Learning Objectives for Chapter 1 BE ABLE TO APPLY ALL OF THESE CONCEPTS TO YOUR LIFE Introduction to Social Psychology 1 How does social psychology study human behavior thoughts and feelings Social Psychology is the scientific study of how people think about influence and relate to one another It examines how we construe our social worlds how our social intuitions guide and sometimes deceive us how our social behavior is shaped by other people by our attitudes and personalities and by our biology and how social psychology s principles apply to our everyday lives and to various other fields of study Social Psychology studies our thinking influences and relationships by asking questions that have intrigued us all Examples of questions are does our social behavior depend more on the objective situations we face or how we construe them 2 Why is it difficult to define social psychology People are above all malleable We adapt to our social context Our attitudes and behavior are shaped by external social forces 3 How does social psychology relate to sociology and other areas of psychology Compared with sociology the study of people in groups and societies social psychology focuses more on individuals and does more experimentation Compared with personality psychology social psychology focuses less on individual s differences and more on how individuals in general view and affect one another 4 Which field is most closely related to social psychology and often studied in unison Sociology 5 What does social psychology focus on Social Thinking How we perceive ourselves and others what we believe judgments we make and our attitudes Social Influence Culture Pressures to conform persuasion groups of people Social Relations prejudice aggression attraction and intimacy helping 6 How did behaviorism and Freudian psychoanalysis contribute to the field of social psychology Thinking memory and attitudes all operate on two levels one conscious and deliberate similar to behaviorism and the other unconscious and automatic similar to psychoanalysis Today s social psychology researchers call it dual processing We think on two levels intuitive and deliberate Intuition is huge but intuition is also perilous So social psychology aims to fortify our thinking why did it do so 7 What important 20th century event stimulated interest in social psychology and World War II The gap needed to be bridged between sociology and psychology in order to have a better understanding of human nature and conflict aversion 8 What are some of the most important common themes of social psychology what do they mean and why are they important We Construct Our Social Reality We are all intuitive scientists We explain people s behavior usually with enough speed and accuracy for our daily needs Our beliefs about ourselves Therefore how we construe the world and ourselves matters Our social intuitions guide and sometimes deceive us Our instant intuitions shape our fears impressions and relationships However we intuitively trust our memories more than we should Point being our intuitions and unconscious information processing are routinely powerful and sometimes perilous Social influences shape our behavior Our social behavior is shaped by other people by our attitudes and personalities and by our biology Personal Attitudes and Dispositions Shape Behavior Internal forces also matter Social Behavior is Biologically Rooted Nature and nurture together form who we are This is explored deeper by social neuroscience Social Psychology Principles are Applicable in Everyday Life Its all about life your life your beliefs your attitudes your relationships ABC Triad 9 What is the ABC triad and how does it apply to what social psychologists do Affect How people feel ex feeling anger Behavior What people do ex driving aggressively Cognition What people think ex thinking that others are out to get you Understanding in depth how these three concepts interact will offer us better insight into human interaction Research Methods 1 How does labeling relate to bias in research and what are some examples of this Whether we label a quiet child as bashful or cautious as holding back or as an observer conveys a judgment Whether we label someone engaged in guerrilla warfare a terrorist or a freedom fighter depends on our view of the cause Whether we view wartime civilian deaths as the loss of innocent lives or as collateral damage affects our acceptance of such Whether we call public assistance welfare or aid to the needy reflects our political views Brainwashing is social influence we do not approve of Perversions are sex acts we do not practice It is inevitable that prior beliefs and values will influence what social psychology think and write 2 Why can t we just use common sense to tell us about social psychology One problem with common sense is that we invoke it after we know the facts Therefore its not that common sense is predictably wrong Rather common sense usually is right after the fact We therefore easily deceive ourselves into thinking that we know and knew more than we do and did 3 What is the hindsight bias The tendency to exaggerate after learning an outcome one s ability to have foreseen how something turned out Also known as the I knew it all along phenomenon 4 What is a theory and what does your book say about the comparison between evolutionary theory and the theory of gravity A theory is an integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed events Theories are a scientific short hand Theory is often interpreted to mean less than fact so many people dismiss the theory of evolution by saying it s just a theory A response to this may be Evolution is only a theory but so is gravity People often respond that gravity is a fact but the FACT is that your something falls to the ground when dropped Gravity is the theoretical explanation that accounts for such observed facts 5 What can and can t correlational research tell us about human behavior thoughts and feelings Correlation Research can help us understand how variables are associated with one another Correlational research allows us to predict but it cannot tell us whether changing one variable such as social status will cause changes in another such as health 6 What does it mean for two variables to be positively correlated with one another Negatively correlated with one another Positive Correlation as one variable goes up so does the other Negative Correlation As one variable goes
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