SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY
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Branch of psychology concerned with the way individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by others
DEF: the process of forming impressions of others
Factors that influence perception: physical appearance, cognitive schemas, stereotypes, and subjectivity
PERSON PERCEPTION
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
EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL
APPEARANCE
Social schemas: organized clusters of ideas about categories of social events and people
Helps to process info
COGNITIVE SCHEMAS
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
STEREOTYPES
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
SUBJECTIVITY IN
PERSON PERCEPTION
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
EVOLUTIONARY
PERSPECTIVE ON BIAS
ATTRIBUTION
PROCESSES
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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
Bernard Weiner
Believes people often focus on the stability of the causes underlying behavior
Stable-unstable dimension to attribution
ATTRIBUTIONS FOR
FAILURE AND SUCCESS
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
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
DEFENSIVE
ATTRIBUTION
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
SELF-SERVING BIAS
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
CULTURE &
ATTRIBUTION
CLOSE
RELATIONSHIPS:
LIKING AND LOVE
{ Interpersonal attraction refers to positive feelings toward another
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
PHYSICAL
ATTRACTIVENESS
Do “opposites attract”?
NO
Couples tend to be similar in almost every aspect
SIMILARITY EFFECTS
Reciprocity: liking those who show that they like you
Flattery will get you somewhere
Couples will tend to “idealize” their partner
RECIPROCITY EFFECTS
PERSPECTIVES ON
THE MYSTERY OF
LOVE
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Blah, blah, blah
DEF: a complete absorption in another that includes tender sexual feelings and the agony and ecstasy of intense emotion
PASSIONATE 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
COMPANIONATE LOVE
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
LOVE AS ATTACHMENT
Passionate love in a romantic relationship is not a pan-cultural emphasis
Arranged marriages still exist today
CULTURE AND CLOSE
RELATIONSHIPS
