There are many different approaches in psychology that seeks to explain behaviour through various prospective but each approach differs in explaining the cause or causes of behaviours in a person or groups. For instance, Freud’s Psychoanalytic approach argues that human behaviour is the cause of a person’s unconscious thoughts, conflicts between internal drives and childhood experiences whilst on the other hand, Behaviourist approach argues that all human behaviours are learnt through the process of operant and classical conditioning or in other words, behaviour arises as a response to conditioning. Social psychological approach argues that the influences of other people can affect human behaviour. Many approaches in psychology focus on …show more content…
Social psychology emerges from the discipline of sociology which deals with the external causes of behaviour (the effect of the social environment on behaviour), and psychology which deal with the internal causes of behaviour (personality, mental and thought processes etc.) to form its own distinct scientific discipline in psychology that looks at both external and internal factors as a cause of human behaviour. Its origins can be traced back to the mid-19th century when the idea of studying social processes in a scientific manner was put forward by French thinker Auguste Comte (1835); his ideas did set the stage for many theories and experiment to follow in the field of social science and ever since, there has been a wide variety of scientific research carried out by social psychologist to examine the many different dynamics behind certain types of human behaviour in social situations (Cited in Crisp & Turner 2010 : Trinity.edu, 2013).
This approach studies people in group social situations to help them better understand how the influences of others affect human social behaviours; they argue that human behaviour is a function of a person’s character and their environment (Deutsch & Krauss, 1965). Social psychologist tries to understand how the actual or implied presence of others influences our
“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)
Would the study results be the same if the participants were from a different cultural,
In terms of human behaviour, psychology provides alternative perspectives, known as approaches, which give explanation to human behaviours. What makes each approach unique is that they all have their own focal points for how to explain behaviour. For example, the biological approach looks to the evolutionary processes and gene mutations/hormone levels, whilst the cognitive approach looks at how behaviour is influenced
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
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.
In “Rewriting American History,” Frances FitzGerald claims that “each generation of children reads only one generation of schoolbooks,” and those children only have a particular version of America based on the textbook they read in schools. FitzGerald is correct in her claim that children read only one generation of schoolbooks; however, children do not get a particular version of American history based on their schools’ textbooks. Students should realize that American history is constantly changing, and they cannot only depend on historians’ opinions on historical events. Instead, they should be open-minded to multiple perspectives of history and understand why people interpret it differently.
Since our infancy we learn about behavior through the experiences and the knowledge that we get by observing other people or having relations with them. Living in society leads us to watch and try to explain the way people behave. But that is not always easy. Sometimes we cannot understand even ourselves. Psychology comes to give answers to all this uncertainty.
The behaviourist perspective is an idea that we can understand any type of behaviour by looking at what the person has learner. This includes personality traits such as shyness, confidence, optimism or pessimism. Behaviourist psychologists explain all human behaviour as resulting from experience. Two key psychologists are Pavlov and Skinner, although these two theorists believed that different processes were involved, they both explained all types of behaviour as being the result of learning. This is everything from shyness to aggression and happiness to depression.
The next step after hearing from the neurosurgeon was getting Miranda through the pain of the surgery. Kevin decided he would take night shifts and I would take days. One of us had to be there at all times as her advocate. So, I was there from 7:00 am until 7:00 pm and Kevin was there the other 12 hours. Twelve-hour shifts are hard especially on a body like mine, which had just gone through two surgeries in the past four months. My first shift began as soon as Miranda requested us to come to her in the PACU unit, which is the first place a patient goes after surgery at that hospital. Kevin and I went in together, but he left so he could sleep and come back for the night. I sat in a chair beside her bed for about seven hours without a break. The unit was in constant motion with people coming out from surgery and heading to their rooms for recovery. Miranda’s breathing would not stabilize so we waited longer than most patients. Grandparents and friends were not allowed in the unit so I was on my own. It was odd. I had been there twice because of my surgeries, but this time I was there for Miranda. They gave Miranda a pump for her pain and it did help her
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.
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
James was referred to the counselling service for chronic low mood in terms of demonstrating depressed mood, worthless and hopeless feeling, and marked diminished interests or pleasure in university activities and social relationship activities. Based on his background information, it seems that James’ early life experiences and his developed core beliefs of self, world and future have huge impacts on his chronic low mood symptoms.
This research article was taken from the Association for Psychological Science (APS) Journal. This specific issue had a total of ten articles, and while they are covering different topics and studies, some of them do focus on similar ideas. Psychology is all about the study of the mind, and how it has different parts intended for unique functions. It seems like a good portion of the articles for this specific journal deal with emotions and how the body interprets them. One article deals with the stress of different generations, while another deals with an individual’s willpower against sugar. There is an article about self-esteem and how that varies during a lifetime, as well as an article on cooperation. The article that will be specifically discussed in this research paper also has to deal with how the body interprets things when it comes to a stressful situation, such as a crime. It looks at how reliable eyewitness testimony is after traumatic events, specifically in regards to lineups.