Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

458 CHAPTER 11 Social Psychology>> Introduction: What Is Social Psychology?Why did Fern think the man on the steps was homeless? How did the “homeless”man initially interpret Fern’s efforts to help him? And in contrast to Fern, not everyonewho feels compassion toward homeless people acts in accordance with thatattitude. Why did Fern do so?These are the kinds of issues that social psychologists study. Social psychology investigateshow your thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by the presenceof other people and by the social and physical environment. The social situations caninclude being alone, in the presence of others, or in front of a crowd of onlookers.Like other psychology specialty areas, social psychology emphasizes certain concepts.For example, one important social psychology concept is that of your self. Your senseof self involves you as a social being that has been shaped by your interactions with othersand by the social environments, including the culture, in which you operate. Thus,your sense of self plays a key role in how you perceive and react to others.Some social behaviors, such as helping others, are displayed universally—that is,they take a consistent form in diverse cultures. When a specific social behavior is universal,social psychologists will often use insights from evolutionary psychology tounderstand how the behavior is adaptive.As we discussed in Chapter 1, evolutionary psychology is based on the premise thatcertain psychological processes and behavior patterns evolved over hundreds ofthousands of years. Those patterns evolved because in some way they were adaptive,increasing the odds of survival for humans who displayed those qualities. In turn,this survival advantage increased the genetic transmission of those patterns to subsequentgenerations (see Buss, 2008; Tooby & Cosmides, 2005).Social psychology research focuses on many different topics. In this chapter, we’llfocus on two key research areas in social psychology. We’ll start with an area that hasbeen greatly influenced by the experimental methods and findings of cognitivepsychology, which we discussed in Chapter 7. Social cognition refers to how we formimpressions of other people, how we interpret the meaning of other people’s behavior,and how our behavior is affected by our attitudes (Bodenhausen & others,2003). As you’ll see, sometimes those mental processes are conscious and deliberatebut, at other times, they occur automatically and outside of our awareness.Later in the chapter, we’ll look at social influence, which focuses on how ourbehavior is affected by other people and by situational factors. The study of social influenceincludes such questions as why we conform to group norms, what compels usto obey an authority figure, and under what circumstances people will help a stranger.social psychologyBranch of psychology that studies how aperson's thoughts, feelings, and behaviorare influenced by the presence of otherpeople and by the social and physicalenvironment.sense of selfAn individual’s unique sense of identity thathas been influenced by social, cultural, andpsychological experiences; your sense ofwho you are in relation to other people.social cognitionThe mental processes people use to makesense out of their social environment.social influenceThe effects of situational factors and otherpeople on an individual’s behavior.Person PerceptionForming Impressions of Other PeopleKey Theme• Person perception refers to the mental processes we use to form judgmentsabout other people.Key Questions• What four principles are followed in the person perception process?• How do social categorization, implicit personality theories, and physicalattractiveness affect person perception?Consider the following scenario. You’re attending a college in the middle of a big cityand commute from your apartment to the campus via the subway. Today you stayedon campus a bit later than usual, so the rush hour is pretty much over. As a seasoned