PSY403 Midterm Short Notes Set 2

Aims

LESSON 01

Introduction of social psychology is a very important discipline of psychology.

1. Defining social psychology.
2. Introduce main content and subject matter of social psychology in relations to different questions of interest in this discipline.

General Introduction of the Course

Social psychology is the scientific study of how people think, influence, and relate to one another. It is a comparatively young discipline. The broad theme of this course will be how individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by other people -- the SOCIAL influences. Social Psychology is a surprisingly broad field that overlaps with other sub-disciplines of psychology like personality and cognition, and various other human disciplines like anthropology, sociology, and

Learning Objectives of this course

To acquaint the students with the field of social psychology. When we say “the field of psychology, we mean a broad range of topics relevant to social psychology, general scientific approach of the discipline, and various concepts, principles, and theories pertaining to this discipline. To provide many insights into our own and others’ behavior. Benefiting one’s own relationships and services as a friend, relative, roommate, neighbour, and co-worker

Practical application of this course

Through journal writing and Applied social psychology Lab students will be able to experience the personal relevance of social psychology. The introduction of these two procedures is as under:  Journal: One means of enhancing the course’s personal relevance is an assignment called a “Journal”, which students will accomplish as the course will proceed.  Applied Social Psychology Lab: Different classroom activities will be conducted to give students a practical overview and knowledge about the application of Social Psychology by case reports, small activities, and current research

By the End of this course students will be able to:

 Demonstrate foundational knowledge in social psychology  Apply social psychological phenomena to one's own thinking, behavior, and relationships  Recognize the extent to which social behaviors are influenced by situational and interpretive factors

Readings

Text Books

 Franzoi, S.L. (2006). Social Psychology. New York: McGraw Hill.  David G. Myers, D. G. (2003). Social Psychology (7th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Other Readings

 Lord, C.G. (1997). Social Psychology. Orlando: Harcourt Brace and Company.  Lippa, R.A. (1994). Introduction to Social Psychology... Belmont: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.

What is Social Psychology?

communication. In the following two definitions of social psychology have been described, the first of these has been quoted in majority of the textbooks on social psychology. Social psychology is a discipline that uses scientific methods in “an attempt to understand and explain how the thought, feeling and behaviour of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others” (Gordon Allport, 1985, p. 3). Social psychology is the scientific study of how individuals think. Feel, and behave toward other people and how individual’s thoughts, feelings, & behaviours are affected by other people (Brehm, Kassin, & Fein, 2002, p. 5).

Main Elements of Definitions

 Thoughts, Feelings, and Behaviours of individual  Influence of other people  How these influences will be studied? It will be done by the use of Scientific Method. The definitions suggest a cause and effect equation – people influencing individual’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour.

Main Questions of Interest in Social Psychology

The topics of social psychology—attitudes, person perception, interpersonal attraction, conformity, etc. are among the most personal but largely unexamined parts of ourselves. Questions of interest in social psychology can be divided into 3 categories: these 3 categories correspond to thoughts, feelings and behaviour components of definition of social psy. However, this is merely a convenient way of organization, one overlaps with other part. The main questions/ topics of interest in social psychology are as given below:  Thinking about the self and others  Evaluating persons and relationships  Interacting with others

Ist Question: Thinking about the self & others

Each question of interest can be further divided into different categories. For example, different questions can be asked under this first question of interest. The following 4 questions seem diverse but they refer to the thought process. Social cognition is thought process in general; however, other questions given below investigate one specific kind of thinking.  Social cognition: Researchers who are working on social cognition can ask the following question in their investigation: “How do jury decide guilt or innocence”  Person perception: People working on person perception can be curious to know: “How do we know when someone is lying or telling truth”  Attribution: It refers to thought process that occur when we decide what caused another person’s behavior  The self: We ask specific questions about ourselves, for example one may be inquisitive that “when does a thin body image promotes eating disorders”

2nd Question: Evaluating people & relationships

The following 5 questions also seem diverse but they all involve people’s feelings. Attitude is the most basic type of field - about feeling in general.  Attitude: feelings lie at the core of + and neg. attitudes; how feelings, thoughts and behaviour relate to each other: why people feel one way and yet behave in exactly the opposite way  Attitude change: This question of social psychology is concerned with when and why people alter their attitude over time. For example, “how can we instill positive attitude in children toward school”.  Prejudice: People interested in research on prejudice, etc. may also be interested in investigating that “how can society reduce stereotyping and discrimination”  Interpersonal attractions: These issues may question, “why do people desire to make friends with one and not the others”, or “why people feel romantic attraction for one and not for other person”.  Close relationships: Researchers working in this area may be inquisitive that “how our feelings toward significant others change over time”, for example, how happy marriages end into bitter divorces.

3rd Question: Interacting with Others

Human beings interact through many different behaviors; some of them are given below:  Social Influence: studies how one person’s behaviour/ presence influences another person’s behaviour.  Helping: “How can we convince more people to help disabled”  Aggression: “Does media violence promotes violence in real life” why people assault, hit, and kill each other  Interpersonal Power: why ordinary citizens sometime engage in torture, ethnic cleansing, or genocide  Groups: “Why can’t one religious group agree with the other”... whether people behave differently while in group. The above mentioned 14 questions, which correspond to three main questions of interest as indicated in the definition of psychology, have been the content of majority of the text books on social psychology in the form of different chapters of the text. This suggests that the subject matter of social psychology is different components of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals.

How Others’ Presence Affect an individual?

The definition of social psychology suggests that it is the scientific study of how individual’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of other people. To better understand this definition, let’s take a few examples.

Actual Presence of people affecting the individual:

First take an example, how might the actual presence of others influence one’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour. Response of cricket players may become different when fans of some opposing team shout and make loud noises to divert attention of the players. Similarly, your behaviour will be changed if you notice that someone is watching you.

Imagined Presence of people affecting the individual:

Regarding how the imagined presence of others might influence thoughts, feelings, and behaviour, think about past incidents when you were considering doing something that ran counter to your parents’ wishes. Although they may not have been actually present, did their imagined presence influence your behaviour? For example, if your parents have prohibited you from smoking, and you start smoking in a party on peer pressure, does their imagined presence affect your behaviour? Imagined presence in certain cases can be quite strong, as indicated by Shaw (2003), “Imagined figures can guide our actions by shaping our interpretation of events just as surely as do those who are physically present”. In a few conditions, imagined presence can also help us fight negative emotions. For example, McGowan (2002) pointed out that in anxiety imagined presence of others can serve as emotional security blanket. Similarly, daughter of one renowned social psychologist confided to her father that she wants to be as brave as two young wizards, Harmione & Harry in Harry Potter books.

Implied Presence of people affecting the individual:

Finally, how the implied presences of others influence an individual? If you have an experience of driving on the motorway, you would have noticed that signs of specific speed limit make you conscious. Similarly, in shopping stores sometime posters indicate that “You are being watched”... All of this makes you self ware and brings a change in your behaviour.

Other Factors affecting the individual