The Science Of Social Psychology

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).

He found that one of the situational factors of conformity is the size of the opposing majority. In a series of studies he varied the number of confederates that gave correct answers from 1 -15. He found that subjects conformed

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.

Being that conformity was an important topic, many researchers conducted studies that had consistently supported the theory that the more people there are in a group, the more likely a person is to conform. Researchers Stanley Milgram, Lionnel Dannick, Leon Mann, James W. Newton, and Eddie Tong, carried out different observational experiments that produced similar results about the power of conformity. Stanley Milgram’s study on conformity was an observational study in which confederates stopped and would stare up at a window of a building for 60 seconds. Judges recorded all of the people who walked by, and counted how many citizens looked up or stopped and looked at the window. The results from his study indicated that when there were more confederates in a group, people were more likely to

This source was written by Madelijn Strick, Rob W. Holland, Rick Van Baaren, and Ad Van Knippenberg. Madelijn Strick is a psychologist at Utrecht University and has a PhD in social psychology. She works at Radboud University teaching social influences and consumer behavior. Her main interest is in human emotions and decision making. She was awarded “best dissertation award” of the Dutch Association of Social Psychology. She and along with the other authors are trying to figure out how people make personal decisions. This shows her credibility for writing this article. Rob W. Holland also has a PhD from Radboud University and is a professor in Nijmegen. He was also awarded the “best dissertation award” for his research on the influence of attitudes and behaviors as a function of motivational orientation.

What do these studies show us about people, and their reasons for conforming? I believe that the individual's desire to be correct plays a key role in this type of conformity. People often rely on social cues around them, in a given situation, when making judgements. In a group situation, like that in the Sherif experiment, if an individual is unsure about something they will look at the judgements of others in order to determine the correct response. According to Blanton and Christie people

Conformity is a phenomenon of society that penetrates all social levels, ages and genders. Conformity is the ability to adjust your behaviour or standards to fit in with a social group, anxiety could be felt by a person if they feel they are different or stand out from the group (Meunier & Rule, 1967). The study of social psychology allows psychologists to study the way individuals interact to others in groups of any size. The study of conformity will be analysed in this essay in particular Asch’s study into majority influence described as behaviours and beliefs of a larger group influencing the behaviour and beliefs of a smaller group. Additionally, Moscovici’s study into minority influences is described as the ideas and beliefs of a smaller group influencing the behaviour and beliefs of a larger group. Analysing both studies and also the details of Moscovici’s theory a conclusion will be written.

The human society contains certain cultural and social structures. Throughout the lecture, means of cultural norms and structures take the role within groups, or clusters of individuals. In this act, the development of group norms and conformity begins to cultivate. Professor Terry reveals that categorizing norms can also provide a way for students to understand or interpret a certain situation (Terry, 2017). This brings in the factor of conformity, which is viewed to social psychologist as placing impact on social value. This is not seen as one-sided; instead means of positive or negative attributes can occur (Terry, 2017). Conformity is a very common form of social influence. It is when members of a group begin to act or even deliberate

Social influence is a huge factor in human life; the psychology behind it focuses on how an individual is susceptible to behavioural and attitudinal change when in a social environment. People can be influenced majorly by the actions, opinions and general presence of others and there are psychological reasons for this. One piece of research that supports why people are influenced by others is the study of conformity.

Conformity is a powerful force that can take the form of social pressure, or unconscious influence. The general concept of conformity refers to any change in behavior caused by another person or group. Conformity is limited to changes in behavior caused by other people, it does not affect internal concepts such as attitudes or beliefs (Breckler,Olson,Wiggins,2005, p. 29). Dr. Gregory Berns stated “the two leading theories of conformity are that people look to the group because they are unsure of what to do, and that people go along with the group because they are afraid of being different” (Why So Many Minds Think Alike, 2009, [Online]).

Solomon Asch was a psychologist that conduced numerous expirments designed to illustrate the increasing conformity within social groups. The experiments also invesigated the effect the number of people present within the group had one the conformity rate. Asch hypothesized, “ that the majority of the people would not conform to something obviosly wrong; however, when surrounded by (other) individuals all voicing an incorrect answer, 75% of them(the participant) will conform to the groups answer” (Watzlawick 1976)

Social psychology is a major factor and ideal that plays into the way that we, as human beings, act, react, and interact with people and the environment around us. It is defined as “the scientific study of how a person’s behaviour, thoughts, and feelings are influenced by the real, imagined, or implied presence of others”.(Psychology, 2008). Social psychology affects the way people deal with everything in life, from their attitudes to their behaviours, and it steers people in one way or another. As we go through life on a day to day basis, our life changes in small increments that we may not notice or even understand. This is all due to the influence people have on our subconscious mind that shapes and bends us in to who we are and what personality

Solomon Asch conducted one of the most famous studies of conformity in 1951. The problem, he believed, was there was no correct answer to Sherif’s experiment; so judging conformity was vague in terms of data (Asch 1951). In answer to this issue, he devised a study to distinctively judge the conformation of the participants. Using 50 male college students, Asch placed one participant with seven confederates, who had previously agreed on their answers, and asked each person to state which line out of three options was the closest to the sample line given.

When we first meet a stranger, skin pigment, and wardrobe are two significant traits, which we used to formulate a first impression. How wardrobe style and ethnicity is used in establishing impressions and creating attributions and societal class has excessive implication for understanding and stimulating prejudice and discrimination. “ The field of social psychology has a vast literature related to person perception, attribution, categorization, and impression formation” (Davis & Lennon, 1988;Gilovich, Keltner, & Nisbett, 2011). In this experiment based on a person perception we’ll examining the combination of wardrobe fashion, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.

Social psychology is the scientific field that focuses on the individual within society. Due to this individualistic focus, people are often studied experimentally within or in relation to social environments. “Social psychology studies the effects of social processes and cognitive processes on the way individuals perceive, influence, and relate to others, in a systematic way, using scientific methods” (Smith & Mackie, 2007). Due to the complexity of the human body and mind, social psychology is a vast field that has been explored by many experts. As social creatures, people interact constantly within an environment that requires complex cognitive and perceptual processes. As a result, the