Psychology 2070A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Evolutionary Psychology, Social Cognition, The Need

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2070A/B
• Professor: James M Olson

Document Summary

The scientific study of behaviour and the mind. The scientific study of how individuals: think about each other, feel about each other, influence each other, relate to each other. Desire to understand self and others: useful knowing how. Some of the most important world problems are social problems, social. Curiosity: people are fascinating people respond psych can help solve them, environmental issues, health issues, political issues, relationship issues. Ex: having good social relationships is good for our health whereas bad relationships are bad for our health. Social psychology is an experimentally-based science: theories and ideas are based on empirical evidence, researchers design studies to systematically test interesting questions. Thus social psychology goes above and beyond: discussing or speculating possible answers, making assumptions based on common sense . Social psychologists believe it is most important to understand individuals construal of the social environment: we are less concerned with understanding the objective properties of the social environment itself.