Introduction
The social psychology phenomenon that I have chosen is the spotlight effect. The spotlight effect is the belief that others are paying more attention to one's appearance and behavior than they really are (Myers, 2013). This phenomenon occurs more in adolescence and in situations such as public speaking or if a person has a change in appearance (i.e. a blemish or a “bad” haircut). The spotlight effect particularly interests me because I have experienced this phenomenon and I have seen many of my friends and family members experience it as well. I feel that it is fascinating that people feel that others are paying more attention to them than they actually are and that we see ourselves as center stage (Myers, 2013).
Summary & Analysis
To further understand the spotlight effect two research articles will be summarized and analyzed. The first by Gilovish and Savisky (1999) titled The Spotlight Effect and the Illusion of Transparency: Egocentric Assessments of How We are Seen by Others is a review that focuses on the judgments people make about how they are seen by others. Gilovish and Savisky (1999) explain several studies that use the spotlight effect. In one study certain participants were asked to wear a Barry Manilow t-shirt and sit in a room with where several other participants were filling out paperwork. After some time, the participant wearing the shirt was escorted out of the room and asked how many people in the room would be able to recall who was on their t-shirt. The participants overestimated the accuracy of the observers and the participants wearing the t-shirt were noticed much less than they suspected (Gilovish & Savisky, 1999).
In another study by Brown and Stopa (2006) titled The Spotlight Effect...
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...t effect does take place and many many implications, both small and large. Overall, I found that the commonality of the spotlight effect to be the most interesting. It is both a shock and relief to know how many people it influences and the extent of that influence. I also find it fascinating that the feeling I have when I have a pimple and everyone must be staring at me has a title and is a social psychology phenomenon.
Works Cited
Brown, M. A., & Stopa, L. (2006). The spotlight effect and the illusion of transparency in social anxiety. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, (21), 804-819.
Gilovich, T., & Savitsky, K. (1999). The spotlight effect and the illusion of transparency: Egocentric assessments of how we are seen by others.Current Directions in Psychological Science, 165-168.
Myers, D. G. (2013). Social psychology. (11 ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Rosen portrays our society as completely exposed, giving up all privacy to join, and fit in with the “naked crowd”. Rosen claims that we willing give up all power of privacy in order to fit in with society and be accepted as someone that can be trusted through exposure. He claims that image is the key to establishing trust, not through a relationship or conversation. His thesis presents his views on the subject, “has led us to value exposure over privacy? Why, in short, are we so eager to become members of the Naked Crowd, in which we have the illusion of belonging only when we are exposed?”(Rosen) he states that we value exposure over privacy, and will give away privacy to fit in.
The Psychology of Social Status. Scientific America. 8 Dec. 2009: 1 p.m. Web. The Web. The Web.
American sociologist Erving Goffman, who based his dramaturgical approach on Shakespeare in his book Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, is seen as the founding father of impression management research in current social psychology. Social interactions, known as a social exchange between two or more individuals, form the basis for social structure. (Henslin, 2012.) Dating back to classical Greek theatre, the Greek term for mask is pers...
This is called the Halo effect. It is when people with attractive traits or physical features are given the qualities of positive traits. There are so many perceptions of being attractive that has an effect on judgments made that are tied to their personality traits. The halo effect could also be used on branding. Many marketers take advantage of this method to sell their products and their services. An example of this being used is when Apple’s ipod became popular. When the ipod became popular it set an outburst on the rest of their products. Lastly, I use the halo effect frequently in my day to day life. Now that I have began college I am in classes with many unfamiliar faces all around me. I use the halo effect to determine who I think is approachable, smart, and who to
Owen, K., & Hancock, A. B. (2010). The role of self- and listener perceptions of
Information from the National Comorbidity Survey showed that social phobia is the third most common mental disorder with a lifetime prevalence of 13.3% (Kessler. 1994). Some people report an onset of social phobia in their mid-teens while others develop the disorder after a stressful or trauma produced experience. This disorder usually follows a chronic course that usually results in considerable impairments in vocal and social functioning ((Davidson, Hughes, George, & Blazer, 1993). There are a number of effective treatments for those suffering from social phobia. Some of these treatments are cognitive techniques, exposure treatments, and social skills training. Cognitive behavior therapy, used for treatment of social phobia, is a part of
People in our society are often judged, consciously or unconsciously, by the way they look. How someone presents and carries themselves says a lot about them. For this assignment, I chose to go out and judge strangers based on their appearance. The reason I chose to do this was because it was something that I could constantly be doing, it wasn’t limited to a certain area or my computer. Every time I went out, I could analyze what class I thought a person belonged in and why. In order to come up with accurate predictions, I used the symbolic interactionist view point, which is a framework for building theory that sees how society is affected by the interactions of individuals (Macionis 2014:20). I paid attention to the smallest details about
This incident occurred on October 24th, 2009 in Richmond, a city in California. A fifteen-year-old were allegedly raped and assaulted outside a high school homecoming dance. As hundreds of kids were inside of the school gym, outside in the mutedly pathway where the victim was beaten, as many as 20 persons were present (According to a CNN report). The savagery of the attack was terrible, but what was even considered more shocking was the fact that so many people observed, laughed, and took pictures of the attack and, still failed to interfere or call the police.
The ‘halo effect’ is a term used in social psychology. It is the idea that global evaluations about a person fall over into your judgments about their specific traits (Dean, 2007) The Halo Effect is basically noticing one good characteristic in a person and assuming they possess other good characteristics, it tends to give us a biased judgment based on appearance. The halo effect affects our lives in a lot of different ways without us even realizing it. I have witnessed the halo effect happen to me personally in numerous ways.
Bystander effect (Darley & Latane, 1970) refers to a decrease in response when there are bystanders around relative to no bystanders. Referring to a previous study stating that there are some cases in which group size may promote helping instead of hindering it (Fischer et al., 2011). Researchers then speculated on the possibility of positive influences from bystanders by taking public self-awareness into consideration. Researchers proposed that high public self-awareness would reverse the bystander effect in this study with 2 independent variables: bystander and presence on the forum. They are defined as number of bystanders (absent vs present) and salience of name (salient vs non-salient) respectively.
Bonvillian, John. "First Impressions." Psychology 101. Class Lecture. Gilmer Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville. October 1999.
Audience activity was first noted in the 1960’s with Stuart Hall’s theory of encoding/ decoding. Before this theory, effects studies were carried out and ‘was dominated by a ‘hypodermic model of influence’ (Curran 1990: 506), thus audience activity emerged from this. Hall’s theory led to studies being created by the likes of Morley (1981) the nationwide audience and Ang (1983) which led to some of Hall’s findings being confirmed but there also being differences.
What is this spotlight effect, and how does it shape us? This is the idea that all eyes are on us when in a public situation, and these eyes are judging our every move. If this is
Social facilitation refers to the tendency one has to perform better at a simple task when they are being observed by an authority figure or an audience. However, when the task is not simple or easy, they may perform worse because they become nervous or feel as though they are under too much pressure. A great example of social facilitation can be described using a study performed by Norman Triplett in 1898 in which he did a research study on cyclists. When the cyclists were racing against one another, rather than against a clock, their speed increased because they were competing with each other. This also explains the co-action effect, in which people will have an increase in their performance on a task when they are around others who are performing the same task. Another explanation could be the audience effect, wh...
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