Welcome to PSY 380 Introduction to Social Psychology

Professor Denise Sekaquaptewa

January 06, 2000

Announcements

No discussion sections this week

Discussion sections meet for the first time Jan 12-14

Outline for Today's Class

Introduce the course & distribute the syllabus

Discuss class policies

Introduce myself and my GSI colleagues

Lecture

Social Psychology

A main goal of psychology: Understanding and predicting behavior

The social psychological perspective

focus on the situation

the individual in the context of the group

Social Psychology and other social sciences

Sociology

focus on societal forces

Personality psychology

focus on individual differences

Social Psychology

focus on the individual in the context of others

how the presence of others influences the individual

Social Psychology

"The scientific study of the way in which people's thoughts, feelings and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people." (Allport, 1985)

Why is social psychology interesting?

Social psychology is the study of "everyday people"

We study why people like you and me do the things that we do

Social psychology is relevant to things that happen in our everyday lives

For example, in our everyday lives we may experience...

persuasive messages: advertisements, political campaigns, dating situations

group influence: work groups, class projects, juries

stereotyping & discrimination

helping & hurting others

intimate relationships with others

Social psychologists examine such questions as

What kinds of persuasive appeals work best?

Do people work harder in groups or alone?

How do stereotypes develop?

What influences when we will help others? When we will hurt others?

What factors are involved in maintaining a relationship?

Syllabus

Top Ten Questions about PSY 380

10. Can I change to another discussion section?

9. I'm not currently enrolled in the course; can I get an override?

8. Do I really have to go to discussion section & lecture? Could I just read the book and do ok?

7. What do I need to do to get a good grade in this course?

Demanding course

Three in-class exams (noncumulative)

Two papers (4-6 pages)

Discussion section requirements

Keep up on readings in the textbook and coursepack

Attend review sessions & participate in discussion section activities

6. What if I have a problem along the way?

5. What are the "course policies"?

Course Policies

Class starts at 11:10

Things to do in class

taking excellent notes

listening and thinking

asking questions

eating and drinking ok

Things NOT to do in class

talking

reading the newspaper or magazines

disrupting others when coming late to class

packing up your notebooks before the end of lecture

Class ends when I am finished lecturing

4. Is there a course webpage?

www.umich.edu/~psychol/380sek

3. Why do I have a different URL on my syllabus?

2. What's available on the course webpage?

1. What's up with the professor's name??

A lesson in pronunciation

Sekaquaptewa

SEE KAH KWOP TEE WAH

SE KA QUAP TE WA

"Dr. Sekaquaptewa" "Professor" "Denise"

Coffee Talk

Every other Tuesday immediately after class (12-1), Cava Java

Beginning January 18th

Meet up front at the end of class

About 4-5 people each time

Drinking coffee optional

My Colleagues

Amara Brook

Laura Citrin

Greg Feldkamp

Catherine Maroney

Mischa Thompson

Jeremy Welland

Social Psychology

How can we explain behavior?

Complete the sentence:

Tim made everyone laugh...

Breanne chose a seat in the back row...

Shanna refused to eat the steak...

Kareem gave fifty dollars to charity...

Marcella swerved while driving...

Explaining behavior

"Attribution" = an explanation for a behavior or event

Two kinds of attributions

internal: attributing the behavior to the person's disposition or personality traits

external: attributing the behavior to the situation that a person is in

We easily attribute other people's behavior to the person's disposition

We often ignore the power of the situation

This is called the Fundamental Attribution Error

the tendency to overestimate the influence of personality and underestimate the influence of the situation in explaining behavior

When we think about our own behavior, do we consider the situation more?

Yes.

Do we all perceive the situation the same way?

No.

Consider an example

Older wealthy widow is romanced by dashing young man.

She thinks he is in love with her

What might he be thinking?

Same situation, construed differently by two different people

construal: the way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the social world

An important point in social psychology

Even though there is an "objective reality" out there, we often act in accordance with our construals of the world.

Social psychology investigates how we form those construals, and how we react to them.

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