“An attempt to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.” (Allport, 1954)

Thoughts, Feelings, and Behaviors This is the stuff of psychology. This is what psychologists study. That is why we aren’t biologists, or physicists, or chemists.

Thoughts, Feelings, and Behaviors of Individuals Psychological Social Psychology is concerned with individual behavior and the individual perspective. Social Psychology versus Sociology What is important in social psychology is how the individual perceives the world. External reality is not as important as internal reality. (“A situation defined as real is real in its consequences”).

The Actual or Imagined Presence of Others It doesn’t matter if someone is really there (actual presence), or if we just imagine they are there (imagined presence). Our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are affected by who we believe to be there…(“A situation defined as real is real in its consequences.”)

The Implied Presence of Others Social psychology has also shown us that we are affected by people even though we know there is no one else present. For example… Mentally preparing for an event. Thinking about how someone would react. Being reminded of someone.

An attempt to understand and explain … Social Psychology is a science. Science uses empiricism to test ideas. It isn’t enough to rely on our intuition or speculation about an event to generate a plausible explanation. You have to test things out. What’s wrong with intuition or common sense?

Systematic Empiricism So, social psychology, like all sciences, relies on empiricism. However, we also have to be careful when we make our observations. Human beings have many biases in the way we see the world. One of the most dangerous is the confirmation bias: the tendency to notice things that confirm our beliefs, and to not notice things that don’t confirm our beliefs. Even when things don’t necessarily confirm our beliefs, we often interpret them so that they are confirming!

Systematic Empiricism In science, we try to be very careful to avoid this problem. We don’t just casually observe things (casual empiricism). We try to systematically make observations so that we can really and truly know what the relationships are in the world.

How do other people affect us? How we interpret events. The things we think about. How we feel about others and how we feel about ourselves. How we act.

An alternative definition of social psychology Social Psychology is the study of how different situations affect people’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Situations have powerful effects on our behavior.

Social Psychology versus Personality Psychology Personality psychology studies “consistencies in thought or action that characterize an individual across time and settings that make him or her different from other people.” (Breckler, et al., p. 15). In other words, personality is interested in how each individual is different from others, but consistent with her- or himself. Social Psychology, on the other hand, is interested in the commonalities among people when they are in the same situation.

Social Psychology versus Personality Hospital Restaurant Home Meredith George Izzie

What makes one situation different from another situation? Why do we act differently when we are around different people? What about different physical environments? Different SOCIAL ROLES.

A Social Role is a set of expectations for how we are supposed to act, think, and feel when we play a particular part in a particular type of relationship. For example… When I play the father role I am supposed to love my children. I am supposed to do things for them, and play with them, etc. When I play the professor role, there are different expectations. I am supposed to be friendly to my students, but also sometimes stern. I am not supposed to love them or play with them. Where do these rules come from? They come from what other people in the relationship expect, and they come from what I have internalized in my mind about these roles.

Social Roles are social. They only exist in terms of other people Social Roles are social. They only exist in terms of other people. I am only a professor because I have students and colleagues. I am only a father, because I have children, etc. Does having different roles mean we are different people in different situations?