Social Pillar Overview and Themes

In this section we delve more deeply into the topic of emotion, such as primary and secondary emotions, theories of emotions, brain regions associated with emotion, and cultural influences on emotion. More than likely, there are emotions that you never even realized you were experiencing.

After emotion, our focus turns to social psychology. This subfield of psychological science focuses on how groups function and how attitudes are formed. Because humans function in groups (families, towns, friend groups, church groups, and more), this is a pretty hefty chapter. You’ll learn more about ingroups and outgroups, altruistic vs. aggressive behaviors, and stereotypes. You might begin noticing the interactions of groups that you are a part of and see these various aspects of group dynamics at work!

While reading the content in these chapters, try to find examples of material that can fit with the themes of the course.

To get us started:

• Psychological, biological, social and cultural factors influence behavior and mental processes.
  • The Affect Valuation framework of emotion suggests that cultural factors impact how people want to feel (“ideal” affect) more than how they actually feel.

• Psychology values diversity, promotes equity, and fosters inclusion in pursuit of a more just society.
  • Certain personality traits, emotional states, and behaviors  are valued more in different cultures. This is important to understand to avoid misinterpretation of behavior. For example, in the U.S., many people value a strong handshake, eye contact, and general confidence. People from another culture might view that behavior as aggressive, especially in a person presenting as female.

• Our perceptions and biases filter experiences of the world through an imperfect personal lens.
  • Remember heuristics from the cognitive section (when we learned about thinking)? These helpful quick-thinking tools can sometimes lead us to see the world in a biased way. For example, when we hold a particular belief, we more easily see evidence that *supports* that belief and it is difficult to see evidence that does not support it. So if I think someone does not like me, I will see all of the things they do that confirm that “truth” – but I won’t pay much attention when they do something nice for me. Just believing that something is true does not make it true!  This is especially important as we challenge our stereotypes.
• Applying psychological principles can change our lives, organizations, and communities in positive ways.
  • When we understand how people interact in groups we can structure them so that they are more productive. Industrial-organizational (I/O) psychologists work with organizations to develop skills in leadership and team-building.