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 A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image. A partiality that prevents objective consideration of an issue or situation. A preconceived opinion; bias; sentence passed before proper examination of the circumstances Stereotypes can be either positive ("black men are good at basketball") or negative ("women are bad drivers"). But most stereotypes tend to make us feel superior in some way to the person or group being stereotyped. Stereotypes ignore the  • Stereotypes: Beliefs about members of a specific group.  • Prejudice: Negative feelings towards members of a specific group.  • Discrimination: Negative behaviours / actions directed at members of a specific group. 74 uniqueness of individuals by painting all members of a group with the same brush. Prejudice – A prejudice evolves from a stereotype. Prejudices can be positive as well as negative. Positive stereotypes can also lead to discrimination but largely not as harmful as negative...

 These are psychological strategies or techniques that are unconsciously used to protect ourselves from anxiety arising from unpleasant, unacceptable thoughts or feelings. • We use defense mechanisms to protect ourselves from feelings of anxiety or guilt which arise because we feel threatened or because our id and superego becomes too demanding. • While all defense mechanisms can be unhealthy, they can also be adaptive and allow us to function normally. Defense Mechanisms • Displacement: a mechanism by which the individual can satisfy an impulse by acting on a substitute object or person in a socially unacceptable way For example, a person who dislikes their teacher after being given low grades may feel that they would be punished if they express their hostility towards them. Therefore, they may unconsciously displace their antipathy onto their best Friedberg., releasing frustration directed toward your boss on your spouse instead. • Denial: It blocks upsetting or overwhelming expe...

 The capacity to understand the world, think rationally, and use resources effectively when faced with challenges. Types of intelligence •Fluid intelligence reflects information-processing capabilities that are reasoning and memory. •The ability to be adaptable and solve problems, even in an unfamiliar situation. •If we were asked to solve an analogy, group a series of letters according to some criterion, or remember a set of numbers, we would be using fluid intelligence. •Crystallized Intelligence is the accumulation of information, skills, and strategies that people have learned through experience and that they can apply in problem-solving situations. •It reflects our ability to call up information from longterm memory. Examples: When you're learning a new language, memorize the new vocabulary words, learning the theory behind solving algebraic equations, or how to do long division, or the general rules of grammar when using a sentence. GARDNER’S MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES Gardner ar...

  People’s perceptions always have to be analyzed carefully and critically and there can be several reasons why the society may be considered unequal. First of all, the inequality may be structurally reproduced. This means that the existing system in a society does not guarantee people justice principles that are promised by the state and expected by the people. It means that people’s basic needs in a society are not satisfied, equal liberties are not guaranteed, there is discrimination, no equal opportunity to get ahead in life and the input of people is not fairly rewarded. If structural inequality exists then everybody should notice that. Empirically it means that all or at least the majority of people in a society should perceive high inequality – independent of their own socio-economic position. The perceived inequality is often influenced by personal experiences. People who have a higher socio-economic position usually think they have achieved their status in a fair competiti...

 Conformity : A type of social influence in which individuals change their attitude or behaviour in order to adhere or to stick to the existing social norms. Factors affecting Conformity: Cohesiveness, Group Size, and Type of Social Norms : Cohesiveness and Conformity : We are going to discuss how cohesiveness has impact on conformity. With respect to conformity, cohesiveness can be defined as the degree of attraction felt by an individual toward an influencing group. Groups with similar attitudes are more cohesive than groups with dissimilar attitudes, successful groups are more cohesive than unsuccessful groups, and groups with clear paths to goals are more cohesive than groups lacking clear paths. A classic finding of social psychology is that when cohesiveness (attraction) is high, pressures toward conformity are magnified. This is a basic reason why most persons are more willing to accept social influence from friends or persons they admire than from others. 97 E.g., if we joi...

  Family : where relationships and attachment styles begins : Family is the immediate social unit of an individual in a given society. This is the first experience of interaction. However, there may be relatively quantitative and qualitative difference between the individual and his or her family members. First interaction begins with the care giver especially mother. These interaction shapes individual’s world. It has a lasting impact on individual’s future interpersonal behavior. The degree of security an individual feels in interpersonal relationships is called as attachment style. It is understood that an infant develops two basic attitudes as a result of these early interpersonal interactions with adults. These are self-esteem, which is an attitude towards self and second is interpersonal trust, which is an attitude towards others. Development of self-esteem is dependent on the reactions of the care giver of being important, valued, and loved or the other extreme of being unim...

  Given that prejudice is common in all human societies and exerts damaging effects both on the victims and on those who hold such views, the important question to address is ‘Is it possible to remove prejudice? What steps can be taken to do this? Considering the growing prejudice among people over religion, region, language, race, it seems almost like prejudice is inevitable. But stereotyping and prejudice can be definitely reduced to a large extent by becoming aware and educating ourselves. And with concentrated multi-pronged approach we can do many things to counter prejudice.   1. Teaching children Acceptance Instead of Bigotry (narrowmindedness) : Homes and schools are places where children learn to get their generalizations leading to stereotypes. It is the responsibility of parents, teachers to bring their children up with acceptance and positive attitudes towards other groups and be role models. Because often the attitudes and prejudiced notions are...

Indications that another person is similar to them and negatively to indications that another person is dissimilar from them is referred as similarity-dissimilarity effect. The similarity effect also makes one to judge the similar person having positive traits. More the proportion of similarity among two people more possibility of attraction can be expected.  An idea that was proposed as an alternative to similarity-dissimilarity hypothesis is that rather than people getting attracted on the basis of similarity it is opposite of that, people repulse about dissimilarity. This is referred as repulsion hypothesis. This hypothesis could not stand on empirical ground, but it is believed that not only similarity but the dissimilarity among two people generates negative affect and hence influences interpersonal attraction.  Research literature provides three theoretical explanations for the phenomenon that similarity generates positive affect and dissimilarity produces negative affec...

Attitudes are a result of beliefs. Beliefs about the object, feelings towards the object, behavioral intensions regarding the object and actual behavior thus shown are all steps towards attitude formation. For example, if employees believe that their current job will provide them with experience and training a positive attitude is developed in them towards the job. There are four process in attitude formation. It is similar to how beliefs are formed.  They include:-  1. Past experience: People develop attitude on the basis of their past experience.  2. Available Information: A piece of information that is happy will influence the beliefs. This will consequently affect the attitude formation. For eg: If an employee hear about the promotion of many people in an industry his attitude changes.  3. Generalization : Generalization comes from similar situations or events. Eg: No one in a job is promoted. This will give a general feeling that there is no promotion. The most ...

 Attribution refers to the the thought processes we employ in explaining the behavior of other people and our own as well. Attribution implies an explanation for the cause of an event or behavior. Attribution theory explains how individuals pinpoint the causes of their own behavior or that of others. We are preoccupied with seeking, constructing and testing explanations of our experiences and to render it orderly, meaningful and predictable for adaptive action. Fritz Heider is considered the father of attribution theory. He believed that people are like amateur scientists, trying to understand other people’s behavior by piecing together information until they arrive at a reasonable cause. He proposed a simple dichotomy for people’s explanations: internal attributions, in which people infer that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about that person (e.g., a trait or attitude) versus external attributions, in which people infer that a person is behaving in a certa...

 DIFFERENT CHANNELS OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION : Nonverbal communication is one of the many interesting topics studied by social psychology. Social psychologists view it as an essential element of social perception. Although there are many other forms of nonverbal communication, the term usually means conveying thoughts and/or feelings without words using body language or sounds as the medium. Nonverbal communication can be defined as the way in which people communicate, intentionally or unintentionally, without words. The main channels of nonverbal communication are facial expressions, eye contact, body movements, posture and touching. 40 Nonverbal communication takes place in every social setting, though often it is not recognized for what it is or for what it means. It makes up a substantial portion of our communicative experience. Much research has been undertaken in recent years to analyze different kinds of nonverbal communication, and much of this research has addressed issu...

 §Psychoanalysis was founded by Sigmund Freud. He believed that people could be cured by making conscious their unconscious thoughts and motivations, thus gaining insight. §Psychoanalytic theory attempts to explain personality, motivation, and mental disorders by focusing on unconscious determinants of behavior. §He believed that events in our childhood have a great influence on our adult lives, shapes our personality. E.g., anxiety originating from traumatic experiences in a person’s past is hidden from consciousness and may cause problems during adulthood. 1. Consciousness : It contains all of the current thoughts, feelings, and wishes of which we are aware at any given moment. It includes what you are thinking about right now. 2. Sub-consciousness: It is the storage point for any recent memories needed for quick recall, such as what your telephone number is or the name of a person you just met. It also holds current information that you use every day, such as your current recurr...

 Social perception is defined as the study of how we form impressions of and make inferences about other people. In order to know about other people, we depend on information gained from their physical appearance, and verbal and nonverbal communication. Missing information's are filled in by using an implicit personality theory: If a person is observed to have one particular trait, we assume that he or she has other traits related to this observed one. These assumptions help us to categorize people and then infer additional facts and predict behavior. An implicit personality theory is a type of schema people use to group various kinds of personality traits together. Like other schemas, using these theories help us form well-developed impressions of other people quickly. Social perceptions are also interlinked with self-perceptions. Both are influenced by self-motives. Society has the desire to achieve beneficial outcomes for the self and to maintain a positive self-image. Just as y...