CHAPTER 12 Difference between Personality Psychology and Social Psychology Both are concerned with the study of individual social behavior Personality Psychology is more focused on the intrapersonal factors within the person Social Psychology is more focused on the interpersonal factors between people Social Cognition First impressions role of non verbal behavior Nonverbal behavior Body Language The facial expressions gestures mannerisms and movement by which one communicates with others Attribution Explanations for events or actions including other people s behavior a judgment about the cause of some behavior Judgments of Other People Person Perception We tend to judge people by their actions If it looks like someone was forced to act the way they did then their behavior tells us nothing about what kind of person they are Ex If a store clerk always honestly puts the customers money in the cash register but there is a security camera on the clerk at all times does their behavior show that they are honest OR If a store clerk always cheats the customers when weighing their vegetables but the boss makes them use an inaccurate scale does this behavior show that the clerk is dishonest Factors influencing person internal vs situation external attribution Personal Attributions internal or dispositional These explanations refer to things within people such as abilities moods or efforts Deciding that someone s behavior was something they freely chose to do means that we can judge the person by their behavior which is a personal attribution Ex If you believe Corey rescued his neighbor from flames because he is brave you re making a personal attribution Low Consensus Person Attribution if most people don t act the same way in this situation the cause of the behavior must be something about this person Low Distinctiveness Person Attribution if the person acts that way in most situations the behavior must be due to something about the person Situational Attributions external Refer to outside events such as luck accidents or the actions of other people If someone s behavior was caused or forced by the situation means that we cannot judge the person by that behavior Ex Corey said that he just did what most neighbors would do if they realized someone was trapped in a burning building High Consensus Situation Attribution if most people act the same way in this situation the situation must be the cause High Distinctiveness Situation Attribution if the person only acts that way in this one situation the situation must be causing it Biases in attribution Fundamental Attribution Error In explaining other people s behavior the tendency to overemphasize personality traits and underestimate situational factors On the average people tend to ignore possible situation factors in judging the cause of other people s behavior We tend to make person attributions all the time Actor Observer Effect Exception to Fundamental Attribution Error Refers to 2 tendencies 1 When interpreting their own behavior people tend to focus on situations 2 When interpreting other people s behavior they tend to focus on dispositions When you are a participant in a situation you tend to make Situation attributions you don t attribute your own behavior to your personality you look for factors in the situation as causes Ex People tend to attribute their own lateness to external factors such as traffic or competing demands When you are just an observer watching others interact You follow the fundamental attribution error and tend to make person attributions Ex Tend to attribute other people s lateness to personal characteristics such as laziness or lack of organization Heuristics The Availability Heuristic When asked to make an attribution decision we tend to rely on only the information that is available at the time of decision We assume that what we know is all that is important to know This bias tends to favor person attributions The Representativeness Heuristic We sometimes base attribution decisions on noticing one or two things about a person that are associated with a category or group of people We assume that the individual has the same personal qualities that we attribute to the group We do not bother to judge them as an individual This bias tends to favor person attributions Hypothesis confirmation bias Also called First Impression bias Once a first impression is formed people tend to only notice behaviors that will CONFIRM their first impressions or prove that they were right Attitudes 3 components affective behavioral cognitive Affective Emotional Feelings toward attitudinal object Exercise makes me feel good I don t want to be seen in exercise clothes Behavioral Predisposition to act toward attitudinal object I exercise everyday I avoid exercise Cognitive Thoughts and beliefs about attitudinal object Exercise is good for your health Exercise is boring Relation of attitudes to behavior LaPiere Study LaPiere s study of attitude behavior relationship consisted of traveling across the United States with a Chinese couple The group stopped at over 200 hotels and restaurants where the Chinese couple was only refused service at one location Six months later LaPiere wrote to these same establishment inquiring as to whether or not they served Chinese guests The responses he received indicated that 92 of the establishments did not accommodate Chinese guests This showed a contradiction between the attitude responses to the letter and the actual behavior toward the Chinese couple Criticisms of LaPiere Study There is the possibility that the person who waited on the Chinese couple may be different than the person who answered the attitude survey It can also be argued that the Chinese couple that traveled with LaPiere was not representative of the couple that came to mind when the proprietor was asked about serving the couple Fishbein Ajzen Theory of Reasoned Action Difference from Fazio s View Attitudes are most likely to predict behavior when they are Strong relatively stable Directly relevant to the behavior Important Easily accessed from memory People covering up things they cant fix Freud A tendency or attitudeevoking objects to automatically attract attention when they enter the visual field Attitude Activation Selective Perception Immediate perception of the attitude object Definition of the event Attitudes ready the individual to perceive attitude consistent events Behavior Norms Definition of the situation Stereotypes relation