SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

How individuals affect others and others affect them

Group

• Must have four characteristics to be considered a group:– Common goal– Interdependence of members– Patterned behavior/structure– Perceived “groupness”

Personality unit test Friday (#2)

• Humanists– Abraham Maslow– Carl Rogers

• Trait theories– MBTI– Big 5

• Projective tests– Rorschach inkblot– TAT– Sentence completion

What is social psychology?

• Social psychology is a branch of psychology that studies individuals in the social context.

• It is the study of how and why people think, feel, and do the things they do depending upon the situation they are in and who else is involved.

Sociology vs Social Psychology

• Sociology focuses on group factors such as race and socioeconomic class

• Whereas social psych focuses on the individual (within those groups)

Norm Reform – Violating social norms

• Unit 9 project will involve going out in public and violating a norm.

• That is, performing an unexpected behavior• You will do this consistently/follow a procedure

– Ex: always break into line in front of 3rd person at MacDonald's

• Compare reactions in 2 different neighborhoods, ex:– Inglewood vs Beverly Hills– Mexican vs Black neighborhood– Santa Monica vs Venice

• You must be systematic (scientific) and document, analyze and present results

Norm

• Something that is usual, typical, or standard.• A standard or pattern, esp. of social behavior,

that is typical or expected of a group• Ex: saying thank you after being served food• Ex: facing the front when in an elevator

Homework, due Friday

• Finish Mean Girls worksheet• Generate a list of social norms - behaviors that

we take for granted and perform automatically. For each one, find a way to violate it, and predict how people might react.

• Read page 323 – 327 (due WEDNESDAY)

Mean Girls

• Watch this awesome movie to see social psych concepts in action!– Groups– Conformity– Persuasion/influence– Obedience– Norms

• Answer Q’s on worksheet

College level reading

• 323 to 346 (some of it you’ve read already)• QUIZ FRIDAY!

Groups

• Class will split into 2• Half will go outside (given instructions)• Half will stay inside (given instructions)• Analysis after

ALL: How much is your sense of self based on your groups?

• How much of your self is personal and how much is interpersonal? Explore your sense of self by taking the "Who am I" twenty-statements test

• Number the lines on a sheet of paper from 1 to 20. • On each line, complete the statement "I am ..."

with whatever aspect of yourself comes to mind.• Answer as if you were talking to yourself, not to

somebody else. • Write the answers in the order they occur to you,

and don't worry if they aren't logical or factual.

Who are you?

• Read each statement and then classify it into one of two categories. – Collective qualities are any descriptions that refer to

the self in relationship to others. It includes roles ("I am a student,"), family relations ("I am a mother,"), ethnicity, race, gender, and origins (e.g., "I am an African American" or "I am from the States"), and religion.

– Individualistic qualities are qualities that apply to you personally, such as traits, attitudes, habits, and mood (e.g., I am intelligent," or "I like to play soccer").

• 3. Summarize your self-concept by computing the percentage of your self that is individualistic versus collectivistic.

• a. Is your self-concept more individualistic or collectivistic?

• b. Did you tend to list collective qualities earlier in the list than individualistic ones?

• c. Was it difficult to classify the self-descriptions as either individualistic or collectivistic?

• d. Which qualities are more central to your identity: the collective components or the individualistic components?

Time: Deindividualization

• What happens when you remove individual responsibility or identity from a group?

• One a sheet of paper, write a list of all the things you would do if you were invisible for a day. No swearing please!