Social Psychology
1/15/19
Social psychology is the scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals in social groups.
- the scientific study of “how the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other individuals”
Hindsight bias – Things that can’t be predicted with certainty seem obvious after they have happened.
- people come up with explanations that make events seem plausible after it has occurred
1/17/19
Channel factors are situational factors that appear unimportant on the surface but actually affect the situation.
- Proximity
- Defaults
- Planning
Construal
- we don’t perceive the world as it is, but how we construe it
- active perceivers, interpret and make inference
Gestalt psychology: perception guided by active but mostly nonconscious interpretation of what the object represents.
Schemas are knowledge structures that consist of any organized body of stored information.
Naive realism is the perception that we actually do perceive the world as it is.
Theory of mind is the ability to understand others’ seemingly invisible mental state, beliefs, desires, intentions, and therefore being able to predict others’ responses.
Criticisms of Evolutionary-based Theories
- Evolutionary insights are descriptive rather than prescriptive
- Avoid the naturalistic fallacy
- the way things are is the way things should be
- Evolutionary explanations of behavior are often hard to disprove
Scientist-Practitioner Model
- understand others’ claims
- verify others’ claims
- criticize others’ claims