Social Psychology Notes
Week 1
Psychology:
The scientific study of the mind (thoughts & feelings)
and the behavior of people
Social psychology:
The scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings and behavior are influenced by
the presence of others
Person x Situation
A person can influence the situation, but a situation can also influence the person.
Gestalt psychology: how a person experiences a situation, studies the subjective way how an object
appears in people’s mind. A school of psychology stressing the importance of studying the subjective
way in which an object appears in people’s minds rather than the objective, physical attributes of the
object
Naïve realism: thinking the way that we perceive reality is the only true perspective/truth, however
often times there is no right or wrong.
2 basic human motives that explain naïve realism:
1.Self-Enhancement motive: the motivation that we want to feel good about ourselves, we spin the
social world in such a way that it is beneficial to ourselves
2.Accuracy motive: people want to be accurate
Different illusions to spin reality in beneficial way
1.Better-than-average effect: saying that you are better than average (e.g., how good of a student
are you?)
2.Unrealistic optimism: overestimate changes of getting rich, underestimating the changes of getting
sick
3.False consensus effect: saying that a bad trait (e.g., laziness) is normal/not a big deal, because
everyone has that trait
4.False uniqueness effect: having a good trait but underestimating how unique this trait is to make
you feel better. (e.g., being good at sports)
Fundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to overestimate the extent to which people’s behavior
is due to internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the role of situational factors
Behaviorism: A school of psychology maintaining that to understand human behavior, one need only
consider the reinforcing properties of the environment. When behavior is followed by a reward (such
as money, attention, praise, or other benefits), it is likely to continue; when behavior is followed by a
pun- ishment (such as pain, loss, or angry shouts), it is likely to become extinguished.
Construal: The way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social world (=
interpretation)
Week 2
Hindsight bias: when you see results of a study, you think that you could have figured that out
yourself: I knew this already!
, Replication crisis: when redoing someone else’s study and you get different results
2 Research designs:
1.Correlational method
-Examines the naturally occurring relationship between variables, without affecting any of the
variables
-Disadvantage: you don’t know which variable is the cause and which one is the effect
2.Experimental method
-Using to find out what is the cause and what is the effect
-Research in which participants are randomly assigned to conditions. One variable is influenced, and
one is measured.
Independent variable:
-The variable that is affected (manipulated) by the researcher
-The researcher assumes that this is the cause
Dependent variable:
-The variable that is measured
-The researcher assumes that this is the consequence
Difference confirmation bias and self-fulfilling prophecy: self-fulfilling prophecy happens in an
interaction, confirmations bias happens only in your head/thoughts.
Social Cognition: How people think about themselves and the social world; more specifically, how
people select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgments and decisions
Self-esteem motive: the need to feel good about ourselves
Social cognition motive: the need to be accurate
Week 1
Psychology:
The scientific study of the mind (thoughts & feelings)
and the behavior of people
Social psychology:
The scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings and behavior are influenced by
the presence of others
Person x Situation
A person can influence the situation, but a situation can also influence the person.
Gestalt psychology: how a person experiences a situation, studies the subjective way how an object
appears in people’s mind. A school of psychology stressing the importance of studying the subjective
way in which an object appears in people’s minds rather than the objective, physical attributes of the
object
Naïve realism: thinking the way that we perceive reality is the only true perspective/truth, however
often times there is no right or wrong.
2 basic human motives that explain naïve realism:
1.Self-Enhancement motive: the motivation that we want to feel good about ourselves, we spin the
social world in such a way that it is beneficial to ourselves
2.Accuracy motive: people want to be accurate
Different illusions to spin reality in beneficial way
1.Better-than-average effect: saying that you are better than average (e.g., how good of a student
are you?)
2.Unrealistic optimism: overestimate changes of getting rich, underestimating the changes of getting
sick
3.False consensus effect: saying that a bad trait (e.g., laziness) is normal/not a big deal, because
everyone has that trait
4.False uniqueness effect: having a good trait but underestimating how unique this trait is to make
you feel better. (e.g., being good at sports)
Fundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to overestimate the extent to which people’s behavior
is due to internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the role of situational factors
Behaviorism: A school of psychology maintaining that to understand human behavior, one need only
consider the reinforcing properties of the environment. When behavior is followed by a reward (such
as money, attention, praise, or other benefits), it is likely to continue; when behavior is followed by a
pun- ishment (such as pain, loss, or angry shouts), it is likely to become extinguished.
Construal: The way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social world (=
interpretation)
Week 2
Hindsight bias: when you see results of a study, you think that you could have figured that out
yourself: I knew this already!
, Replication crisis: when redoing someone else’s study and you get different results
2 Research designs:
1.Correlational method
-Examines the naturally occurring relationship between variables, without affecting any of the
variables
-Disadvantage: you don’t know which variable is the cause and which one is the effect
2.Experimental method
-Using to find out what is the cause and what is the effect
-Research in which participants are randomly assigned to conditions. One variable is influenced, and
one is measured.
Independent variable:
-The variable that is affected (manipulated) by the researcher
-The researcher assumes that this is the cause
Dependent variable:
-The variable that is measured
-The researcher assumes that this is the consequence
Difference confirmation bias and self-fulfilling prophecy: self-fulfilling prophecy happens in an
interaction, confirmations bias happens only in your head/thoughts.
Social Cognition: How people think about themselves and the social world; more specifically, how
people select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgments and decisions
Self-esteem motive: the need to feel good about ourselves
Social cognition motive: the need to be accurate
