PSYC 325 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: O. J. Simpson, Fundamental Attribution Error, Social Influence

• School: Concordia University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 325
• Professor: lindsay sparks

Document Summary

Social influence direct way to influence other, just the mere presence that people have on other. Is to study how and why our thoughts and feelings are shaped by environment: social psych is related to other subjects such as anthropology, neuroscience, genetics, sociology, cognition and personality. Oj simpson -> objective evidence was not enough to make him guitly (how people can be influence by their social environment: each interpretation is subjective. Power of social influence: fundamental attribution error -> tendency to overestimate the extent to which a person"s behaviour is due to internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the role of external situational factor. > people tend to blame personality not the social environment. " people do this because this is who they are" -> this could never happen to me -> makes us place blame on the victim: can lead to the development of a false sense of security.