2. Define the concept Social psychology
Describe the following basic principles of human
Sociability:
1. Perceiving others:
a) Impression formation
Primacy effect
Central trait
Halo effect
Self-fulfilling prophecies
b) Implicit personality theory
c) Attribution theory
Learning Outcomes
4. Defined:
Concerned with the study of how individual people
think, feel and behave in relation to other people
5. 1. Perceiving others:
- Perceive something> perceptual system actively
processes it to make sense of it
- Two people may perceive the same thing in a
different way due to different experiences and
expectations
- Interpretation of what we see depends on our
assumptions, etc
- Three aspects of this process: Impression Formation,
Implicit Personality & Attribution Theory
Basic principles of human Sociability:
6. The process of getting a holistic sense of what a
person is like, we tend to form a Gestalt (revise unit
on perception)
1) Proximity
2) Closure
3) Similarity
4) Continuity
5) Simultaneous Movements
Perceiving Others:
Impression Formation
7. Perceiving Others:
Impression Formation
First Impressions:
Luchins (1957)
Initial impression on the basis
of the first information they
receive
Subsequent information is
given less attention
Or more easily explained away
Central Trait:
Used to guide their further
expectations about a person
Influences how is behaved
towards a particular
person/situation
9. Perceiving Others:
Impression Formation
Central Trait continued:
The halo effect….(the science of attraction)
Refers to the tendency to expect that, if people have one
positive characteristic, they will possess positive attributes
Example : people who are physically attractive are perceived to
be more popular, intelligent, kind, sociable
People then tend to act positively towards these ‘physically
attractive people’
This enables them to become more socially popular
Such perceptions lead to self fulfilling prophecies
10. Impression Formation, Implicit Personality
Theory & Attribution Theory
IMPLICIT PERSONALITY THEORY
How we perceive others is shaped by our beliefs about how
personality is organised
Even though they have NOT studied psychology, everybody has an
implicit personality theory.
this means that everybody has an unspoken understanding of how
human personality works
2 common assumptions:
- people have stable and detectable personality traits
- certain traits tend to be associated with other traits
11. Impression Formation, Implicit Personality
Theory & Attribution Theory
IMPLICIT PERSONALITY THEORY continued
Based on the way information is organised
Basis for rapid and efficient processing of information
12. Impression Formation, Implicit
Personality Theory & Attribution Theory
ATTIBUTION THEORY
When we perceive people, inferences are made about their
emotions, beliefs and motives
The question : ‘why’
The answers given to these questions are called attributions
13. Louw, D.A. & Edwards, D.J.A. 2008.Psychology. An
introduction for students in South Africa. 2nd Edition.
Cape Town: Heinemann.
http://youtu.be/UEho_4ejkNw
References
