PSY 400 Social Psychology Definition Paper

Social approach is interested in studying individuals in a social context, such as family, friends, institutions, and wider society. Social behavior may involve activity within a group or between groups. According to social psychological explanation it involves the way we learn from others around us - our peers and family and how we learn to model and imitate that behavior.

Social psychology is an empirical science that studies how people think about, influence, and relate to one another. This field focuses on how individuals view and affect one another. Social psychology also produces the idea of construals which represent how a person perceives, comprehends or interprets the environment. Construals introduce the idea that people want to make themselves look good to others and they want to be seen as right. It is also said that the social setting in which people interact impacts behavior, which brings up the idea of behaviorism. Behaviorism is the idea that behavior is a function of the person and the environment.

Psychology is one of the newest sciences. Because it is the science of the mind and behavior, it is also less concrete than some of the other sciences. Over the years, social scientists have developed theories or perspectives based off of their observations, research, and the perspectives of other scientists. Although there is some overlap, each of the major perspectives of psychology is unique. As a result, they each have strengths and weaknesses and explain psychology in a different way. One theory, the sociocultural perspective, is exactly what its name suggests. It’s the idea that the society and groups that an individual belongs to are what influences development, thoughts, and behavior. The sociocultural perspective was

“Social psychologists investigate how we view ourselves and others, how we interact with others, how we influence others, and how we act when we are part of a group. Given the amount of time each of us spends thinking about and interacting with the people we encounter every day, much of our lives are spent with the subject matter of social psychology.”(p.22)

According to our text, social psychology is a science that studies the impact of our

variety of topics. Social psychologists study a variety of topics, including views of the self,

Social psychology is the study of psychology that deals with social interactions and how it effects the individual. The IAT test observes social psychology effects within an individual. The IAT is a test that measures the connection between White or Black people and the idea of good or bad. The score on the test represents your preference of race. The preference can be linked to negative behavior such as discrimination in the workplace, law enforcement, and other social environments.

In life people will come in contact with others, who are from a different background, culture, lifestyle or ethnicity as them, yet still every individual is equal, they’re all humans. As humans, people have the tendency to have their own unique perspectives on the world around them and everything it encounters. Psychologist Gordon Allport (1985), one of the founding fathers of personality psychology, defined social psychology as a discipline in which scientific methods are used in order “to understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals are influenced by actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings” (Cherry).Social psychology involves

Social psychology tests how a person's thoughts,feelings,and behavior are shaped by the company of other people and by the social environment. The way a person perceives another. Depending of that person's looks and age or height they can be placed in a category. Also the social influence is involved which is the effects of situational factors and other people on an individual as described in the book. A person's social norms is another influence to social psychology in how a person proper principle for certain behavior in the social realm.

The concept of social psychology is individual's taking in on what society accepts and approves of. Bailey explains that at a young age she did not conform and

The social science of Psychology is also one which focuses on the study of human behaviour, but unlike sociology it studies human behaviour on an individual scale. Psychology is, by definition, “The science that deals with mental processes and behaviour; the

Both critical and experimental social psychology form the modern social psychology, due to their important historical context. Experimental-social psychology is argued to have been derived from the American tradition, and a critical-social psychology is argued to have been derived from the European tradition. Although this has formed two distinct approaches in the use of methodology within psychology, there are still on-going debates over psychology as a science or not.

Social psychology is the understanding of an individual’s behavior in a social context. It is the scientific field that focuses on the nature and causes of that individual’s behavior in social situations. It looks at the human behavior that has been influenced by others and in the social context with which it occurred. Social psychology pays attention to how feelings, thoughts, beliefs, intentions, and goals are constructed and how these factors influence our behavior and interactions with others. This paper will examine the principles of social psychology and help us to

Of course, you know that psychology itself has to do with the workings of the mind and how that relates to your behavior, don’t you? Now when it comes to this particular branch, social psychology, you are not just dealing with the way your mind independently works, but also incorporating factors in the social field – environmental factors; social interactions; and such. In short, you are no longer limiting yourself to the inherent traits that you have but looking at how you behave as a result of other people’s behavior towards you. In any case, can you dwell in the kitchen and not react to the heat? No. At the same time, it is pretty difficult to keep a gloomy face when seated in a circus theatre – you would have to be made of wood!

Social psychology is a subfield of Psychology and Sociology that is interested in how the thoughts, feelings and behaviour of individuals and social groups are influenced by the presence of others such as families, work groups, and organisations. Indeed, Robbins (2003) states that many theories originally developed within Social Psychology have directly influenced the concepts and theories found in organisational behaviour concerning communication processes, decision-making, conflict management and politics and in turn have led to the development of many techniques used in these areas.