Social behaviour is a necessary part of
human life, and being social means much
more than merely being in the company of
others. Social psychology
deals with all behaviour that takes place in
the actual, imagined, or implied presence
of others. Take this simple example: if you
have to memorise a poem and recite it, you
may have no problem in doing this when
you are by yourself.
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But if you have to recite
this poem to an audience, your performance
might get influenced, because you are now
in a social situation. Even imagining that
people are listening to your recitation
(although they may not be physically
present) may change your performance.
This is just one example that demonstrates
how our social environment influences our
thoughts, emotions and behaviour in
complex ways. Social psychologists examine
various forms of social behaviour, and try
to explain their basis. Because of social
influences, people form views, or attitudes
about people, and about different issues in
life, that exist in the form of behavioural
tendencies. When we meet people, we make
inferences about their personal qualities.
This is called impression formation. We
are also interested in why people behave in
the ways they do � that is, we assign causes
to the behaviour shown in specific social
situations. This process is called
attribution.
Very often, impression
formation and attributions are influenced
by attitudes. These three processes are
examples of mental activities related to the
gathering and interpretation of information
about the social world, collectively called
social cognition. Moreover, social cognition
is activated by cognitive units called
schemas. Cognitive processes cannot be
directly seen; they have to be inferred on
the basis of externally shown behaviour.
There are other examples of social influence
that are in the form of observable behaviour.
Two such examples are social facilitation/
inhibition, i.e. the improvement/decline in
performance in the presence of others, and
helping, or pro-social behaviour, i.e.
responding to others who are in need or
distress. In order to understand completely
how the social context influences the
individual, it is necessary to study both
social-cognitive processes and social
behaviour. Social psychologists have shown
that one must go beyond common sense
and folk wisdom in order to explain how
people observe and make sense of their own
and others� diverse behaviours. Through
systematic and objective observations, and
by adopting scientific methods, it is possible
to establish logical cause-and-effect
relationships that explain social behaviour.
This chapter will give an account of the
fundamental aspects of the topics
mentioned above. We will begin with a
description of attitudes.