PSYCO241 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Fundamental Attribution Error, Construals, Natural Selection
1 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
Social psychology is the scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals in social situations. Looks at how situations determine behavior, common sense usually attributes behavior to personality, called the fundamental attribution error. Also focuses on the role of construal in understanding situations. People think comprehension of situations is direct, but actually even the perception of simple objects requires substantial inference, and the complex cognitive structures that carry it out. Schemas are stored representations of numerous repetitions of highly similar stimuli and situations. They are how we interpret situations and how to correctly behave in them. Stereotypes guide interpretation and behavior, but are often inaccurate or misapplied. As a result, people often don"t have a clear idea of how they reached a particular conclusion or why they behaved in a particular way, because they have no need for conscious access to these processes. Natural selection operates on behaviors, same as on physical traits.
