2. Introduction
• The social side of life is the most central part of our
daily life.
– How many times each day do you interact with other people,
that is, family, friends, roommates, neighbors, professors,
sales staff in stores or wait staff in restaurants?
– How many times do you think about other people?
– The answer won’t be possibly that high.
• It is clear that---- other people shape our lives in
crucial ways.
– People are the sources of pleasure and deepest pain;
– they provide vast amount of useful information and
– they are the mirror who give us, our true image.
• So social side of life which is the core of social
psychology is a key aspect of our lives and our existence.
3. Definition Of Social Psychology
• “The scientific investigation of-----
– how thoughts, feelings and behaviors of individuals ---
are influenced by the:
▪ actual or
▪ Imagined----presence of others.”
• “The scientific study of how people
– think,
– feel and
– behave in social context.”
4. A Working Definition
• Social Psychology: The scientific field that seeks to
understand the nature and causes of individual behavior and
thought in social situations
1. Scientific in nature and follows core values:
• Accuracy, Objectivity, Skepticism, Open-Mindedness
2. Does not rely on personal experience, intuition, and
“common sense” notions
3. Focuses on the behavior of individuals
4. Seeks to understand the causes of social behavior and
thought, which includes:
i. Social Interaction: Actions and characteristics of others
ii. Cognitive processes: Memories, inferences
iii. Environmental variables
iv. Cultural context
v. Biological factors
5. 1. Social Psychology Is Scientific In Nature
• Scientific Model Employed By Social Psychologists
6. Explanation of Model:
• What is science?
– People seem to believe that science refers to fields such as
chemistry, physics, biology or any use of equipment.
• In reality, science does not refer to special group of advanced
fields rather it refers to two things:
– A set of values, and
– Several methods that can be used to study wide variety of
topics.
• Social psychology is a science because it uses the scientific
method to construct theories.
– Social psychology being scientific in nature dictates that no
theory is true simply because it is logical and seems to make
sense.
– The validity of theory is based on facts, that is, theory
corresponds with facts.
– Social psychologists construct theories from data and/or
7. The Role of Theory in Social Psychology
– Procedure involved in building theories:
• Theories are proposed on the basis of existing
evidence.
• Theories help to organize information and make
predictions about observable conditions.
• Hypotheses based on a theory are tested by research.
• If results support theory, confidence in theory is
increased. If not, theory is modified and further
research is conducted.
• In the end, the theory is accepted or rejected, but
always remains open to further testing and
refinement.
8. Core Values Of Science
• Accuracy
− Gathering and evaluating information in a careful, precise and error free
manner as possible.
• Objectivity
− Obtaining and evaluating such information that is free from bias as
humanly possible.
• Skepticism
− To accept findings as accurate only to the extent they have been verified
again.
• Open-mindedness
− Open-mindedness is changing one’s views that are strongly held if existing
evidence suggests that those views are inaccurate.
Social psychology is deeply committed to these values hence, social
psychology is described as scientific in orientation.
9. 2. Why not to rely on Common sense?
➢ Why to adopt scientific approach?
➢ Why not to rely on common sense?
➢ Why not to rely on our own experiences and intuitions or even
on wisdom of the ages?
• As the basis of understanding the social side of life…..as we
have spent our entire lives interacting with each others and
thinking about them.
• We cannot rely on common sense experience, intuition,
wisdom of ages because they provide inconsistent and
unreliable guide.
10. Examples
• For instance, consider the following statements suggested by
common sense:
➢ “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
– Means when people are separated from those they love
they miss them a lot and so experience increased longing
for them. Many people would say yes it is true.
• But now consider this statement :
➢ “Out of sight out of mind.”
– Means when people are separated from those they love
they quickly forget them
• These both views suggested by common sense and
popular culture are contradictory.
11. Example (Cont’d)
• The same is true about many other informal observations
about human behavior.
➢ “Two heads are better than one.”
– Means when people work together they perform better,
that is, make better decisions.
➢ “Too many cooks spoil the broth.”
– Means when many people work together, they may get in
each other’s way resulting in reduced performance.
• There are many more examples like this but main point should
be clear, that is,
– common sense suggests a confusing and inconsistent
picture of human behavior.
• That is why, social psychologists put their faith in scientific
method because it yields much more conclusive evidence.
12. 3. Focuses on behavior of Individuals
• Behavior refers to what we “Do” & “Say”.
• Social psychologists study behaviors because---
behavior can be observed and measured.
• Behaviors refers to not only to motor activities, for
example, talking, running, driving, laughing, eating,
sitting, sleeping, etc. But also to others subtle
activities like:
➢ Raised eyebrows.
➢ Quizzical smile.
➢ How we dress?
➢ And more importantly,
➢ What we say?
➢ How we say?
➢ When we say?
13. • Social psychologists are interested not only in
behaviors (observable actions) but also in:
➢ feelings,
➢ thoughts,
➢ beliefs,
➢ attitudes,
➢ intentions, and
➢ goals.
• These (feelings, thoughts, beliefs, attitudes,
intentions and goals) are not directly observable
but can be inferred (concluded) from behaviors.
14. 4. Causes Of Social Behavior And Thought
• Social psychology seeks to understands the causes of--
social behavior and social thought.
• Social psychologists are interested in understanding the
many factors and conditions that shape the social behavior
and social thoughts of individuals. Their actions, feelings,
beliefs, memories and inferences concerning other people.
• Five major variables are described below which play role in
this regard:
i. Social interaction: Actions and characteristics of others
ii. Cognitive processes: Memories, inferences
iii. Environmental variable
iv. Cultural context
v. Biological factors
15. Social Interaction: Actions & Characteristics of
others
• Actions of other people
Reacting to the actions of other people, that is, the behavior
of other people often exerts powerful effect on our own
behavior and thought.
For example:
You are in a hurry and notice that you are driving faster
than you usually do above the speed limit in fact. Suddenly
you see the road police pulling up another driver who is
driving fast to the other side of the road. What would you do
when you view this scene? You will almost certainly slow
down your car a lot.
Many other instances happen like that each day indicates that
“other people’s behavior often has a powerful impact on us.”
16. Social Interaction (cont’d)
• Characteristics of others
We are often affected by other People’s visible
characteristics particularly, appearance.
Means:
➢ Don’t you behave differently towards highly attractive
people than towards less attractive people?
➢ Don’t you behave differently towards old people
compared to young ones?
➢ Don’t you behave differently towards people who belong
to racial and ethnics groups different from your own?
• Some of you would probably say yes--- ------because we
do often react to the visible characteristics such as
appearance of others.
• It indicates that we cannot ignore --- the appearance of
other people even when we try to do so.
• Despite warning to ignore “judging books by their covers”
we
are strongly affected by other people’s outward
17. Cognitive Processes: Memories & inferences
Memories and Inferences
Your reactions will depend on:
❑ the memories of past behavior of the people with whom you
interact and
❑ your inferences about them (whether his/her explanation is
really true).
For example
• Suppose that you have arranged a meeting with a friend and this
friend is late. In fact, after thirty minutes you suspect that your
friend will not arrive. Finally your friend appears and says:
• Situation 1:
“Sorry, I forgot all about meeting you until few minutes ago”. How
you will
react? Probably annoyance (your reaction).
• Situation 2:
“Sorry for being late. There was a big accident and was blocked.”
Now, how
will you react? Probably less annoyance (reactions) but not
18. Cognitive Processes (Cont’d)
• Situation 3:
If your friend is often late and has used this before you become
Suspicious (reaction) of his/her explanation.
• Situation 4:
If this is the first time your friend has been late and your friend
never
used such an excuse before, you may accept explanation and
believe
it true.
➢ In other words, your reaction towards your friend will
depend upon the memories of your friends past behavior
and your inference about whether his/her explanation is
true.
➢ So this means your mental/cognitive processes play crucial
19. Cognitive processes (cont’d)
Social Cognition—how people interpret, analyze, remember,
and use information about the social world
Social cognition involves thinking about other people, that is;
• What they are like?
• What they say, why they say?
• What they do, why they do?
• How they will react to our behavior? and so on.
Social cognition is an important area of research for social
psychologists.
20. Environmental Variables: Impact of the physical
world
Research findings indicate that the physical environment Does
indeed influence our feelings, thoughts and behavior.
So, ecological variables certainly fall within the realm (area)
Of Modern Social psychology.
• Are people more prone to wild impulsive behavior during full
moon than at other times?
• Do we become more irritable and aggressive when weather is
hot and steamy than when it is cool and comfortable?
• Does exposure to pleasant smell in the air make people more
helpful than others?
21. Cultural Context (Background)
Our relations with others and how we think about them are
often strongly affected by events, beliefs and trends in our
culture.
• Culture is an important determinant of the social behavior.
• Culture refers to shared system of perceptions and beliefs
held by people belonging to same group.
• Social behavior and social thought are strongly influenced by
the actions or characteristics of the people around us (the
culture we live in).
For example,
In the past, people dressed in certain ways when they
attended a
concert or dined in a fine restaurant, more formal dresses were
in.
Now casual is in and many people dress casually but still casual
is
not acceptable in many cultural settings.
• Social behavior and social thought are often strongly
affected by cultural beliefs and norms (rules governing
22. Biological Factors
• Is social behavior influenced by biological processes and
genetic factors? Past social psychologists answered, no.
• Many modern Social psychologists have come to believe
that:
– our preferences,
– behaviors,
– emotions and
– even attitudes ---are affected, to some extent, by our
biological inheritance.
• The view that biological factors play an important role in
social behavior comes from the field of “evolutionary
psychology”.
23. Biological Factors (Cont’d)
Evolutionary Psychology
• A new branch of psychology that seeks to investigate:
– the potential role of genetic factors in various
aspects of human behavior.
• It suggests that because of our genetic inheritance we
have tendencies to behave in certain ways.
• These tendencies can be and often are:
– Over-ridden (dominated; taken over by) by cognitive
factors and
– effects of experience.
• Therefore, genetic factors are clearly only one factor
among many others that influence how we think (social
thought) and act ( social behavior).
