PSY1022 Final: Social psychology and attitudes
7 Nov 2018
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The stud(cid:455) of ho(cid:449) people(cid:859)s thoughts, feeli(cid:374)gs a(cid:374)d (cid:271)eha(cid:448)iour are i(cid:374)flue(cid:374)(cid:272)ed (cid:271)(cid:455) others. Humans have highly social brains, predisposed to forming intimate personal networks. Social exclusion has several consequences: mood and anxiety problems, engagement in unhealthy behaviours. Belonging and being socially accepted are fundamental for human beings. Using other people as a basis of comparison for evaluating oneself. We compare ourselves to categories of people called reference groups. Upward comparison: comparing oneself to a perceived superior. Downward comparison: comparing oneself to a perceived inferior: active: comparing to someone worse off, passive: demeaning others, causing harm. Socially based rules that prescribe what people should or should not do in various situations. A powerful norm is the reciprocity norm: the tendency to respond to others as they have acted towards you. Social norms exert a strong social influence, creating orderly social behaviour.
