Chapter 1 Introducing Social Psychology

09.02.2012Social behavior is the result of the complex interactionbetween the person and the situation• Person :• typically refers to all of the characteristics that theperson carries into a social situation. Includes physicalattributes, attitudes, beliefs, preferences, andpsychological traits.• Situation:• focus on events outside the person. These include bothtemporary features such as environmental demands andlong-laA Brief History of Social Psychology[Social] ψ has a long past, but only a shorthistory• Essentially a 20 th century field• ‘Social psychology’ as a term came into common usage aroundthe turn of the 20th century.• 90% of social psychologists who had ever lived were still alive in1979 (Cartright in Brehm, et al, 2005)• In contrast: Personality ψ - Freud, Jung, Adler, Rogers are alllong dead.• Why “long past”?5