Social Psychology

1. Social Psychology Explores the Power of Social Influence

Social psychology is 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.

Defining the field. Social psychology examines how individuals' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are shaped by the presence of others, whether real or imagined. This influence extends beyond direct persuasion attempts to encompass subtle cues and social contexts.

Beyond common sense. Unlike philosophy or folk wisdom, social psychology employs scientific methods to test hypotheses about social behavior. It seeks to identify universal psychological properties that make individuals susceptible to social influence, regardless of their background or culture.

Distinguishing from related disciplines. Social psychology differs from personality psychology by focusing on the power of the situation rather than individual traits. It also differs from sociology by focusing on the individual within a group or society, rather than the group or society itself.

2. Construal: Subjective Interpretation Shapes Reality

The word construal, which means how people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social world, is a favorite among social psychologists, because it conveys how important it is to get inside people’s heads and understand how they see the world, and how those construals are shaped by the social context.

The importance of interpretation. People's behavior is not directly influenced by the objective properties of a situation, but rather by their construal, or interpretation, of it. Understanding how individuals perceive and interpret the social world is crucial for predicting their behavior.

Gestalt psychology. The emphasis on construal has its roots in Gestalt psychology, which stresses the importance of studying the subjective way in which an object appears in people’s minds rather than the objective components of the object. Kurt Lewin applied these principles to social perception, emphasizing the importance of understanding how people perceive each other's behavior.

Naïve realism. A common obstacle to understanding others is naïve realism, the belief that we perceive things "as they really are," underestimating how much we are interpreting or "spinning" what we see. This can lead to misunderstandings and conflict, as people assume that others should see things the same way they do.

3. Self-Esteem and Accuracy: Conflicting Human Motives

If the empirical world looks complicated, if people seem to react in bewilderingly different ways to similar forces, and if I cannot see the operation of universal underlying dynamics, then that is my fault.

Two fundamental motives. Social psychologists emphasize the importance of two central motives in steering people’s construals: the need to feel good about ourselves and the need to be accurate. These motives often pull us in opposite directions, where to perceive the world accurately requires us to admit that we have behaved foolishly or immorally.

The self-esteem motive. Most people have a strong need to maintain reasonably high self-esteem—that is, to see themselves as good, competent, and decent. Given the choice between distorting the world to feel good about themselves and representing the world accurately, people often take the first option.

The social cognition motive. Even when people are bending the facts to see themselves as favorably as they can, most do not live in a fantasy world. After all, it would not be advisable to sit in our rooms thinking that it’s simply a matter of time before we become a movie star, lead singer in a rock band, the best player on a World Cup soccer team, or President of the United States, all the while eating, drinking, and smoking as much as we want because surely we will live to be 100.

4. Research Methods: Unveiling Social Behavior

Social psychologists would want to know which of many possible explanations is the most likely. To do this, we have devised an array of scientific methods to test our assumptions, guesses, and ideas about human social behavior, empirically and systematically.

The scientific approach. Social psychology employs scientific methods to test assumptions about human social behavior, distinguishing it from philosophy and common sense. This involves formulating hypotheses and theories, designing research studies, and analyzing data to draw objective conclusions.

Three primary methods. Social psychologists use three main research methods:

• Observational method: Describing social behavior through systematic observation.
• Correlational method: Predicting social behavior by assessing relationships between variables.
• Experimental method: Answering causal questions by manipulating variables and observing their effects.

Ethical considerations. Social psychological research must adhere to strict ethical guidelines to ensure the safety and well-being of participants. This includes obtaining informed consent, minimizing deception, and providing thorough debriefing after the study.

5. Situational Power: Underestimated and Overwhelming

Aspects of the social situation that may seem minor can overwhelm the differences in people’s personalities.

The fundamental attribution error. People tend to explain behavior in terms of personality traits, underestimating the power of social influence and the immediate situation. This is known as the fundamental attribution error.

The power of the situation. Social and environmental situations are so powerful that they have dramatic effects on almost everyone. This is the domain of the social psychologist.

Behaviorism. Behaviorism, a school of psychology, maintains that to understand human behavior, one need only consider the reinforcing properties of the environment.

6. Nonverbal Communication: A Silent Language

Generally, a person reacts to what he thinks the other person is perceiving, feeling, and thinking, in addition to what the other person may be doing.

Channels of communication. Nonverbal communication refers to how people communicate, intentionally or unintentionally, without words. Facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, body positions and movement, the use of touch, and eye gaze are the most frequently used and most revealing channels of nonverbal communication.

Facial expressions. Research suggests that the ability to interpret the six major emotions (anger, happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, and sadness) is cross-cultural and part of being human. However, decoding facial expressions can be difficult due to affect blends, context, and cultural differences.

Culture and nonverbal cues. Cultural norms shape nonverbal cues such as eye contact, personal space, and gestures. Emblems, gestures with clear, well-understood definitions, are not universal and vary across cultures.

7. Attributional Biases: Distorting Our View of Others

If your own proposal isn’t going to be attractive to you when it comes from the other side, what chance is there that the other side’s proposal is going to be attractive when it comes from the other side?

The covariation model. When forming an attribution, people use consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency information to determine whether to make an internal or external attribution. However, people don't use consensus information as much as Kelley's theory predicted; they rely more on consistency and distinctiveness when forming attributions.

The two-step attribution process. We make an internal attribution, assuming that a person’s behavior was due to something about that person. We then sometimes attempt to adjust this attribution by considering the situation the person was in.

Self-serving attributions. People tend to take credit for their successes by making internal attributions but to blame the situation (or others) for their failures by making external attributions.

8. Prejudice: Causes, Consequences, and Cures

If your own proposal isn’t going to be attractive to you when it comes from the other side, what chance is there that the other side’s proposal is going to be attractive when it comes from the other side?

Defining prejudice. Prejudice is a hostile or negative attitude toward people in a distinguishable group, based solely on their membership in that group. It contains cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components.

Causes of prejudice. Prejudice is created and maintained by many forces in the social world. Some operate on the level of the group or institution, which demands conformity to normative standards or rules in the society. Some operate within the individual, such as in the ways we process information and assign meaning to observed events. And some forces operate on whole groups of people, such as the effects of competition, conflict, and frustration.

Reducing prejudice. The contact hypothesis states that the most important way to reduce prejudice between racial and ethnic groups is through contact, bringing in-group and out-group members together. Such contact has been shown to be effective in many situations, from integrating housing projects and the military to fostering friendships across ethnic lines at universities.

9. The Self: A Socially Constructed Identity

To my mind, only the first has to be taken into account.

The self-concept. The self-concept is the overall set of beliefs that people have about their personal attributes. Cultural influences on the self-concept include independent and interdependent views of the self.

Functions of the self. The self serves four functions: self-knowledge, self-control, impression management, and self-esteem.

Knowing ourselves. People use introspection, observations of their own behavior, and other people to know themselves.

10. Attitudes: Formation, Change, and Prediction

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The nature and origin of attitudes. Attitudes are evaluations of people, objects, or ideas. They can be cognitively based, affectively based, or behaviorally based.

When attitudes predict behaviors. Attitudes predict spontaneous behaviors only when they are highly accessible. The theory of planned behavior holds that the best predictors of people's planned, deliberative behaviors are their behavioral intentions.

How attitudes change. Attitudes can change by changing behavior, as cognitive dissonance theory suggests. Persuasive communications can also change attitudes, either through the central route (when people are motivated and able to pay attention to the arguments) or the peripheral route (when people are not paying attention to the arguments).

11. Group Dynamics: Influence in Social Settings

If an individual sits in a room trusting that the ceiling will not come down, should only his ‘subjective probability’ be taken into account for predicting behavior or should we also consider the ‘objective probability’ of the ceiling’s coming down as determined by engineers?

What is a group? A group consists of two or more people who interact and are interdependent in the sense that their needs and goals cause them to influence each other.

Individual behavior in a group setting. The presence of others can lead to social facilitation, where performance is enhanced on simple tasks but impaired on complex tasks. Social loafing, on the other hand, occurs when individual efforts cannot be evaluated, leading to relaxation and impaired performance on simple tasks but enhanced performance on complex tasks.

Group decisions. Group decisions can be affected by process loss, groupthink, and group polarization. Leadership in groups depends on both the leader's style and the amount of control the leader has over the group.

12. Prosocial Behavior: The Urge to Help

When they smile,” Munoz says, “That’s the way I get paid.”

Basic motives underlying prosocial behavior. Prosocial behavior is any act performed with the goal of benefiting another person. Basic motives include evolutionary factors, social exchange, and empathy-altruism.

Personal qualities and prosocial behavior. Individual differences, gender, cultural differences, religion, and mood can all influence whether a given individual will help.

Situational determinants of prosocial behavior. Situational factors such as the environment, residential mobility, the number of bystanders, and the effects of the media can also influence helping behavior.

Last updated: March 7, 2025