Social Psychology
Chapters 20 & 21
Social Cognition
How we think and act in social situations
Attitudes
 Our beliefs and feelings
 About objects, people, and events
 Shape our behavior in certain situations
Developing Attitudes
 Conditioning: we’re trained (sharing toys with our
friends is a good thing to do)
 Observational Learning: through watching others (a
good work ethic pays off)
 Cognitive Evaluation: draw conclusions from our
experiences and multiple sources (we decide
buckling up is the best choice)
 Cognitive Anchors: our conclusions are based on
what we learned as children (homosexuality is wrong)
Persuasion
 An attempt to change someone’s current attitudes
Central Route: uses evidence and logic
Peripheral Route: appeals to feelings
 In sending your message, you have options:
One-Sided Argument: shares your evidence or
emotional appeal
Two-Sided Argument: explains your view, but also
explains why the opposition is wrong
Find an advertisement and identify the
following:
 The Messenger: where is the argument coming from
and who is addressing it?
 The Situation: what setting has the advertisement
established?
 The Audience: who is the message for?
 Do you think this ad is effective? Explain your view!
Prejudices: generalized attitude
towards a specific group
 Causes
 Stereotypes:
unchanging,
 Exaggerating Differences: instead of
oversimplified, and
how alike people are to us
distorted beliefs
 Discrimination:
negative
behaviors; unfair
treatment of a
person because
he/she belongs to
a certain group
 Justifying Economic Status: when
they’re in a different class from us
 Social Learning: copy our parents
and role models
 Victimization: as a defense for
personal prejudices
 Scapegoating: someone has to be
blamed
Social Interaction
How we behave around other people
Conformity
 Changing our attitudes and behaviors
to match someone else’s
To fit in with a group
To match society’s expectations (norms)
Because that’s what our culture demands
 Remember Solomon Asch’s conformity study? People
picked the wrong line simply because everyone else
did
Obedience
 Following the directive of authority figures
 Stanley Milgram’s experiment shocked people
because it found most were willing to harm others
because they were told to
 Why do we blindly obey?
To fit in
Fight larger battles
No strong personal beliefs
If we aren’t aware of the negative consequences
Social Perception
 We judge based on first impressions (primacy effect)
and most recent interaction (recency effect)
 We judge based on what we are like or what we
would have done
 We judge based on the current situation and what we
can tell from our experience
 We judge to make ourselves look better (self-serving
bias), whether we deserve credit or should take the
blame
Interpersonal Relationships: why do we
like certain people?
 Physical Appearance: duh…we are drawn to “pretty”
people
 Similarity: if they’re like us in appearance, beliefs,
opinions, or attitudes
 Reciprocity: do they like us too?
Aggression: words or actions meant to
hurt other people
 Where does aggression come from?
Instinct: we’re born with this defense mechanism
Freud: it’s an unavoidable result of living (and when we
have this release of aggression, it’s called catharsis)
Choice: we choose to respond to our thoughts and
feelings based on past experiences
Learning: threating has been reinforced as the way to
go
Cultural: some groups are more aggressive than others
Body Language
Why is this important?
 Up to 93% of our
communication is nonverbal (gestures, facial
expressions, eye
movement)
 It’s often more honest—
people are unaware of
the cues they’re giving
It’s Our Universal Language
 There are six universal
facial expressions
Happiness
Sadness
Fear
Disgust
Surprise
Anger
The Eyes
 Communicate more than any
other body part
Winning staring contests shows dominance
Long eye contact shows sincerity
Too much blinking can mean deception
 We look to the left when remembering (being honest)
and to the right when creating (lying)
The Mouth
 There are 50+ human smiles due to
the more than 80 facial muscles
 To tell if a smile is true, look for a crinkle in the
middle, outside corner of the eye
 Lips tell a lot too
Biting: anxiousness
Pouty lower lip: sadness
 Grinding teeth is a sign of hiding real feelings
Body Language Depends On…
 Context: where are you?
 Culture: where are you from?
 Age: are you young or old?
 Gender: male or female?