Social psychology is the scientific study of the effects on social and cognitive processes on the way individuals perceive, influence and relate to others. Social processes are the ways in which input from the people and groups around us affect our thoughts, feelings and actions. Cognitive processes are the ways in which our memories, perceptions, thoughts, emotions and motives influence our understanding of the world and guide our action. Social processes affect us, even when other individuals are not present. The social processes that affect us when other individuals are present depend on we interpret others, thus, including cognitive processes. Social psychology seeks an understanding of the reasons people act the way they do in social situations.The presence of others often facilitates performance when individual contributions are easily identified, but it reduces performance when this is not the case. Early social psychology rejected the behaviourist view that thoughts, emotions and attitudes did not have to be taken into account when trying to explain behaviour. Social psychology focusses on how external stimuli are interpreted by the individual and how this influences behaviour. Nazism in Europe influenced social psychology because many gestalt psychologists fled to North America, where a mix between gestalt psychologists and behaviourists was created. The aftermath of the second world war also led to many questions which social psychology had to answer.Europe’s and North America’s social psychology research integrated with each other and the field started to expand. There was also an integration of cognitive and social processes in the field of social psychology and integration with other research trends. Social psychology research can be applied in education, law, the environment, business and health.There are two fundamental axioms in social psychology:Construction of realityEach person’s view of reality is a construction,...

Self-concept refers to all of an individual’s knowledge about his or her personal qualities. People construct the self-concept by interpreting various types of cues. There are several cues we use when learning about our self:BehaviourPeople learn about their self by interpreting their own behaviour.Thoughts and feelings Interpretation of our own thoughts and feelings is an important cue to learning who we are. It plays a bigger role in constructing our self than our behaviour.Other people’s reactionsThe reaction of our people is a source for self-knowledge. Other people’s reactions have the largest effect on people whose self-concepts are uncertain or still developing. Social comparisonPeople learn about the self by comparing themselves to others. It is best to compare with someone with a similar skill level.The self-perception theory states that we judge ourselves on the behaviours we show when the internal cues are almost non-existent. The over-justification effect states that we lose a part of our intrinsic motivation when we receive extrinsic motivation. The social comparison theory states that people learn about and evaluate their personal qualities to others. The contrast effect occurs when people compare themselves with someone whose skill is very different than theirs at something and their self-concept of that skill with either be extremely good or extremely bad. People see the contrast of what they compare themselves with if the skill level is not similar. The assimilation effect occurs when we compare ourselves with someone with a similar skill level and see ourselves as slightly better. The attributes that distinguish us most from others often become defining features of the self.People characterise the self and close others as flexible and variable. We see others as different because of differences in cues and knowledge (e.g: we don’t have access to inner thoughts) (1) and differences in inferences (2). The actor-...

Being member of a group influences our thoughts, feelings and actions. Self-categorization is the process of seeing oneself as a member of a social group. It is flexible and can readily shift depending on the social context. Social identity refers to the way we feel about group memberships that we share with others. People learn about their own group in the same way they learn stereotypes of other groups. Group membership can influence who someone is. There are several ways through which we feel like a group member:Direct reminders of membershipDirect reminders of group membership, such as a name or the presence of in-group members can help us feel like a group member.Presence of out-group membersThe presence of an out-group member can be a reminder of our own group identity.Being a minorityPeople are more likely to think of themselves in terms of their memberships in smaller groups than in larger ones. Being a minority can serve as a reminder of our own group membership.Conflict or rivalryA conflict or rivalry can remind us of our group membership and make people feel more like a member of a group.Seeing oneself as a group member means that the group’s typical characteristics become norms or standards for one’s own behaviour. Bask in reflected glory (BIRG) is a way of boosting self-esteem by identifying oneself with the accomplishment or good qualities of fellow in-group members (e.g: being happy when a football team has won). People experience emotions in response to events that affect their group because identification with a group makes the group part of our self. We experience emotions as group members, which influences how we feel about and behave toward out-groups. Perceiving differences with other groups makes us feel unique, while similarities with our own group make us feel connected. Relatively small groups seem to provide the best balance between similarity and uniqueness.A social identity links the individual to others...

Attitudes change depending on the role a person has. Behaviour also affects attitudes and behaviour depends on attitudes. The shown behaviour can be very subtle (e.g: eyebrow movements) or very clear. Actions only guide attitudes if the actions are voluntary. People often make inferences from their actions to attitudes, because actions and attitudes are associated. The theory of self-perception states that people infer attitudes from their own behaviour and the situations in which those actions occur.The foot-in-the-door technique refers to first asking people to go along with a smaller request and if they comply, they will be more likely to go along with a bigger request later. The performance of the smaller request triggers self-perception processes and people want to be consistent with their attitudes and since their attitude is based on the first small request, they are more likely to go along with the big request. The first small request has to be voluntary and distinctly enough to infer attitudes from it. Foot-in-the-door effects are strongest when people’s cognitive resources have been exhausted. Action-to-attitudes inferences are most likely when attitudes are unformed or unimportant. Cognitive dissonance is an unpleasant state caused by people’s awareness of inconsistency among important beliefs, attitudes or actions. People’s motivation to reduce cognitive dissonance often induces a change in attitudes, beliefs or behaviour. There are four steps necessary for actions to produce cognitive dissonance and attitude change.People realize their action is inconsistent with their attitude (1) and that their action is freely chosen (2). This leads to uncomfortable physiological arousal (3) and people then attribute this uncomfortable arousal to the inconsistency in action and attitude (4). Cognitive dissonance is eliminated if the inconsistency is resolved.There are different justification processes that produce attitude change:...

Norms can only influence behaviour if the norm is activated and thus the most activated norm is often followed. There are several things that can activate norms. Norms can be activated by direct reminders (1), environments (2) and groups (3). If we encounter an environment repeatedly we make mental associations between the environment and norms that apply there (e.g: people are quiet in a library). When these mental connections are so well learned the environment itself can activate the appropriate behaviour. People are likely to follow in-group norms. The thing that makes groups salient activates the group’s norms. The more group members who are present, the more accessible and effective the group norm is. Out-group comparisons can change the perception of a norm and change behaviour. The more accessible the in-group norm, the more likely we are to use it to guide our behaviour.Deindividuation refers to the psychological state in which group or social identity completely dominates personal or individual identity so that group norms become maximally accessible. Deindividuation should maximally increase the tendency of individual members to join in whatever behaviour the group is performing. Deindividuation increases whatever behaviour is typical of the group. Descriptive norms are norms that describe what people think, feel or do. Injunctive norms describe what group members believe people should think, feel or do. Both norms guide behaviour. Biased estimates can lead us to follow the crowd although the estimate about what the crowd is doing is false. The perception of what others are doing can guide our behaviour. Injunctive norms can also guide behaviour, although people often misperceive injunctive norms. If descriptive and injunctive norms mismatch, behavioural intentions are low. The type of norms people use to guide behaviour depends on the motivation and ability to think about it. If someone does not have the motivation and/or...

Aggression is the delivery of an aversive stimulus from one person to another with an expectation of causing such harm when the other person is motivated to escape or avoid the stimulus. Conflict refers to a perceived incompatibility of goals between two or more parties. There are two types of aggression. Instrumental aggression (cold) refers to aggression serving mastery needs and aggression used to achieve goals. Hostile aggression (warm) refers to aggression that is driven by emotion.Lorenz states that it’s human nature to be aggressive and aggression is inevitable. Aggression is one means of asserting dominance and is not necessary. Aggression can be measured by the hot sauce paradigm. Research in aggression has to be confirmed both in the lab and outside of the lab. Construct validity is very important. Aggression is usually triggered by perceptions and interpretations of the situation.People who believe that aggression leads to rewards are more aggressive. People tend to make a cost-benefit equation of aggression. Interpersonal aggression frequently occurs in response to threats to self-esteem or connectedness. Reminders of one’s mortality makes a person more aggressive. There are also individual differences in the interpretation of situations and the way to act on aggressiveness. The frustration-aggression theory states that any frustration inevitably triggers aggression. Frustration is any act (of another person) that blocks an important goal. Berkowitz states that aggression doesn’t occur because of frustration, but because of the negative feelings that result. Not all negative emotions result in aggression, disgust does not.Exposure to aggressive models makes violent behaviour seem more appropriate because it stimulates aggressive thoughts and feelings. Some cues make aggression more intense and more likely, such as seeing a weapon. When people are thinking superficially, angry feelings and negative thoughts are likely to lead to...