful, in that its presence or absence signals the presence or absence of other traits.
For example, if a person has a warm personality, it usually means that they are also friendly, courteous, cheerful, and outgoing—among many other possible traits.

12. Peripheral traits
A peripheral trait is one whose presence or absence does not imply many other characteristics.
For example, if a person is sarcastic, it might imply that he or she is cynical about the world or has a dark sense of humour—but not much else.

13. Central V peripheral Traits
Information about central traits influences our perceptions of others more than information about peripheral traits does

14. However…
Further studies found that context is also important. Traits could be central in certain contexts and peripheral in others
Kelley (1950) found that peoples’ impressions of others can affect the way they behave towards them

15. What are the consequences of such findings?

16. The halo effect

17. The halo effect
Halo effect  can be seen as a tendency to generally evaluate a person

18. The Halo Effect
When we are given a description of a person and it contains one or two positive traits, such as kindness and generosity, we tend to see that person having many more positive characteristics as well ~ despite not really knowing if they do
For example, a person who is generally liked might be judged as more intelligent, competent, and honest than a person who is generally disliked

19. The reverse is also true…
We tend to see a person as generally bad when one or two negative traits are used to describe a person
The halo effect is strongest when we know little about the person being judged

20. The importance of first impressions
Its not just the number of positive or negative traits which are important in the impressions we form of others.
Asch (1946) found that it’s also the time which they are presented to us, is also important

21. For example: you tell a tutor that one of your group is lazy, fickle and careless but then in the next lesson a different member of the group says that the person is actually studious and thoughtful ~ what and who do you believe?
Lazy, fickle and careless or studious and thoughtful ~ quite a difference!?

22. Primacy effect
For most of us, we resolve this conflict by judging the person on the first information we receive and ignoring what comes later ~ Primacy Effect

23. Recency effect
However, if there is time lag between the first piece of information and the second piece, we are more likely to remember and judge the person on the most recent information or description given ~ Recency Effect

24. So…
First impressions are really important in creating the right image, especially if you are not likely to get a second chance to put forward a favourable image

25. Further implications Primacy and Recency effects
Play the Game

26. Further implications Primacy and Recency effects
Given a list of items, we will tend to remember the first few things and the last few things more than those things in the middle. We also tend to assume that items at the beginning of the list and the things at the end are of greater importance or significance.

27. In action…
On TV game shows (such as the Generation Game) where people can win everything in a list of items they see, they usually at least remember the first few and last few items.

28. One reason is that the listener is more likely to start off paying attention, then drifting off when the topic gets boring or the listener is processing the data you have given them, then they pay attention again towards the end. The limitations of memory also have an effect, and we can miss middle items as we continue to rehearse and process the initial items.

29. So…
If you want something to stand out in a person’s mind, use it at the beginning of a conversation or written list, etc., or right at the end. Don’t let it get lost in the middle. Repeat the message consecutively several times to embed it in their minds.

30. For next time, look up Miller’s Law
The magical number seven, plus or minus two