Introduction to Social Psychology more than we should.

We misread our own minds; we deny being

Social psychology is a science that studies the influences of our affected by things that do influence us.
situations, with special attention to how we view and affect one Question: If you happen to meet a new person, (in a workplace,
another. More precisely, it is the scientific study of how people think classroom), what perception (or question) usually comes into your
about, influence, and relate to one mind?
Compared with personality psychology, social psychology focuses
less on individuals' differences and more on how people, in general, Social Influences Shape Our Behavior
view and affect one another. We are, as Aristotle long ago observed, social animals. We speak and
think in words
Social psychology is the scientific study of ... we learned from others. We long to connect, to belong, and to be well
Social thinking thought of.
• How we perceive ourselves and others As social creatures, we respond to our immediate contexts.
• What we believe Sometimes the power of
a social situation leads us to act contrary to our expressed attitudes.
• Judgments we make
Indeed, powerfully evil situations sometimes overwhelm good
• Our attitudes
intentions, inducing people to accept falsehoods or comply with
Social influence cruelty. (Nazi, WWII, Hurricane Haiyan, Philippines) Social
• Culture psychologist Hazel Markus (2005) sums it up: ÒPeople are, above all,
• Pressures to conform malleable. Ó Said differently, we adapt to our social context. Our
• Persuasion attitudes and behavior are shaped by external social forces.
• Groups of people
Social relations Personal Attitudes and Dispositions Also Shape Behavior
• Prejudice Our inner attitudes affect our outer behavior. Personality
dispositions also affect behavior. Facing the same situation, different
• Aggression
people may react differently.
• Attraction and intimacy
• Helping Social Behavior Is Biologically Rooted
Twenty-first-century social psychology provides us with ever-
Social psychology studies our thinking, influences, and growing insights into our behavior's biological foundations. Many of
relationships by asking questions that have intrigued us all. our social behaviors reflect a deep biological wisdom.
Here are some examples:
1. Does our social behavior depend more on the objective Social Psychology's Principles Are Applicable in Everyday Life
situations we face or how we construe them? Social psychology is all about life-your life: your beliefs, your
2. Would people be cruel if ordered? attitudes, your relationships
3. To help? Or to help oneself?

Some Big Ideas in Social Psychology

1. We construct our soclal reality
2. Our soclal Intultions are powerful, sometimes perilous
3. Attitudes shape, and are shaped by, behavior
Social thinking

4. Social Influences shape behavior

5. Dispositions shape behavior
Social influences How Do Human Values Influence Social Psychology
Obvious Ways Values Enter Psychology?
6. Social behavior Is also biological behavior Values differ not only across time but also across cultures.
7. Feellngs and actions towar people are sometimes *Values obviously enter the picture as the object of social
negative (prejudiced, aggressive) and sometimes positive psychological analysis.
(helpful, loving) Not-So-Obvious Ways Values Enter
Social relations Psychology
NOTE: Social psychology's principles are applicable to everyday life 1. The subjective aspects of Science
2. Psychological Concepts Contain
We Construct Social Responsibility 3. Hidden Values
• People have an irresistible urge to explain behavior, to
attribute it to some cause, and therefore to make it seem How Do Human Values Influence Social Psychology
orderly, predictable, and controllable. You and I may react Social psychologistsÕ values penetrate their work in
differently to a situation because we think differently. Obvious ways, such as their choice of research topics and the types
• There is an objective reality out there, but we always view of people who are attracted to various fields of study.
it through the lensi of our beliefs and values. ∙ They also do this in subtler ways, such as their hidden assumptions
• We are all intuitive scientists. We explain people's when forming concepts, choosing labels, and giving advice.
behavior, usually with enough speed and accuracy to suit ∙ This penetration of values into science is not a reason to fault social
our daily needs. psychology or any other science. That human thinking is seldom
• Your beliefs about yourself also matter dispassionate is precisely why we need systematic observation and
experimentation if we are to check our cherished ideas against
Our Social Institutions Are Often Powerful but Sometimes reality.
Perilous
Our instant intuitions shape fears, impressions, and relation Even Hindsight bias: "I-knew-it-all-along" phenomenon
our intuitions about ourselves often err. We intuitively trust our me I KNEW IT ALL ALONG: IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
SIMPLY COMMON SENSE The process of assigning participants to the conditions of an
experiment such that all persons have the same chance of being in a
given condition
Independent variable
The experimental factor that a researcher manipulates.

Correlational and Experimental

Studies of Prejudice against Obese
People often perceive the obese as slow, lazy, and sloppy. Do such
attitudes spawn discrimination?
Forming and Testing Hypotheses Correlational and Experimental Studies of TV Violence Viewing
A theory is an integrated set of principles that explain and predict The more violent television children watch, the more aggressive
observed events. Theories are a scientific shorthand. Facts are they tend to be.
agreed-upon statements about what we observe. Theories are ideas REPLICATION: Are the results reproducible?
that summarize and explain facts. "Theories not only summarize but • REPLICATION - Repeating a research study, often with different
also imply testable predictions, called hypotheses. participants in different settings, to determine whether a finding
Purposes of Hypotheses: could be reproduced.
First, they allow us to test a theory by suggesting how we might try
to falsify it. THE ETHICS OF EXPERIMENTATION
Second, predictions give direction to research and sometimes send • MUNDANE REALISM - Degree to which an experiment is
investigators looking for things they might never have thought of. superficially similar to everyday situations.
Third, the predictive feature of good theories can also make them • EXPERIMENTAL REALISM - Degree to which an
practical. experiment absorbs and involves its participants.
• DECEPTION- In research, an effect by which participants
A Good Theory:
are misinformed or misled about the study's methods and
• effectively summarizes many observations, and
purposes.
• makes clear predictions that we can use to:
• DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS - Cues in an experiment
• confirm or modify the theory,
that tell the participant what behavior is expected.
• generate new exploration, and
• INFORMED CONSENT - An ethical principle requiring
• suggest practical applications that research participants be told enough to enable them to
When we discard theories, usually it is not because they have been choose whether they wish to participate.
proved
• DEBRIEFING - In social psychology, the postexperimental
false. Rather, they are replaced by newer, better models.
explanation of a study to its participants. Debriefing
usually discloses any deception and often queries
Correlational Research: Detecting
participants regarding their understandings and feelings.
Natural Associations
Field Research - Research done in natural, real life settings outside
Ethical principles developed by the American Psychological
the
Association (2010), the Canadian Psychological Association (2000),
Correlational Research - The study of the naturally occurring
and the British Psychological Society (2009) mandate investigators
relationships
to:
among variables.
Experimental Research - Studies that seek clues to cause-effect • Tell potential participants enough about the experiment
relationships by manipulating one or more factors (independent to enable their informed consent.
variables) while controlling others (holding them constant). • Be truthful. Use deception only if essential and justified by
a significant purpose and not "about aspects that would
Correlations indicate a relationship, but that relationship is not affect their willingness to participate."
necessarily one of cause and effect. Correlational research allows us • Protect participants (and bystanders, if any) from harm
to predict, but it cannot tell us whether one variable (such as social and significant discomfort.
status) causes another (such as longevity). • Treat information about the individual participants
confidentially.
SURVEY RESEARCH • Debrief participants. Fully explain the experiment
Random Sampling - Survey procedure in which every person in the afterward, including any deception.
population being studied has an equal chance of inclusion. • The only exception to this rule is when the feedback would
To evaluate surveys, we must also bear in mind four potentially be distressing,
biasing influences: unrepresentative samples, question order,
• such as by making participants realize they have been
response options, and question wording.
stupid or cruel.
Unrepresentative Samples - How closely the sample represents
the population under study matters greatly.
Generalizing from Laboratory to Life
Order of Questions - Given a representative sample, we must also
• We need to be cautious, however, in generalizing from laboratory
contend with other sources of bias, such as the order of questions in
to life. Although the laboratory uncovers basic dynamics of human
a survey.
existence, it is still a simplified, controlled reality. It tells us what
Response Options
effect to expect of variable X, all other things being equal-which in
•Wording of Questions
real life they never are.
Experimental Research: Searching
for cause and effect
Random Assignment
 Self and Culture
INDIVIDUALISM- The concept of giving priority to one's own goals
over group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal
attributes rather than group identifications.
INDEPENDENT SELF - Construing one's identity as an autonomous
self.
COLLECTIVISM - Giving priority to the goals of one's group (often
one's extended
family or work group) and defining one's identity accordingly.

INDIVIDUALISM OR COLLECTIVISM
Collectivistic cultures also promote a greater sense of belonging and
more integration
The Self in a Social World between the self and others.
Social Psychology In a collectivistic culture, the goal of social life is to harmonize with
"Our sense of self organizes our thoughts, feelings, and actions and and support one's communities, not-as it is in more individualistic
enables us to remember our past, assess our present, and project our societies-to enhance one's individual self and make independent
future— and thus to behave adaptively (Myers, D. 2016) choices.

Spotlight Effect- The belief that others are paying more attention to CULTURE AND SELF-ESTEEM
our appearance and behavior than they really are Conflict in collectivist cultures often takes place between groups;
Illusion of Transparency- The illusion that our concealed emotions individualist cultures breed more conflict (and crime and divorce)
leak out and can be easily read by others. between individuals (Triandis, 2000).

• Social surroundings affect our self-awareness. When we are the PREDICTING OUR FEELINGS
only member of our race, gender, or nationality in a group, we Many of life's big decisions involve predicting our future feelings.
notice how we differ and how others are reacting to our Would marrying this person lead to lifelong contentment? Would
difference. entering this profession make for satisfying work? Would going on
• Self-interest colors our social judgment. When problems arise this vacation produce a happy experience? Or would the likelier
in a close relationship, we usually attribute more responsibility results be divorce, job burnout, and holiday disappointment?
to our partners than to ourselves. When things go well at home
or work or play, we see ourselves as more responsible. THE WISDOM AND ILLUSIONS OF SELF-ANALYSIS
• Self-concern motivates our social behavior. In hopes of making DUAL ATTITUDE SYSTEM - Differing implicit (automatic) and
a positive impression, we agonize about our appearance. explicit (consciously controlled) attitudes toward the same object.
• Social relationships help define our sense of self. In our varied Verbalized explicit attitudes may change with education and
relationships, we have varying selves. How we think of persuasion; implicit attitudes change slowly, with practice that
ourselves is linked to the person we're with at the moment. And forms new habits.
when relationships change, our self-concepts can change as
well. WHAT IS THE NATURE AND MOTIVATING POWER OF SELF-
• Self can sometimes be an impediment to a satisfying life. That's ESTEEM?
why religious or spiritual meditation practices seek to prune • Understand self-esteem and its implications for behavior and
the self's egocentric preoccupations, by quieting the ego, cognition
reducing its attachments to material pleasures, and redirecting • "One person may have self-esteem that is highly
it. "Mysticism," adds psychologist Jonathan Haidt(2006), contingent on doing well in school and being physically
"everywhere and always, is about losing the self, transcending attractive, whereas another may have self-esteem that is
the self, and merging with something larger than the self." contingent on being loved by God and adhering to moral
standards.
SELF-CONCEPT: WHO AM I? • Feedback is best when it is true and specific (Swann et al.,
Medial prefrontal cortex 2007)
The "medial prefrontal cortex," a neuron path located in the cleft SELF-ESTEEM MOTIVATION
between your brain hemispheres just behind your eyes, seemingly • Self-esteem level also makes a difference: High self-esteem
helps stitch together your sense of self. It becomes more active when people usually react to a self-esteem threat by compensating for
you think about yourself. it (blaming someone else or trying harder next time). These
reactions help them preserve their positive feelings about
At the center of our worlds: Our Sense of Self themselves. Low self-esteem people, however, are more likely
SELF-CONCEPT - What we know and believe about ourselves. to blame themselves or give up (VanDellen et al., 2011)
SELF-SCHEMA - Beliefs about self that organize and guide the • Relationships enable surviving and thriving, so the self-esteem
processing of self-relevant information. gauge alerts us to threatened social rejection, motivating us to
SOCIAL COMPARISON - Evaluating one's abilities and opinions by act with greater sensitivity to others' expectations. Studies
comparing oneself with others. confirm that social rejection lowers self-esteem and makes
SOCIAL COMPARISONS- Social comparison explains why high people more eager for approval. Spurned or jilted, we feel
school students tend to think of themselves as better students if their unattractive or inadequate. Like a blinking dashboard light, this
peers are only average (Marsh et al., 2000), and how self-concept can pain can motivate action such as self-improvement or a search
be threatened after graduation when a student who excelled in an for acceptance and inclusion elsewhere.
average high school goes on to an academically selective university.
OTHER PEOPLE'S JUDGMENTS - George Herbert Mead (1934) THE TRADE-OFF OF LOW VS. HIGH SELF-ESTEEM
refined this concept, noting that what matters for our self concepts People low in self-esteem are more vulnerable to anxiety, loneliness,
is not how others actually see us but the way we imagine they see us. and eating disorders. When feeling bad or threatened, those low in
self-esteem often take a negative view of everything. They notice and
 remember others' worst behaviors and think their partners don't • Students who are overconfident tend to underprepare,
love them whereas their equally able but less confident peers' study
• People with low self-esteem also experience more problems in life- harder and get higher grades
they make less money, abuse drugs, and are more likely to be FALSE CONSENSUS AND UNIQUENESS SENSUS EFFECT- The
depressed. When good things happen, people with high self-esteem tendency to overestimate the commonality of one's opinions and
are more likely to savor and sustain the good feelings one's undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors.
• When good things happen, people with high self-esteem are more For match actor David Hasselhoff said, "I have had Botox. Everyone
likely to savor and sustain the good feelings. has!" Dawes (1990) proposes that this false consensus may occur
• High self-esteem has other benefits-it fosters initiative, resilience, because we generalize from a limited sample, which prominently
and pleasant feelings. includes ourselves
• Yet teen gang leaders, extreme ethnocentrists, terrorists, and men in FALSE UNIQUENESS EFFECT - The tendency to underestimate the
prison for committing violent crimes also tend to have higher than commonality of one's abilities and one's desirable or successful
average self-esteem behaviors.
NARCISSISM: SELF-ESTEEM'S CONCEITED SISTER We may see our failings as relatively normal and our virtues as
• Most people with high self-esteem value both individual relatively exceptional
achievement and relationships with others. Narcissists
usually have high self-esteem, but they are missing the EXPLAINING SELF-SERVING BIAS
piece about caring for others (Campbell et al., 2007)
• Who score high on measures of narcissistic personality
traits also score high
on measures of self-esteem
• Narcissism is also linked to a lack of empathy-the ability
to take someone else's perspective and be concerned about
their problems-and empathy has dropped precipitously
among college students.
SELF-EFFICACY- A sense that one is competent and effective,
distinguished from self-esteem, which is one's sense of self-worth. A
sharpshooter in the military might feel high self-efficacy and low
self-esteem.

SELF-EFFICACY
• You're special!" (intended to build self-esteem) or "I know you can
do it!" (intended to build self-efficacy). One study showed that self-
efficacy feedback ("You tried really hard") led to better performance HOW DO PEOPLE MANAGE THEIR SELF-PRESENTATION?
than self-esteem feedback ("You're really smart"). Children told they SELF-HANDICAPPING- Protecting one's self-image with behaviors
were smart were afraid to try again —maybe they that create a handy excuse for later failure.
• Thuse praised for warking hard, however, knew they could exert IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT- Self-serving bias, false modesty, and
more effort again (Mueller & Dweck, 1998). If you want to encourage self-handicapping reveal the depth of our concern for self-image. To
someone, focus on her self-efficacy, not her self-esteem. varying degrees, we are continually managing the impressions we
SELF-SERVING BIAS- The tendency to perceive oneself favorably. create. Whether we wish to impress, intimidate, or seem helpless, we
are social animals, playing to an audience. So great is the human
EXPLAINING POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EVENTS desire for social acceptance that it can lead people to risk harming
• Making self-serving attributions activates brain areas themselves
associated with reward and pleasure. SELF-PRESENTATION - The act of expressing oneself and behaving
• Ironically, we are even biased against seeing our own bias. in ways designed to create a favorable impression or an impression
People claim they avoid self-serving bias themselves but that corresponds to one's ideals.
readily acknowledge that others commit this bias IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT- Social networking sites such as
Self-serving attributions- A form of self-serving bias; the tendency Facebook provide a new and sometimes intense venue for self
to attribute positive outcomes to oneself and negative outcomes to presentation.
other factors. SELF-MONITORING - Being attuned to the way one presents oneself
in social situations and adjusting one's performance to create the
'CAN WE ALL BETTER THAN AVERAGE? desired impression
On and most subjective, socially desirable, common dimensions,
people see themselves as better than the average person. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE "SELF-CONTROL?"
Compared with people in general, most people see themselves as Understand self-concept through examination of the self in
more ethical, more competent at their job, friendlier, more action.
intelligent, better looking, less prejudiced, healthier, and even more • Self-control requires energy—not just mental energy, but physical
insightful and less biased in their self-assessments. Even men energy.
convicted of violent crimes rated themselves as more moral, kind, Not surprisingly, these students studied for more hours than a
and trustworthy than most people (Sedikides et al., 2014). control group who didn't learn these skills. But the students who
learned how to plan reaped the benefits of increased self-control in
UNREALISTIC OPTIMISM other ways as well: They were less likely to smoke or drink alcohol,
• Illusory optimism increases our vulnerability. less likely to leave dirty dishes or laundry around, and more likely to
eat healthier food.
• defensive pessimism
• The adaptive value of anticipating problems and
harnessing one's anxiety to motivate effective action.