Basic Principles of Social Psychology

Chuck Huff, St. Olaf College
after Eliot Smith & Diane Mackie (1995) Social Psychology. Worth Publishers.

There are individual differences in the extent towhich these statements describe any particular individual. Personality psychology is, in part, the study of these individual differences. But all people, to some extent, behave in a manner consist with these social psychological principles

Two Fundamental Axioms of Social Psychology

• The Social Construction of Reality. Each person's view of reality is a construction shaped by cognitive, emotional, and social processes. Almost any complex perception (e.g. perception of another's intent) is a social construction. Many simple perceptions (e.g. the variation in movement of a light) are also influenced by the above processes. The extent to which a perception "feels" immediate is no guide to the extent of construction.
• The Pervasiveness of Social Influence. Other people influence virtually all our thoughts, feelings, and behavior. This occurs whether those others are physically present or not, and whether we recognize the influence or not. We are biased to not recognize this influence, unless it works in our favor (e.g., as an excuse).

Three Motivational Principles

These motivational principles guide the social construction of reality, and the process of social influence. In any particular situation, they may provide both contradictory and complimentary impulses.

• People Strive for Mastery. People seek to understand and predict events in the social world in order to obtain rewards. People enjoy feeling competant and effective and will work to obtain these feelings. People will avoid situations in which these feelings are threatened. People may distort their actual mastery to achieve a feeling of mastery.
• People Seek Connectedness. People seek support, liking, and acceptance from the people and groups they care about and value. People will behave in ways that will increase liking from these groups.
• People value "me and mine." People desire to see themselves, and other people and groups connected to themselves, in a positive light. They will collect information in the support of this motivation, and distort information to conform with it.

Three Processing Principles

These three processing principles operate together in a mutually supporting way to guide our cognitive efforts at understanding ourselves and others.

• Conservatism. Established views are slow to change. Individuals' and groups' views of the world are slow to change and prone to perpetuate themselves.
• Accessibility. Accessible information has large effects. Information that is most readily available has the most impact on thoughts, feeling, and behavior.
• Superficiality vs. Depth. People ordinarily put little effort into dealing with information. When specifically motivated, however, they can be convinced to process information at greater depth.

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