Social Psychology : Psychological Psychology

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.

“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

This essay aims to explore and describe some of the key studies within Social Psychology and show why social psychology is still important within the science of psychology today. Social psychology was once described by Allport (as cited in Lindzey & Aronson, 1985, p.5) as, “the scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others”. One of the first psychologists to study social psychology was Kurt Lewin. Lewin is considered the “father of social psychology” by many as he took a stand against the dominant behaviourist approach during the 1920’s through his belief that interaction between the individual and their environment is key to affecting behaviour, rather than environment alone. His revolutionary ideas matured into the study of group dynamics, which is widely used by many organisations today (Collin, 2012).

What is Social Psychology all about? Why is the study of it so important? Is there truly a purpose and benefit from the findings of the studies? Let’s look at each of these questions, break them down, and try to make sense of it all. Simply defined, Social Psychology is the scientific study of individual attitude and how it effects or influences others in a social context. It is helpful to understand the why, what, or could be, behind a behavior or reaction. Those that research this field, can provide credible insight to assist with understanding and ultimately contribute to the success of peace-keeping within society. There

Huffman (2012) explains that social psychology is a subject which, “studies how other people influence our individual thoughts, feelings and actions” (p. 567). Understanding the way people act around others can be important when society is faced with challenges, and can even help others learn how to reduce conflict with each other.

Social Psychology leads us to understand the behavior of an individual person when he or she is in a social setting. Social psychology is fairly new to the world of psychology, with first experiments taking place in the late 1800’s and first text recorded in the early 1900’s. Behavior is typically determined by a reaction to stimuli, therefore it seems to be influenced by environment. Social psychology examines how much human behavior may be influenced by other people. In social psychology, behavior of an individual is observed in the company of other people, and how this behavior

The principles and theories of Social Psychology are important and useful in assessing behaviors in situations. These social psychological principles and their applications can be seen in fictional films which can also be attributed to everyday life. One such film that holds certain social psychological perspectives is Will Gluck’s 2010 production of Easy A. A film about high school student Olive Penderghast and how a sudden change in popularity and financial status, after an unintentional rumor about how she supposedly lost her virginity to a college guy spread through the entire her school. The film draws on the behavioral connections of pronounced hussy Olive Penderghast and her English class’s assigned reading of The Scarlet Letter.

Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock is a horror movie. This movie was released in 1960, and it is 109 minutes long. The plotline of the movie Psycho is that a young employee, Marion Crane run away after stealing $40,000 from her office and get murdered in a motel where she was spending a night due to the strong storm. The motel was owned by a young man named Norman Bates, and he was living with his invalid mother in an old house next to the motel. It is not revealed that Norman's mother is invalid until Lila(Marion's sister) and Sam(Marion's boyfriend) decides to go to the motel in search of Marion. Lila and Sam initially hired a private detective to search Marion, but unfortunately, the detective also got killed in the motel when he found out that

The topic I have the most interest in from the textbook is Chapter 14: Social Psychology. I have chosen this topic because I believe that psychology cannot be thoroughly researched without knowing the social trends and influence it has on people. Without knowing what to expect from people, it becomes more difficult to know what to hypothesize or what you want to happen. I hope to learn more about social norms and the ability it has to influence our instinctive thoughts and actions before we realize and analyze what it is we should do. For example, the most common and relevant discovery of social psychology is the Bystander effect. This is when an audience does not feel the need or feel as guilty when someone is in dire need of help or assistance. Our first reaction is to help them, as it is instinct for most people to help. However if there is a crowd of people that just stand around waiting for something to happen, you are more likely not to help and just allow more time to pass before someone actually does help that person. This effect throws out our instinctive reaction to help and not do anything.

Social psychology is a scientific form of explaining human behaviour. It was developed by Gordon Allport in 1985, social psychology focuses on social interactions that cause various behaviours. It is scientific because behaviour can be observed & therefore measured in many forms. This is an objective way of collecting data that can then be used as proof to back up series of theories. One of the main points in social psychology is that it doesn't just focus on motor activities but also on behaviour such as facial expressions which can also be

Sociology and psychology is the study of the mind and the environment around us which makes us who we are. These theories assist us to understand behaviour from individual and societal levels.

In the future, I ultimately intend to be a psychologist. With being a psychologist, I am taking on the responsibility on how to lead people into having an overall better life and promote positive change for them. Psychologists often specialize in studying and examining the brain and human behavior. That being said, psychology is a very important branch of science that attempts to help us stay sane!

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

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.