Social Psychology
Table of content
Lecture week 1: chapter 1 + 2 ................................................................................................................. 2
Lecture week 2: chapter 3 + 4 ................................................................................................................. 5
Lecture week 3: chapter 5 + 6 ................................................................................................................. 7
Lecture week 4: chapter 7 + 8 ............................................................................................................... 11
Lecture week 5: chapter 9 + 10 ............................................................................................................. 14
Lecture week 6: chapter 11 + 12 ........................................................................................................... 19
Lecture week 7: chapter 13................................................................................................................... 22
, Lecture week 1: chapter 1 + 2
Chapter 1
PART 2 What is Social Psychology?
Social Psychology is a scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour are
influenced by the presence of others. People are influenced by the real (explicit) or imagined
(implicit) presence of others (thinking about your mom’s birthday)
• It can help us understand why we behave in ways that are damaging to us (climate change:
taking the bike instead of the car, taking shorter showers).
• It can help us understand why climate change has gone so far in the first place
• It can help us answer a question that has been in the minds of politicians for a long time,
how can we stop this?
• Is there a way of changing people’s behaviour
Psychology questions:
• Why is it that people are getting treated differently based on their appearance?
• Why is it so hard for people to follow rules that are essential for human health?
• Why is it so hard for MeToo victims to speak up?
• What have been the most impactful events in your own life?
• Why does it feel so bad to be excluded?
• Why do we fall in love?
Social influence is the effect that the words, actions or mere presence of other people have on our
thoughts, feelings, attitudes, or behaviour
In social psychology, the level of analysis is the individual in the context of a social situation. People
are group animals, other people are always surrounding us
Construal how people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social world
PART 3 Perspectives in Social Psychology
Evolutionary perspective Socio-Cultural perspective
Social behaviour is explained in terms of genetic factors that have been Social behaviour is explained in terms of
adapted over the centuries to improve the chances of survival and the influence of larger social groups
reproduction.
How does culture help to explain human
Natural selection → the process in which important features that are behaviour?
beneficial for survival are passed on to future generations • Some habits, traditions and
behaviour are different depending on
How can evolution help to explain human behaviour? the cultural context
• People have a lot in common with other animals o Different food, or greeting
• Some habits are universal among humans (forming relationships)
Social learning perspective
Social behaviour is explained in terms of learning experiences in the past that predict future behaviour
How does social learning help to explain human behaviour
• People are prone to show behaviour that they have witnessed in role models
o When parents smoke then when a child grows up their more likely to also smoke
, There is always an interaction between perspectives: ex. language
• Having a language and communicating with each other is part of being human, evolution
theory can help us understand that learning language is universal, it’s something that all
humans do
• But the specific language that we speak depends on where we grow up, and the socio-
cultural perspective can help us understand why we speak a certain language
➔ One perspective is not better than the other
PART 4 Person X situation
What determines our behaviour?
• B = f(P X E)
• Behaviour is a function of the person times environment
• So everything we do can be understood in terms of who that person is, the personality of
that person and the environment in which this person finds him or herself
Situation X Environment Person X Situation
Where did you grow up? We have a higher chance of showing moral behaviour in the presence of others
(did you grow up where (washing hands when there are others)
you had opportunities or
not) Norms
The situation you are in changes you as a person: with friends, in a lecture, meeting
people
Situation X Person
4th May 2010 when someone started screaming, the whole situation changed due to the behaviour of one person.
So one person in a situation can change the behaviour of everybody
When people show extreme behaviour we have to wonder if is it the person or is it the situation
Gestalt psychology → studies the subjective way an object appears in people’s minds, how a person
experiences a situation (seeing a young woman or old woman)
Naïve Realism → We tend to underestimate how much we are interpreting or spinning what we see,
you see this a lot in politics. My perspective is correct and yours not
Basic human motives
1. Self-enhancement motive: people want to feel good about themselves, that’s why we spin
the social world that it is beneficial for us
2. Accuracy motive: people want to be accurate, and want to be correct. People are optimistic
about their behaviour
Illusions:
• Better-than-average effect: we think that we are better than the average people (driving,
students), not everybody can be better than the average people
• Unrealistic optimism: we overestimate winning the lottery, while we underestimate
becoming sick
• False consensus effect: we tend to overestimate how common this trait is, ex. we say we are
a bit lazy, but you know everybody likes to sleep
Table of content
Lecture week 1: chapter 1 + 2 ................................................................................................................. 2
Lecture week 2: chapter 3 + 4 ................................................................................................................. 5
Lecture week 3: chapter 5 + 6 ................................................................................................................. 7
Lecture week 4: chapter 7 + 8 ............................................................................................................... 11
Lecture week 5: chapter 9 + 10 ............................................................................................................. 14
Lecture week 6: chapter 11 + 12 ........................................................................................................... 19
Lecture week 7: chapter 13................................................................................................................... 22
, Lecture week 1: chapter 1 + 2
Chapter 1
PART 2 What is Social Psychology?
Social Psychology is a scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour are
influenced by the presence of others. People are influenced by the real (explicit) or imagined
(implicit) presence of others (thinking about your mom’s birthday)
• It can help us understand why we behave in ways that are damaging to us (climate change:
taking the bike instead of the car, taking shorter showers).
• It can help us understand why climate change has gone so far in the first place
• It can help us answer a question that has been in the minds of politicians for a long time,
how can we stop this?
• Is there a way of changing people’s behaviour
Psychology questions:
• Why is it that people are getting treated differently based on their appearance?
• Why is it so hard for people to follow rules that are essential for human health?
• Why is it so hard for MeToo victims to speak up?
• What have been the most impactful events in your own life?
• Why does it feel so bad to be excluded?
• Why do we fall in love?
Social influence is the effect that the words, actions or mere presence of other people have on our
thoughts, feelings, attitudes, or behaviour
In social psychology, the level of analysis is the individual in the context of a social situation. People
are group animals, other people are always surrounding us
Construal how people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social world
PART 3 Perspectives in Social Psychology
Evolutionary perspective Socio-Cultural perspective
Social behaviour is explained in terms of genetic factors that have been Social behaviour is explained in terms of
adapted over the centuries to improve the chances of survival and the influence of larger social groups
reproduction.
How does culture help to explain human
Natural selection → the process in which important features that are behaviour?
beneficial for survival are passed on to future generations • Some habits, traditions and
behaviour are different depending on
How can evolution help to explain human behaviour? the cultural context
• People have a lot in common with other animals o Different food, or greeting
• Some habits are universal among humans (forming relationships)
Social learning perspective
Social behaviour is explained in terms of learning experiences in the past that predict future behaviour
How does social learning help to explain human behaviour
• People are prone to show behaviour that they have witnessed in role models
o When parents smoke then when a child grows up their more likely to also smoke
, There is always an interaction between perspectives: ex. language
• Having a language and communicating with each other is part of being human, evolution
theory can help us understand that learning language is universal, it’s something that all
humans do
• But the specific language that we speak depends on where we grow up, and the socio-
cultural perspective can help us understand why we speak a certain language
➔ One perspective is not better than the other
PART 4 Person X situation
What determines our behaviour?
• B = f(P X E)
• Behaviour is a function of the person times environment
• So everything we do can be understood in terms of who that person is, the personality of
that person and the environment in which this person finds him or herself
Situation X Environment Person X Situation
Where did you grow up? We have a higher chance of showing moral behaviour in the presence of others
(did you grow up where (washing hands when there are others)
you had opportunities or
not) Norms
The situation you are in changes you as a person: with friends, in a lecture, meeting
people
Situation X Person
4th May 2010 when someone started screaming, the whole situation changed due to the behaviour of one person.
So one person in a situation can change the behaviour of everybody
When people show extreme behaviour we have to wonder if is it the person or is it the situation
Gestalt psychology → studies the subjective way an object appears in people’s minds, how a person
experiences a situation (seeing a young woman or old woman)
Naïve Realism → We tend to underestimate how much we are interpreting or spinning what we see,
you see this a lot in politics. My perspective is correct and yours not
Basic human motives
1. Self-enhancement motive: people want to feel good about themselves, that’s why we spin
the social world that it is beneficial for us
2. Accuracy motive: people want to be accurate, and want to be correct. People are optimistic
about their behaviour
Illusions:
• Better-than-average effect: we think that we are better than the average people (driving,
students), not everybody can be better than the average people
• Unrealistic optimism: we overestimate winning the lottery, while we underestimate
becoming sick
• False consensus effect: we tend to overestimate how common this trait is, ex. we say we are
a bit lazy, but you know everybody likes to sleep
