¡Descarga The Influence of Others on Our Thoughts, Feelings, and Behaviors in Social Psychology - Pr y más Apuntes en PDF de Psicología Social solo en Docsity! SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Unit 1. Social psychology: Definition and history Contents What is social psychology? History of social psychology Main axioms in social psychology Social psychological questions What is social psychology? Allport (1985): the scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people Smith and Mackie (2000): The scientific study of the effects of social and cognitive processes on the way individuals perceive, influence and relate to others What is social psychology? Focus on: Scientific knowldege vs. Common-sense knowledge Social interpretation/ construal of the environment What is social psychology? Scientific knowledge vs. Common-sense The hindsight bias: ‘I knew it all along’ The use of scientific method General topics How we think about ourselves -Self perception How we present ourselves -Self presentation How we think, feel, and act in the social world How people form impressions and make inferences about other people and events in the social world. Social perception How we explain other’s behavior: Traits and situational factors. The fundamental attribution error How we think about people and the social world. Social cognition How others impact our thoughts, feelings, behaviors. Social influence How our attitudes and behavior shape the social world Self-fulfilling prophecy For instance… How do you perceive yourself? How do you perceive the student who is on your left side? How did you present yourself on the first day at the University? Clothes, materials… When interacting with others students? When interacting with proffesors? What was your first impression about me/ the dean? How do you explain her behavior…? How do you explain the behaviors of people of outgroups? What is social psychology? A case from Aronson, Wilson and Akert (2007, p. 3) In the mid 70s, several hundred members of the Peoples Temple, a California-based religious cult, emigrated to Guyana under the guidance of their leader, the Reverend Jim Jones. Their aim was to found a model interracial community, called Jonestown, based on ‘love, hard work, and spiritual enlightment’. In 1978, Congresman Ryan flew to Jonestown to investigate reports that some members ere being held agains their will. He visited the commune and found that several residents wnate to return. But as Ryan was boarding a plane, he and several othe rmembers were shot and killed bya a memeber of the peopls Temple on Jones’ orders. Jones grew despondent and began to speak over the public address system about the beauty of dying and the certainty that everyone would meet again in another place. The residents lined up in a pavilion in front of a vat containing cianide. According to a survivor, almost all the residents drank willingly of the deadly solution. At least 80 babies and infants were given the poison by their parents, who then drak it themselves. More than 800 people died, including Reverend Jones. What is social psychology? Social psychology compared to: Sociology: It provides general laws and theories about societies, not individuals. Specifically how such groups affect people’s attitudes and behavior Similarly, social psychologists study how individual people behave in groups, as well as how one’s group or culture can influence a person’s behavior. But social psychologists are more likely to focus on the effects of immediate and specific variables, such as mood, temperature, other people… on attitudes and behaviors They also examine the influence of the group on the individual (the unit of analysis) History of social psychology Hobbes vs. Rousseau: Is the person inherently good or bad? Does the individual influence society or does the society influence the individual? Social psychology becomes an empirical science The rise of Nazism shapes the development of social psychology History of social psychology Paradigms in social psychology Behaviorism Gestalt psychology Symbolic interactionism Social constructivism History of social psychology Symbolic interactionism Symbolic interaction theory analyzes society by addressing the subjective meanings that people impose on objects, events, and behaviors. Society is thought to be socially constructed through human interpretation. Humans act toward things on the basis of the meanings they ascribe to those things The meaning of such things is derived from, or arises out of, the social interaction that one has with others and the society These meanings are handled in, and modified through, an interpretative process used by the person in dealing with the things he/she encounters Main author: Mead History of social psychology Social constructivism The person is not a passive organism, but it is active People construct reality in interaction with others They focus on historical processes Language use and the way it constructs reality are emphasized Authors: Moscovici, Gergen, Potter, Ibáñez Main axioms in social psychology Human basic motives People strive for mastery People seek conectedness People value ‘me and mine’
