SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

INTRODUCTION TO • Thinking, memory, and attitude all

operate on two levels—one

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY conscious and deliberate, the other

unconscious and automatic.
• Social intuitions are noteworthy for
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY both their powers and perils.
 is a science that studies the influences
of our situations, with special SOCIAL INFLUENCE
attention to how we view and affect  Culture
one another.  Pressures to conform
 It is the scientific study of how people  Persuasion
think about, influence, and relate to  Groups of people
one another.
 Focuses more on individuals and Social influences shape our behavior
does more experimentation • Humans are social animals. We long
compared to Sociology. to connect, to belong, and to be well
 It focuses less on individuals’ thought of. Relationships are a big
differences and more on how part of being human.
people, in general, view and affect • As social creatures, we respond to our
one another. immediate contexts.
 It studies our thinking, influences, and • Our culture helps define our situations
relationships by asking questions that
have intrigued us all. Personal attitudes and dispositions also
shape behavior.
SOCIAL THINKING • Our inner attitudes affect our outer
 How we perceive ourselves and behavior.
others • Personality dispositions affect our
 What we believe behavior. Different people facing the
 Judgements we make same situation may react differently
 Our attitudes to it.

We construct our Social reality SOCIAL RELATIONS

• People would usually attribute  Prejudice
behavior to some cause and make it  Aggression
seem orderly, predictable, and  Attraction and intimacy
controllable.  Helping
• The objective reality is always out
there, but we always view it through Social behavior is biologically rooted
the lens of our beliefs and values • A combination of nature and nurture
forms who we are.
Our social intuitions are often powerful but • Our inherited human nature
sometimes perilous predisposes us to behave in ways that
• Instant intuitions shape fears, helped our ancestors survive and
impressions, ad relationships reproduce.
• Nature endows us with an enormous
capacity to learn and to adapt to
Source: Myers & Twenge – Social Psychology – McGraw Hill Education – 2015 AE-2P1
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

varied environments. We are sensitive  Values obviously enter the picture as

and responsive to our social context. the object of social psychological
• Social neuroscience is an analysis
interdisciplinary field that explores the
neural bases of social and emotional SUBTLE
processes and behaviors, and how
these affect our brain and biology. The subjective aspects of science
• To understand behavior, we must • Science is not purely objective.
consider biological and social Scientists do not simply read the book
influences. of nature. Rather they interpret
• We are bio-psycho-social organisms nature, using their own mental
that reflect the interplay of our categories.
biological, psychological, and social • Culture – refers to the enduring
influences. behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and
traditions shared by a large group of
Social psychology’s principles are people and transmitted from one
applicable in everyday life. generation to the next
• It offers many ideas about how to • Social representations – are a
know our selves better and how to society’s widely held ideas and
win friends and influence people. values including assumptions and
cultural ideologies. Our social
HUMAN VALUES INFLUENCE SOCIAL representations help us make sense
PSYCHOLOGY of our world
 Social psychology is less a collection
of findings than a set of strategies for Psychological concepts contain hidden
answering questions. values
 Values – are personal convictions • Implicit in our understanding that
about what is desirable and how psychology is not objective is the
people ought to behave. realization that psychologists’ own
 Values enter psychology in obvious values may play an important part in
and in subtle ways the theories and judgements they
support.
OBVIOUS • When it comes to Defining the good
 Values enter when social life, values influence our idea of how
psychologists choose research topics. best to live.
 It has been suggested that we can • Professional advice also reflects the
expect future research to reflect advice giver’s personal values.
today’s and tomorrow’s issues, Unaware of these hidden values,
including immigration, income many people defer to the
inequality, and aging. “professional”.
 Values differ across time and across • When it comes to forming concepts,
cultures hidden values seep into psychology’s
 Values also influence the types of research-based concepts. Different
people who are attracted to various labels may come from varying
disciplines. psychologists, although describing
the same set of responses.

Source: Myers & Twenge – Social Psychology – McGraw Hill Education – 2015 AE-2P1
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Labeling. Value judgements are RESEARCH METHODS OF SOCIAL

often hidden within our psychological PSYCHOLOGY
language. Values lie hidden within
our cultural definitions of mental FORMING AND TESTING HYPOTHESES
health, our psychological advice for  Theory – is an integrated set of
living, our concepts, and our principles that explain and predict
psychological labels. observed events. These are ideas that
summarize and explain facts. A good
Despite having subjectivity and biases theory:
within science itself, this realization is why we • Effectively summarizes many
need researchers with varying biases to observations
undertake scientific analysis. By constantly • Makes clear predictions that can
checking our beliefs against the facts, we be used to confirm or modify the
restrain our biases. theory, generate new exploration,
and suggest practical
NEW INSIGHTS THROUGH SOCIAL applications.
PSYCHOLOGY  Hypotheses – testable predictions
 Social psychology faces two implied by theories. These allow us to
contradictory criticisms. It is trivial test a theory by suggesting ho we
because it documents the obvious; might try to falsify it. It can give
and that it is dangerous because its direction to research and sometimes
findings could be used to manipulate send investigators looking for things
people. they might never have thought of.
 One problem with common sense is Good theories are also practical.
that we invoke it after we know the
facts. CORRELATIONAL RESEARCH: DETECTING
 In everyday life we often do not NATURAL ASSOCIATIONS
expect something to happen until it  Understanding the logic of research
does. Then we suddenly clearly see can also help in thinking critically
the forces that brought the event about everyday social events and
about and feel unsurprised. We may better understand studies you see
also misremember our earlier view. covered in the media.
 Hindsight bias – the tendency to  Field research – research done in
exaggerate after learning the natural real-life settings outside the
outcome, one’s ability to have laboratory
foreseen how something turned out.  Correlational research – the study of
It is also known as the I-knew-it-all- naturally occurring relationships
along phenomenon. among variables
 Sometimes common sense is usually  Experimental research – studies that
wrong, and at other times, seek cues to cause-effect
conventional wisdom is right. relationships by manipulating one or
 Common sense is not predictably more factors while controlling others.
wrong. Rather, common sense usually
is right— after the fact.

Source: Myers & Twenge – Social Psychology – McGraw Hill Education – 2015 AE-2P1
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Correlation and causation processes whenever it is feasible and

• Correlations indicate a relationship, ethical.
but that relationship is not necessarily  Experiments have two major
one of cause and effect. advantages over correlational
• Correlation research allow us to studies: random assignment and
predict, but it cannot tell us whether control.
one variable cause another.
• Advance correlational techniques Random assignment
can suggest cause-effect • A survey researcher might measure
relationships and statistically extract other possibly
- Time lagged correlations reveal pertinent factors and see if the
the sequence of events correlations survive. But one can
never control for all the factors that
Survey research might distinguish obese from non-
• We measure variables by surveying obese, and viewers of violence from
representative samples of people. non-viewers.
• A Random sample – one in which • Random assignment – eliminates all
every person in the population being extraneous factors. With this, each
studied has an equal chance of person has an equal chance of
inclusion viewing the violence or the non-
• Polls do not literally predict voting violence. Thus, the people in both
outcomes. Instead, they describe groups would average in every
public opinion at the moment they conceivable way.
are taken.
• Framing – is the way a question or an Experiments randomly assign people
issue is posed. This can influence either to a condition that receives the
people’s decisions and expressed experimental treatment or to a
opinions. control condition that does not. This
gives the researcher confidence that
Unrepresentative samples - How closely any later difference is somehow
the sample represents the population caused by the treatment.
under study matters greatly.
Order of questions – we must also Control
contend with other sources of bias such • Social psychologists experiment by
as the order of questions in a survey. constricting social situations that
Response options – also consider the stimulate important features of our
dramatic effects of response options daily lives.
Wording of questions – the precise • By varying one or two independent
wording of questions may also influence variables at a time, the experimenter
answers. pinpoints their influence.
• Independent variable – is the
EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH: SEARCHING FOR experimental factor that a researcher
CAUSE AND EFFECT manipulates.
 Social psychologists often create • By creating and controlling a
laboratory simulations of everyday miniature reality, we can vary on
factor and then another and

Source: Myers & Twenge – Social Psychology – McGraw Hill Education – 2015 AE-2P1
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

discover how those factors, participants regarding their

separately or in combination affect understandings and feelings.
people.
GENERALIZING FROM LABORATORY TO LIFE
Replication  Social psychology mixes everyday
• A handful of unreliable findings, some experience and laboratory analysis.
from researchers who committed  Social psychology displays a healthy
fraud by faking data, have raised interplay between laboratory
concerns about the reproducibility of research and everyday life.
medical and psychological research.  However, we need to be cautious in
• Researchers must precisely explain generalizing from laboratory to life.
their stimuli and procedures so that After all, it is still a simplified, controlled
others can match them. reality.

Ethics
• Social experiments venture in
between the ethical and unethical
when they design experiments that
engage intense thoughts and
emotions.
• Mundane realism – degree to which
an experiment is superficially similar to
everyday situations.
• Experimental realism – degree to
which an experiment absorbs and
involves its participants.
• Experiments do not need to have
mundane realism. Instead, the
experiment should have
experimental realism.
• Deception – an effect by which
participants are misinformed or
misled about the study’s methods
and purposes. Intro to social psychology
• Demand characteristics – Cues in an
experiment that tell the participant 1. Power of the situation – soc psych shows
what behavior is expected. how powerful context is in influencing our
• Informed consent – an ethical actions and behavior.
principle requiring that research 2. Soc psych follows the scientific method –
participants be told enough to there are multiple methods that people use,
enable them to choose whether they but the primary ones are correlational and
wish to participate. experimental methods.
• Debriefing – the post-experimental
explanation of a study to its Social psychology
participants. It usually discloses any
deception and often queries

Source: Myers & Twenge – Social Psychology – McGraw Hill Education – 2015 AE-2P1
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

- Science that studies the influences our 5. Personal attitudes and dispositions also
situations, with special attention to how we shape our behavior
view and affect one another 6. Social psychology’s principles are applicable
- It is an environmental science in that it reveals in everyday life.
how the social environment affects our
behavior. Is social psychology common sense?
- Some findings are counter intuitive
 Social thinking – how people think of one - Some are pro-intuition
another and make sense of their world. - Common sense is easy to have in hindsight
How they decide what to believe, evaluate - Social psychologists must test intuitions using
other people’s motives, personalities, and experiments to isolate the cause of the
abilities, and reach conclusions about the behavior in social situations.
causes of events.
 Social influence – how people influence one Research methods
another. Asch’s studies of group pressure: - Theories
In three-lines perceptual judgement - Correlational research – determines whether
experiment, 3/4 did conform and give the relationships exists between two variables
wrong answer at least once. Even though - Experimental research – is to establish causa
the right answer was clear to them, they relationships
gave the wrong answer because everyone
else did. - Surveys and questionnaires
• Informational Conformity – if we think - Field experiments -participants does not know
others are right that they are in an experiment.
• Normative Conformity – fear of being
viewed as a deviant Ethics of experimentations
 Social relation - Sometimes deception is used
• Bystander effect: the presence of other - Debriefing is required
bystanders greatly decreases likelihood
of intervention due to diffusion of
responsibility.

Related disciplines
- Personality psychology – focuses on the effects
of individual traits and characteristics.
- Cognitive psychology – how people perceive
think about and remember the aspects of the
world.
- Sociology – studies in groups and societies

Fundamental principles of social psychology

1. We construct our social reality
2. Our intuitions are often powerful but
sometimes perilous.
3. Social influences shape our behavior
4. Social behavior is biologically rooted

Source: Myers & Twenge – Social Psychology – McGraw Hill Education – 2015 AE-2P1
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 1

THE SELF IN A SOCIAL

 Self-schemas – beliefs about self that
organize and guide the processing of self-
relevant information. These affect how we

WORLD perceive, remember, and evaluate other

people and ourselves.
SPOTLIGHTS AND ILLUSIONS
 Spotlight effect means seeing ourselves at Social comparisons
center stage and thus intuitively • This refers to evaluating one’s abilities and
overestimating the extent to which others’ opinions by comparing oneself with others.
attention is aimed at us. It is the belief that • Others help define the standard by which we
others are paying more attention to our define ourselves as rich or poor, smart or
appearance and behavior than they really rdumb, tall or short.
are. • Schadenfreude - is the experience of
 Illusion of transparency – is the illusion that our pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes
concealed emotions leak out and can be from learning of or witnessing the troubles,
easily read by others. failures, or humiliation of another.
 People also overestimate the visibility of • Social comparisons can diminish our
social blunders and public metal slips. satisfaction. We judge not just how much fun
 Social surroundings affect our self-awareness we are having—but how it measures up to
– when we are the only member of our race, the fun everyone else is having.
gender, or nationality in a group, we notice
how we differ and how others are reacting to Other people’s judgements
our difference. • When people think well of us, we think well of
 Self-interest colors our social judgement – ourselves.
when problems arise in a close relationship, • The looking glass self – is how Charles H.
we usually attribute more responsibility to our Cooley described how we think of others
partners than to ourselves. perceive us as a mirror for perceiving
 Self-concern motivates our social behavior – ourselves.
we agonize our appearance in hopes of • We may, therefore, overestimate others’
making a positive impression. We monitor appraisal, inflating our self-images.
others’ behavior and expectations and
adjust our behavior accordingly. SELF AND CULTURE
 Social relationships help define our sense of  Individualism – the concept of giving priority
self – we have varying selves in varying to one’s own goals over group goals and
relationships and when relationships change, defining one’s identity in terms of personal
our self-concepts can change as well. attributes rather than group identifications.
 Although our actions are not consciously  Independent self – construing identity as an
controlled, the self does enable long-term autonomous self
planning, goal setting, and restraint.  Collectivism – giving priority to the goals of
one’s group and defining one’s identity
SELF-CONCEPT: WHO AM I? accordingly.
 In industrialized western cultures,
OUR SENSE OF SELF individualism prevails. Western culture
 The most important aspect of yourself is your assumes that one’s life will be enriched by
self. believing in your power of personal control.
 Studies suggest that the right hemisphere  Most cultures native to Asia, Africa, and
plays an important role in the arising of one’s Central and South America place a greater
self. value on collectivism, by respecting and
 Medial prefrontal cortex – is a neuron path identifying with the group.
located in the cleft between the brain
hemispheres just behind the eyes. This Growing individualism within cultures
seemingly stitches together one’s sense of • Cultures can also change over time, and
self. This brain region becomes more active many seem to be growing more
when an individual thinks about itself. individualistic.
 Schemas – are mental templates by which • Words that represent individualism appeared
we organize our worlds. to be used more often compared to the

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2
previous decades. Words implying • Planning fallacy – the tendency to
collectivism appears to be used less. underestimate how long it will take to
complete a task.
Culture and Cognition • The best way to improve your self-predictions
• Collectivism also results in different ways of is to be more realistic how long tasks took in
thinking. Variations in perception are noted the past. People underestimate how long
in a number of researches. something will take because they
• When asked about the purpose of language, misremember previous tasks as taking less
American students were more likely to time than they actually did.
explain that it allows self-expression, whereas • Another useful strategy is to estimate how
Korean students focused on how language long each step in a project will take.
allows communication with others.
• Collectivistic cultures also promote a greater Predicting our feelings
sense of belonging and more integration • Sometimes we know how we will feel in
between the self and others. various situations. We know what exhilarates
• Interdependent selves have not one self but us and what makes us anxious or bored.
many selves: self-with-parents, self-at-work, Other times we may mispredict our
self-with friends. responses.
• In a collectivistic culture, the goal of social life • Studies of Affective forecasting reveal that
is to harmonize with and support one’s people have the greatest difficulty
communities, not—as it is in individualistic predicting the intensity and the duration of
societies—to enhance one’s individual self their future emotions.
and make independent choices. • People often miswant. Studies reveal our
vulnerability to impact bias—overestimating
Culture and self-esteem the enduring impact of emotion-causing
• In collectivist cultures, self-esteem tends to be events. The emotional traces of such good
malleable and context-specific rather than tidings evaporate faster than we expect.
being stable and enduring across situations. • We are especially prone to impact bias after
• For individualistic cultures, self-esteem is more negative events. As we focus on the
personal and less relational. negative events, we discount the
• Culture can shape self-views even in short importance of everything else that
periods of time contributes to happiness and thus
overpredict our enduring misery.
• People neglect the speed and the power of
their coping mechanisms, which include
rationalizing, discounting, forgiving, and
limiting emotional trauma. Because we are
unaware of the speed and strength of our
coping, we adapt to disabilities, romantic
breakups, exam failures, layoffs, and
personal ant team defeats more readily than
we would expect.
• Major negative events can be less enduringly
distressing than minor irritations which don’t
activate our defenses.
SELF-KNOWLEDGE
 We certainly try to know our own selves and Wisdom and illusions of self-analysis
readily form beliefs about it. • When the causes of our behavior are
 The unavoidable conclusion of some conspicuous and the correct explanation fits
fascinating research is that sometimes we our intuition, our self-perceptions will be
think we know, but our inside information is accurate.
wrong. • We are unaware of much that goes on in our
minds. Perception and memory studies show
Predicting our behavior that we are more aware of the results of our
• One of the most common errors in behavior thinking than of its process.
prediction is underestimating how long it will • Dual attitude system – differing implicit and
take to complete a task. explicit attitudes toward the same object.

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 3
Verbalized explicit attitudes may change  Ironically, those who purse self-esteem may
with education and persuasion; implicit lose sight of what really makes them feel
attitudes change slowly, with practice that good about themselves.
forms new habits.  When we focus on boosting our self-esteem,
• Self-reports are often untrustworthy. Errors in we become less open to criticism, less likely
self-understanding limit the scientific to empathize with others, and more
usefulness of subjective personal reports. pressured to succeed at activities rather than
• Personal testimonies are powerfully enjoy them.
persuasive. But they may also be wrong.  Self-compassion – leaving behind
Keeping this potential for error in mind can comparisons with others and instead treating
help us feel less intimidated by others and ourselves with kindness.
become less gullible.
LOW VS. HIGH SELF-ESTEEM
NATURE AND MOTIVATING POWER OF SELF-ESTEEM  People low in self-esteem are more
 Self-esteem – a person’s overall self- vulnerable to anxiety, loneliness, and eating
evaluation or sense of self-worth. disorders.
 Specific self-perceptions do have some  People with low self-esteem are quick to
influence. believe that their partners are criticizing or
rejecting them. They become less satisfied
SELF ESTEEM MOTIVATION with their relationships and are more likely to
 Most people are extremely motivated to leave those relationships.
maintain their self-esteem.  Those low in self-esteem also don’t want to
 Among sibling relationships, the threat to self- hear positive things about negative
esteem is greatest for an older child with a experiences. Instead, they prefer
highly capable younger brother or sister understanding responses even if they tend to
 Self-esteem threats also occur among be negative.
friends, whose success can be more  Longitudinal study – research in which the
threatening that of strangers. same people are studied over an extended
 High self-esteem people usually react to a period of time.
self-esteem threat by compensating for it.  It has been found that those who had low
These reactions help them preserve their self-esteem as teens were more likely to later
positive feelings about themselves. be depressed, suggesting that low self-
 Low self-esteem people are more likely to esteem causes depression instead of the
blame themselves or give up. other way around.
 Self-esteem is believed to be similar to a fuel
gauge. Relationships enable surviving and  When good things happen, people with high
thriving, so the self-esteem gauge alerts is to self-esteem are more likely to savor and
threatened social rejection, motivating us to sustain the good feelings.
act with greater sensitivity to others’  Self-serving perceptions can be useful. It may
expectations. be strategic to believe we are smarter,
 Terror management theory – argues that stronger, and more socially successful than
humans must find ways to manage their we are.
overwhelming fear of death. Jeff Greenberg  High self-esteem fosters initiative, resilience,
argues that the reality of our own death and pleasant feelings
motivates us to gain recognition from our
work and values. To feel our lives are not in Narcissism
vain, Greenberg maintains, we must • High self-esteem becomes especially
continually pursue self-esteem by meeting problematic if it crosses to narcissism.
the standards of our societies. • Narcissism – mean having an inflated sense
 Actively pursuing self-esteem, however, can of self.
backfire as students whose self-worth was • Narcissists usually have high self-esteem, but
contingent on external sources experienced they are missing the piece about caring for
more stress, anger, relationship problems, others.
drug and alcohol use, and eating disorders • Narcissism is among the “Dark Triad” of
than did those whose sense of self-worth mas negative traits, along with Machiavellianism
rooted more in internal sources such as and antisocial psychopathy.
personal virtues.

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 4
• Narcissists are especially likely to lash out themselves as better than the average
when the insult is delivered publicly—and person.
thus punctures their carefully constructed  Self-serving bias is also common in marriages
bubble of superiority. that 49% of men said they did half to most of
• A culture’s growing individualism also the child care while 31% of wives said their
promotes narcissism. husbands did this much. 70% of the women
• Narcissism correlates with materialism, the said they do most of the cooking but 56% of
desire to be famous, inflated expectations men said they do most of the cooking.
and fewer committed relationships, more  With these said, it can be said that group
gambling and more cheating. members’ estimates of how much they
• It is also linked to a lack of empathy which contribute to a joint task typically sum to
pertains to the ability to take someone else’s more than 100%.
perspective and be concerned about their
problems. UNREALISTIC OPTIMISM
 Studies of more than 90,000 people across 22
SELF-EFFICACY cultures reveal that most humans are more
 A sense that one is competent and effective, disposed to optimism than pessimism.
distinguished from self-esteem, which is one’s  Partly because of relative pessimism about
sense of self-worth. others’ fates, students perceive themselves
 Children and adults with strong feelings of as far more likely than their classmates to get
self-efficacy are more persistent, less anxious a good job, draw a good salary, and own a
and less depressed. Moreover, they live home.
healthier lives and are more academically  Unrealistic optimism appears to be on the rise
successful. as we consider and compare the optimism of
students in the 1970s and 2012.
SELF-SERVING BIAS  Illusory optimism increases our vulnerability.
 Refers to the tendency to perceive oneself Believing ourselves immune to misfortune, we
favorably. do not take sensible precautions.
 Its potency is one of social psychology’s most  This absurd presumption in their own good
provocative yet firmly established fortune arises from the overweening conceit
conclusions. which the greater part of men have their own
abilities.
EXPLAINING POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EVENTS  Optimism definitely beats pessimism in
 Dozens of experiments found that people promoting self-efficacy, health, and well-
accept credit when they told they have being.
succeeded. They attribute success to their  Defensive pessimism – the adaptive value of
ability and effort, but they attribute failure to anticipating problems and harnessing one’s
external factors such as bad luck or the anxiety to motivate effective action.
problem’s inherent “impossibility”.
 Self-serving attributions – a form of self- FALSE CONSENSUS AND UNIQUENESS
serving bias. It is the tendency to attribute  False consensus – refers to the tendency to
positive outcomes to oneself and negative overestimate the commonality of one’s
outcomes to oneself and negative outcomes opinions and one’s undesirable or
to other factors. unsuccessful behaviors.
 We help maintain our positive self-images by  We have a curious tendency to enhance our
associating ourselves with a success and self-images by overestimating or
distancing ourselves from failure. underestimating how much others think and
 People are even biased against seeing their act as we do.
own bias. They claim they avoid self-serving  When we behave badly or fail in a task, we
bias themselves but readily acknowledge reassure ourselves by thinking that such
that others commit this bias. lapses are also common.
 False consensus may occur because we
 Self-serving bias also appears when people generalize from a limited sample, which
compares themselves with others. prominently includes ourselves.
 On subjective, socially desirable, and  False uniqueness effect – the tendency to
common dimensions, most people see underestimate the commonality of one’s

Source: Myers & Twenge – Social Psychology – McGraw Hill Education – 2015 AE-2P1
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 5
abilities and one’s desirable or successful desire for social acceptance that it can lead
behaviors. to people risk harming themselves through
smoking, binge eating, premature sex, or
EXPLAINING SELF-SERVING BIAS drug and alcohol abuse.
 Self-serving bias may have always occurred  Self-presentation – refers to the act of
because of errors in how we process and expressing oneself and behaving in ways
remember information about ourselves. designed to create a favorable impression or
 Comparing ourselves with others requires us an impression that corresponds to one’s
to notice, assess, and recall their behavior ideals.
and ours.  Just as we preserve our self-esteem, we also
 Questing for self-knowledge, we assess our must make sure not to brag too much and
competence risk the disapproval of others.
 Questing for self-confirmation, we are  Social interaction is a careful balance of
motivated to verify our self-conceptions looking good while not looking too good.
 Questing for self-affirmation, we are  In familiar situations, self-presentation
especially motivated to enhance our self- happens without conscious effort.
image.  In unfamiliar situations, we are acutely self-
 Trying to enhance our self-esteem, then, conscious of the impressions we are creating
helps power our self-serving bias. and we are therefore less modest than when
among friends who know us very well.
 Social networking sites provide a new and
intense venue for self-preservation.
 Given the concern with status and
attractiveness on social networking sites, it is
not surprising that people high in narcissistic
traits thrive on Facebook, tallying up more
friends and choosing more attractive
pictures of themselves.
 Self-monitoring – refers to being attuned to
the way one presents oneself in social
situations and adjusting one’s performance
to create the desired impression.
 Those who score high on a scale of self-
monitoring act like social chameleons as
SELF-PRESENTATION they try to adjust their behavior to the
situation.
SELF-HANDICAPPING  Those low on self-monitoring care less about
 Sometimes people sabotage their chances what others think, They are more internally
for success by creating impediments that guided and thus more likely to talk and act
make success less likely. Such behaviors as they feel and believe.
typically have a self-protective aims.
 Fearing failure, people might handicap SELF-CONTROL
themselves by doing things that lessens their  Self-control requires mental and physical
chances of success. Once we fail while energy.
handicapped in some way, we can cling to  Effortful self-control depletes our limited
a sense of competence that we could have willpower reserves.
succeeded under certain conditions.  Self-control operates similarly to muscle
 Handicaps protect both self-esteem and strength. Both are weaker after exertion
public age by allowing us to attribute failures replenished with rest, and strengthened by
to something temporary or external. exercise
 Self-handicapping – protecting one’s self-
image with behaviors that create a handy
excuse for later failure.

IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT
 We are continually managing the
impressions we create. So great is the human
Source: Myers & Twenge – Social Psychology – McGraw Hill Education – 2015 AE-2P1
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 1

SOCIAL BELIEFS AND

o Emotional reactions – are often nearly
instantaneous, happening before there is
time for deliberate thinking.
JUDGEMENT o Expertise – given sufficient expertise,
people may intuitively know the answer
to a problem
HOW DO WE JUDGE OUR SOCIAL WORLDS? o Snap judgements – a judgement made
 Brain system 1 – Functions automatically and out with even just a fraction of a glance.
of our awareness. (intuition or gut-feeling)  Controlled processing – explicit thinking that
 Brain system 2 – requires or conscious attention is deliberate, reflective, and conscious. It is
and effort. also known as system 2.
 Recent research suggests that system 1
influences more of our actions than we realize Limits of intuition
 A general consensus that the unconscious
PRIMING may not be as smart as previously believed
 Refers to the awakening or activation of  Illusory intuition appears in how we take in,
particular associations in memory store, and retrieve social information
 Even without awareness, it can influence  Demonstrations of how people create false
thoughts and actions beliefs do not prove that all beliefs are false.
 It effects surface even when the stimuli are
presented subliminally—too briefly to be OVERCONFIDENCE
perceived consciously.  Refers to the tendency to be more confident
 Unnoticed events can also subtly prime our than correct—to overestimate the accuracy
thinking and behavior of one’s beliefs.
 Most of a person’s daily life is determined not  The overconfidence phenomenon is a result
by their conscious intentions and deliberate of biases and information processing
choices but by metal processes that are put  Incompetence feeds overconfidence
into motion by features of the environment  It takes competence to recognize
that operate outside of conscious awareness competence
and guidance.  Ignorance of one’s incompetence occurs
 Embodied cognition – the mutual influence mostly on relatively easy-seeming tasks
of bodily sensations on cognitive preferences o Stockbroker overconfidence
and social judgements o Political overconfidence
 Our social cognition is embodied. The brains o Student overconfidence
systems that process our bodily sensations
communicate with the brain systems Confirmation bias
responsible for our social thinking.  Refers to the tendency to search for
information that confirms one’s perceptions
INTUITIVE JUDGEMENTS  People tend not to seek information that
 Priming research hints that the unconscious might disprove what they believe
indeed controls much of our behavior  We are very eager to verify our beliefs but less
inclined to seek evidence that might
Powers of intuition disprove hem.
 We know more than we know we know  It appears to be a system 1 snap judgement,
 Studies of our unconscious information where our default reaction is to look for
processing confirm our limited access to information consistent with our
what’s going on in our minds. presupposition.
 Automatic processing – implicit thinking that  It helps explain why our self-images are so
is effortless, habitual, and without awareness. remarkably stable.
It roughly corresponds with intuition and is
also known as system 1 Remedies for overconfidence
o Schemas – mental concepts or  Be wary of other people’s dogmatic
templates that intuitively guide our statements.
perceptions and interpretations.  Receive prompt feedback
 Get people to think of one good reason why
their judgements may be wrong
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2
HEURISTICS MOODS AND JUDGEMENTS
 A thinking strategy that enables quick,  Social judgement involves efficient
efficient judgements. information processing.
 It enables us to make routine decisions with  Our moods infuse our judgements
minimal effort  A depressed mood motivates intense
thinking—a search for information that
Representativeness heuristic makes one’s environment more memorable,
 The tendency to presume, sometimes understandable, and controllable.
despite contrary odds, that someone or  If people are made temporarily happy be
something belongs to a particular group if receiving a small gift while shopping, they will
resembling a typical member report, a few moments later on an unrelated
survey, that their cars and TV sets are working
Availability heuristic beautifully
 A cognitive rule that judges the likelihood of  Moods pervade our thinking
things in terms of their availability in memory.  Our moods color how we judge our worlds
If instances of something come readily to partly by bringing into mind past experiences
mind, we presume it to be compliance. associated with the mood.
 The more easily we remember something,  Mood-related thoughts may distract us from
the more likely it seems complex thinking about something else.

COUNTERFACTUAL THINKING HOW DO WE PERCEIVE OUR SOCIAL WORLDS?

 Refers to imagining scenarios and outcomes  Our preconceptions guide how we perceive
that might have happened, but didn’t. and interpret information.
 Cognitively available events influences our  We construe the world through belief-tinted
experience glasses
 It underlies our feeling of luck
 The more significant and unlikely the event, PERCEIVING AND INTERPRETING EVENTS
the more intense the counterfactual thinking.  Despite startling biases and logical flaws in
how we perceive and understand one
ILLUSORY THINKING another, we are mostly accurate.
 Another influence on everyday thinking is our  Our first impressions of one another are more
search for order in random events, a often right than wrong.
tendency that can lead us down all sorts of  Our prejudgments err. The effects of
wrong paths prejudgments and expectations are
standard fare for psychology’s introductory
Illusory correlation course
 Perception of a relationship where none  Political perceptions – even a simple stimulus
exists, or perception of a stronger relationship may strike two people quite differently.
than actually exists People everywhere perceive mediators and
 People easily misperceive random events as media as biased against their position. We
confirming their beliefs. If we believe a view our social worlds through the spectacles
correlation exists, we are more likely to notice of our beliefs, attitudes and values.
and recall confirming instances
 Gambling – When playing a game of BELIEF PERSEVERANCE
chance against an awkward and nervous  Persistence of one’s initial conceptions, such
person, they bet significantly more than as when the basis for one’s belief is
when playing against a dapper, confident discredited but an explanation of why the
opponent. People like feeling in control and belief might be true survives
so, when experiencing a lack of control, will  It is surprisingly difficult to demolish a
act to create a sense of predictability. falsehood after the person conjures up a
 Regression toward the average – the rationale for it
statistical tendency for extreme scores or  Beliefs can grow their own legs and survive
extreme behavior to return towards one’s discrediting
average.  The more we examine our theories and
explain how they might be true, the more
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 3
closed we become to information that throughout the world, and the greater
challenges our beliefs tendency of men in various cultures, to justify
 Our beliefs and expectations powerfully rape by arguing that the victim consented or
affect how we mentally construct events implied consent
 Attribution theory – is the theory of how
CONSTRUCTING MEMORIES OF OURSELVES AND OUR people explain others’ behavior—for
WORLDS example, by attributing it either to internal
 Our memories are not exact copies of dispositions or external situations
experiences that remain on deposit in a o Dispositional attribution – attributing
memory bank. We construct memories at the behavior to the person’s disposition and
time of withdrawal traits
 In its search for truth, the mind sometimes o Situational attribution – attributing
constructs a falsehood behavior to the environment
 Misinformation effect – refers to the
incorporation of misinformation into one’s Inferring traits
memory of the event after witnessing an  We often infer that other people’s actions
event and receiving misleading information are indicative of their intentions and
about it. dispositions
 Spontaneous trait inference – refers to an
Reconstructing our past attitudes effortless, automatic inference of a trait after
 People whose attitudes have changed often exposure to someone’s behavior
insist that they have always felt much as they
now feel FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR
 Rosy retrospection – recalling mildly pleasant  Refers to the tendency for observers to
events more favorable than they underestimate situational influences and
experienced them overestimate dispositional influences upon
 As our relationships change, we also revise others’ behavior.
our recollections of other people.
 When memories are hazy, current feelings Why do we make the attribution error
guide our recall  Perspective and situational awareness – we
observe others from a different perspective
Reconstructing our past behavior than we observe ourselves
 Memory construction enables is to revise our - When we act, the environment
own histories commands our attention
 It was necessary to remember events that - When we watch others act, that person
happened in a desired manner. We all have occupies the center of our attention and
totalitarian egos that revise the past to suit the environment becomes relatively
our present views. invisible
 We underreport our bad behavior and  Cultural differences – cultures also influence
overreport good behavior attribution error. Some languages promote
 Our social judgements are a mix of external attributions
observation and expectation, reason and  The fundamental attribution error is
passion. fundamental because it colors our
explanation in basic and important ways.
ATTRIBUTING CAUSALITY: TO THE PERSON OR  Those who attribute poverty and
SITUATION unemployment to personal dispositions tend
 We endlessly analyze and discuss why things to adopt political positions unsympathetic to
happen as they do, especially when we such people
experience something negative or  Those who make situational attributions tend
unexpected to adopt political positions that offer more
 Misattribution – mistakenly attributing direct support to the poor.
behavior to the wrong source
 Misattribution is particularly likely when men Why we study attribution errors
are in positions of power  The purpose of the studies and experiments
 Misattributions help explain the greater done is to reveal how we think about
sexual assertiveness exhibited by men ourselves and others
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 4
 Focusing on thinking biases sch as the GETTING FROM OTHERS WHAT WE EXPECT
fundamental attribution error is  The expectations of experimenters
humanitarian. People should not always be occasionally act as self-fulfilling prophecies
blamed for their problems.  Behavioral confirmation – a type of self-
 We are mostly unaware of biases and we fulfilling prophecy whereby people’s social
can benefit from greater awareness of it. expectations lead them to behave in ways
 Social psychology aims to expose us to that cause others to confirm their
fallacies in our thinking in the hope that we expectations
will become more rational, more in touch  Sometimes negative expectations of
with reality, and more receptive to critical someone leads us to be extra nice to that
thinking person, which includes him or her to be nice
in return—thus disconfirming our
HOW DO OUR SOCIAL BELIEFS MATTER? expectations
 Our social beliefs and judgements do matter and
they influence how we feel and act, and by WHAT CAN WE CONCLUDE ABOUT SOCUAL BELIEFS
doing so may help generate their own reality AND JUDGEMENTS
 Self-fulfilling prophecies – refers to beliefs that  Research on social beliefs and judgements
leads to its own fulfillment reveals how we form and sustain beliefs that
 Experimenter bias – participant sometimes live usually serve us well but sometimes lead us
up to what they believe experimenters expect astray.
them  A balanced social psychology will therefore
 Pygmalion effect – the phenomenon whereby appreciate both powers and the perils of
higher expectations lead to higher performance social thinking

TEACHER EXPECTATIONS AND STUDENT

PERFORMANCE
 Teachers do have higher expectations for
some students than for others.
 Teachers accurately perceive their student’s
abilities and achievements. About 75
percent of the correlation between teacher
expectations and student future
achievement reflects accuracy.
 High expectations do seem to boost low
achievers, for whom a teacher’s positive
attitude may be a hope-giving breath of
fresh air
 Expectations of students to their teachers
affect both the student and the teacher.