Social Psychology
Psychology is an area of study that can broadly be divided into two main categories which include cognitive and social aspects. Psychology as a discipline can therefore be sub-divided into various sub-disciplines which include social psychology, clinical psychology, and the general psychology among others. Psychology in general is a scientific discipline that seeks to explain human behavior. Social psychology can be described as the study on how individuals conceptualize, feel, and behave within a given social environment. It therefore concentrates on how people react in presence of others. Simply put, social psychology is the study of the resultant relationships among individuals. Social psychology has some common elements with sociology only that the social psychology usually encompasses individual and group concepts in its analysis.
This paper will look at an in-depth analysis of the social psychology discipline in comparison to other psychological disciplines.
Definition
Social psychology has been defined as a psychological discipline that employs empirical methods in understanding and explaining thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of people and how they are inclined based on the social environment. Social psychology thus takes into account various social topics that includes group behavior, social perception, leadership, nonverbal behavior, conformity, aggression and prejudice, (Cherry, 2010, para 2). One has to take note that social psychology does not just focus on the social influences but also on the perceptions and interactions that are important in understanding social behavior. Being a scientific discipline, empirical methods have to be employed in the study of the variables that make up the discipline. The variables in social psychology that are subjected to scientific analysis include perceptions, feelings, and behavioral aspects. To the social psychologists, human behavior can be understood as emanating from the interactions of the mental states and the immediate environment. Behavior is therefore the resultant effect of the environment and the individual attributes. Social psychology is regarded as an interdisciplinary phenomenon that fills the gap that existed between sociological discipline and the psychological one (Bordens Horowitz, 2002).
History
The discipline of social psychology is thought to have began in the United States in the opening years of the 20th century. Those behind the development of the discipline included Norman Triplet and Kurt Lewin. The two worked separately to distinguish social psychology from the behavioral and psychoanalytic schools of thought which were domineering during their time. The traces of the discipline can however be tracked down during the philosophical period of Plato and Aristotle. Plato is on record as coming up with the idea of crowd mind. During the 19th century, there were some pointers towards the development of the discipline with words such as social loafing and social facilitation being developed. The period that followed immediately after WW II saw increased activities in social psychology with researchers interested in issues of conformity and obedience among other areas. The discipline has continued to grow over the years and has inspired the researchers interested in the comprehension of the human social experience and behavior (Cherry, 2010).
Social Psychology Difference with other disciplines
Social psychology is often mistaken to be a sociological discipline. It should however be noted that the two disciplines are different though they seem to be closely related. Sociology concentrates on the social structures found within the society other than the behaviors that is the core of psychology. Though the sociological discipline might be interested in the individual the main focus is usually on the social structures and processes found in the community. Sociologists therefore concentrate on the social roles, stratification in the society, and the socialization within the community. Sociology also focuses on group behavior rather than the individuals behavior in the group. Social psychologists on the other hand are interested in how the individual behaves in the group. Whereas sociology employs quantitative and qualitative research designs, social psychology uses the empirical experiments, natural observations, and field experiments in its analysis (Myers, 1993).
General psychology is known to deal with the study of individuals behavioral pattern where as the social psychology is concentrated on the study of the social influence on the behavioral patterns of individuals. Personality psychology on the other hand differs from the social psychology discipline in the sense that the personality psychology deals with personality differences between individuals. Therefore the main focus of personality psychology becomes attitudes, characters, thoughts, and personal attributes. On the contrary, social psychology is focused on how the individuals behavior is influenced by the environment. Organizational psychology is also different from the social psychology since the former focuses on psychological elements within the organization whereas social psychology is interested in the behaviors humans in any social environment (Myers, 1993).
Role of research in social psychology
The primary role of research in any discipline is to gather useful data that may be used in the analysis of the subject matter. It therefore follows that social psychology is interested in gathering empirical data that could be useful in drawing up its analysis on human behavior. The recent interest in the study of conformity and obedience which falls under social psychology has made it necessary for empirical data to be collected. It is quite evident from researches that human behavior is affected by the context and social environment. Social psychologists are interested in the study of behavior of both children and the adults. It has been established that individuals get influenced on numerous occasions in their lives in what is known as social influence. Persuasion by others who influences the way we behave has been on the rise. Social psychology is interested in studying individuals on how they react as reflected in the acquired norms and social regulations. These social norms are usually taken for granted and it is not until they are violated that humans became aware of their existence. For instance, the issue of personal space is negligible until it has been broken leaving the victim feeling uncomfortable. Compliance to such rules leaves an individual feeling confident and secure in any social situation. It through research works in social psychology that concepts of conformity and obedience can be comprehensively understood. It is notable that research is essential in social psychology as it forms the basis upon which the discipline is grounded (Thomas, 2005).
Conclusion
Social psychology is a multidisciplinary subject of psychology dealing with various issues. Basically the discipline is concerned mainly with the manner in which social and mental processes are involved in determining behavior. Though the discipline resembles sociology on many accounts, it can better be understood as providing an interface between psychology and sociology. This is because social psychology as a discipline utilizes some concepts from both fields as it studies the behavior of individuals and how the same is influenced by the social environment.
Categories:
0 comments:
Post a Comment