Social Psychology
What is Social Psychology?
❖ Social psychology can help to understand why people behave the way they
do
❖ Why are people treated differently based on their appearance?
➢ Leads to negative inter social situations and behavior
❖ Definitions
➢ Psychology= scientific study of the mind (thoughts & feelings) and
the behavior of people
➢ Social Psychology = scientific study of the way in which peoples'
thoughts, feelings and behavior are influenced by the presence of
others
❖ People are influenced by the real (explicit) or imagined (implicit) presence
of others
❖ Social influence
➢ The effect that the words, actions or mere presence of other
people have on our thoughts, feelings, attitudes or behavior
➢ Often influenced by the presence of other people, strangers who
are not interacting with us
➢ Sometimes influences conflict with one another, interested in
what happens in the mind of an individual when they do
❖ Social psychologists try to get a sense of the construal of an individual
➢ The way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the
social world
➢ roots in Gestalt psychology
❖ Scientific way to answer questions
➢ First task = hypothesis about a specific situation
➢ Performing experiments to test hypotheses
➢ Design well-controlled experiments to tease out the situations
Sociology Social Psychology Personality Psychology
The study of groups, The study of the The study of the
organisations, and psychosocial processes characteristics that
societies rather than people have in common make individuals unique
individuals that make them
, susceptible to social and different from one
influence another
Perspectives in Social Psychology
❖ Evolutionary
❖ Social behaviour is explained in terms of genetic factors that are
adapted over the centuries to improve the chances of survival and
reproduction
❖ Natural selection by Darwin
❖ Process in which important features that are beneficial for survival
are passed on to offspring
❖ Applies to human and animals.
➢ Guppy experiment
➢ Big backyard and time (2 years)
➢ Buy guppy’s and spread them over 10 ponds
➢ Differences in ponds
➢ 5 ponds with fine sand
➢ 5 ponds with pebbles
➢ Difference in surroundings
➢ Some ponds have predators = carps
➢ 1.5 years later = changed and adapted based on surroundings
➢ Ponds with carp = appearance of guppies changed
➢ Pebbles = bigger brown dots
➢ Fine sand = small brown dots
➢ Created an appearance in which it would be harder for the
guppies to catch them
➢ Ponds without a carp = didn’t adjust appearance, develop
bright colours and made themselves stand out to be irresistible
for the female guppies (reproduction)
❖ How can evolution help explain human behaviour?
➢ People have a lot in common with animals
➢ Some habits are universal among humans
➢ E.g., forming relationships essential for humans to stay alive
and reproduce
,❖ Socio-Cultural
❖ Differences between people depending on where they live
❖ Behavior is explained in terms of the influence of larger social
groups
❖ How does culture help to explain human behaviour?
❖ Some habits, traditions and behavior as are different depending
on the cultural context
❖ Cross-cultural research
➢ Conducted with members of different cultures
➢ Interested whether one variable is different between people of
different groups
❖ Social Learning
❖ Social behavior is explained in terms of learning behavior in the
past that predict future behavior
❖ How does it help to explain human behaviour?
❖ People are prone to show behavior that they have witnessed in role
models
❖ Interaction between perspectives
❖ Language
❖ Having language and communicate is a part of a human
❖ Evolution showed that learning language is universal
❖ Specific language depends on where we grew up (Socio Cultural)
,
What is Social Psychology?
❖ Social psychology can help to understand why people behave the way they
do
❖ Why are people treated differently based on their appearance?
➢ Leads to negative inter social situations and behavior
❖ Definitions
➢ Psychology= scientific study of the mind (thoughts & feelings) and
the behavior of people
➢ Social Psychology = scientific study of the way in which peoples'
thoughts, feelings and behavior are influenced by the presence of
others
❖ People are influenced by the real (explicit) or imagined (implicit) presence
of others
❖ Social influence
➢ The effect that the words, actions or mere presence of other
people have on our thoughts, feelings, attitudes or behavior
➢ Often influenced by the presence of other people, strangers who
are not interacting with us
➢ Sometimes influences conflict with one another, interested in
what happens in the mind of an individual when they do
❖ Social psychologists try to get a sense of the construal of an individual
➢ The way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the
social world
➢ roots in Gestalt psychology
❖ Scientific way to answer questions
➢ First task = hypothesis about a specific situation
➢ Performing experiments to test hypotheses
➢ Design well-controlled experiments to tease out the situations
Sociology Social Psychology Personality Psychology
The study of groups, The study of the The study of the
organisations, and psychosocial processes characteristics that
societies rather than people have in common make individuals unique
individuals that make them
, susceptible to social and different from one
influence another
Perspectives in Social Psychology
❖ Evolutionary
❖ Social behaviour is explained in terms of genetic factors that are
adapted over the centuries to improve the chances of survival and
reproduction
❖ Natural selection by Darwin
❖ Process in which important features that are beneficial for survival
are passed on to offspring
❖ Applies to human and animals.
➢ Guppy experiment
➢ Big backyard and time (2 years)
➢ Buy guppy’s and spread them over 10 ponds
➢ Differences in ponds
➢ 5 ponds with fine sand
➢ 5 ponds with pebbles
➢ Difference in surroundings
➢ Some ponds have predators = carps
➢ 1.5 years later = changed and adapted based on surroundings
➢ Ponds with carp = appearance of guppies changed
➢ Pebbles = bigger brown dots
➢ Fine sand = small brown dots
➢ Created an appearance in which it would be harder for the
guppies to catch them
➢ Ponds without a carp = didn’t adjust appearance, develop
bright colours and made themselves stand out to be irresistible
for the female guppies (reproduction)
❖ How can evolution help explain human behaviour?
➢ People have a lot in common with animals
➢ Some habits are universal among humans
➢ E.g., forming relationships essential for humans to stay alive
and reproduce
,❖ Socio-Cultural
❖ Differences between people depending on where they live
❖ Behavior is explained in terms of the influence of larger social
groups
❖ How does culture help to explain human behaviour?
❖ Some habits, traditions and behavior as are different depending
on the cultural context
❖ Cross-cultural research
➢ Conducted with members of different cultures
➢ Interested whether one variable is different between people of
different groups
❖ Social Learning
❖ Social behavior is explained in terms of learning behavior in the
past that predict future behavior
❖ How does it help to explain human behaviour?
❖ People are prone to show behavior that they have witnessed in role
models
❖ Interaction between perspectives
❖ Language
❖ Having language and communicate is a part of a human
❖ Evolution showed that learning language is universal
❖ Specific language depends on where we grew up (Socio Cultural)
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