Social Psychology Paper

Social psychology is a unique subfield of psychology. The history of the psychology dates back in 387 BC when Plato had inferred that the human brain is a device comprising of mental structures. Charles Darwin coined the theory of evolution called “Survival of the Fittest” when he disseminated his On the Origin of Species in 1859. Many other names have made major contributions in the field of psychology. However, it was Leon Festinger, in 1957, who propositioned his postulation of “ 'Cognitive Dissonance” and became an instrumental individual in the field of Social Psychology (“History,” 2003). Festinger’s theory implied that when someone is feeling dissonant, he will avoid the situation or disregard the information due to the fear of feeling discomfort.

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)

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior of human beings. Some areas

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

A group is two or more people who interact with and influence each other (Myers, 2010). However, the dimensions of a group could extend further. The behaviors of members affect other members, events within the group affect all members, and behaviors affect the success of the group within the group. Safe Nest is an abusive shelter that has been helping people throughout Southern Nevada since 1977. Safe Nest is Nevada’s largest and most comprehensive charity devoted solely to domestic violence issues. Safe Nest’s programs consists of four areas of service: shelter, counseling, advocacy and prevention. Their shelter

Imagine a crowd of people with on the edge of your seat, nail-biting excitement. People were bubbling with energy and some alcohol to loosen everyone up. The lights are dim and the show is about to start. The slow melodic notes of the piano echo through the theater and out walks the singer dressed in an all lace number and a shawl showing more skin than covering. It is evident that this event is definitely for the “grown and sexy”. On Sunday March 8, 2014, I attended a Masha Ambrosius concert in which she was promoting her album friends and lovers. During the course of the show there were 4 different performances all of which had different effects on the

There were three questions asked at the start of this paper. What is Social Psychology all about? Why is the study of it so important? Is there truly a purpose or benefit from the findings of the studies? Social Psychology is the study of attitude, behavior, and interactions of individuals within a group setting. You may have heard the saying "for every action, there is a reaction," Social Psychologists observe and interpret behaviors in effort to provide further explanation of cause and effect. It is thru the studies of Social Psychology we can learn how to get into the cause and begin to foresee patterns of reactions. A simple yet sophisticated theory.

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

Although psychology is a very broad topic, there are many sub-topics that make up what psychology is and it’s contents. Some of those sub-topics include abnormal psychology,

What is social psychology? social psychology is the study of how the social settings influences us. When we say influence we could be talking about implicit influences. The thought of implicit influences is better described by the Williams & Bargh 2008 study. This study, is where physical temperature and interpersonal warmth meet. With this study, the confederate had either a warm cup of coffee or either a cold cup of coffee. When the confederate gave, the test subjects the warm cup of coffee they perceived them as being a warm person, but when they were asked to hold the cold cup of coffee they perceived the confederate as being a cold person. Also, when influenced is mention the fact that attitudes influence our actions should be noted. Attitudes

The ‘Robbers Cave Experiment’ began in 1950 by social psychologist, Muzafer Sherif. He took two groups of 11 and 12-year-old boys from very similar backgrounds and formed two groups and placed the two groups in an encampment, without them knowing another group existed. In-group and Out-group is about groups having so must tension and what can be done about tension between groups. Muzafer Sherif called his staff together and made a decision to test In-group and Out-group outside of the lab. Muzafer Sherif called his staff together and created a fake summer camp. They had two groups of boys with 20 boys each in a group. There were two different camps, which focused on group bonding. The week of activity brought the individuals close together

There are many explanations for the origins of modern social psychology. It is therefore important to consider that social psychology cannot be traced back to one single source of origin (Burr, 2003). Hence, this is the reason why there are debates of what social psychology is. Allport (1985) described social psychology as the study an individual’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours which are influenced by the actual, imagines, or implied presence of others. As seen from this definition there is a direct link between social science and the individual psychology (Sewell, 1989). Social psychology cannot be seen as a linear phenomenon. This is because social psychology has been derived from a combination of influences. The development of

Psychology is a study of mind and behavior. Psychological research is mostly focused on the relationship between thought, behavior and emotion; how one influences the other and what are the consequences of such interaction. Put simply, psychology is a field associated with the drive to understand the way human mind works. The topic is slightly enigmatic, but at the same time very challenging and complicated. Where representatives of the exact sciences depend on data, facts and figures, psychologists tend to rely on behavior. Seeing that the majority of work done by psychologists is