CHAPTER 1 – SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Source: Social Psychology (10th Edition) by Saul Kassin (Author), Steven Fein (Author), Hazel
Rose Markus
Recommended additional study source:
Youtube - PSY 2510 Social Psychology: What is social psychology?
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv8qZ0AXx9Q&t=3s&ab_channel=FrankM.LoSchiavo)
Overview of the chapter
• Social psychology – is the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes
of and behaviour, feelings and thoughts in social situations.
✓ A scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual behaviour,
feelings and thoughts in social situations
✓ Investigates how our thoughts, feelings and actions are influenced by the social
environment in which we live
✓ The branch of psychology that studies all aspects of our social existence (attraction,
love, helping, prejudice, exclusion, violence)
Social Psychology is Scientific in Nature
Social psychology:
✓ Must have a scientific basis
✓ You cannot rely on common sense as it is an unreliable guide to social behaviour
✓ Many potential sources can influence social thought
• Science refers to:
1) A set of values
2) Several methods can be used to study a wide range of topics
• Core values that all fields must adopt to be considered ‘scientific.’
✓ Accuracy: the commitment to gathering and evaluating info about the world, incl.
social behaviour and thought, in a careful, precise and error-free manner as possible
✓ Objectivity: the commitment to obtaining and evaluating such info in a manner that
is as free from bias as humanly possible
✓ Scepticism: the commitment to accepting findings as accurate only to the extent
they have been verified over and over again
✓ Open-mindedness – the commitment to changing 1’s views, even views that are
strongly held, if existing evidence suggests that these views are inaccurate
Contrast social psychology with common sense approaches to knowledge
• Social psychologists adopt the scientific method because “common sense” provides an
unreliable guide to social behaviour and because many potential sources of bias influence
our thought
✓ Planning fallacy – a strong tendency to believe that projects will take less time than
they do/that we accomplish more in a given period than is true
, Social Psychology Focuses on the Behaviour of Individuals
• The field’s significant interest lies in understanding the factors that shape the actions and
thoughts of individuals in social settings, even though most social behaviour occurs in grp
settings which can exert powerful effects on individuals
✓ Seeks to understand the causes of social behaviour and thought
✓ Individuals and thoughts perform actions occur in the minds of individuals
✓ Other people may influence thoughts and actions
Social Psychology Seeks to Understand the Causes of Social Behaviour and Thought
• The number of variables plays a role (also technology)
✓ The actions and characteristics of other people – we cannot ignore others’ appearance
even when we consciously try to do so
✓ Cognitive processes – we are always trying to make sense of the social world and this
basic fact leads us to engage in lots of social cognition (to think long and hard about other
people), what they are like, why they do what they do, how they react to our behaviour.
✓ Environmental variables: impact of the physical world – the physical environment
influences our feelings, thoughts and behaviour
✓ Biological factors – field of evolutionary psychology (a new branch of psychology that
seeks to investigate the potential role of genetic factors in various aspects of human
behaviour)
✓ Suggests that our species, like all others on the planet, has been subject to the process of
biological evolution throughout its history and that, as a result of this process, we now
possess a large number of evolved psychological mechanisms that help/once helped us to
deal with NB problems relating to survival.
NB: See Figure 4: Evolution An Overview in the textbook
Biological
✓ Genetic factors influence our preferences, behaviours, emotions, attitudes and whom we
find attractive
✓ We inherit tendencies and are not forced by our genes to act in a specific way
Biological factors (from the field of evolutionary psychology) = biological evolution
involves:
1. Variation Organisms vary in many ways
2. Inheritance Some of these variations are heritable
3. Selection Adaptive variations become increasingly common
in the population
The Search for Basic Principles in a Changing Social World
• Social psychology seeks to establish basic principles of social life that are accurate across
huge cultural differences and despite rapid and significant changes in social life.
Source: Social Psychology (10th Edition) by Saul Kassin (Author), Steven Fein (Author), Hazel
Rose Markus
Recommended additional study source:
Youtube - PSY 2510 Social Psychology: What is social psychology?
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv8qZ0AXx9Q&t=3s&ab_channel=FrankM.LoSchiavo)
Overview of the chapter
• Social psychology – is the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes
of and behaviour, feelings and thoughts in social situations.
✓ A scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual behaviour,
feelings and thoughts in social situations
✓ Investigates how our thoughts, feelings and actions are influenced by the social
environment in which we live
✓ The branch of psychology that studies all aspects of our social existence (attraction,
love, helping, prejudice, exclusion, violence)
Social Psychology is Scientific in Nature
Social psychology:
✓ Must have a scientific basis
✓ You cannot rely on common sense as it is an unreliable guide to social behaviour
✓ Many potential sources can influence social thought
• Science refers to:
1) A set of values
2) Several methods can be used to study a wide range of topics
• Core values that all fields must adopt to be considered ‘scientific.’
✓ Accuracy: the commitment to gathering and evaluating info about the world, incl.
social behaviour and thought, in a careful, precise and error-free manner as possible
✓ Objectivity: the commitment to obtaining and evaluating such info in a manner that
is as free from bias as humanly possible
✓ Scepticism: the commitment to accepting findings as accurate only to the extent
they have been verified over and over again
✓ Open-mindedness – the commitment to changing 1’s views, even views that are
strongly held, if existing evidence suggests that these views are inaccurate
Contrast social psychology with common sense approaches to knowledge
• Social psychologists adopt the scientific method because “common sense” provides an
unreliable guide to social behaviour and because many potential sources of bias influence
our thought
✓ Planning fallacy – a strong tendency to believe that projects will take less time than
they do/that we accomplish more in a given period than is true
, Social Psychology Focuses on the Behaviour of Individuals
• The field’s significant interest lies in understanding the factors that shape the actions and
thoughts of individuals in social settings, even though most social behaviour occurs in grp
settings which can exert powerful effects on individuals
✓ Seeks to understand the causes of social behaviour and thought
✓ Individuals and thoughts perform actions occur in the minds of individuals
✓ Other people may influence thoughts and actions
Social Psychology Seeks to Understand the Causes of Social Behaviour and Thought
• The number of variables plays a role (also technology)
✓ The actions and characteristics of other people – we cannot ignore others’ appearance
even when we consciously try to do so
✓ Cognitive processes – we are always trying to make sense of the social world and this
basic fact leads us to engage in lots of social cognition (to think long and hard about other
people), what they are like, why they do what they do, how they react to our behaviour.
✓ Environmental variables: impact of the physical world – the physical environment
influences our feelings, thoughts and behaviour
✓ Biological factors – field of evolutionary psychology (a new branch of psychology that
seeks to investigate the potential role of genetic factors in various aspects of human
behaviour)
✓ Suggests that our species, like all others on the planet, has been subject to the process of
biological evolution throughout its history and that, as a result of this process, we now
possess a large number of evolved psychological mechanisms that help/once helped us to
deal with NB problems relating to survival.
NB: See Figure 4: Evolution An Overview in the textbook
Biological
✓ Genetic factors influence our preferences, behaviours, emotions, attitudes and whom we
find attractive
✓ We inherit tendencies and are not forced by our genes to act in a specific way
Biological factors (from the field of evolutionary psychology) = biological evolution
involves:
1. Variation Organisms vary in many ways
2. Inheritance Some of these variations are heritable
3. Selection Adaptive variations become increasingly common
in the population
The Search for Basic Principles in a Changing Social World
• Social psychology seeks to establish basic principles of social life that are accurate across
huge cultural differences and despite rapid and significant changes in social life.
