Social Perceptions, Influences &

Relationships

Social Perception - How Good are we at Knowing the

causes of Our Own Behaviour?
Social Influences
Social Relationships
 Quiz Time
Coming week

Topic : Learning
Definition, Classical , Operant/Instrumental,
Cognitive, Learner and Learning

Tuesday . . . .
(November 27th , 2018)
social script
culturally
modeled
guide
for how to act
in various
situations
Social Perception

How good are we at knowing the

causes of our own behaviour?
• Attribution - Explaining Behavior - Process of
inferring the causes of people’s behavior,
including one’s own.

• The explanation given for a particular behavior

• Helps psychologically insulate us from the

uncomfortable thought.

Assignment in class
 Social Influences
Conformity
Compliance
Obedience
Bystander
Facilitation
Loafing
groupthink ------ in which group members share such a
strong motivation to achieve consensus that they lose the
ability to critically evaluate alternative points of view …..
• ……. the loss of self - awareness and self - restraint occurring
in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity
Social facilitation stronger responses on simple or well -
learned tasks in the presence of others - Skilled athletes
often find they are “ON” before an audience. What they
do well, they do even better when people are watching…..

Social loafing the tendency for people in a group to exert

less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a
common goal than when individually accountable. -
Working hard, or hardly working? In group projects,
social loafing often occurs, as individuals free-ride on the
efforts of others.
 Social Relationships
Positive and Negative Social Behavior

Prejudice
Aggression & Extremism
Attraction – Liking vs. Love
Prosocial and Altruism
Conflict and Peace Making
 Prejudice Stereotype Discrimination
Reasons
1- Social Inequalities
2- Us and Them: Ingroup and Outgroup
3- Scapegoat theory : when things go wrong, finding someone to blame
can provide a target for anger. “Fear and anger create aggression, and
aggression against citizens of different ethnicity or race creates racism
and, in turn, new forms of terrorism,” Philip Zimbardo (2001).
5- Forming Categories
4- Remembering Vivid Cases
 Aggression and Extremism
Prejudice hurts, but aggression often hurts more.
In psychology, aggression is any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt
or destroy, whether done out of hostility or as a calculated means to an end.
The assertive, persistent salesperson is not aggressive.
Nor is the dentist who makes you wince with pain.
But the person who passes along a vicious rumor about you, the person who verbally
assaults you, and the attacker who mugs you for your money are aggressive.

1- Genetic Influences
2- Biochemical Influences - testosterone High testosterone correlates with irritability, assertiveness,
impulsiveness, and low tolerance for frustration—qualities that predispose somewhat more aggressive responses to
provocation or competition for status. Among both teenage boys and adult men, high testosterone levels correlate with
delinquency, hard drug use, and aggressive - bullying responses to frustration.
3- Aversive Events In laboratory experiments, those made miserable have often made others miserable
4- Reinforcement and Modeling ------ Media Models for Violence
HOW DO I LIKE YOU? LET ME COUNT THE WAYS

Interpersonal attraction (family, friends, colleagues) Positive feelings for

others; liking and loving
Proximity Living in a hostel or an apartment - who lived geographically closest
to you. Proximity leads to liking.

Mere Exposure Repeated exposure to a person produce attraction

Similarity / Dissimilarity ----- birds of a feather flock together vs. opposites

attract. Because we experience a strong reciprocity-of-liking effect (wow you
like me? I like you too… )

Physical Attractiveness beautiful = good??!!

Indeed, physical attractiveness may be the single most important element promoting
initial liking in student life dating situations, although its influence eventually
decreases when people get to know each other better
HOW DO I LOVE YOU? LET ME COUNT THE WAYS Social psychologists believed that love was too
difficult to observe and study in a controlled, scientific way.
Mere liking vs. full-blown love????
Love is not simply a greater quantity of liking but a qualitatively different psychological state.

Two main types of love: passionate love and companionate love (Masuda, 2003; Regan, 2006; Loving, Crockett, & Paxson, 2009).
Passionate/Romantic love : intense physiological arousal, psychological interest, and caring for the needs of another.
Companionate love: strong affection and love we feel for our parents, other family members, and even some close
friends

Psychologist Robert Sternberg (Sternberg, Hojjat, & Barnes, 2001; Sternberg, 2004a; Sternberg, 2006) proposes that love consists of three parts:
Decision/commitment, the initial thoughts of love and the longer-term feelings of commitment to maintain
love.
Intimacy component, feelings of closeness and connectedness.
Passion component, the motivational drives relating to sex, physical closeness, and romance.

Liking (intimacy) Infatuation (passion) Empty Love (decision/ commitment)

Fatuous /Silly love = passion + decision/commitment
Romantic love = intimacy + passion
Companionate love = intimacy + decision/commitment
Consummate/Flawless love = intimacy + passion + decision/commitment
 Prosocial & Altruism

Why do we help?
Self-interest underlies all human interactions
that our constant goal is to maximize rewards and minimize
costs.
• Accountants call it cost - benefit analysis.
• Philosophers call it utilitarianism.
• Psychologists call it social exchange theory ‘ought to’
Reciprocity norm
Social-responsibility norm
 Conflict and Peacemaking

What in the human mind causes destructive conflict?

Social Traps: a situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally
pursuing their self - interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior.
Enemy Perceptions : mirror-image perceptions: As we see “them” (enemies)
—as untrustworthy, with evil intentions—so “they” see us. Each demonizes the
other.

What are some ways to promote peace?

ANSWER: Peacemakers should encourage equal-status contact,

cooperation to achieve superordinate goals (shared goals that
override differences), understanding through communication, and
reciprocated conciliatory gestures (each side gives a little).

“You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.”