Address Survey Research in the required areas on the matrix.
2.Address Self-esteem required areas on the matrix.
3.Address handicapping in the required areas on the matrix.
4.Address hindsight bias in the required areas on the matrix
5.Address external attribution in the required areas on the matrix.
6.Address cognitive dissonance in the required areas on the matrix.
7.Address media persuasion in the required areas on the matrix.
8.Provide a separate reference page wit at least 3 peer-reviewed references, including your
text-
book, used for this assignment(textbook is McGraw-Hill 2009 5th edition
Social psychology concept matrix
Social psychology is the branch of psychology that seeks to understand individual human
behavior in a social context using scientific methods. It seeks to understand why people behave
the way they do and the factors influencing this behavior and how they influence the
relationships with other people. It helps us to understand individual and group behavior and the
social factors that help to shape their attitudes and behavior across time and social settings
(Breckler, et al. 2006). Social situations create the social influence whereby other people
influence the way we think, feel and behave and the way we change theirs. Social influence
sometimes occurs without the intent of influencing other people’s behavior. Social norms which
are the ways of thinking, feeling and behavior shared by a group develop from social influence.
Survey research is very important in social science and it involves asking questions to
respondents. Survey research is explained as a research design where random samples are used
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY CONCEPT
MATRIX 2
to obtain data that is highly valid. It starts with a set of well structured questions inform of a
questionnaire and the data is analyzed scientifically. Personal beliefs, attitudes, values and
behavioral tendencies are examined. Survey research can be used to assess the attitudes of a
community towards an event and it can also be used to assess an individual’s attitude towards an
event such as relationship or marriage (Myers, 2009).
Self-esteem is the extent to which we like, accept or approve ourselves and how much
value we give ourselves. It is a person’s evaluation of his or her self-concept and it can either be
positive or negative. There is low and high self esteem levels. When an individual has low self
esteem, they are not confident, always worried of what other people will say about them, they do
not accept who they are and are always wishing to be like someone else and they are pessimists.
On the hand, people with high self esteem are confident in their abilities, are always optimistic,
are not worried about what others will think and have fully accepted themselves. A questionnaire
can be used to measure one’s level of self esteem. There are factors perceived to influence self
esteem and they include: the reaction of people towards us, comparing ourselves to others, social
roles, and identification. Where people are proud of us and appreciate us or admire us, self
esteem is high while the contrary is true. Comparison to others may make one’s self esteem high
or low. Where one sees that all the people they compare themselves to are better than them, more
successful their self esteem is high and the contrary is also true. The social roles such as being a
teacher, pilot, doctor are considered worthy roles and this will boost the self esteem of those
associated with these roles while refuse collectors and unemployed people may have low self
esteem in their roles. High self esteem could result in arrogance, high expectations, rudeness and
aggression.
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY CONCEPT
MATRIX 3
Self handicapping can be explained as an action or behavior in which success is
internalized while failures are externalized with handy excuses. This concept of self-
handicapping was first introduced by Edward & Berglas (1978). They made the basic
observation that people often create, or claim obstacles to successful performances when they
have doubts about their ability to be successful and when failure would confirm that the ability is
lacking.
Where threats are posed to ones’ self esteem, self handicapping increases.
Procrastination, drunkenness are often associated with handicapping where one avoids to do
certain tasks and blames alcohol or claim that they will do it at another time. People also make
tasks hard so that in the event of failure they blame the obstacles rather than themselves.
Justification for potential failure is also used as a handicap. Therefore, handicapping is a form of
preserving one’s self esteem, enhancing one self and managing other people’s perception
towards us.
Hindsight bias is defined as the tendency to think that we could have predicted something
that we possibly would not have been able to. It is when people view an event as more
predictable than it really is and it is often referred to as the “I- knew- it –all –along phenomenal”
((Breckler, et, al., 2006). In various settings, we could purport to have known what the results of
a particular research would be. This phenomenon is mostly observed in sports and in elections.
Hindsight bias is measured by assigning probability regarding the possible outcome and after the
event has occurred, the probabilities are reconstructed.
External attribution is where our behavior is influenced by factors beyond our control.
People attribute their behavior to these outside forces such as the environment. We are exposed
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY CONCEPT
MATRIX 4
to thousands of persuasive messages each day and media messages play an integral part of this.
Media messages such as advertising, news, music can influence our attitudes and behavior
(Myers, 2009).
Cognitive dissonance is defined as a state in which one feels tension because one’s attitudes and
beliefs are different from one’s behavior and it often results in discomfort. People can reduce this
discomfort by changing their beliefs, attitudes or selectively emphasize focus on the information
that supports their beliefs and ignoring the rest.
References
Beckler, S. J., Olson, J.M., & Wiggins, E.C. (2006) Social Psychology Alive Thomson
Wadsworth Publishers
Jones, E. E., & Berglas, S. (1978). Control of attributions about the self through
self-handicapping Strategies: The appeal of alcohol and the role of underachievement.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 4, 200-206.
Myers, D. G. (2009). Exploring Social Psychology (5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.