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Sociological Aspects Of Social Psychology

Decent Essays

Social Psychology
According to Gordon Allport , “social psychology is an attempt to understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals is influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.” (Allport, 1954)
There are two differing branches when referring to social psychology:
1. The sociological aspect of social psychology, which was mainly developed in Europe as a subdivision of sociology.
2. The psychological aspect of social psychology, which was developed in the US
The differences between the two divisions are, that the sociological way of viewing social psychology focusses more on group interaction, group processes, while the psychological aspects of social psychology focusses more on the individual and how the individual is influenced and/or behaves in social settings.
Sociological social psychology is very theory intensive and constructs itself out of “geisteswissenschaften” (sciences of the spirit) and social sciences. Corresponding approaches are i.e. critical theories, which also include psychoanalytical ideas. Some of the more notable sociological psychologists include Sigmund Freud, Erich Fromm and Wilhelm Reich.
Coming back to the psychological branch of social psychology, we see its intentions lies in “an attempt to understand and explain how the thought, feelings and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others” (Allport, The Person in Psychology, 1968) Quantitative

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