PSY 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Social Comparison Theory, Robin Dunbar, Fundamental Attribution Error
16 Apr 2015
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Social psychology study of how people influence others" behaviour, beliefs, & attitudes for good & bad. It is important for one reason: humans are a highly social species. Robin dunbar is famous for a # 150. This is the average # of people we know reasonably well. He argued hat the size of our cortex relative to the rest of our brain places limits on how many people we can closely be associated with. When we"re deprived of social contact for a considerable length of time, we usually become lonely. Baumeister & leary need-to-belong-theory ppl have a biologically based need for interpersonal. The threat of social isolation can lead us to behave in self-destructive ways & even impair our mental functioning. Brain region called the cingulate cortex, becomes active during physical pain. Social influence processes serve us well most of the time, but they can occasionally backfire on us if we"re not.
