social psychologypsy220

• Jonathan Freedman

• Sid smith 4029 Tuesday 11-12

• Raymond Marr

• Sid Smith 119 Wednesday 3-4

email

• freed@psych.utoronto.ca

• raymond@psych.utoronto.ca

WEBSITE

http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/~freed/psy220.htm

TEXTBOOK

• Social Psychology. Second Canadian Edition  by Aronson, Wilson, Akert and Fehr. 

requirements

• two terms tests (30% each)

– February 3 and March 16

• Final (40%)

• All half multiple-choice, half short essays

WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• people live in a social world

• they affect and are affected by each other

• they affect and are affected by groups

• examples are aggression - liking

• attitudes

related disciplines• sociology

• political science

• anthropology

• animal behavior

• personality psychology

What is Social Psychology?What is Social Psychology?

Compared to Sociology

Social psychology shares with sociology an interest in situational and societal influences on behaviour, but focuses more on the psychological makeup of individuals that renders them susceptible to social influence.

What is Social Psychology?What is Social Psychology?

Compared to Personality Social psychology shares with personality psychology an emphasis on the psychology of the individual, but it emphasizes the psychological processes shared by most people that make them susceptible to social influence.

When trying to find explanations of social behaviour, personality psychologists generally focus on individual differences.

Individual differences are the aspects of people’s personalities that make them different from other people.

basic concerns

• self-esteem– enhance– protect

• cognitive needs– understanding– consistency

basic social processes

• acceptance - rejection

• deviancy

• social comparison

SOCIAL COMPARISON THEORY

• LEON FESTINGER

• EVALUATE BY COMPARISON

• LEARN BY COMPARISON

• COMPARE TO SIMILAR OTHERS

• COMPARE WHEN UNCERTAIN