PSY-201

what is social psychology

• branch of psychology that studies how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by presence of other people and by the social and physical environment

• unique sense of identity influenced by social, cultural, and psychological experiences

• mental processes people use tomake sense of their social environments

• Social influence focuses on how our behavior isaffected by other people and by situational factors

what is social cognition

• Social influence focuses on how our behavior is affected by other people and by situational factors

• mental process we use to form judgments and draw conclusions about the characteristics and motives of others

• mental processes people use to make sense of their social environments

• unwritten “rules,” or expectations, for appropriate behavior in a particular social situation

what is social influence

• mental process we use to form judgments and draw conclusions about the characteristics and motives of others

• focuses on how our behavior is affected by other people and by situational factors.

• unwritten “rules,” or expectations, for appropriate behavior in a particular social situation

• Active, subjective process that always occurs in some interpersonal context

define person perception

• A gentleman who appears to be dirty anddisheveled

• unwritten “rules,” or expectations, for appropriate behavior in a particular social situation

• You board a bus and must quickly decide whereyou’ll sit. There are vacant seats beside

• mental process we use to form judgments and draw conclusions about the characteristics and motives of others

social categorization

• Fundamental attribution error: tendency to spontaneously attribute the behavior of others to internal, personal characteristics,

• mental process of categorizing people into groups (or social categories) on the basis of their shared characteristics

• Attribution refers to the process of inferring causes for your own behavior and the behavior of other people.

• tendency to blame an innocent victim of misfortune for having somehow caused the problem or for not having taken steps to avoid or prevent it

social norms

• unwritten “rules,” or expectations, for appropriate behavior in a particular social situation

• mental process we use to form judgments and draw conclusions about the characteristics and motives of others

• focuses on how our behavior is affected by other people and by situational factors.

• mental processes people use to make sense of their social environments

Define attribution

• tendency to blame aninnocent victim of misfortune for havingsomehow caused the problem or for not havingtaken steps to avoid or prevent it

• Attribution refers to the process of inferring causes for your own behavior and the behavior of other peope

• tendency tospontaneously attribute the behavior of othersto internal, personal characteristics,

• ....

fundamental attribution error

• tendency to over estimate one’s ability to have foreseen or predicted the outcome of an event

• tendency to spontaneously attribute the behavior of others to internal, personal characteristics, while ignoring or underestimating the role of external, situational factors ie) attributional bias example--waiter drops a tray and you think “What a clumsy idiot”

• tendency to blame an innocent victim of misfortune for having somehow caused the problem or for not having taken steps to avoid or prevent it

blaming the victim

• tendency to blame an innocent victim of misfortune for having somehow caused the problem or for not having taken steps to avoid or prevent it

• tendency to over estimate one’s ability to have foreseen or predicted the outcome of an event

• assumption that the world is fair and that, therefore, people get what they deserve and deserve what they get

hindsight bias

• tendency to over estimate one’s ability to have foreseen or predicted the outcome of an event

• assumption that the world is fair and that, therefore, people get what they deserve and deserve what they get

• People tend to creditthemselves for theirsuccesses (internalattributions) and to blametheir failures on externalcircumstances (externalattributions). Ie) in response to poor performance you think your boss just dislikes you