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Social psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the way individuals
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by others. The text focuses on six broad
topics in social psychology: person perception, attribution processes, interpersonal
attraction, attitudes, conformity and obedience, and behavior in groups.
Perceptions of others can be influenced by a variety of factors, including physical
appearance. People tend to attribute desirable characteristics such as sociable, friendly,
poised, warm, competent, and well adjusted to those who are good looking. For example,
research on physical variables in person perception indicate that facial features that are
similar to infant features influence perceptions of honesty (baby-faced people being
viewed as more honest).
Stereotyping is a normal cognitive process involving widely held social schemas that
lead people to expect that others will have certain characteristics because of their
membership in a specific group.
Prejudice is a negative attitude toward a person because of group membership, while
discrimination is the action of behaving differently towards members of a group.
There are three potential components of prejudice: a cognitive component, an affective
component, and a behavioral component.
In this example, prejudice towards women is shown as a breakdown of its components;
the cognitive component consists of the belief that women should not be leaders, the
affective component consists of an angry reaction to a woman doing a mans job, and a
discriminatory readiness to not hire a woman is an example of the behavioral component.
An ingroup is the group that one associates and identifies with, while an outgroup is the
opposite - a group one does not identify with. Ingroup favoritism and outgroup
derogation are reactions that, according to the social identity perspective, occur because
ones social identity or pride in belonging to a group is being threatened.
Attributions = inferences about causes of events and behaviors
Internal attributions ascribe the causes of behavior to personal dispositions, traits,
abilities, and feelings, such as believing your friend turned down your invitation due to
being bad with money.
External attributions ascribe the causes of behavior to situational demands and
environmental constraints, such as believing your friends house went into foreclosure
due to the economic climate.
A group consists of two or more individuals who interact and are interdependent.
Group polarization occurs when group discussion strengthens a groups dominant point
of view and produces a shift toward a more extreme decision in that direction. In this
example, the group starts out somewhat opposed to an idea, and has a stronger sentiment
against it after discussion.
Groupthink occurs when members of a cohesive group emphasize concurrence at the
expense of critical thinking in arriving at a decision. Research indicates that cohesiveness
(strength of the liking relationships linking group members) is a significant contributor to
groupthink.