PSYC 2310 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Scientific Method, Cognitive Psychology, Social Cognition

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2310
• Professor: Saba Safdar

Document Summary

What is social psychology? is the scientific study of how people"s thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by factors in the social world: psychologist study how people explain their own and others people"s behavior. Using the scientific method: a research method for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, and evaluating and integrating previous knowledge they form an educated guess known as a hypothesis. How we think about ourselves: self-perception- how we think about ourselves, and how our views of ourselves depend on our sociocultural environment, sociologist also examine self-presentation how people work to convey certain images of themselves to others. How our attitudes and behavior shape the social world: social psychology also examines how our attitudes and behavior can shape the social world. In the process called: self-fulfilling prophecy- the process by which people"s expectations about a person lead them to elicit behavior that confirms these expectation. Behaviorism: psychologists focused on the impact of positive and negative events on behavior.