SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY – CHAPTER 1 – WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?
Social Psychology is the scientific study of the effects of social and cognitive
processes on the way individuals perceive, influence, and relate to others.
- Social processes – ways in which other people influence people’s
understanding of the world and guide their actions.
E.g. the influence from others either actually present or imagined.
- Cognitive processes – ways in which people’s memories, perceptions,
thoughts, emotions, and motives influence their understanding of the world
and guide their actions.
E.g. the way our minds work.
Social Psychology seeks understanding of the reasons people act the way
they do in social situations.
History of Social Psychology:
- Late 19th century - Scientific Psychology
- Throughout much of 20th century – behaviorism dominated (North American)
psychology
- 1930’s and 1940’s – reshaped interest (e.g. Nazism and 2 nd world war)
- 1950’s and 1960’s – social psychology grew, understanding of social and
cognitive processes
1 | Pagina
264682292 Anne Aantjes
,Two fundamental axioms of Social Psychology:
1. People construct their own reality
2. Social influence is pervasive – other people influence all of an individual’s
thoughts, feelings, and behavior, where those people are present or not.
Three motivational principles:
1. To strive for mastery – understand and predict events in the social world in
order to obtain many types of rewards
2. To seek connectedness with others – create and maintain feelings of
mutual support, liking, and acceptance from those they care about and
value
3. To value themselves and others connected to them – to see ourselves and
anything ro anyone connected to us in a positive light
Three motivational principles:
1. Conservatism - Established views are slow to change
2. Accessibility - Accessible information has the most impact
3. Superficiality vs Depth - Processing sometimes superficial and other
times goes to great depth
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264682292 Anne Aantjes
,SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY – CHAPTER 2 – RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Origin of research questions: provoked by curiosity about why people act the way
they do. In turn, this curiosity often reflects concern about important social
problems.
Scientific theory: a statement about the causal relationship among abstract
constructs. It is a statement that holds for specified types of people, times and
settings.
Scientific theory satisfies three requirements:
1. It is a statement about constructs – abstract concepts like “anxiety”,
“aggression” etc.
Construct validity – the extent to which independent and dependent
variables used in research correspond to the theoretical constructs
under investigation
i. Using the best measure
ii. Using multiple measures
2. It describes causal relations – a change in
one construct causes change in another
(effect)
Internal validity – the extent to which
it can be concluded that changes in the
independent variable actually caused
changes in the dependent variable
3. It is general in scope – applying to many
people in different settings and time
External validity – the extent to which
research results can be generalized to
other appropriate people, times and
settings
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264682292 Anne Aantjes
, SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY – CHAPTER 3 – PERCIEVING INDIVIDUALS
FORMING FIRST IMPRESSIONS: CUES, INTERPRETATIONS, AND INFERENCES
Cognitive representation: a body of knowledge that an individual has stored in
memory.
Our knowledge about people’s characteristics and the ways they are related
to one another is one type of cognitive representation, a term for a bodyu of
knowledge an individual has stored in his or her memory.
We have cognitive representations of situations, people and social groups.
First impressions of others are guided by a person’s:
- Physical appearance
- Nonverbal communications
- Familiarity (e.g. positive image created based on frequent encounters)
- Environments
- Behavior
Salience: the ability of a cue to attract attention in its context.
Things that stand out, capture attention.
Cues have no meaning, unless interpreted based on the person’s body of
knowledge.
Association: a link between two or more cognitive representations.
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264682292 Anne Aantjes
Social Psychology is the scientific study of the effects of social and cognitive
processes on the way individuals perceive, influence, and relate to others.
- Social processes – ways in which other people influence people’s
understanding of the world and guide their actions.
E.g. the influence from others either actually present or imagined.
- Cognitive processes – ways in which people’s memories, perceptions,
thoughts, emotions, and motives influence their understanding of the world
and guide their actions.
E.g. the way our minds work.
Social Psychology seeks understanding of the reasons people act the way
they do in social situations.
History of Social Psychology:
- Late 19th century - Scientific Psychology
- Throughout much of 20th century – behaviorism dominated (North American)
psychology
- 1930’s and 1940’s – reshaped interest (e.g. Nazism and 2 nd world war)
- 1950’s and 1960’s – social psychology grew, understanding of social and
cognitive processes
1 | Pagina
264682292 Anne Aantjes
,Two fundamental axioms of Social Psychology:
1. People construct their own reality
2. Social influence is pervasive – other people influence all of an individual’s
thoughts, feelings, and behavior, where those people are present or not.
Three motivational principles:
1. To strive for mastery – understand and predict events in the social world in
order to obtain many types of rewards
2. To seek connectedness with others – create and maintain feelings of
mutual support, liking, and acceptance from those they care about and
value
3. To value themselves and others connected to them – to see ourselves and
anything ro anyone connected to us in a positive light
Three motivational principles:
1. Conservatism - Established views are slow to change
2. Accessibility - Accessible information has the most impact
3. Superficiality vs Depth - Processing sometimes superficial and other
times goes to great depth
2 | Pagina
264682292 Anne Aantjes
,SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY – CHAPTER 2 – RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Origin of research questions: provoked by curiosity about why people act the way
they do. In turn, this curiosity often reflects concern about important social
problems.
Scientific theory: a statement about the causal relationship among abstract
constructs. It is a statement that holds for specified types of people, times and
settings.
Scientific theory satisfies three requirements:
1. It is a statement about constructs – abstract concepts like “anxiety”,
“aggression” etc.
Construct validity – the extent to which independent and dependent
variables used in research correspond to the theoretical constructs
under investigation
i. Using the best measure
ii. Using multiple measures
2. It describes causal relations – a change in
one construct causes change in another
(effect)
Internal validity – the extent to which
it can be concluded that changes in the
independent variable actually caused
changes in the dependent variable
3. It is general in scope – applying to many
people in different settings and time
External validity – the extent to which
research results can be generalized to
other appropriate people, times and
settings
3 | Pagina
264682292 Anne Aantjes
, SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY – CHAPTER 3 – PERCIEVING INDIVIDUALS
FORMING FIRST IMPRESSIONS: CUES, INTERPRETATIONS, AND INFERENCES
Cognitive representation: a body of knowledge that an individual has stored in
memory.
Our knowledge about people’s characteristics and the ways they are related
to one another is one type of cognitive representation, a term for a bodyu of
knowledge an individual has stored in his or her memory.
We have cognitive representations of situations, people and social groups.
First impressions of others are guided by a person’s:
- Physical appearance
- Nonverbal communications
- Familiarity (e.g. positive image created based on frequent encounters)
- Environments
- Behavior
Salience: the ability of a cue to attract attention in its context.
Things that stand out, capture attention.
Cues have no meaning, unless interpreted based on the person’s body of
knowledge.
Association: a link between two or more cognitive representations.
4 | Pagina
264682292 Anne Aantjes
