Chapter One: Intro to SocPsy

Social psychology is the systematic study of the nature and causes of human
social behaviour. Social psychology’s primary concern is human social behaviour. Social
psychologists are not only interested in what people do, but also what individuals feel and
think.
Social Psychologists are not satisfied to simply document the nature of social
behaviour; instead, they want to explore the causes

Social psychologists study social behaviour in a systematic fashion. Social

psychology is a social science that employs the scientific method and relies on formal
research methodologies, including surveys, diary research, experiments, observational
research, and archival research or content analysis.

Answers to questions about social psychology come from various sources.

1. Personal experience
2. Informal knowledge or advice from others who describe their own experiences to us.
3. Conclusions reached by philosophers, novelists, poets, and men and women of
practical affairs who, over the centuries, have written about these issues.

five core themes within social psychology:

● (1) the impact that one individual has on another

● (2) the impact that a group has on its individual members
● (3) the impact that individual members have on the groups to which they belong
● (4) the impact that one group has on another group
● (5) the impact of social context and social structure on groups and individuals
 Theoretical Perspectives in Social Psychology

In social psychology, no single theory explains all phenomena of interest; rather, the field
includes many different theories

Middle-range theories identify the conditions that produce specific social behaviour
(Example: Frustration-Aggression Theory)

Theoretical Perspectives Broader in scope than middle-range theories, offer general

explanations for a wide array of social behaviours in a variety of situations

The three “faces” of Social psychology: Symbolic Interactionism, Group Processes, and
Social structure and Personality

Symbolic Interactionism:
● The basic premise of symbolic interactionism is that human nature and social order
are products of symbolic communication among people
● We act toward things on the basis of their meanings.
● Meanings are not inherent but are negotiated in interaction with others.
● Meanings can be modified and changed through interaction.

For an interaction among persons to proceed smoothly, there must be some consensus with
respect to the situated identity
Situated Identity: every person involved in the interaction must know who they are in the
situation and who the other people are. (Friends? Dating? Coworkers? etc)

Role Taking: we imagine ourselves from the other person’s viewpoint.

This serves two purposes:
1. Role taking makes cooperative action possible. Based on previous experience, we
can imagine how another would react in any given situation
2. Second purpose: acquiring self-meaning

George Herbert Mead’s the reflexive self: an individual can engage in self perception,
self-evaluation, and self-control just as they might perceive, evaluate, and control others

Group Processes
Social Exchange: According to this perspective, social relationships are primarily based on
the exchanges of goods and services among people
➔ assumes that individuals have freedom of choice and often face social situations in
which they must choose among alternative actions
In social exchange there are:
(1) actors who exchange
(2) resources using an
(3) exchange process while situated in an
(4) exchange structure
People will be more likely to perform a specific behaviour if it is followed directly by the
occurrence of something pleasurable and avoid something negative (conditioning): this
reinforces or discourages exchange behaviour.

CONS: Theories about group processes are very westernised

Social Structure and Personality

Social psychologists explore the effect of gender, marital and parental status, race,
education and occupation, age, and other attributes on people’s lives.

Cognitive Perspectives

The basic premise of cognitive theory is that the mental activities of the individual are
important determinants of social behaviour
➔ These mental activities are called Cognitive processes which include: perception,
memory, judgement, problem solving, and decision making etc

Central to the cognitive perspective is the concept of cognitive structure: any form of
organisation among cognitions because a person's cognitions are interrelated.
➔ Cognitions: concepts and beliefs

individuals use specific cognitive structures called schemas to make sense of complex
information about other persons, groups, and situations.

Social Identity Theory: This perspective argues that while we sometimes think, feel, and act
as individuals, most of our behaviour stems from the social groups that we belong to
● We categorise ourselves and others into groups using a type of schema called a
prototype.
● We decide that we are a member of a group because we fit a schema of typical
group members.

Cognitive Perspectives sometimes oversimplify the way in which people process information
and cognitive phenomena are not directly observable.

Evolutionary Theory

Social behaviour, or the predisposition toward certain behaviours, is encoded in our genetic
material and is passed on through reproduction

Evolution also helps to explain parenting practises. For example, men tend to be somewhat
less invested in parenting than women because they invest less in producing offspring.

CONS: we cannot travel back in time to observe the actual evolution of social behaviour.
 Chapter Three: Socialization
Socialization: the ways in which individuals learn and re-create skills, knowledge, values,
motives, and roles appropriate to their positions in a group or society

Perspectives of Socialization

Developmental Perspective: emphasises biological development

➔ the development of many social behaviours as primarily due to physical and
neurological maturation, not social factors.
➔ socialization as largely dependent on processes of physical and psychological
development

Social Learning Perspective: emphasizes learning and the acquisition of skills from other
persons.
➔ Successful socialization requires that the child acquire considerable information
about the world
➔ Socialization is primarily a process of children learning the shared meanings of the
groups in which they are reared
➔ This viewpoint emphasizes the adaptive nature of socialization
➔ Reinforcement Theory: The infant learns the verbal and interpersonal skills
necessary to interact successfully with others.

Interpretive Perspective: emphasizes the child’s discovery of cultural routines as they

participate in and re-create them.
➔ Draws on Symbolic Interactionism
➔ Socialization is a process of interpretive reproduction. Children don’t simply learn
culture. In daily interaction, children use the language and interpretive skills that they
are learning or discovering. As they become more proficient in communicating and
more knowledgeable about the meanings shared in the family and school, children
attain a deeper understanding of the culture.
➔ Children, through interaction learn/reproduce culture
Impact on Social Structure: emphasizes the influence of social structure, which specifies
who is responsible for socializing children, adolescents, and other types of persons, and
what they should be taught.
➔ Socialization is not a random process.
➔ Socialization as a product of group life

Processes of Socialization

Instrumental Conditioning: The association of rewards and punishments with particular

actions—is a basis for learning both behaviours and performance standards.
➔ Through instrumental learning, children develop the ability to judge their own
behaviours and to engage in self-reinforcement

Observational Learning: We learn many behaviours and skills by observation of models.

We may not perform these behaviours, however, until we are in the appropriate situation

Internalization: The acquisition of behavioural standards, making them part of the self. This
process enables the child to engage in self-control.

The Four Major Agents of Socialization

1. The Family
The family provides the infant with a strong attachment to one or more caregivers. This bond
is necessary for the infant to develop interpersonal and cognitive skills.
➔ Family composition and social class affect socialization by influencing the amount
and kind of interaction between parent and child.
➔ Ethnic and racial groups differ in the child rearing techniques they use and in the
values they emphasize

2. Peers
provide the child with equal status relationships and are an important influence on the
development of self.

3. Schools
Teaches skills but also traits such as punctuality and perseverance.
➔ Social Comparison begins and is vital to socialization

4. Mass Media
provides children and adolescents with powerful images of some of the identities available in
the society and scripts for various types of relationships and behaviours.

Outcomes of Socialization

Gender Roles: The expectations associated with being a boy or a girl.

➔ Whether the child is independent or dependent, aggressive or passive, depends on
the expectations communicated by parents, kin, and peers.
 ➔ Some children do not fit into the dominant gender binary; their efforts to develop a
gender expression may result in bullying and abuse.

Language Skills: it involves learning words and the rules for combining them into
meaningful sentences.

The learning of social norms: involves parents, peers, and teachers as socializing agents.
Children learn that conformity to norms facilitates social interaction. Children also develop
the ability to make moral judgments.

The Acquisition of Motives: Children learn motives—dispositions that produce sustained,

goal-directed behaviour

The Life Course

(1 The life course consists of careers: sequences of roles and associated activities. The
principal careers involve work, family, and friends. As we engage in career roles, we develop
role identities, and evaluations of our performance contribute to self-esteem. The emotional
reactions we have to career and life events include feelings of stress and of satisfaction.

three major influences on progression through the life course:

1. The biological growth and decline of the body and brain set limits on what we can do.
The effects of biological developments on the life course, however, depend on the
social meanings we give them.

2. Each society has a customary, normative sequence of age-graded roles and

activities. This normative sequence largely determines the bases for building
identities, the responsibilities and privileges, and the socialization experiences
available to individuals of different ages.

3. Historical trends and events modify an individual’s life course. The impact of a
historical event depends on the person’s life stage when the event occurs.