SW2312-Social Psychology and Human Behaviour

Unit 2: Affect, Behaviour, and Cognition - Part 2

 Social Affect: Feelings about Ourselves and Others
 Social Behaviour: Interacting with Others.
 Social perception: Process through which we seek to understand other persons.
Social psychology is the study of how people affect one another’s thoughts, feelings,
and behaviours.
SOCIAL AFFECT: Feelings about Ourselves and Others
Affect refers to the feelings we experience as part of our everyday lives. As our day
progresses, we may find ourselves feeling happy or sad, jealous or grateful, proud or
embarrassed. Although affect can be harmful if it is unregulated or unchecked, our
affective experiences normally help us to function efficiently and in a way that
increases our chances of survival. Affect signals us that things are going OK (e.g.,
because we are in a good mood or are experiencing joy or serenity) or that things
are not going so well (we are in a bad mood, anxious, upset, or angry).
Affect can also lead us to engage in behaviours that are appropriate to our
perceptions of a given situation. When we are happy, we may seek out and socialize
with others; when we are angry, we may attack; and when we are fearful, we may
run away.
We experience affect in the form of mood and emotions. Mood refers to the positive
or negative feelings that are in the background of our everyday experiences. Most of
the time, we are in a relatively good mood, and positive mood has some positive
consequences—it encourages us to do what needs to be done and to make the most
of the situations we are in .
Positive affect as a source of human strength. In A psychology of human strengths:
Fundamental questions and future directions for a positive psychology. When we are
in a good mood, our thought processes open up, and we are more likely to approach
others. We are more friendly and helpful to others when we are in a good mood than
when we are in a bad mood, and we may think more creatively. On the other hand,
when we are in a bad mood, we are more likely to prefer to remain by ourselves
rather than interact with others, and our creativity suffers.
Emotions are brief, but often intense, mental and physiological feeling states. In
comparison with moods, emotions are shorter lived, stronger, and more specific
forms of affect.
Emotions are caused by specific events (things that make us, for instance, jealous
or angry), and they are accompanied by high levels of arousal. Whereas we
experience moods in normal, everyday situations, we experience emotions only
when things are out of the ordinary or unusual.
Emotions serve an adaptive role in helping us guide our social behaviours. Just as
we run from a snake because the snake elicits fear, we may try to make amends
with other people when we feel guilty.
Affect Influences Cognition: There is abundant evidence that our social cognition
is strongly influenced by our affective states. For example, whatever current mood
we are experiencing can influence our judgments of people we meet.
Our current affective states profoundly shape our social cognition.
• Our cognitive processes, in turn, influence our affective states.
• Our ability to forecast our future emotional states is often less accurate than we
think.
SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR: Interacting With Others
Because humans interact with and influence each other every day, we have
developed the ability to make these interactions proceed efficiently and effectively.
We cooperate with other people to gain outcomes that we could not obtain on our
own, and we exchange goods, services, and other benefits with other people. These
behaviours are essential for survival in any society. The logic of social sharing: An
evolutionary game analysis of adaptive norm development.
The sharing of goods, services, emotions, and other social outcomes is known as
social exchange. Social rewards (the positive outcomes that we give and receive
when we interact with others) include such benefits as attention, praise, affection,
love, and financial support. Social costs (the negative outcomes that we give and
receive when we interact with others), on the other hand, include, for instance, the
frustrations that accrue when disagreements with others develop, the guilt that
results if we perceive that we have acted inappropriately, and the effort involved in
developing and maintaining harmonious interpersonal relationships.
Imagine a first-year student at your university who is trying to decide whether or not
to pledge a fraternity. Joining the fraternity has costs, in terms of the dues that have
to be paid, the need to make friends with each of the other fraternity members and to
attend fraternity meetings, and so forth. On the other hand, there are the potential
benefits of group membership, including having a group of friends with similar
interests and a social network to help find activities to participate in. To determine
whether or not to pledge, the student has to weigh both the social and the material
costs and benefits before coming to a conclusion.
People generally prefer to maximize their own outcomes by attempting to gain as
many social rewards as possible and by attempting to minimize their social costs.
Such behaviour is consistent with the goal of protecting and enhancing the self. But
although people do behave according to the goals of self-concern, these goals are
tempered by other-concern: the goals of respecting, accepting, and cooperating with
others. As a result, social exchange is generally fair and equitable, at least in the
long run. Imagine, for example, that I ask you to do a favour for me, and you do it. If I
were only concerned about my own self-enhancement, I might simply accept the
favour without any thought of paying you back. Yet both you and I would realize that
you would most certainly expect me to be willing to do the same type of favour for
you, should you ask me at some later time.
One of the outcomes of living together in small groups over thousands of years is
that humans have learned to cooperate by giving benefits to those who are in need,
with the expectation of a return of benefits at a future time. This mutual, and
generally equitable, exchange of benefits is known as reciprocal altruism. An
individual who is temporarily sick or injured will benefit from the help that he or she
might get from others during this time. And according to the principle of reciprocal
altruism, other group members will be willing to give that help to the needy individual
because they expect that similar help will be given to them should they need it.
However, in order for reciprocal altruism to work, people have to keep track of how
benefits are exchanged, to be sure that everyone plays by the rules. If one person
starts to take benefits without paying them back, this violates the principle of
reciprocity and should not be allowed to continue for very long. In fact, research has
shown that people seem to be particularly good at detecting “cheaters”—those who
do not live up to their obligations in reciprocal altruism—and that these individuals
are judged extremely negatively.
Social behaviour is behaviour among two or more organisms within the same
species, and encompasses any behaviour in which one member affects the other.
This is due to an interaction among those members. Social behaviour can be seen
as similar to an exchange of goods, with the expectation that when you give, you will
receive the same. This behaviour can be affected by both the qualities of the
individual and the environmental (situational) factors. Therefore, social behaviour
arises as a result of an interaction between the two—the organism and its
environment. This means that, in regards to humans, social behaviour can be
determined by both the individual characteristics of the person, and the situation they
are in.
A major aspect of social behaviour is communication, which is the basis for survival
and reproduction.
There are distinctions between different types of social behaviour, such as mundane
versus defensive social behaviour. Mundane social behaviour is a result of
interactions in day-to-day life, and are behaviours learned as one is exposed to
those different situations. On the other hand, defensive behaviour arises out of
impulse, when one is faced with conflicting desires.
Definition and Meaning of Social Behaviour:
Social behaviour is the activity of an individual which qualifies, modifies or otherwise
alters the act of another individual. A social behaviour is stimulated by the society
which again stimulates other members of the group or society.

Any act which has been influenced by the society and also influences the society is
called social act. Any behaviour of a person which has not been influenced or
modified by the society and which itself does not qualify, modify or stimulate the
members of a society is not a social behaviour.
For instance, a poem written by a poet which is published and which modifies or
influences the behaviour of some members of the society is a social act. But the
poem of a poet which is not published or read or discussed elsewhere, cannot
qualify, modify or influence the behaviour of other persons in the society. So, writing
of such poems cannot be called social acts. Only when people respond or react to a
particular act of a person, it is a case of social behaviour or social act. Social
behaviour is also defined as the behaviour in which the responses either serve as
social stimuli or are evoked by social stimuli.
A child laughs and others react to it. Again when the laughter is evoked by the
caressing of the mother, it is called a social behaviour.
Bases of Social Behaviour:
Cultural influences arising from the existence of organised societies, social
influences of primary groups like family within the society and environmental
influences mediated by the physical properties of a social environment are by and
large the bases of social behaviour. The above factors make the individual
essentially human in his behaviour and differentiates it from the animals.
Culture is the most significant feature of any society. As Linton (1936), defines it
“culture is the sum total of behaviour patterns, attitudes and values, shared and
transmitted by the members of a given society.” Anthropological studies show that
human behaviour varies greatly under different social conditions.
Though cultural differences, influence differently the motives, beliefs, values,
interests and attitudes of persons in different groups, they also show that there are
nevertheless some common characteristics of human beings like basic primary
drives, need for warmth, stimulation, help, shelter and comfort.
The need for security, affiliation, maintenance of self-esteem, social approval, power,
prestige and recognition although experienced or expressed differently in different
societies and cultures are basically common to all people. The arrangements for
satisfying these common basic needs however vary from culture to culture and
hence the social behaviour varies accordingly.
Kinds of Social Behaviour:
Social behaviour is of two types:
(i) Overt Social Behaviour (ii) Symbolic Social Behaviour.
(i) Overt Social Behaviour: When two persons start talking with each other
loudly and show some sort of overt or muscular behaviour, it is a case of
Overt Social Behaviour.
(ii) Symbolic Social Behaviour: Language is a symbolic social expression. A
particular poem published in a magazine to which people react, is a case of
symbolic social act. Similarly, a specific facial expression if is reacted by a
particular person is called symbolic behaviour because the other person for
whom it is meant understands its significance.
Social Behaviour can also be categorized as:
(1) Linear Social Behaviour (2) Circular Social Behaviour.
3. Controlling and Self Adopting Social Behaviour:
1. Linear Social Behaviour: Social Behaviour is linear when the activity is
performed systematically in a direct manner. It moves in a line without being circular
or without turning back. It is like one way traffic. A orders B, B orders C, C orders D
and at last D does the work. In the Military and Paramilitary services orders are
transmitted purely in linear manner.
Social traditions and customs which are handed down from generation to generation
and obeyed by members are examples of linear social behaviour.
2. Circular Social Behaviour: The circular social behaviour moves in a circle
instead of moving in one line directly. The discussion in the students common room
or in the bathing ghat or in a tutorial class is an example of circular social behaviour.
In circular social behaviour the discussion or talk proceeds in a circular manner.
A says something to B, then B replies something to A. A says something to C, then
C replies to A and like this it again comes back to the person who started it.
The Social stimulus which stimulates social behaviour can be direct or contributory. If
social stimulus holds the focus of attention and maintains exclusive control of the
final common path of response, it is a direct stimulus i.e., it follows directly from the
stimulating object. The advice of a lawyer or a doctor when is not referred back to
any other lawyer or doctor but is accepted and followed works as a direct stimulus.
3. Controlling and Self Adopting Social Behaviour:
Every person in the society tries to adopt himself with the social environment. This is
called self-adopting social behaviour. Take the example of teacher and students or
father and son. One controls and the other adopts to him. The father says “do not
smoke” and the son gives up smoking. Here the father controls and the son adopts.
A man who is controlled in one situation may show controlling behaviour in another
situation. In the animal kingdom the bigger and stronger animal controls the weak
ones. Some societies/culture men have controlling behaviour and women have self-
adopting behaviour because they are considered economically and physically inferior
to men.
Effect of Crowding on Social Behaviour:
Currently, this topic of crowding has drawn the attention of many social psychologists
in view of its importance in the present society where growth of population has
become a real problem. Population is increasing at an alarming manner and the
available space is decreasing. Hence, too many people have to accommodate in too
little space in the present age.
Consequently, overcrowding is found to have adverse effects on the process of
socialization and personality development.
The psychological consequences of overcrowding on human behaviour are mostly
stress and anxiety and various other behavioural pathologies produced by population
density.
SOCIAL PERCEPTION: Process through which we seek to understand other
persons.

Perception (from the Latin perceptio, meaning gathering or receiving) is the

organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to
represent and understand the presented information or environment. Perception is
awareness, comprehension or an understanding of something.
For example, upon walking into a kitchen and smelling the scent of baking cinnamon
rolls, the sensation is the scent receptors detecting the odor of cinnamon, but the
perception may be “Mmm, this smells like the bread Grandma used to bake when
the family gathered for holidays.”

What is social perception?

Social perception refers to the ability to make accurate interpretations and inferences
about other people from their general physical appearance, verbal, and nonverbal
patterns of communication. Things like facial expressions, tone of voice, hand
gestures, and body position or movement are all ques people with higher levels of
social perception pick up on to work out what other people are thinking, feeling or are
likely to do next
The difference between perception and cognition might seem obvious. They
simply play different roles in our mental life. Perception is what puts us in contact
with our present surroundings, while cognition is what makes us able to form
beliefs, make decisions, and so on.
Social cognition concerns the various psychological processes that enable
individuals to take advantage of being part of a social group. Of major
importance to social cognition are the various social signals that enable us
to learn about the world.
Social perception is the study of how people form impressions of and make
inferences (interpretations) about other people as sovereign personalities. Social
perception refers to identifying and utilizing social cues to make judgments about
social roles, rules, relationships, context, or the characteristics of others.
The processes of social perception begin with observing persons, situations, and
behaviors to gather evidence that supports an initial impression.
Factors that influence social perception
Persons – physical influence
Although society tries to train people not to judge others based on their physical
traits, as social perceivers, we cannot help but be influenced by others' hair, skin
color, height, weight, style of clothes, pitch in voice, etc., when making a first
impression. People have the tendency to judge others by associating certain facial
features with specific personality types. For example, studies indicate that people are
perceived as stronger, more assertive, and competent if they have small eyes, low
eyebrows, an angular chin, wrinkled skin, and a small forehead. People tend to
associate baby-faced people with impotence and harmlessness.
Situations – context from prior experiences : are able to easily predict the
sequences or results of an event based on the extent and depth of their past
experiences with a similar event. The ability to anticipate the outcomes of a situation
is also greatly influenced by an individual's cultural background because this
inevitably shapes the types of experiences. Situational observations either lead
humans to have preset notions about certain events or to explain the causes of
human behaviors.[
Behaviors – nonverbal communication
Nonverbal communication helps people express their emotions, attitudes, and
personalities. The most dominant form of nonverbal communication is the use of
facial expressions to channel different emotions. Greatly influenced by Charles
Darwin's research on facial expressions and book The Expression of the Emotions in
Man and Animals (1872), it is believed that all humans, regardless of culture or race,
encode and decode the six "primary" emotions, (happiness, sadness, anger, fear,
surprise, and disgust), universally in the same way. To encode means to
communicate nonverbal behavior, while to decode means to interpret the meaning or
intention of the nonverbal behavior. Decoding sometimes is inaccurate due to affect
blend, (a facial expression with two differently registered emotions), and/or display
rules, (culturally dictated rules about which nonverbal behaviors are acceptable to
display).[1] Other nonverbal cues such as: body language, eye contact, and vocal
intonations can affect social perception by allowing for thin-slicing. Thin-slicing
describes the ability to make quick judgements from finding consistencies in events
based only on narrow frames of experience
There are many factors that can influence social perception. Social perception can
be defined as the process of perceiving other people. It is the process by which we
look at other people and decide what they are like and how we will respond to them.
Such a process can be influenced by a number of factors.
One of the most important of these factors is physical appearance. Our perception
of other people is very often conditioned by how they look. We judge attractive
people differently from people who are not attractive. We judge people of one race
differently than we judge those of another.
This leads us to another factor that influences social perception—stereotyping. Our
society has built up stereotypes about what certain kinds of people are like. We
have stereotypes about blonde women.
We have stereotypes about people who are of various races. We have stereotypes
about people who wear certain kinds of clothes. Our perceptions of people who fall
into stereotyped groups tend to be shaped by those stereotypes.
Our perceptions are also shaped by the context in which we are trying to perceive a
person. If we are trying to determine whether a person would be fun to go out with,
we will tend to focus on different qualities about them than we would if we were
deciding who to hire for a given job. If we looked at the same person in those two
different circumstances, we would perceive them differently because we would look
for and evaluate different characteristics.
There are many other factors that can influence social perception, but physical
appearance, stereotypes, and context are three of the most important factors.
Competence as social perceivers
It is true that people fall for the biases identified by social psychologists and for some
biases that may have not yet been identified. Despite these misjudgments, there are
four reasons that soundly demonstrate people's competence as social perceivers:

1. People can more accurately perceive social behaviors and interactions when
they have a greater history of experiences with the other people.
2. People can make more circumscribed predictions of how other individuals will
act when in their presence.
3. Social perception skills can be improved through learning the rules of
probability and logic.
4. People can make more precise inferences about others when motivated by
concerns for open-mindedness and accuracy.[4]

Being competent in social perception includes three domains of competence: (1)

knowing that other people have thoughts, beliefs, emotions, intentions, desires, and
the like, (2) being able to “read” other people’s inner states based on their words,
behavior, facial expression and the like, and (3) adjusting one’s actions based on
those “readings”. That is, a socially competent person can make note of other
people’s facial expressions, tone of voice, posture, gestures, words, and the like, and
on the basis of these clues, make reasonably accurate judgments about that
person’s state of mind, emotions, and intentions. Socially competent people then use
these inferences about other people’s inner states to make good decisions about
how to behave socially.

Social perception is one important component of social competence and social

success (including peer acceptance and friendship). In addition to social perception,
socially competent people must have knowledge of social rules, roles, routines, and
scripts in their social lives. Furthermore, they must make use of this knowledge and
of these scripts in their decision making and acting. They also have a concern for
other people and make it a habit to adjust their behavior based on the needs of
others. Finally, they have the confidence needed to interact socially and accept the
vulnerability associated with potential rejection.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
• We use affect, behaviour, and cognition to help us successfully interact with others.
• Social cognition refers to our thoughts about and interpretations of ourselves and
other people. Over time, we develop schemas and attitudes to help us better
understand and more successfully interact with others.
• Affect refers to the feelings that we experience as part of life and includes both
moods and emotions.
• Social behaviour is determined by principles of reciprocal altruism and social
exchange.
 Social perception is the study of how people form impressions of and make
inferences (interpretations) about other people as sovereign personalities.
 Social perception is one important component of social competence and social
success
 There are many other factors that can influence social perception, but physical
appearance, stereotypes, and context are three of the most important factors.