Social Psychology

Self-concept and self-awareness

Our Self-concept consists of self-knowledge and is
everything we know about ourselves
Ex. Gender, age, interpersonal style, interpersonal characteristics,
body image, etc.

Self-concept is a cognitive knowledge structure that guides

attention and helps us adjust to the environment
Self-Awareness:
the sense of self as the object of attention is the psychological state
known as self-awareness. Self-awareness occurs when the I
thinks about the me.
Self as knower = I
Involved in executive functions: planning, knowing, exerting control

Self as object that is known = me

Knowledge about yourself. What you think about your best and worst
qualities

Self-Schema is cognitive aspect of Self-Concept

Self-schema is the cognitive aspect of the
Self-concept and consists of interrelated
knowledge about the self:
Memories
Beliefs
Generalizations about self

Self-Schema is cognitive aspect of Self-Concept

Working Self-Concept
Working Self-Concept is the immediate experience of
the self.
Limited to the amount of personal information that can be
processed cognitively at any given time.
Varies from situation to situation, which is part of the way
that situations shape behavior

Self-Esteem
Self-esteem: the evaluative aspect of self-concept.
Self-esteem derives from reflected appraisals
how people believe others perceive them.

We Use Mental Strategies to Maintain

Our Views of Self
People think of themselves positively
better-than-average effect: people see themselves as
above average in just about every possible way

People have positive illusions

People overestimate their own skills, abilities, and
competencies
People have unrealistic expectations of their personal
control over events
People are unrealistically optimistic about their
personal futures

Social Comparison
Social Comparison occurs when people evaluate their
own actions, abilities, and beliefs by contrasting them
with other peoples.
Downward Comparisons people with high self-esteem
make downward comparisons
Contrast themselves with people who are deficient to them

Upward Comparisons people with low self-esteem make

upward comparisons
Contrast themselves with people who are superior to them

Self-serving bias take credit for success but blame

others for failure
People with high self-esteem tend to have a self-serving
bias.
Success is due to personal strengths and characteristics.
Failure is due to external factors or unfair obstacles.

How Do Attitudes Guide Behavior?

Attitudes refer to evaluations of objects,
events, and ideas
We are aware of explicit attitudes
We are not aware of implicit attitudes

We form attitudes through socialization

and experience
Negative attitudes develop more quickly than
positive attitudes
Mere Exposure produces positive attitudes
Typically, the more that people are exposed to an
item, the more they tend to like it.

Behaviors Are Consistent with Strong Attitudes

Stronger, personally relevant attitudes guide
and predict behavior.
Attitudes formed through direct experience tend to
predict behavior better.

Attitude accessibility predicts behavior.

The ease with which memories related to an
attitude are retrieved

Explicit attitudes dont always fit implicit

attitudes.
Again, implicit attitudes shape behavior without
our awareness

Discrepancies lead to dissonance

Cognitive dissonance occurs when there is a
discrepancy or contradiction between two attitudes
or between an attitude and a behavior.
Dissonance causes anxiety and tension.
People reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes or
behaviors

Postdecisional dissonance choosing between two

equally positive or negative choices causes
dissonance
Resolve this dissonance by focusing on positive
characteristics of the chosen option and focusing on
negative characteristics of the other option.

Attitudes Can Be Changed through Persuasion

Persuasion involves active and conscious
efforts to change attitudes.
Cues related to the source, content, and
receiver of messages influence persuasion
Persuasion leads to attitude change through
central and peripheral routes of influence,
as seen in the elaboration likelihood model:

Impression Formation
Nonverbal actions, behavior, and
expressions affect our impressions
Facial expressions
The face communicates a great deal about
emotional states, interest, and distrust.

Body language
thin slices of behavior people can make
accurate judgments based on only a few
seconds of observation
Ex. Gait as a thin slice.
Gait provides information about affective states

Attributions about Others

Attributions peoples causal explanations for
why events or actions occur
People prefer to think that things happen for a reason
so they can anticipate future events.

Personal attributions explanations that refer to

something within a person
Abilities, traits, attitudes, moods, etc.

Situational attributions explanations that refer

to something outside the person.
Weather, accident, actions of others, etc.

Attributional Bias
Attributional bias people are subjective and can
be biased in their social-information processing.
Fundamental attribution error when explaining other
peoples behavior, we tend to overemphasize the
importance of personality traits and underestimate the
importance of the situation.
Ex. Other person is late because he/she is lazy, disorganized.

Actor-observer discrepancy when explaining own

behavior, we tend to focus on the situation rather than
on our personality traits
Ex. I am late because of traffic or other demands on my time.

Stereotypes
Stereotypes are based on automatic categorization
Mental shortcuts that allow for easy, fast processing of
social information

Stereotypes are cognitive schemas that organize

information about people based on their
membership in certain groups
By themselves, stereotypes are neutral and simply
reflect efficient cognitive processes.
Some stereotypes are true (on average).
Ex. Men more violent, women more nurturing

Stereotypes
Confirmation biases perpetuate stereotypes
Stereotypes guide our attention to be bias toward
information that confirms the stereotype and away from
information that disconfirms the stereotype.

Stereotypes can be inhibited

People can override their stereotypes
This requires cognitive effort and self-regulation to inhibit
the automatic stereotypes

Self-fulfilling prophecy occurs

Stereotypes that are initially not true can become true
when people behave in ways to confirm their own or
others expectations.
Ex. Study on a fake test identifying students as academic
bloomers for the upcoming school year.

Stereotypes can lead to prejudice

Prejudice refers to the affective or attitudinal
responses associated with stereotypes
Discrimination is the unjustified and inappropriate
treatment of people due to prejudice.
Ingroup-Outgroup bias produces ingroup
favoritism
We are strongly connected to the groups to which we
belong (ingroups).
Ingroup favoritism people are more willing to help, forgive, or
give resources to ingroup members rather than outgroup
members.

How Do Others Influence Us?

Groups Influence Individual Behavior

We Conform to Social Norms
We Are Compliant
We Are Obedient to Authority

Groups Influence Individual Behavior

Social Facilitation mere presence of others enhances
performance
Social Loafing occurs when peoples efforts are pooled
so that no one individual is accountable or feels
personally responsible for the groups output.
Deindividuation occurs when people are not self-aware
and are not paying attention to their personal standards
Group decision making shows group polarization and
groupthink effects
Group polarization groups tend to enhance the initial attitudes of
members who already agree
Groupthink an extreme form of group polarization where
dissention is discouraged, information is not processed carefully,
and group members assure each other that they are doing the
right thing.

We Conform to Social Norms

Social Norms are expected standards of conduct.
Conformity the altering of ones behaviors or
opinions to match those of others or to match
social norms.

We Are Compliant
Compliance when people do things requested
by others
Good moods facilitate compliance
Foot-in-the-door people are more likely to comply
with a large and undesirable request if they have
earlier agreed to a small request
Once committed to a course of action, behave in ways
consistent with that course

Door-in-the-face people are more likely to agree to

a small request after they have refused a large
request
Because second request seems modest in comparison

We Are Obedient to Authority

Obedience when people follow orders given by an authority

When Do We Harm or Help Others?

Social Behavior behavior directed towards,
or taking place between, members of the
same species.
Can be harmful or helpful

Aggression Can Be Adaptive

Aggression refers to any behavior or action that
involves the intention to harm someone else
Biological factors
Brain Regions amygdala
Stimulating amygdala leads to increased aggression
Removing amygdala leads to drops in aggression

Neurochemistry serotonin (see fig 12.24)

Less serotonin = more aggression
More serotonin = less aggression

Individual Factors - frustration-aggression hypothesis

The extent people feel frustration predicts the likelihood
that they will be aggressive.

Aggression Has Social and Cultural Aspects

Violence varies dramatically across cultures (see
figure 12.26)
A Culture of Honor primes aggressive
responding (see figure 12.27)
A belief system in which men are primed to protect
their reputations through physical aggression

Many Factors May Influence Helping Behavior

Prosocial actions promote positive interpersonal
relationships
Ex. Doing favors, offering assistance, paying compliments

Altruism involves providing help without apparent

reward
Kin Selection people are altruistic toward those
with whom they share genes
Seen in ants and bees. Workers protect queen even
though they never reproduce themselves. Maximizes
number of common genes that will survive

Reciprocal Helping animals help another

because the other can return the favor

Some Situations Lead to Bystander Apathy

Ex. Kitty Genovese
Social psychologists explain apparent bystander
apathy in terms of the bystander intervention
effect and its situational determinants
Bystander intervention effect failure to offer help to
someone observed to be in need
Diffusion of responsibility expect others to help
Fear of making social blunder dont want to look foolish
Less likely to help when people are anonymous and can remain
anonymous
Cost-benefit trade-off how much harm is risked by helping and
how much benefit is lost if stop to help