Social psychology is defined as the scientific discipline that attempts to understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. (Gordon Allport)
Social psychology is studied in both psychology and sociology.
The central focus of psychological social psychology tends to be on the individual and how she or he responds to social stimuli.
In contrast, sociological social psychology downplays the importance of individual differences and the effects of immediate social stimuli on behavior. Instead, the focus tends to be on larger societal variables such a socioeconomic status, social roles, and cultural norms.
Social psychology is more than commonsense.
Social psychology is embedded in a naïve psychology, which means that lay persons have their own ideas about how the world works, based on observations and others' opinions.
The use of scientific methods allows social psychologists to minimize error-prone thinking and confirm or refute ideas about how the world works.
Social psychology is studied in both psychology and sociology.
Psychological social psychology studies individuals and how they respond to social stimuli.
Sociological social psychology studies larger groups or social variables in determining social behavior.
The history of social psychology reveals its American roots.
The Early Years: 1885-1934.
Triplett conducted the first empirical study to be classified as social psychological in nature in 1895.
McDougall published a social psychological text with an evolutionary perspective, focusing on instincts, in 1908.
Also in 1908, Ross published a social psychological text focusing on interpersonal processes.
Floyd Allport's 1924 text emphasized experimental procedures.
The Coming-of-Age: 1935-1945.
The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues was formed in 1936.
Applications of social psychological theory were used during World War II.
Kurt Lewin introduced the principle of interactionism, which continues to be an integral part of contemporary social psychological theory and research. Interactionism emphasizes the combined effects of both the person and the situation on human behavior.
Rapid Expansion: 1946-1969.
Major research of this period includes authoritarian personality (Adorno et al.); obedience to authority (Milgram); cognitive dissonance (Festinger); interpersonal and romantic attraction (Hatfield & Berscheid).
More women and members of ethnic minority groups entered the fields of social science, including social psychology.
Crisis and Reassessment, 1970-present.
Solutions to complex problems such as prejudice, aggression, and poverty proved difficult to find.
Past research faced criticism as representing a white, male, American perspective, ignoring concerns of women and minority group members as well as contributions of researchers in other countries.
Ethics of experimental methods were called into question.
The continuing efforts to address these issues result in a stronger, more vital field of social psychology.
II. Organizing Principles in Social Psychology
The self is shaped by-and shapes-the social environment.
People as selves are active agents in their social worlds, promoting desired changes in the environment.
The manner in which people think about themselves, the self-concept, influences social behavior.
The "hot" versus "cold" perspectives permeate social psychological theory.
The "hot" perspective asserts that people are moved to act by their needs, desires, and emotion (affect).
The "cold" perspective asserts that how people think will determine what they want and how they feel.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the "hot" perspective was most influential, but by the 1980s the "cold" perspective dominated the field. However, lately, psychologists have paid increased attention to issues of motivation and affect.
Culture shapes social behavior.
Culture is defined as the total lifestyle of people from a particular social grouping, including all the ideas, symbols, preferences, and material objects that they share.
Researchers' culture can shape their perceptions.
Ideology is defined as a set of beliefs and values held by the members of a social group, which explains its culture both to itself and to other groups.
Ideology guides society the way self-concept guides an individual's behavior.
Societies containing diverse subcultures contain multiple ideologies.
Individualism and collectivism concern how individuals relate to their groups.
Individualism is a philosophy of life stressing the priority of individual needs over group needs, a preference for loosely knit social relationships, and a desire to be relatively autonomous of others' influence.
Collectivism is a philosophy of life stressing the priority of group needs over individual needs, a preference for tightly knit social relationships, and a willingness to submit to the influence of one's group.
Researchers from individualist cultures tend to focus more on the individual, whereas researchers from collectivist cultures tend to place more emphasis on the group.
Evolution shapes universal patterns of social behavior.
All species compete to survive; thus natural selection is the name of the process by which the features that allow organisms to survive are passed on from generation to generation because of reproduction.
Topics such as aggression, helping, romantic love, and stereotyping have been studied from an evolutionary perspective.
There are cautions to using evolutionary principles to explain all social behavior: The modern world is not the same as the environment in which humans brains developed and thus the connection between our evolutionary "needs" and the current world may be weak.
