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Introduction to Psychology PSY101

Lesson 40

POPULAR AREAS OF PSYCHOLOGY

Psychology today is the most popular social science.

American Psychological Association has 55 divisions.

Most popular areas of psychology today:

Clinical psychology.

Health psychology.

Organizational psychology.

Major Sub fields of Psychology:

Behavioral Neuroscience

Clinical psychology

Clinical Neuropsychology

Cognitive Psychology

Counseling Psychology

Cross-cultural Psychology

Developmental Psychology

Educational Psychology

Environmental Psychology

Evolutionary Psychology

Experimental psychology

Forensic Psychology

Health Psychology

Industrial/Organizational Psychology

Personality psychology

Program Evaluation

Psychology of women

School Psychology

Social Psychology

Sport psychology

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

The branch of psychology concerned with how people's thoughts, feelings and actions are affected by

others.

How will we have if we do not have any people around us?

What would we be like if we had never ever come across another human being

Attitudes, Behavior and Persuasion

Attitudes

Learned predispositions to respond in a favorable or unfavorable manner to a particular object.

Attitudes can also be defined as our learned evaluations that we hold about other people,

objects, events, behaviors, and beliefs.

ABC MODEL

The model suggesting that an attitude has three components: affect, behavior and cognition.

Affect component: That part of an attitude encompassing how one feels about the object of one's

attitude.

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Introduction to Psychology PSY101

Behavior component: A predisposition to act in a way that is relevant to one's attitude.

Cognition component: The beliefs and thoughts held about the object of one's attitude.

COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDES

Affect

Behavior

Attitude

Cognition

Forming and Maintaining Attitudes Classical Conditioning and Attitudes

Advertisers make use of the principals of classical conditioning of attitudes by attempting to link a product

they want consumers to buy with a positive feeling or event.

Operant Conditioning Approaches to Attitude Acquisitions

Attitudes that are reinforced, either verbally or nonverbally, tend to be maintained.

Vicarious Learning of Attitudes: Learning by observing others.

For example, even if they have never met a blind person, children whose parents say that "blind people are

incompetent' may adopt such attitudes themselves. We also learn attitudes vicariously through television,

films and other media. (e.g. violence).

Agents of Attitude Formation

Family

School

Peer group

Neighborhood

Social Environment

Mass Media

Persuasion

Persuasion is the process through which people's attitudes are changed.

Factors affecting attitude change

· Message source

· Characteristics of the message

· Characteristics of the target audienceMessage Source

The characteristics of the attitude communicator or the deliverer of the message are important.

Characteristics that make a different:

Ø Physical attractiveness

Ø Social attractiveness

Ø Expertise

Ø Trustworthiness

Ø Audiences belief that the communicator does not have any ulterior motive.

Characteristics of the Message

Two-sided messages are more effective than one-sided messages.

Two-sided messages are the ones in which both sides of the argument are discussed.

Fear-producing messages are effective when it is accompanied by a solution to the problem as well.

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Introduction to Psychology PSY101

If the message is too fear provoking, and without a solution too, then it may be ignored.

Characteristics of the Target

Less intelligent people are less resistant and the more intelligent are more resistant to persuasion.

Persuasion is relatively easier with women when in public settings, and when they have less knowledge

about the issue under question.

There are no gender differences in case of a change in private attitudes.

Types of Information Processing used by the Target for Interpreting the Message

a. Central Route Processing

b. Peripheral Route Processing

Central Route Processing

Interpretation of messages involving thoughtful consideration of the issues and arguments used to

persuade.

Peripheral Route Processing

Interpretation of messages involving consideration of the message source, and related general

information, instead of considering the message itself.

Cognitive Dissonance

·Cognitive dissonance is a conflict experienced by a person.

·This conflict arises when an individual holds two contradictory cognitions i.e., attitudes or thoughts.

Reducing Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive

Dissonance

Denying that

Modifying one

cognitions are

or both

cognitions

Changing

Adding

perceived

additional

importance

cognitions

1. I am fat.

2. I eat

sweets

1. I'm not too

Denying

fat.

that

2 I don't eat

cognitions

I work a lot and

Sugar is not

consume the

the

sugar

cause of

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Introduction to Psychology PSY101

Social Cognition

The processes that underlie our understanding of the social world.

· We use social cognitions to understand and make sense of others and of ourselves.

Schemas

·Research shows that we have highly developed schemas.

Schemas are sets of cognitions about people and social experiences.

Impression formation

The process by which an individual organizes information about another individual to form an overall

impression of that person.

Central traits

The major traits considered in forming impressions of others.

Theories of social cognition describe how people form an overall impression other's personality traits.

Attribution Processes

The processes of attributing causes to other people's behavior

Attribution Theory

The theory of personality that explains how we decide, about the specific causes of an

individual's behavior on the basis of samples of that person's behavior.

The Nature of Perceived Causes of Behavior

Situational causes

A perceived cause of behavior that is based on environmental factors.

Dispositional causes

A perceived cause of behavior that is based on internal traits or personality factors.

Biases in Attribution

1. The fundamental attribution error

People have a tendency to attribute the behavior of other people to dispositional causes; they give

less importance to the situational causes.

2. The halo effect

If our initial perception of a person is positive then we tend to expect that the person has other

uniformly positive characteristics too.

3. Assumed similarity bias

We have a tendency to think that others are similar to us. This may happen even when we see

someone for the first time.

Social Influence

The process through which our behavior is affected by the actions of another individual or a group.

Social influence can be seen in terms of:

Conformity,

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Introduction to Psychology PSY101

Obedience,

Conformity

Conformity is going along with people.

People are said to be conforming when their behavior or attitudes change as a result of a desire to follow the beliefs or

standards of other people.

The following variables may determine whether or not one will conform:

The characteristics of the group

The situation in which the individual is responding

The kind of task

Unanimity of the group

Obedience

It is a form of conforming behavior that results from the commands of others.

Compliance

· A form of conforming behavior that results from direct social pressure.

· Different tactics are used by lay people, organizations, and salespersons to make others

comply:

The foot-in-the-door technique,

The-door-in-the-face technique,

The that's-not; all technique,

The not-so-free sample.

Prejudice and Discrimination

Prejudice

Prejudice refers to the negative or positive expectations about social groups and their members.

Discrimination

Negative behavior toward members of a particular group.

Prejudice and discrimination may result from stereotypes:

Stereotype

A kind of schema in which beliefs and expectations about members of a group are held simply on

the basis of their membership in that group.

Stereotypes can be positive as well as negative

Ingroup -Outgroup Bias

The tendency to hold less favorable opinions about groups to which we do not belong, while holding

more favorable opinions about to which we do belong.

Out groups

Groups to which people feel and believe they do not belong.

In-groups

Groups to which people feel and believe they do belong.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

An expectation about the occurrence of an event or behavior that increases the likelihood that the event or

behavior will happen.

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