Lecture 6 Social Psychology

Outline Introduction Intrapersonal processes Social cognition and attributions Interpersonal processes Attraction and love Intergroup processes Prejudice and discrimination

What is Social Psychology? The study of “how the thoughts, feelings and behaviour of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others” (Allport, 1968, p. 3).

Levels of Analysis in Social Psychology (adapted from Doise, 1976) Intra- personal Interpersonal Intragroup (Positional) Intergroup (Ideological)

Social Cognition The processes involved in perceiving, interpreting and acting on social information Schema Self-schema Interdependence and independence

Attributions Dispositional vs. situational External factors: People events, and other stimuli in an individual’s environment can affect her thoughts, feelings, attitudes and behaviours Internal factors: A person’s traits, needs and intentions can affect her thoughts, feelings, attitudes and behaviours

Attributions, continued The Fundamental Attribution Bias The tendency to overestimate the significance of internal factors and underestimate the significance of external factors in explaining other people’s behaviour.

Attributions, continued Self-serving Bias The tendency to attribute our accomplishments and successes to internal causes and our failures and mistakes to external causes.

Interpersonal Attraction Why are we attracted to other people? Familiarity Similarity Physical appearance Anxiety and reinforcement

The Triangular Theory of Love (Sternberg, 1988) Passion Commitment Intimacy

Prejudice and Discrimination What is a prejudiced attitude? Affect Behaviour discrimination Cognitions stereotypes

Theories of Prejudice Authoritarian Personality Theory Realistic Conflict Theory Social Identity Theory

Overcoming Prejudice Old-Fashioned and Modern Racism/Sexism/etc. Controlled vs. Automatic Processing (Devine, 1989)