In Class Activity

1. Psychology 001Introduction to PsychologyChristopher Gade, PhDOffice: 621 HeafeyOffice hours: F 3-6 and by apt. Email: gadecj@gmail.com Class WF 7:00-8:30 Heafey 650

2. In Class Activity • For the next five minutes, we will split the class into halves and have you write mini-essays. I’ll detail the specifics now.

3. The world of social psychology • Social psychologists examine the world from a number of angles. Their goal is to study the interaction of people with and within their environment. This can be done in a number of different ways. • The next few classes will cover some of the major perspectives taken by social psychologists in today’s world. • Forming perceptions of others • Developing opinions and changing these opinions • The influence of others on us and the group • The effects of influence on society and its extremes

4. Forming perceptions of others • There are a number of critical questions that are raised when discussing the formation of perceptions. • When are these perceptions formed? • Do we form perceptions of groups in the same way that we form perceptions of individuals? • Can and how do we change these perceptions? • Are our perceptions of others formed in the same way as our perceptions of ourselves?

5. When are our perceptions ofothers formed? • Primacy effect – the first information learned about someone influences us more that later information • This means that first impressions are very important. • Why is this the case? • Self-fulfilling prophecies – expectations that change one’s own behavior in such a way as to increase the probability of the predicted event. • The beautiful people example • The Pygmalion effect • 11:50-13:50

6. Stereotypes and Prejudices • In the same way that we form perceptions of individuals, we also form perceptions of groups. • Stereotypes – a generalized belief or expectation about a group of people. • Stereotypes can be both bad and good. • Stereotypes are often beneficial and necessary. • Prejudice – an unfavorable attitude toward a group of people. • Prejudices can be based on almost anything imaginable and be learned in a very short period of time. • 5:47-11:48 • Discrimination – unequal treatment of different groups.

7. OR OR

8. How do we detect andovercome prejudices? • Some implicit measures have been used to get at prejudices that are not seen as socially acceptable. • IAT (we already discussed this in the last section of class) • Despite the predominance of prejudices in our society, researchers have contended that there are ways to reduce the influences of prejudices in our society. • More exposure • Common goals • Robber’s cave example

9. So how do we form perceptions of others and ourselves? • Attributions - the set of thought processes we use to assign causes to behavior. • Internal attributions – explaining behaviors based on the internal characteristics of the person in question. • External attributions – explaining behaviors based on the situation and surrounding environment.

10. Attribution tendencies we have when describing the behavior of others? • Fundamental attribution error – our tendency to attribute behaviors to internal attributions when looking at the behaviors of others. • Pro/Anti-Castro essay example • Differences amongst cultures • 1:50-5:00

11. Is our attribution tendencies different for ourselves? • Actor-observer effect – the tendency to make internal attributions for others, while making external attributions for ourselves. • This actor effect can be found in the descriptions of familiar others as well. • Self/Family Member/Walter Cronkite example • Self-serving bias – the tendency to attribute personal failures to the situation, while attributing personal successes to the ourselves.

12. So what have we learned? • How and when perceptions of others are formed. • The shortcomings of and ways to reduce the pervasiveness of these perceptions. • Our attribution tendencies of ourselves and others.

13. In the next class… • Attitudes, persuasion, and conformity. • Note: there’s additional information about attraction and altruism in the book, if you’re interested, read about it.