Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

Chapter OneIntroducing Social Psychology

Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

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

Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

Concept Review

Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

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 Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

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

Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

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 Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

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

Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

Concept Review

Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

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 Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

Social and Developmental Psychology

• Developmental psychology examines human growth and change over the lifespan

– social development represents the overlap between the disciplines

Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

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 Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

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 Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

Social Psychology’s Connections to Other Disciplines

• Social psychology relates to several other disciplines

– Sociology

– Anthropology

– Political science

Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

Concept Review

Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

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 Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

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 Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

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

Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

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

Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

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

Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

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

Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 1

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