Lecture 1
What are the four levels of analysis of social psychology?
- Intrapersonal processes (e.g.,what happens in the mind when people interact with
others, forming stereotypes)
- Interpersonal relations (e.g., how can we predict the behaviour and emotions
between people, love, friendship etc.)
- Intra-group processes (e.g., why do people wear the same clothes in their own
group, how do they form identities based on their group)
- Intergroup processes (e.g., supporting a different team, different skin colour, different
religion)
What is a axiom?
A basic assumption.
What are the three most important axioms?
- Human cognition, emotion, and behavior = f(Person x Cognition)
- People construct their own social reality
- People are social animals
What decreases if the influence of the situation becomes stronger?
The role of personality in behavior.
What does determine what kind of situations people expose themselves to?
Different personalities and different competencies.
What is an example of a situaties that chooses a person?
Wilt Chamberlain's physical make-up did make him ideal to play basketball. It will not be
ideal to be a jockey, because he is too heavy.
What is an example of people changing situations?
A party is boring. Some other people join the party, and the party becomes way better. The
situation has changed.
How can situations change people?
It has shown that people base attractiveness also on the people you are with. (you can
become more attractive with other people that are attractive (assimilation effect), but it can
also happen that you will be perceived as less attractive.
How can situations influence us automatically?
By the use of priming.
What kind of stimuli can prime us?
Auditory, olfactory, visual.
,What does personality psychology focus on?
On stable psychological traits that shape behavior.
What does social neuroscience say?
That all our thoughts, emotions, and behavior are rooted in the physiological map of the
brain (e.g., biochemical processes in the brain).
What are the results of studies related to social neuroscience?
People who vote conservatively have a larger amygdala.
What does evolutionary psychology focus on? What is their main assumption? What are
two examples?
The heritability of behavior. Many psychological tendencies evolve because they helped our
ancestors survive a challenging environment.
- People show automatic “fear” responses to snakes but not to flowers.
- People show automatic ‘fear’ response to outgroup men but not outgroup women (in
history people were killed by tribes, especially by men)
What are examples of group psychology?
- Crowds make people do things they would not do otherwise.
- Conformity (compliance with standards, rules, or laws in a group)
What does cultural psychology study? What is an example?
How does culture shape our feelings and behaviour. Differences in attitudes towards the
death penalty in the Netherlands vs. Texas.
What does the axiom “People construct their own social reality” mean? What is an example?
Human cognition, emotion, and behavior is strongly influenced by the situation, or rather, by
people’s interpretations of situations. Different cognition, motivation, behavior of somebody
smiling at you.
What is a common example of “people construct their own social reality”?
The Thomas Theorem (i.e., if people define situations as real, they are real in their
consequences)
What is the consequence that people interpret their world in their own way, and base their
cognitions and behavior as a function of that?
- Self-serving interpretations (i.e., princeton fans thought dartmouth players were to
blame and the other way around)
- Motivated reasoning (i.e., people selectively interpret evidence that supports their
worldview and ignore evidence that does not support it). This causes people to
experience their subjective beliefs as objective truths.
- Ideological conflict (i.e., it is very difficult to compromise when different parties
experience their moral worldview as an objective truth).
Seeing a friend where you were just thinking about is an example of .... ?
Motivated reasoning.
What does the axiom “people are social animals” mean?
,Others influence most of what people think, feel, and do.
Why are people social animals?
People have a need to belong (one of the most important psychological needs)
Why do people have a need to belong?
- It has been evolutionary adaptive
- Psychological and emotional well being is better when people belong.
Why is the need to belong evolutionary adaptive? Why did people need each other for
surviving?
Because our early ancestors lived as hunter-gatherers in difficult conditions. Cooperation
and group life was essential for survival.
- Hunting gathering
- Extreme climate variations
- Threat of war
- Sexual partners.
What does the social brain hypothesis state? What is a problem with this hypothesis?
Our complex human brain evolved as a result of our complex social life. They show that is a
causation, but it is a correlation.
What does the Herding Instinct Mean? What are examples?
It is in our nature to desire a meaningful relationship with others.
- Romantic partners
- Colleagues
- Sport teams
_________________________________________________________________________
Extra knowledge clip (exclusion):
_________________________________________________________________________
What are the main findings of the research on exclusion?
Being excluded threatens four needs:
- Beloning
- Control
- Self-esteem
- Meaningful existence
What was the result of a research about what areas of the brain will light up when people are
excluded?
When people were excluded, the same brain regions were active when people experienced
physical pain.
Baumeister did a study about the impact of social exclusion on intelligence. What were the
findings?
, When people got the feedback that they will be alone later in life, they performed worse on a
cognitive task compared to the feedback of inclusion and accident prone (i.e., you will get an
accident in the future).
There was an experiment where participants would talk in a group of people about important
issues and afterwards they needed to choose someone to collaborate with. What were the
results of people being chosen by everyone (included), and being excluded by everyone?
Participants that were excluded gave a higher score to the questions about “life is
meaningless”, compared to participants that were included.
What are examples of social exclusion and aggression?
School shootings are typically done by social excluded people (e.g., Columbine).
What are the four levels of analysis of social psychology?
- Intrapersonal processes (e.g.,what happens in the mind when people interact with
others, forming stereotypes)
- Interpersonal relations (e.g., how can we predict the behaviour and emotions
between people, love, friendship etc.)
- Intra-group processes (e.g., why do people wear the same clothes in their own
group, how do they form identities based on their group)
- Intergroup processes (e.g., supporting a different team, different skin colour, different
religion)
What is a axiom?
A basic assumption.
What are the three most important axioms?
- Human cognition, emotion, and behavior = f(Person x Cognition)
- People construct their own social reality
- People are social animals
What decreases if the influence of the situation becomes stronger?
The role of personality in behavior.
What does determine what kind of situations people expose themselves to?
Different personalities and different competencies.
What is an example of a situaties that chooses a person?
Wilt Chamberlain's physical make-up did make him ideal to play basketball. It will not be
ideal to be a jockey, because he is too heavy.
What is an example of people changing situations?
A party is boring. Some other people join the party, and the party becomes way better. The
situation has changed.
How can situations change people?
It has shown that people base attractiveness also on the people you are with. (you can
become more attractive with other people that are attractive (assimilation effect), but it can
also happen that you will be perceived as less attractive.
How can situations influence us automatically?
By the use of priming.
What kind of stimuli can prime us?
Auditory, olfactory, visual.
,What does personality psychology focus on?
On stable psychological traits that shape behavior.
What does social neuroscience say?
That all our thoughts, emotions, and behavior are rooted in the physiological map of the
brain (e.g., biochemical processes in the brain).
What are the results of studies related to social neuroscience?
People who vote conservatively have a larger amygdala.
What does evolutionary psychology focus on? What is their main assumption? What are
two examples?
The heritability of behavior. Many psychological tendencies evolve because they helped our
ancestors survive a challenging environment.
- People show automatic “fear” responses to snakes but not to flowers.
- People show automatic ‘fear’ response to outgroup men but not outgroup women (in
history people were killed by tribes, especially by men)
What are examples of group psychology?
- Crowds make people do things they would not do otherwise.
- Conformity (compliance with standards, rules, or laws in a group)
What does cultural psychology study? What is an example?
How does culture shape our feelings and behaviour. Differences in attitudes towards the
death penalty in the Netherlands vs. Texas.
What does the axiom “People construct their own social reality” mean? What is an example?
Human cognition, emotion, and behavior is strongly influenced by the situation, or rather, by
people’s interpretations of situations. Different cognition, motivation, behavior of somebody
smiling at you.
What is a common example of “people construct their own social reality”?
The Thomas Theorem (i.e., if people define situations as real, they are real in their
consequences)
What is the consequence that people interpret their world in their own way, and base their
cognitions and behavior as a function of that?
- Self-serving interpretations (i.e., princeton fans thought dartmouth players were to
blame and the other way around)
- Motivated reasoning (i.e., people selectively interpret evidence that supports their
worldview and ignore evidence that does not support it). This causes people to
experience their subjective beliefs as objective truths.
- Ideological conflict (i.e., it is very difficult to compromise when different parties
experience their moral worldview as an objective truth).
Seeing a friend where you were just thinking about is an example of .... ?
Motivated reasoning.
What does the axiom “people are social animals” mean?
,Others influence most of what people think, feel, and do.
Why are people social animals?
People have a need to belong (one of the most important psychological needs)
Why do people have a need to belong?
- It has been evolutionary adaptive
- Psychological and emotional well being is better when people belong.
Why is the need to belong evolutionary adaptive? Why did people need each other for
surviving?
Because our early ancestors lived as hunter-gatherers in difficult conditions. Cooperation
and group life was essential for survival.
- Hunting gathering
- Extreme climate variations
- Threat of war
- Sexual partners.
What does the social brain hypothesis state? What is a problem with this hypothesis?
Our complex human brain evolved as a result of our complex social life. They show that is a
causation, but it is a correlation.
What does the Herding Instinct Mean? What are examples?
It is in our nature to desire a meaningful relationship with others.
- Romantic partners
- Colleagues
- Sport teams
_________________________________________________________________________
Extra knowledge clip (exclusion):
_________________________________________________________________________
What are the main findings of the research on exclusion?
Being excluded threatens four needs:
- Beloning
- Control
- Self-esteem
- Meaningful existence
What was the result of a research about what areas of the brain will light up when people are
excluded?
When people were excluded, the same brain regions were active when people experienced
physical pain.
Baumeister did a study about the impact of social exclusion on intelligence. What were the
findings?
, When people got the feedback that they will be alone later in life, they performed worse on a
cognitive task compared to the feedback of inclusion and accident prone (i.e., you will get an
accident in the future).
There was an experiment where participants would talk in a group of people about important
issues and afterwards they needed to choose someone to collaborate with. What were the
results of people being chosen by everyone (included), and being excluded by everyone?
Participants that were excluded gave a higher score to the questions about “life is
meaningless”, compared to participants that were included.
What are examples of social exclusion and aggression?
School shootings are typically done by social excluded people (e.g., Columbine).
