PSYB10H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Kurt Lewin, Terror Management Theory, Evolutionary Psychology
Document Summary
Social psychology: the scientific study of the way in which people"s thoughts, feeling, and behaviours are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people. Not concerned w/ social situations in any objective sense but how people are influenced by their interpretation and construal of their social environment ( how they perceive and interpret the world) Ex: in a murder trial, it depends on the jury and how they construe the evidence which influence the outcome of the trial. Is that is an experimentally based science that tests its assumptions, and ideas about human social behavior empirically and systematically rather relying on folk wisdom, common sense, the opinions and insight of philosophers, novelists etc. Problem with w/ full reliance w/ such sources: more often than not, they disagree w/ one another and there is no easy way of determining which is correct. Ex: two birds of a feather flock together and opposites attract .
