Define the concept Social psychology Describe the following basic principles of human Sociability: 1. Perceiving others: a) Impression formation Primacy effect Central trait Halo effect Self-fulfilling prophecies b) Implicit personality theory c) Attribution theory Affiliation: 3. Attraction: Proximity Familiarity Reciprocal attraction Similarity 4. Co-operation Reciprocal communication Joint task activity Communal relationships

1. Human Sociability
Study Unit 15.1
By C Settley

2.  Define the concept Social psychology
 Describe the following basic principles of human
Sociability:
 1. Perceiving others:
 a) Impression formation
 Primacy effect
 Central trait
 Halo effect
 Self-fulfilling prophecies
 b) Implicit personality theory
 c) Attribution theory
Learning Outcomes

3.  2. Affiliation:
 3. Attraction:
 Proximity
 Familiarity
 Reciprocal attraction
 Similarity
 4. Co-operation
 Reciprocal communication
 Joint task activity
 Communal relationships
Learning Outcomes

4.  Defined:
 Concerned with the study of how individual people
think, feel and behave in relation to other people

5.  1. Perceiving others:
- Perceive something> perceptual system actively
processes it to make sense of it
- Two people may perceive the same thing in a
different way due to different experiences and
expectations
- Interpretation of what we see depends on our
assumptions, etc
- Three aspects of this process: Impression Formation,
Implicit Personality & Attribution Theory
Basic principles of human Sociability:

6.  The process of getting a holistic sense of what a
person is like, we tend to form a Gestalt (revise unit
on perception)
 1) Proximity
 2) Closure
 3) Similarity
 4) Continuity
 5) Simultaneous Movements
Perceiving Others:
Impression Formation

7. Perceiving Others:
Impression Formation
First Impressions:
 Luchins (1957)
 Initial impression on the basis
of the first information they
receive
 Subsequent information is
given less attention
 Or more easily explained away
Central Trait:
 Used to guide their further
expectations about a person
 Influences how is behaved
towards a particular
person/situation

8. First impressions

9. Perceiving Others:
Impression Formation
Central Trait continued:
The halo effect….(the science of attraction)
 Refers to the tendency to expect that, if people have one
positive characteristic, they will possess positive attributes
 Example : people who are physically attractive are perceived to
be more popular, intelligent, kind, sociable
 People then tend to act positively towards these ‘physically
attractive people’
 This enables them to become more socially popular
 Such perceptions lead to self fulfilling prophecies

10. Impression Formation, Implicit Personality
Theory & Attribution Theory
IMPLICIT PERSONALITY THEORY
 How we perceive others is shaped by our beliefs about how
personality is organised
 Even though they have NOT studied psychology, everybody has an
implicit personality theory.
 this means that everybody has an unspoken understanding of how
human personality works
 2 common assumptions:
 - people have stable and detectable personality traits
 - certain traits tend to be associated with other traits

11. Impression Formation, Implicit Personality
Theory & Attribution Theory
IMPLICIT PERSONALITY THEORY continued
 Based on the way information is organised
 Basis for rapid and efficient processing of information

12. Impression Formation, Implicit
Personality Theory & Attribution Theory
ATTIBUTION THEORY
 When we perceive people, inferences are made about their
emotions, beliefs and motives
 The question : ‘why’
 The answers given to these questions are called attributions

13.  Louw, D.A. & Edwards, D.J.A. 2008.Psychology. An
introduction for students in South Africa. 2nd Edition.
Cape Town: Heinemann.
 http://youtu.be/UEho_4ejkNw
References