Social Psychology

• Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others.
• The Sociocultural Perspective in social psychology searches for the causes of social behavior in influences from larger social groups.
• The Evolutionary Perspective in social psychology searches for the causes of social behavior in the physical and psychological dispositions that helped our ancestors survive and reproduce.
• The Social Learning Perspective in social psychology focuses on past learning experiences as determinants of a person's social behaviors.
• The Phenomenological Perspective in social psychology suggests that social behavior is driven by a person’s subjective interpretations of events in the environment.
• The Social Cognitive Perspective in social psychology focuses on the mental processes involved in paying attention to, interpreting, judging, and remembering social experiences.
• Attitude in social psychology is defined as learned, global evaluations of a person, object, place or issue that influence thoughts and action.
• The cognitive component of attitudes consists of thoughts and beliefs people hold about the object.
• The affective component of attitudes consists of the emotional feelings stimulated by the object.
• The behavioral component of attitudes consists of predispositions to act ways toward an object.
• Attitudes are acquired through social learning, social comparison, self-experiences, and observing how other people are rewarded and punished for their social behaviors.
• Sociocultural forces in larger social groups are a major influence in driving social behavior.
• Inherited tendencies to respond to the social environment in ways that would have helped our ancestors survive and reproduce are a major influence in driving social behavior.
• Rewards and punishments for social behaviors are a major influence in driving social behavior.
• The person's subjective interpretation of a social situation is a major influence in driving social behavior.
• What we pay attention to in a social situation, how we interpret it, and how we connect the current situation to related experiences in memory is a major influence in driving social behavior.
• Developmental psychology considers how lifetime experiences combine with predispositions and early biological influences to produce the adult's feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.
• Personality psychology addresses differences between people and how individual psychological components add up to a whole person.
• Environmental psychology is the study of people's interactions with the physical and social environment.
• Clinical psychology is the study of behavioral dysfunction and treatment.
• Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes.
• Physiological psychology is studying the relation of biochemistry and neural structures to behavior.
• Social Cognitive - What we pay attention to in a social situation, how we interpret it, and how we connect the current situation to related experiences in memory.
• Phenomenological - The person's subjective interpretation of a social situation.
• Social Learning - Rewards and punishments. Observing how other people are rewarded and punished for their social behaviors.
• Evolutionary - Inherited tendencies to respond to the social environment in ways that would have helped our ancestors survive and reproduce.
• Sociocultural - Forces in larger social groups.
• The behavioral component – consists of predispositions to act ways toward an object
• The affective component – consists of the emotional feelings stimulated by the object
• The cognitive component – made up of thoughts and beliefs people hold about the object