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# Social Psychology
Social Psychology is the study of the reciprocal relationship between attention and the self, and how they are influenced by other humans.
Our [[Self]] grows from a combination of background, genetics, relationships, culture, and education. Because of [[Experience plasticity]], our childhood is particularly important determining our selves.
[[The self shapes what we attend to, but what we attend to shapes the self]] showing the importance our external landscape has on our internal one (see: [[Your Environment is Part of Your Brain The Extended Mind]]).
The [[Culture MOC]] we live in effects the building of the self by shaping [[Norms]] and making us prone to giving [[Attention]] to certain things over others.
Because we can only see the world through our self, people [[We tend to overestimate how much personality plays a role in behavior compared to situation|tend to overestimate how much personality plays a role in behavior compared to situation]] leading us to often commit the [[Fundamental attribution error]] when trying to attribute others behavior (see: [[Social Attribution]]).
In addition, our unique selves make us prone to [[Egocentrism]], [[Psychology of Overconfidence|overconfidence]], and [[The Psychology of Questionable Belief|questionable beliefs]] leading to [[Human Biases, Heuristics, and Emotional Tendencies MOC]], [[Heuristics]], and [[Psychological effects]].
Our self is also our most common anchoring point for [[Decision Making MOC]].
In reality, because of [[Situationism]], [[Your situation plays a larger role than personality in how you act|our situation plays a larger role than personality in how we act]]. It effects our self by changing our [[Working self concept]], in turn effecting our [[Intuition and Reasoning]].
The unique self we build reciprocally effects our [[Construal|construals]] or our subjective interpretations of things as well as our [[Attitudes, Behaviors, and Rationalization]]. This means two people experiencing the exact same objective stimuli can have different [[Sensation and Perception|perceptions of sensation]], and [[Emotion in Social Psychology|emotions]] and thus derive varying levels of pleasure and enjoyment out an activity altering their [[Experiencing self]] and [[Remembering self]] and thus [[Meaning MOC]].
Those that understand how to shape their [[Attention]] to align their environment with their goals or their goals with their environment will be more likely to experience [[Happiness MOC|happiness]] despite the external circumstances of the event.
But as Aristotle said thousands of years ago, "humans are social creatures." [[Humans need to feel understood by another human]] otherwise we feel lonely. So how do others play into our selves?
[[Social Comparison Theory]] states one of the main ways we evaluate and grow our selves is through [[Social Comparison MOC]]. In effect, the self shapes who we will interact with socially (see: [[Relationships and Attraction]] thus again influencing our self.
The belief that someone else is aware of our actions leads to [[Social facilitation|social facilitation]] making us more aroused increases the likelihood of the dominant response from our self.
Other people also shape our actions by [[Social Influence]] and [[Persuasion]] which in turn can shape our self by altering where our attention goes to.
Finally, at the societal level, social processes lead to [[Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination]].
Ultimately, however, we will all die and people need to come to terms with how to deal with that (see: [[Death in Social Psychology]]).
Evolution and Social Psychology
- [[Evolutionary Psychology]]
- [[Evolutionary Morality]]
- [[Evolution Altruism and Cooperation]]