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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Branch of psychology concerned with the way individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by others

PERSON PERCEPTION

DEF: the process of forming impressions of others

Factors that influence perception: physical appearance, cognitive schemas, stereotypes, and subjectivity

EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

We attach desirable personality characteristics to the good looking

We tend to view the attractive as more intelligent

Baby-faced people are seen as honest, submissive, and naïve

Chameleon effect: tendency to unintentionally mimic other’s movements

COGNITIVE SCHEMAS

Social schemas: organized clusters of ideas about categories of social events and people

Helps to process info

STEREOTYPES

DEF: widely held beliefs that people have certain characteristics b/c of their membership in a particular group

Commonly based on sex, age, ethnic, or occupational group

Broad overgeneralizations; inaccurate

SUBJECTIVITY IN PERSON PERCEPTION

Illusory correlation: when people estimate that they have encountered more confirmations of an association btwn social traits than they have actually seen

We recall facts that fit our schemas and stereotypes

EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE ON BIAS

Helps to separate friend from foe

Ingroup: a group that one belongs to and identifies with

Outgroup: group that on does not belong to or identify with

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ATTRIBUTION PROCESSES

Attributions are inferences that people draw about the causes of events, others’ behavior, and their own behavior

Internal attributions: ascribe the causes of behavior to personal dispositions, traits, abilities, and feelings

External attributions: ascribe the causes of behavior to situational demands and environmental constraints

INTERNAL VS. EXTERNAL

Harold H. Kelley Assumes that people attribute behavior

to factors that are present when the behavior takes place and absent when it does not

Consider 3 types of info: 1) Consistency 2) Distinctiveness 3) ConsensusKELLEY’S

COVARIATION MODEL

ATTRIBUTIONS FOR FAILURE AND SUCCESS

Bernard Weiner Believes people

often focus on the stability of the causes underlying behavior

Stable-unstable dimension to attribution

Fundamental attribution error: observers’ bias in favor of internal attributions in explaining others’ behavior

Observers may not know history of actor to make correct judgment about the behavior being seen

ACTOR-OBSERVER BIAS

DEFENSIVE ATTRIBUTION

DEF: tendency to blame victims for their misfortune, so that one feels less likely to be victimized in a similar way

Attributes negative traits on the victim

SELF-SERVING BIAS

DEF: tendency to attribute one’s success to personal factors and one’s failures to situational factors

Observers attribute your failures to your internal factors; actor will blame external factors

CULTURE & ATTRIBUTION

Cultural differences in individualism and collectivism

Individualism: putting personal goals ahead of group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group membership

Collectivism: putting group goals ahead of personal goals and defining one’s identity in terms of the groups one belongs to

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CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS: LIKING AND LOVE

Interpersonal attraction refers to positive feelings toward another

PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS

Physical attractiveness influences course of commitment

Matching hypothesis: proposes that males and females of approximately equal physical attractiveness are likely to select each other as partners

SIMILARITY EFFECTS

Do “opposites attract”?

NO Couples tend to be

similar in almost every aspect

RECIPROCITY EFFECTS

Reciprocity: liking those who show that they like you

Flattery will get you somewhere

Couples will tend to “idealize” their partner

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PERSPECTIVES ON THE MYSTERY OF LOVE

Blah, blah, blah

PASSIONATE LOVE

DEF: a complete absorption in another that includes tender sexual feelings and the agony and ecstasy of intense emotion

COMPANIONATE LOVE

DEF: warm, trusting, tolerant affection for another whose life is deeply intertwined with one’s own

Divided into: Intimacy: warmth,

closeness, and sharing in a relationship

Commitment: intent to maintain a relationship in spite of the difficulties and costs that may arise

LOVE AS ATTACHMENT

Cindy Hazan and Phillip Shaver

Attachment to caregiver as an infant translates to romantic relationships in adulthood

Secure-attachment leads to secure relationships

Anxious-ambivalent = intensely emotional relationships

Avoidant = casual sex

CULTURE AND CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS

Passionate love in a romantic relationship is not a pan-cultural emphasis

Arranged marriages still exist today