1.1 Defining Social Psychology: History and Principles

In Lewin’s equation, a person refers to the characteristics of the individual. We are born with skills that allow us to successfully interact with others in our social world. Newborns are able to recognize faces and to respond to human voices, young children learn a language and develop friendships with other children, most adolescents will fall in love, most adults will marry, most adults will have children, and most of us get along with most other people most of the time.

We have these particular characteristics because we have all been similarly shaped through human evolution. The genetic code that defines human beings has provided us with specialized social skills that are important to survival. Just as keen eyesight, physical strength, and resistance to disease helped our ancestors survive, so, too, did the tendency to engage in social behaviors. We make judgments quickly about other people, help people who are in need, and enjoy working together in social groups because these behaviors helped our ancestors to adapt and were passed along in their genes to the next generation. Our extraordinary social skills are primarily due to our large brains and the social intelligence that they provide us.

The assumption that human nature, including much of our social behavior, is determined largely by our evolutionary past is known as evolutionary adaptationThe assumption is that human nature, including much of our social behavior, is determined largely by evolution.. In evolutionary theory, fitnessThe extent to which having a given characteristic helps the individual organism to survive and to reproduce at a higher rate than do other members of the species who do not have the characteristic. refers to the extent to which having a given characteristic helps the individual organism to survive and reproduce at a higher rate than other members of the species who do not have the characteristic. Fitter organisms pass on their genes more successfully to later generations. This makes characteristics that produce fitness more likely than characteristics that do not produce fitness to become part of the organisms’ nature. For example, in historical times, interacting with people who belonged to different social groups than ours was dangerous. As a result, the tendency for humans to value their own groups over others, and to be wary or hostile toward outgroups, developed in human beings, in part, to help us stay safe.

Although our biological makeup is important, we should also remember that our genes do not determine who we are. Rather, genes provide us with our human characteristics, and these characteristics give us the tendency to behave in a “human” way. And yet, each human being is different from every other human being.

Evolutionary adaption has provided us with two fundamental motivations that guide us and help us lead productive and effective lives. One of these motivations relates to the self—the motivation to protect and enhance the self and the people who are psychologically close to us; the other relates to the social situation—the motivation to affiliate with, accept, and be accepted by others. We will refer to these two motivations as self-concernThe motivation to protect and enhance the self and others who are close to us. and other-concernThe motivation to affiliate with, accept, and be accepted by others. respectively.

The most basic tendency of all living organisms, and the focus of the first human motivation, is the desire to protect and enhance one’s own life and the lives of those who are close to us. Humans are motivated to find food and water, to obtain adequate shelter, and to protect ourselves from danger. Doing so is necessary because we can survive if only we are able to meet these fundamental goals.

The desire to maintain and enhance the self also leads us to do the same for our relatives. Human beings, like other animals, exhibit kin selectionStrategies that favor the reproductive success of one’s relatives, sometimes at a cost to the survival of the individual.—strategies that favor the reproductive success of one’s relatives, sometimes even at a cost to the individual’s own survival. According to evolutionary principles, kin selection occurs because behaviors that enhance the fitness of relatives, even if they lower the fitness of the individual, may nevertheless increase the survival of the group as a whole.

In addition to our kin, we desire to protect, improve, and enhance the well-being of our ingroupOther people whom we view as being similar and important to us and with whom we share close social connections.: those whom we view as being similar and important to us and with whom we share close social connections, even if those people do not actually share our genes. Perhaps you remember a time when you helped friends move all their furniture into a new apartment, even when you would have preferred to be doing something more beneficial for yourself, such as studying or relaxing. You wouldn’t have helped strangers in this way, but you did it for your friends because you felt close to and cared about them. The tendency to help the people we feel close to, even if they are not related to us, is probably due in part to our evolutionary past: Historically, the people we were closest to were usually those we were related to.

Although we are primarily concerned with the survival of ourselves, our kin, and those whom we feel are similar and important to us, we also desire to connect with and be accepted by other people more generally—the goal of other-concern. We live together in communities, we work together in work groups, we may worship together in religious groups, and we may play together on sports teams and through clubs. Our connections with others provide us with the goods and services we need. For example, we can go to the grocery store where people have worked together to provide us with food we can buy. We, too, do work that provides goods and services for others. This mutual cooperation is beneficial both for us and for the people around us. We also affiliate because we enjoy being with others, being part of social groups, and contributing to social discourse.

What the other-concern motive means is that we do not always put ourselves first. Being human also involves caring about, helping, and cooperating with other people. Although our genes are themselves “selfish,” this does not mean that individuals always are. The survival of our own genes may be improved by helping others, even those who are not genetically related to us. Just as birds and other animals may give out alarm calls to other animals to indicate that a predator is nearby, humans engage in altruistic behaviors in which they help others, sometimes at a potential cost to themselves.

In short, humans behave morally toward others—they understand that it is wrong to harm other people without a strong reason for doing so, and they display compassion and even altruism toward others. As a result, negative behaviors toward others, such as bullying, stealing, and aggression, are unusual, unexpected, and socially disapproved. Of course, this does not mean that people are always friendly, helpful, and nice to each other—powerful social situations can and do create negative behaviors. But the fundamental human motivation of other-concern does mean that hostility and violence are the exception rather than the rule of human behavior.

Sometimes, the goals of self-concern and other-concern go hand in hand. When we fall in love with another person, it is in part about a concern for connecting with someone else, but it is also about self-concern—falling in love makes us feel good about ourselves. And when we volunteer to help others who are in need, it is in part for their benefit but also for us. We feel good when we help others—and we are more well-liked when others see that we are helpful. At other times, however, the goals of self-concern and other-concern conflict. Imagine that you are walking down the street and you see a person with a knife threatening another person. Do you intervene, or do you turn away? In this case, your desire to help the other person (other-concern) is in direct conflict with your desire to protect yourself from the danger posed by the situation (self-concern), and you must decide which goal to put first. We will see many more examples of the motives of self-concern and other-concern—both working together and working against each other—throughout this book.

In some cases, social influence occurs rather passively, without any obvious intent of one person to influence the other, such as when we learn about and adopt the beliefs and behaviors of the people around us, often without really being aware that we are doing so. Social influence occurs when a young child adopts the beliefs and values of their parents or when we start liking jazz music without really being aware of it, because it is the genre of music frequently played at our favorite coffee shop. In other cases, social influence is anything but subtle: it involves one or more individuals actively attempting to change the beliefs or behaviors of others. Active social influence occurs when our family members work together to get us to change an opinion, when a popular sports figure encourages children to buy products, or when a politician uses social media to influence voters.

One outcome of social influence is the development of social normsThe ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving that are shared by group members and perceived by them as appropriate.—the ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving that are shared by group members and perceived by them as appropriate. Norms include customs, traditions, standards, and rules, as well as the general values of the group. Through norms, we learn what people actually do (“people in the United States are more likely to eat scrambled eggs in the morning and spaghetti in the evening, rather than vice versa”) and also what we should do (“do unto others as you would have them do unto you”) and shouldn’t do (“do not make racist jokes”). During the COVID-19 pandemic, the norm in many communities shifted from not wearing a mask to wearing a mask. There are norms about almost every possible social behavior, and these norms have a big influence on our actions.

The social norms that guide our everyday behaviors and that create social influence derive in large part from our culture. A cultureA group of people who share a common set of social norms, including religious and family values and moral beliefs. represents a group of people who share a common set of social norms, including religious and family values and moral beliefs. The culture in which we live affects our thoughts, feelings, and behavior through teaching, imitation, and other forms of social transmission. Our culture defines our lives just as much as our evolutionary experience does.

Cultures differ in terms of the particular norms that they find important, and that guide the behavior of the group members. Social psychologists have found that there is a fundamental difference in social norms between Western cultures (including the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand) and the rest of the world (including almost all of Asia, Africa, and South America). 

Norms in Western cultures are largely oriented toward individualism (independence)Cultural norms that focus primarily on self-enhancement and independence.—cultural norms that focus primarily on self-enhancement and independence. Children in Western cultures are taught to develop and value a sense of their personal self and to see themselves as largely separate from the people around them. Children in Western cultures feel special about themselves—they enjoy getting gold stars on their projects and the best grades in the class. Adults in Western cultures are oriented toward promoting their own individual success, frequently in comparison with (or even at the expense of) others. When asked to describe themselves, individuals in Western cultures generally tend to indicate that they like to “do their own thing,” prefer to live their lives independently, and base their happiness and self-worth upon their own personal achievements. In short, in Western cultures, the emphasis is on self-concern. View a world map that shows the distribution of individualistic and collectivist countries.

Norms in most Asian, African, and South American cultures, on the other hand, are largely oriented toward collectivism (interdependence)Cultural norms that focus primarily on other-concern and connection with others. —cultural norms that focus primarily on other-concern and connection with others. In collectivist cultures, children are taught to focus on developing harmonious social relationships with others, and the predominant norms relate to group togetherness, connectedness, and duty and responsibility to one’s family. The members of collectivist cultures, when asked to describe themselves, indicate that they are particularly concerned about the interests of others, including their close friends and their colleagues. As one example of these cultural differences, one study found that East Asians were more likely than Westerners to experience happiness as a result of their connections with other people, whereas Westerners were more likely to experience happiness as a result of their own personal accomplishments.

Cultural norms that emphasize independence or interdependence are not limited to global cultures. Those who are more likely to value interdependence include women, people of color, members of the working class, those who are not religious or of a religion that is not mainline protestant, and those who live in the U.S. South or Midwest. For example, a Black woman who grew up in a conservative protestant religion in a working-class home in Alabama will be much more likely to value interdependence than a white man who grew up with a mainline protestant religion—say, Methodist—in a middle-class home in Massachusetts.  

Other researchers have studied other cultural differences, such as variations in orientations toward time. Some cultures are more concerned with arriving and departing according to a fixed schedule, whereas others consider time in a more flexible manner. One study found that “the pace of life,” as assessed by the average walking speed in downtown locations and the speed with which postal clerks completed a simple request, was fastest in individualistic countries and was slowest in collectivist countries. There are also differences in the extent to which people in different cultures are bound by social norms and customs rather than being free to express their own individuality without regard to considering social norms. Additionally, there are cultural differences regarding personal space, such as how close individuals stand to each other when talking.

Because our culture affects how we see the world, it is important for us to learn about other cultures, especially cultural differences. Why is our coworker always late to meetings? Perhaps they recently moved from a culture that is more lax when it comes to time and has not yet adapted to their adopted country’s norm of punctuality. Why does the owner of the corner store always ask us about our family? Perhaps they come from a culture where news of family is expected to be exchanged before getting down to business. Why does our classmate always back away when we are having a conversation? Perhaps their cultural norm for personal space is bigger than ours. When our exposure has been limited to our own culture, it can be more difficult for us to see how culture may affect our own behavior and the behavior of others. Why do we get irritated when our coworkers are late, when shop owners ask personal questions, or why people stand so far away from us? Because our own cultural experiences have shaped our own behavior and, in turn, shape our expectations of others.