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Definition of Social Psychology
Psychology is a social science study that covers diverse subject topics and carries out different forms of research in order to understand the development
and function of human beings. A scientific study focuses on people's mind and its functions especially those affecting behavior in a particular context.
Psychology is divided into different branches, and each branch addresses its own form of content in relation to mental processes and behavior. Social
psychology is one of the psychology branches. This subdiscipline focuses on individuals and their thoughts. Experts in this field of study focus on why
an individual acts as well as reacts the way he/she does. It studies the interaction between people, but the focus is on one human being...show more
content...
Apart from being under the subject of psychology, it is also a social science subject, which embraces humanity and explorative science as well as social
behaviors and mental cognition (Cantril, 1934). The study is significant because of its information content.
History of Social Psychology
Social psychology is not a new venture in science. It has been there ever since the late 1890s. Then, psychologists were concerned about it because they
wanted to know the different aspects of human nature. The early influencers of this subject are Aristotle, Plato, Hegel, Lazarus and Steinthal
(Hergenhahn & Henley, 2014). This aspect of psychology started being differentiated when Aristotle believed that people were naturally sociable,
which is related to the individual centered approach. On the other hand, Plato alleged that the society controlled people and it also encouraged social
responsibility mostly through social context, which is concerned with the socio–centered approach. Hegel then brought in the concept that society has
obligatory associations with the development of the social mind. This aspect is the rationale behind the notion of group mind, which is crucial in the
study of social psychology (Lubek & Apfelbaum, 2000). In 1860s, Steinthal and Lazarus wrote about the influences of Anglo–European, which led to
the emergence of volkerpsychologie, a concept that focuses on the collective mind and the notions
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What is Social Psychology?
Essay Title: Social Psychology
Social psychology is a broad concept which has underlying elements of studying on how we behave, foresee and feel. Myers (2011) agrees that social
psychologist investigates these connections by studying on how we persuade others and how we relate to other humans. Miller (2004) stated that
majority of social psychologist would acknowledge that the perspective of social psychology is one that emphasises the social changes in the
environment from the influence of individual. Kassin, Fein and Markus (2013) argues that humans are really fascinated about social interaction and
personal relationships, which the social context can have an immense influence on our lives.
Furthermore, social psychology...show more content...
Slee, Campbell, Spears(2012) stated that Charles Darwin developed a significant evidence of observing the connections between animals and human
species; by investigating and analysing children, therefore he got an better understanding on social impact of human behaviour.
Naturalistic observation is valuable technique utilised as research method which are commonly employed by psychologist and social scientist.
Naturalistic observations were used by Charles Darwin during his research on chimpanzee; nonetheless, Charles Darwin was so fascinated by
observing how primates and humans are acting in similar ways and having influence to another. Gomez( 2006)argues naturalistic observations of
primates show that how certain objects is intrinsic part of primate lives, from simple food collecting process as taking certain organic fruits.
Naturalistic observations can be very useful to observe on why people engage in extreme sports in few different settings, which is all about social
psychology, because people that engage in different extreme sports have been influenced by others or want to be perceived in certain way in a society;
which can stem from peer pressure and wanting to preoccupy their leisure times to enjoy themselves through adrenaline and risk taking sports.
Some people would prearrange to
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Essay about Social Cognition
Term Paper: Social Cognition
Table of Contents:
Social Cognition: A science
The psychological definitions
Breakdown of social psychology
Relations to other corresponding theories
The theory of social cognition
Incorporating stereotypes
Schemata
Cultural social cognition
Holistic thinking
Social cognitive neuroscience
A personality in jeopardy
Social Cognition
Social cognition is the encoding, storage, retrieval, and processing, of information in the brain. It is a process that is generalized within a species, and
relates to members of the same species. At one time social cognition referred specifically to an approach to social psychology in which these processes
were studied according to the methods of cognitive...show more content...
An example would be a student who believes all teachers are intimidating and bossy from past experiences, but after having a shy and timid teacher,
their view may change their internal schema and stereotype of all teachers being individual. Scientists may want to study the reactions of the student
and how he or she will integrate the new schema. Social cognition researchers are also interested to study the regulation of activated schemas. It is
widely perceived that the situational activation of schemata is automatic, outside of conscious control. However, the regulation and activation of social
schemas is self–regulatory and independently motivated.
To understand social cognition, a reaction based on internal and automatic thought processes, you must first understand the deeper function behind the
reaction. This practice is called social psychology. In this field, psychologists typically explain human behavior as being a result of mental interferences,
mental states, and immediate social situations. Human behavior is certainly less complex than the general population may believe. There are only so
many reactions that a human will typically choose in response to activities and situations, and almost all do. To discover what these reactions are and
what they have been, a scientist or psychologist needs to put the test subject under existential experiments. In
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Strengths And Weaknesses Of Social Psychology
Social Psychology Assignment 1 There are 3 basic research methods that social psychologists use to describe behaviors. Each of these have both
strengths and weaknesses. The observational method is done by observing and collecting data which is then used to describe the behavior. The
researcher observes the events in a natural setting so none of the variables are manipulated. There must be interjudge reliability, meaning that when
different researchers administer the same test to the same subject they each must obtain the same measurement. The advantages in this method is
that it is the simplest method, it has greater accuracy, and it is useful for setting up hypothesis. The weaknesses are that this method is hard to
observe because of privacy and secrecy. It is great for explanation but not as good for prediction and description. The observer might also be biased
being that he has his own opinion on what is right and wrong. The correlation method focuses on prediction. It is a statistical measure of two or
more variables and the relation between them are assessed. The Correlation coefficient assesses how well you can predict one variable from another.
A positive correlation is when the value of one variable increases it is associated with the increase of the other variable. For example height and
weight, the more one grows the more he will weigh. A negative correlation is when the value of one variable increases it is associated with the
decrease of the other
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Social Psychology Essay
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...show more content...
Both critical and experimental social psychology form the modern social psychology, due to their important historical context. Experimental–social
psychology is argued to have been derived from the American tradition, and a critical–social psychology is argued to have been derived from the
European tradition. Although this has formed two distinct approaches in the use of methodology within psychology, there are still on–going debates
over psychology as a science or not.
An important contribution that has made a great impact on the modern social psychology was from William McDougall. McDougall proposed for an
evolutionary psychology, which was influenced by Darwin's theory. Especially with the dominant fields ofsociology and anthropology, McDougall was
able to link science, sociology and psychology (McDougall, 1919). However, McDougall's research in social evolution was also interpreted as radical
due to the racism involved in the concept of behaviour gene inheritance. This shows that even though McDougall's work had been a start point to the
origins of social psychology, it also led to misconcepts especially in the Western society. Another person who contributed to the origins of social
psychology was William James which introduced the theory of 'stream of consciousness'. The reason why James made an influence in social
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Evolution of Social Psychology Essay
Introduction
Social Psychology is one of the younger sub disciplines within the field of Psychology. In the short span in which social psychology has existed, began
with the work of the Norman Triplett in the late 1890s. Triplett's work at Indiana University was primarily experimentation with people in competitive
settings. Gordon Allport followed Triplett's experimentation with his observations the attitudes of individuals and the study of the self. While these
contributions to the history of social psychology were important, the question still remains of what the most significant event in the history of
psychology was. The argument will be given in this paper if a murder was the most significant event in the history of social...show more content...
Allport's experimentation dealt with observing people's attitudes and were considered to be" the most useful and important concept of social psychology
" (Baumeister and Bushman, 2007 p.6). In addition to observing people's attitudes, Allport also considered the study of the self to be influential to the
direction social psychology was moving.
Kirk Lewin was a key figure in early social psychology due to developing a formula that behavior is a function of the person in the situation
(Baumeister and Bushman, 2007). In order to know if a person will complete a task or not, questions about who the person is need to be answered.
The next set of questions to be answered is what type of task the person is completing.
As social psychology moved through the 1950s, two thoughts of social psychology formed. The first thought was behaviorism which wanted to explain
the whole field of psychology in terms of reward and punishment (Baumeister and Bushman, 2007). Behaviorists relied heavily on using scientific
method and refrained from making inferences about the human mind, thoughts, emotions, or other thought processes (Baumeister and Bushman,
2007). The second thought was Freudian psychoanalysis, which were in favor of using elaborate interpretations of an individual's experiences versus
systematic studies that counted behaviors of individuals. Through the 1990s social psychology created evolutionary psychology which used the field of
biology to study behavior.
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Social Psychology Essay
Social psychology is a science that study social thinking (how we perceive ourselves and others, judgement we make and our attitudes); social
influence (such as pressure to conform, group of people) and social relations such as aggression and helping (David G. Myers, 2008). Social
psychological research methods vary by location: in the laboratory or in the field. Also, it varies by method: correlational or experimental (David G.
Myers, 2008). A field research method is everyday situations, for example, Piliavin et al. (1969) Good Samaritanism. Laboratory research method is a
controlled situation; for example, Zimbardo (1973) Stanford Prison Experiment. A correlational method measure relationship between two or more
variables:...show more content...
Their finding was that this uncaring deed was caused by diffusion of responsibility. Piliavin et al. recognised that Lantene and Darley 1970
experiment lacked ecological validity: it did not related to or reflects everyday, real life (Mark Holah, 2008). As a result, Piliavin et al. (1969) took
the study from the laboratory into the field; a field experiment set up on a subway train in New York. Their hypothesis was that there must be
factors that influence helping behaviour (Class Handouts). The factors they were interested included Independent variables such as the type of
victim (blind or drunk); the race of the victim (black or white); and the Dependable variable such as the speed of helping; the frequency of helping
and the race of the helper. Piliavin et al. used the participant observation method (Richard Gross, 2012). It is where researcher, in this case, a
member of the study team is part of the activity being studied (Malim and Birch, 1998). The participants were the unsuspecting passengers that
travelled on the train. The average racial composition of the passengers was 45% black and 55% white. The average number of people in the train
carriage was 43 (Mark Holah, 2008). They did six to eight trials between 11a.m and 3p.m for forty–two days. Each trial had a different team of
students: two males and two females (Mark Holah, 2008). The males (three white and one black) aged between 26 and 35,
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Social psychology is the scientific attempt to explain how the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of individuals are influenced with the presence or
implied presence of others. This classic definition of social psychology expresses that people are influenced by other people to do things they would
not normally do if alone. For example, a person may be more encouraged to do strange things if others are doing it as well. Stage hypnotism is a form
of entertainment found in parties and other social events. In stage hypnotism, a group of people are allegedly under the control of a hypnotist who has
put them in an alleged trance. In this "trance–like" state, this group of people are more suggestible to perform for the audience. This is due in part of
the gradual increase of the requests, peer pressure, and compliance. During the final weeks of my senior year in High School, my class was heavily
encouraged to participate in a show. This show was going to feature a stage hypnotist as well as a group of volunteers from the audience who would
be influenced by the hypnotist to behave in an embarrassing manner in front of a large audience of peers and friends. Upon arriving at the show, the
stage hypnotist introduced himself and began to build his credibility by boasting at the amount of people he has had under his control at one time. The
stage hypnotist joked that he would make the students to incredibly embarrassing things such as tell their deepest and darkest secrets, but
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WhatĐ’Ò‘s Social Psychology? Essay
Social psychology is a scientific–based study which is used to examine and explain how an individual's thoughts and feelings affect their behaviour
within a society; how the members socially interact, including their motives; and what influences these members have on each other. This essay will
endeavour to introduce the key psychologists, their theories and the idiographic research they conducted. In particular, it will focus on the features and
definition of conformity and the investigations into the views on conformity. Furthermore, it aims to critically analyse and reveal a correlation in the
results and conclusions in respect to the current comprehension of human social behaviour. Conformity is a form of social influence and is...show more
content...
It is when a smaller portion of a group takes an unpopular stance and they manage to persuade the mass over to their way of thinking. This is
usually a tactical and consistent influence performed over a longer period of time, with the minority being stubborn in their views, never
compromising and always giving passionate arguments to every dispute or indifference. Christopher Columbus was in the minority in his belief that
the earth was spherical. "Columbus had to fight these foolish beliefs in order to get men to sail with him. He felt sure the earth was round." It is a
normative social influence when people conform to ideas which bring acceptance and approval from others. One real account of this is an experience
publicised by a lady known as 'Mary–Anne,' whilst socialising with three friends. She displayed an instance of public compliance, through concurring
with a group norm, even though it conflicted with her inner principles. Mary–Anne explains how she later regretted this moment of weakness. This
particular type of conformity can be defined as a person allowing an influence from (an)other person(s) to determine their decisions and behaviour, thus
rejecting or ignoring their own true needs and impulses and often going against a better judgement. Crutchfield (1962) proposed that it is (individuals)
"...yielding to group pressures." A
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Social Psychology Reflection
This semester has been filled with informative information when speaking about our own social skill, but also other people's social psychology as
well, thus is why it will be very useful in future. Throughout the semester we studied everything from the introduction of social psychology, social
influences, aggression in psychology, and interpersonal attraction and close relationships. A lot of the knowledge that I gained was not only from
the "Social Psychology" textbook, but also in the videos and the reactions that we needed to come up with on a weekly basis. I like the idea of being
able to watch the video to see if the experiment was successful or unsuccessful and commenting on it by giving my opinion if I agreed or not. For me,
...show more content...
That is why I thought the video on this topic was an excellent example of how we act in our society. The experiment was to see how people will
help another person out in a time of need, but was done with to different characters, one a business man and the other a homeless man. The guy
that was dressed in business attire was immediately helped up by people passing by, however, when they switched the experiment to a homeless
person everyone stood around and watched, except for a follow homeless person. This was a great example to show us that we not to stop judging
people by their appearance, rather treat everyone the same because everyone is in need one point in their life. In chapter eight we learned about
social influences and a part I found appealing was the section on the power of social norms, which is the "unspoken but shared rules of conduct in a
formal or informal group." Basically, it means that the social world can impact our lives by peer pressuring us into acting out in a behavior that is out
of our character. However, falling into that group norm would be a characteristic of conformity. An example would be someone that is peer pressured
into taking drugs, but after time becomes adapted to that behavior and continues to
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Social Psychology Essay
Running Head: Social Psychology1
Social Psychology
Rebecca Freeman
PSY 301
Dr. Katrina Hilton
Running Head: Social Psychology2 There are many important components of social psychology, and they all fit together. For psychology students,
social psychology is probably one of the most important areas in their field of study, because it is the study of human thoughts, feelings, and behavior
as they relate to and are influenced by others (Feenstra, 2011). We learnsocial psychology so that we can better understand people and why they act
the way they do. This is very important, especially in the counseling and social work fields. One of the focuses of social psychology is on discovering
who we are....show more content...
Attributions are our explanations of the behavior of ourselves and others. When you make an internal attribution you blame personality, attitudes, or
some other dispositional factor for the action. For example, if you're waiting for a bus, and the bus passes you by, and you blame it on the possibility
that the bus driver doesn't like you, you're making an internal attribution. When you make an external attribution, you attribute situational factors for
the action. Maybe the bus driver passed you up because he has to go to the gas station to fill up the gas tank of the bus (Feenstra, 2011). Explanatory
style consists of three dimensions. They are internal/external, stable/unstable, and global/specific. Internal/external refers to whether or not a person
believes that they have control over events. Stable/unstable represents whether a repeated event will stay the same or be subject to change. Global
/specific refers to whether or not a person's explanation generalizes the event to others beyond the specific event in hand. If a person has an
explanatory style that tends to consider bad events as internal, they are said to have a pessimistic explanatory style because they see the bad experience
or event as one that was their fault, will not change in the future, and is generally problematic rather than specific to that particular event. A person with
an optimistic explanatory style explains the causes of negative events as external,
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Essay on Social Psychology
Social Psychology Social psychology is the study of the individual and the way they behave according to those around them. Social psychology
affects nearly every aspect of our everyday lives such as the way in which we form, develop and maintain our relationships with people ranging from
our parents to our friends, family and co workers. There has been much research into social psychology, Such as the factors that contribute to the
formation of a relationship. According to Rubin (1973) one of these factors is proximity. Rubin stated that the closer we are to somebody physically
the more likely we are to form a relationship with him or her. This relates to situations where we are often in...show more content...
According to Newcomb another key aid to the formation of relationships is similarity because it becomes easier to form a relationship with someone
we have something in common with even if it is just the way we look. There are also theories of why we form relationships. The first of these is the
social–biological approach, which states that our primary motivation in forming a relationship is to ensure the ongoing survival of our genes by
promoting them to others. Basically this approach suggests that any behaviour we carry out I selfish because the main reason it is being carried out is
to protect and promote our genes. This theory of why we form a relationship relates to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution that states that creatures
will adapt their behaviour in a way that will best protect and promote their genes. This is known as Adaptive Behaviour. A criticism of the
socio–biological approach is that it does not explain homosexual behaviour because such behaviour will not enable an individual to spread their genes.
An alternative to the socio–biological approach is the Reinforcement and need satisfaction theory, which was introduced by Byrne (1971) who based
it on Thorndikes Law of Effect, which states "any act that is rewarded is likely to be repeated" This means
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Social Psychology, The Social Identity
Within social psychology, the social identity tradition (Tajfel, Billig, Bundy, & Flament, 1971) argues that individuals possess more than their
characteristic personal identities, which are activated during interpersonal contact with others; in addition, people can engage in intergroup behavior as
informed by their social identities (Gudykunst & Bond, 1980). Such social identities comprise memberships in any psychologically relevant grouping
with which an individual identifies, including kin, peers, profession, nation, and cultural identity (Galang, QuiГ±ones, Adriano, Portillo, & Carvajal,
2015). The ingroup identification afforded by social identities then allows individuals to distinguish between people belonging to and excluded from
the ingroup (Brewer & Yuki, 2007), and to bolster one's self–concept through affiliation with high–status groups and individuals (Gudykunst & Bond,
1980). In addition, these social identities are created and manifested in different ways across cultures as a function of the values endorsed by society,
the ways in which society's members construe themselves, and the manners in which their interpersonal relationships are structured (Feitosa, Salas, &
Salazar, 2012).
Moreover, social identity theory (SIT) has been invoked as an explanation for a social psychological phenomenon introduced in Robert Cialdini and
his colleagues' (1976) research: basking in reflected glory (BIRG). As reflected in the opening quote, individuals are able to emphasize
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Sexism And Social Psychology
Sexism in Relation to Social Psychology
People, on many occasions, have preconceived opinions that are not based on any reason or actual experience, this is known as prejudice. Whereas
sexism is a discrimination or prejudice based on an individual's sex; a preconceived belief that one sex is superior and more valuable than another sex.
In Personality and Social Psychology Factors Explaining Sexism the authors state, "The personality approach holds factors within the individual as the
major causes of prejudice, the social psychology approach links prejudice to factors like people's social group membership and social identity, and
situational factors" (Akrami, N., et al. 2011).
Within the first study written by Akrami, the participants were non psychology university students, 194 women and 185 men; with the mean age being
twenty–four and a half years. Responding to the Swedish translation of the Big Five Inventory (BFI; 44 items divided among the five personality
dimensions) and the Swedish version of the 16–item Social Dominance Orientation Scale (SDO; a 15–item Right–Wing Authoritarianism Scale (RWA)
and the 8–item Modern Sexism Scale, the participants completed the questionnaire on their own and anonymously. Ultimately, the results revealed
notable positive connections of sexism with SDO and RWA (Akrami, N., et al. 2011).
Two studies were conducted to investigate the harm and ubiquity of benevolent sexism and modern sexist beliefs. The first study consisted of a group
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The Elements Of Social Psychology Essay
Elements of social psychology can be related to events in our everyday personal lives. Thinking back at my life thus far and trying to relate these
elements to my experiences has made me realize how many aspects of social psychology are present in everyday occurrences. There are many events
in my life that I can use to support this but one event that I feel will be best fitted to demonstrate how these social psychological principles can be
seen in our day–to –day life is my experience during a "spend a day" at a high school I applied to, where prospective students get to experience a
day in high school before actually attending the school. This experience was intended to provide me with the opportunity to see what life as a
student was like at this particular school. By spending time with a current student, attending classes and eating lunch with other students at the
school, I was going to have another vantage point when deciding what school to attend. This particular high school was a private school with a
majority white student body. My day started out with my mom dropping me off at the school before she went to work. As I was walking into the
school with my mom, my mom was giving me some advice on how to act, what I should and should not do and giving me some reassurance that
everything was going to be fine and most importantly to be friendly and not be shy since she understood better than anyone else that I am a bit
reserved. As we were walking through the hallway we
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Social Psychology Essay
Social psychology is a young science, barely a century old (Myers, 2010). Yet already its scientific explorations have shed light on love and hate,
conformity and independence – social behaviors that we encounter each day (Myers, 2010). Social psychology is the scientific study of how people
think about, influence, and relate to one another. (Myers, 2010). As we mature in life, our social world molds us as we interact in social thinking,
social influences, and social relations. Social psychology had the potential to illuminate our lives, making it visible to the subtle influences that guide
our thinking and acting. (Myers, 2010). Social psychology has open many avenues for psychologist of the present to understand how our...show more
content...
Kurt Lewin pioneered the use of theory, using experimentation to test hypothesis, which left an everlasting significance on an entire discipline group
dynamics and action research (Harvey, OJ., 1989). Lewin's group dynamics has been utilized in such areas as educational facilities, industrial
settings, and communities (Harvey, OJ., 1989). With all the different aspects of Lewin's group dynamics, he has opened many avenues for social
psychologist in the field today. Studying the behavior of groups is one of the largest research areas in social psychology (Cherry, 2005). Group
dynamics expert Marvin Shaw states that all groups have one thing in common: their members interact (Myers, David G., 2010). Through interaction in
group dynamics, social orders and social norms co–exist. Social orders exist only as a product of human activity (Berger, P., Luckmann, T., 1966).
Social Psychology4
Nevertheless, just like in the physical world, in order to at in the social world, we need some order (Boeree, 1999). The social order is based on shared
expectations (beliefs, rule, values) known as social norms
(Boeree, 1999). Social norms are used as standards with which we measure the appropriateness of
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Social Psychology And Social Influence
In social psychology, social influence is a process where someone's beliefs, thoughts and behaviour change by being exposed to beliefs, thoughts and
opinions of others. It manifests in several forms, such as obedience, compliance and conformity. All these types of social influence have been studied
by numerous researchers who investigated the reasons why people conform to social norms and obey to authorities, such as Milgram's classic studies
on obedience. His experiments support the popular idea of 'banality of evil' –Hannah Arendt (1963)'s famous phrase referring to the capability to
accomplish dreadful things out of banal reasons–, revealing that people conform submissively and thoughtlessly to the orders that authorities deliver, no
...show more content...
Accordingly, Rotter proposed that people with an internal locus of control, having a confident personality, are more likely to resist to social influence.
There are different studies supporting this idea. For instance, in their experiment consisting in interviewing the subjects, Oliner and Oliner (1988)
suggested that the 406–non–Jewish participants who lived during the Holocaust in Germany and protected Jewish people were more inclined to have
a higher internal locus of control in contrast to the 126 individuals who obeyed to commands. This outcome supports Rotter's theory that internals are
not as likely to follow commands in contrast to externals who may be more easily persuaded, although there may be other aspects that have to be
considered in view of the circumstances people lived in WWII. Additionally, Spector (1983) utilised Rotter's scale on 157 students to evaluate whether
conformity is linked with locus of control. He discovered that participants with a higher internal locus of control weren't as likely to conform only in
circumstances of normative social influence, where people adapt in order to be accepted, whereas there was no significant difference between the two
groups in situations of informational social influence, where people conform for their need to be right. (Deutsch & Gerard, 1955) This finding proposes
that normative social influence
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Social Psychology Essay
Social psychology is a study which seeks to study and understand social behavior. It tells us more about the group behavior, how we interact and how it
impacts our decision. According to scientist Gordon Alliport, Social psychology is a discipline that uses scientific method to understand and explain
how the thought, feeling and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, implied or imagined presence of other human beings. Social
psychology is not limited to any social topics but looks at a wide range of social topics such as group behavior, social perception, leadership, non
verbal behavior, conformity, aggression and prejudice. In short social psychology aims at understanding each and every aspect of the social behavior of
the...show more content...
Very few people have the will power or the determination to preserve their originality even in changing social environments.
Among the various factors that affect human behavior, culture and society are the 2 main factors. The society is composed of a full range of learned
behavioral patterns. These patterns have great influence on an individual as it shapes their personality from the day they are born. Let us take an
example of situation. Mr. X is a fresher in Orlando Institute of Technology and he is very happy to have earned a seat in one of the most reputed
institutes of Michigan. Mr. X is a very good student but his problem is that he has a very weak moral character. During his college years he was
not exposed to any kinds of bad habits hence his behavior wasn't affected much but suddenly he enters into an environment where he is exposed to
students who have acquired all kinds of bad habits such as smoking and drinking. From day 1 he sees students doing all the things he hadn't seen
before, this has a very deep impact in his thinking and his behavior. His parents witness a sudden behavioral change in him and are astonished to see
their little boy smoking tobacco in the local pub. These kinds of situations are quite normal in the society. Generally youngsters are highly vulnerable
to all kinds of sudden and astonishing behavioral changes. This is seen in
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Reflection Paper On Social Psychology
Response to the Class Social psychology is a combination of psychology and some aspects of sociology to study the effects on people. This class, as
well as the field of psychology in general, is very interesting. There is something about learning how behaviors and thoughts of all natures can affect
everyday life; also, it is amazing how those thoughts and behaviors come from our minds as they process things throughout the day. By taking this
upper level psychology class, I learned a lot about myself in the mental sense as well as about what I am supposed to do as I go forth in life. I was a
psychology major up until a few weeks ago when I decided that this kind of class, while intriguing, was not really my plan in life. Last semester, I
took General Psychology with you, Dr. Pivik. I loved it even though it was one of my more difficult to grasp prerequisite classes. There is nothing
about this class that I would change. I just now know that my heart is in theatre and it always will be. Anytime someone asks who to take for
general psychology, I always recommend you. The classes are always so relatable because you do things like show us memes or silly commercials
instead of dry lecture to us every day. I encourage other people who want to possibly major in psychology to give it a chance because you will never
know the things that you might miss out on if you decide it is not for you without a clue of how the classes go. We talked once about what I should
take next after
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Definition Of Social Psychology

  • 1. Definition of Social Psychology Psychology is a social science study that covers diverse subject topics and carries out different forms of research in order to understand the development and function of human beings. A scientific study focuses on people's mind and its functions especially those affecting behavior in a particular context. Psychology is divided into different branches, and each branch addresses its own form of content in relation to mental processes and behavior. Social psychology is one of the psychology branches. This subdiscipline focuses on individuals and their thoughts. Experts in this field of study focus on why an individual acts as well as reacts the way he/she does. It studies the interaction between people, but the focus is on one human being...show more content... Apart from being under the subject of psychology, it is also a social science subject, which embraces humanity and explorative science as well as social behaviors and mental cognition (Cantril, 1934). The study is significant because of its information content. History of Social Psychology Social psychology is not a new venture in science. It has been there ever since the late 1890s. Then, psychologists were concerned about it because they wanted to know the different aspects of human nature. The early influencers of this subject are Aristotle, Plato, Hegel, Lazarus and Steinthal (Hergenhahn & Henley, 2014). This aspect of psychology started being differentiated when Aristotle believed that people were naturally sociable, which is related to the individual centered approach. On the other hand, Plato alleged that the society controlled people and it also encouraged social responsibility mostly through social context, which is concerned with the socio–centered approach. Hegel then brought in the concept that society has obligatory associations with the development of the social mind. This aspect is the rationale behind the notion of group mind, which is crucial in the study of social psychology (Lubek & Apfelbaum, 2000). In 1860s, Steinthal and Lazarus wrote about the influences of Anglo–European, which led to the emergence of volkerpsychologie, a concept that focuses on the collective mind and the notions Get more content on HelpWriting.net
  • 2. What is Social Psychology? Essay Title: Social Psychology Social psychology is a broad concept which has underlying elements of studying on how we behave, foresee and feel. Myers (2011) agrees that social psychologist investigates these connections by studying on how we persuade others and how we relate to other humans. Miller (2004) stated that majority of social psychologist would acknowledge that the perspective of social psychology is one that emphasises the social changes in the environment from the influence of individual. Kassin, Fein and Markus (2013) argues that humans are really fascinated about social interaction and personal relationships, which the social context can have an immense influence on our lives. Furthermore, social psychology...show more content... Slee, Campbell, Spears(2012) stated that Charles Darwin developed a significant evidence of observing the connections between animals and human species; by investigating and analysing children, therefore he got an better understanding on social impact of human behaviour. Naturalistic observation is valuable technique utilised as research method which are commonly employed by psychologist and social scientist. Naturalistic observations were used by Charles Darwin during his research on chimpanzee; nonetheless, Charles Darwin was so fascinated by observing how primates and humans are acting in similar ways and having influence to another. Gomez( 2006)argues naturalistic observations of primates show that how certain objects is intrinsic part of primate lives, from simple food collecting process as taking certain organic fruits. Naturalistic observations can be very useful to observe on why people engage in extreme sports in few different settings, which is all about social psychology, because people that engage in different extreme sports have been influenced by others or want to be perceived in certain way in a society; which can stem from peer pressure and wanting to preoccupy their leisure times to enjoy themselves through adrenaline and risk taking sports. Some people would prearrange to Get more content on HelpWriting.net
  • 3. Essay about Social Cognition Term Paper: Social Cognition Table of Contents: Social Cognition: A science The psychological definitions Breakdown of social psychology Relations to other corresponding theories The theory of social cognition Incorporating stereotypes Schemata Cultural social cognition Holistic thinking Social cognitive neuroscience A personality in jeopardy Social Cognition Social cognition is the encoding, storage, retrieval, and processing, of information in the brain. It is a process that is generalized within a species, and relates to members of the same species. At one time social cognition referred specifically to an approach to social psychology in which these processes were studied according to the methods of cognitive...show more content... An example would be a student who believes all teachers are intimidating and bossy from past experiences, but after having a shy and timid teacher, their view may change their internal schema and stereotype of all teachers being individual. Scientists may want to study the reactions of the student and how he or she will integrate the new schema. Social cognition researchers are also interested to study the regulation of activated schemas. It is widely perceived that the situational activation of schemata is automatic, outside of conscious control. However, the regulation and activation of social schemas is self–regulatory and independently motivated. To understand social cognition, a reaction based on internal and automatic thought processes, you must first understand the deeper function behind the
  • 4. reaction. This practice is called social psychology. In this field, psychologists typically explain human behavior as being a result of mental interferences, mental states, and immediate social situations. Human behavior is certainly less complex than the general population may believe. There are only so many reactions that a human will typically choose in response to activities and situations, and almost all do. To discover what these reactions are and what they have been, a scientist or psychologist needs to put the test subject under existential experiments. In Get more content on HelpWriting.net
  • 5. Strengths And Weaknesses Of Social Psychology Social Psychology Assignment 1 There are 3 basic research methods that social psychologists use to describe behaviors. Each of these have both strengths and weaknesses. The observational method is done by observing and collecting data which is then used to describe the behavior. The researcher observes the events in a natural setting so none of the variables are manipulated. There must be interjudge reliability, meaning that when different researchers administer the same test to the same subject they each must obtain the same measurement. The advantages in this method is that it is the simplest method, it has greater accuracy, and it is useful for setting up hypothesis. The weaknesses are that this method is hard to observe because of privacy and secrecy. It is great for explanation but not as good for prediction and description. The observer might also be biased being that he has his own opinion on what is right and wrong. The correlation method focuses on prediction. It is a statistical measure of two or more variables and the relation between them are assessed. The Correlation coefficient assesses how well you can predict one variable from another. A positive correlation is when the value of one variable increases it is associated with the increase of the other variable. For example height and weight, the more one grows the more he will weigh. A negative correlation is when the value of one variable increases it is associated with the decrease of the other Get more content on HelpWriting.net
  • 6. Social Psychology Essay 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...show more content... Both critical and experimental social psychology form the modern social psychology, due to their important historical context. Experimental–social psychology is argued to have been derived from the American tradition, and a critical–social psychology is argued to have been derived from the European tradition. Although this has formed two distinct approaches in the use of methodology within psychology, there are still on–going debates over psychology as a science or not. An important contribution that has made a great impact on the modern social psychology was from William McDougall. McDougall proposed for an evolutionary psychology, which was influenced by Darwin's theory. Especially with the dominant fields ofsociology and anthropology, McDougall was able to link science, sociology and psychology (McDougall, 1919). However, McDougall's research in social evolution was also interpreted as radical due to the racism involved in the concept of behaviour gene inheritance. This shows that even though McDougall's work had been a start point to the origins of social psychology, it also led to misconcepts especially in the Western society. Another person who contributed to the origins of social psychology was William James which introduced the theory of 'stream of consciousness'. The reason why James made an influence in social Get more content on HelpWriting.net
  • 7. Evolution of Social Psychology Essay Introduction Social Psychology is one of the younger sub disciplines within the field of Psychology. In the short span in which social psychology has existed, began with the work of the Norman Triplett in the late 1890s. Triplett's work at Indiana University was primarily experimentation with people in competitive settings. Gordon Allport followed Triplett's experimentation with his observations the attitudes of individuals and the study of the self. While these contributions to the history of social psychology were important, the question still remains of what the most significant event in the history of psychology was. The argument will be given in this paper if a murder was the most significant event in the history of social...show more content... Allport's experimentation dealt with observing people's attitudes and were considered to be" the most useful and important concept of social psychology " (Baumeister and Bushman, 2007 p.6). In addition to observing people's attitudes, Allport also considered the study of the self to be influential to the direction social psychology was moving. Kirk Lewin was a key figure in early social psychology due to developing a formula that behavior is a function of the person in the situation (Baumeister and Bushman, 2007). In order to know if a person will complete a task or not, questions about who the person is need to be answered. The next set of questions to be answered is what type of task the person is completing. As social psychology moved through the 1950s, two thoughts of social psychology formed. The first thought was behaviorism which wanted to explain the whole field of psychology in terms of reward and punishment (Baumeister and Bushman, 2007). Behaviorists relied heavily on using scientific method and refrained from making inferences about the human mind, thoughts, emotions, or other thought processes (Baumeister and Bushman, 2007). The second thought was Freudian psychoanalysis, which were in favor of using elaborate interpretations of an individual's experiences versus systematic studies that counted behaviors of individuals. Through the 1990s social psychology created evolutionary psychology which used the field of biology to study behavior. Get more content on HelpWriting.net
  • 8. Social Psychology Essay Social psychology is a science that study social thinking (how we perceive ourselves and others, judgement we make and our attitudes); social influence (such as pressure to conform, group of people) and social relations such as aggression and helping (David G. Myers, 2008). Social psychological research methods vary by location: in the laboratory or in the field. Also, it varies by method: correlational or experimental (David G. Myers, 2008). A field research method is everyday situations, for example, Piliavin et al. (1969) Good Samaritanism. Laboratory research method is a controlled situation; for example, Zimbardo (1973) Stanford Prison Experiment. A correlational method measure relationship between two or more variables:...show more content... Their finding was that this uncaring deed was caused by diffusion of responsibility. Piliavin et al. recognised that Lantene and Darley 1970 experiment lacked ecological validity: it did not related to or reflects everyday, real life (Mark Holah, 2008). As a result, Piliavin et al. (1969) took the study from the laboratory into the field; a field experiment set up on a subway train in New York. Their hypothesis was that there must be factors that influence helping behaviour (Class Handouts). The factors they were interested included Independent variables such as the type of victim (blind or drunk); the race of the victim (black or white); and the Dependable variable such as the speed of helping; the frequency of helping and the race of the helper. Piliavin et al. used the participant observation method (Richard Gross, 2012). It is where researcher, in this case, a member of the study team is part of the activity being studied (Malim and Birch, 1998). The participants were the unsuspecting passengers that travelled on the train. The average racial composition of the passengers was 45% black and 55% white. The average number of people in the train carriage was 43 (Mark Holah, 2008). They did six to eight trials between 11a.m and 3p.m for forty–two days. Each trial had a different team of students: two males and two females (Mark Holah, 2008). The males (three white and one black) aged between 26 and 35, Get more content on HelpWriting.net
  • 9. Social psychology is the scientific attempt to explain how the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of individuals are influenced with the presence or implied presence of others. This classic definition of social psychology expresses that people are influenced by other people to do things they would not normally do if alone. For example, a person may be more encouraged to do strange things if others are doing it as well. Stage hypnotism is a form of entertainment found in parties and other social events. In stage hypnotism, a group of people are allegedly under the control of a hypnotist who has put them in an alleged trance. In this "trance–like" state, this group of people are more suggestible to perform for the audience. This is due in part of the gradual increase of the requests, peer pressure, and compliance. During the final weeks of my senior year in High School, my class was heavily encouraged to participate in a show. This show was going to feature a stage hypnotist as well as a group of volunteers from the audience who would be influenced by the hypnotist to behave in an embarrassing manner in front of a large audience of peers and friends. Upon arriving at the show, the stage hypnotist introduced himself and began to build his credibility by boasting at the amount of people he has had under his control at one time. The stage hypnotist joked that he would make the students to incredibly embarrassing things such as tell their deepest and darkest secrets, but Get more content on HelpWriting.net
  • 10. WhatĐ’Ò‘s Social Psychology? Essay Social psychology is a scientific–based study which is used to examine and explain how an individual's thoughts and feelings affect their behaviour within a society; how the members socially interact, including their motives; and what influences these members have on each other. This essay will endeavour to introduce the key psychologists, their theories and the idiographic research they conducted. In particular, it will focus on the features and definition of conformity and the investigations into the views on conformity. Furthermore, it aims to critically analyse and reveal a correlation in the results and conclusions in respect to the current comprehension of human social behaviour. Conformity is a form of social influence and is...show more content... It is when a smaller portion of a group takes an unpopular stance and they manage to persuade the mass over to their way of thinking. This is usually a tactical and consistent influence performed over a longer period of time, with the minority being stubborn in their views, never compromising and always giving passionate arguments to every dispute or indifference. Christopher Columbus was in the minority in his belief that the earth was spherical. "Columbus had to fight these foolish beliefs in order to get men to sail with him. He felt sure the earth was round." It is a normative social influence when people conform to ideas which bring acceptance and approval from others. One real account of this is an experience publicised by a lady known as 'Mary–Anne,' whilst socialising with three friends. She displayed an instance of public compliance, through concurring with a group norm, even though it conflicted with her inner principles. Mary–Anne explains how she later regretted this moment of weakness. This particular type of conformity can be defined as a person allowing an influence from (an)other person(s) to determine their decisions and behaviour, thus rejecting or ignoring their own true needs and impulses and often going against a better judgement. Crutchfield (1962) proposed that it is (individuals) "...yielding to group pressures." A Get more content on HelpWriting.net
  • 11. Social Psychology Reflection This semester has been filled with informative information when speaking about our own social skill, but also other people's social psychology as well, thus is why it will be very useful in future. Throughout the semester we studied everything from the introduction of social psychology, social influences, aggression in psychology, and interpersonal attraction and close relationships. A lot of the knowledge that I gained was not only from the "Social Psychology" textbook, but also in the videos and the reactions that we needed to come up with on a weekly basis. I like the idea of being able to watch the video to see if the experiment was successful or unsuccessful and commenting on it by giving my opinion if I agreed or not. For me, ...show more content... That is why I thought the video on this topic was an excellent example of how we act in our society. The experiment was to see how people will help another person out in a time of need, but was done with to different characters, one a business man and the other a homeless man. The guy that was dressed in business attire was immediately helped up by people passing by, however, when they switched the experiment to a homeless person everyone stood around and watched, except for a follow homeless person. This was a great example to show us that we not to stop judging people by their appearance, rather treat everyone the same because everyone is in need one point in their life. In chapter eight we learned about social influences and a part I found appealing was the section on the power of social norms, which is the "unspoken but shared rules of conduct in a formal or informal group." Basically, it means that the social world can impact our lives by peer pressuring us into acting out in a behavior that is out of our character. However, falling into that group norm would be a characteristic of conformity. An example would be someone that is peer pressured into taking drugs, but after time becomes adapted to that behavior and continues to Get more content on HelpWriting.net
  • 12. Social Psychology Essay Running Head: Social Psychology1 Social Psychology Rebecca Freeman PSY 301 Dr. Katrina Hilton Running Head: Social Psychology2 There are many important components of social psychology, and they all fit together. For psychology students, social psychology is probably one of the most important areas in their field of study, because it is the study of human thoughts, feelings, and behavior as they relate to and are influenced by others (Feenstra, 2011). We learnsocial psychology so that we can better understand people and why they act the way they do. This is very important, especially in the counseling and social work fields. One of the focuses of social psychology is on discovering who we are....show more content... Attributions are our explanations of the behavior of ourselves and others. When you make an internal attribution you blame personality, attitudes, or some other dispositional factor for the action. For example, if you're waiting for a bus, and the bus passes you by, and you blame it on the possibility that the bus driver doesn't like you, you're making an internal attribution. When you make an external attribution, you attribute situational factors for the action. Maybe the bus driver passed you up because he has to go to the gas station to fill up the gas tank of the bus (Feenstra, 2011). Explanatory style consists of three dimensions. They are internal/external, stable/unstable, and global/specific. Internal/external refers to whether or not a person believes that they have control over events. Stable/unstable represents whether a repeated event will stay the same or be subject to change. Global /specific refers to whether or not a person's explanation generalizes the event to others beyond the specific event in hand. If a person has an explanatory style that tends to consider bad events as internal, they are said to have a pessimistic explanatory style because they see the bad experience or event as one that was their fault, will not change in the future, and is generally problematic rather than specific to that particular event. A person with an optimistic explanatory style explains the causes of negative events as external, Get more content on HelpWriting.net
  • 13. Essay on Social Psychology Social Psychology Social psychology is the study of the individual and the way they behave according to those around them. Social psychology affects nearly every aspect of our everyday lives such as the way in which we form, develop and maintain our relationships with people ranging from our parents to our friends, family and co workers. There has been much research into social psychology, Such as the factors that contribute to the formation of a relationship. According to Rubin (1973) one of these factors is proximity. Rubin stated that the closer we are to somebody physically the more likely we are to form a relationship with him or her. This relates to situations where we are often in...show more content... According to Newcomb another key aid to the formation of relationships is similarity because it becomes easier to form a relationship with someone we have something in common with even if it is just the way we look. There are also theories of why we form relationships. The first of these is the social–biological approach, which states that our primary motivation in forming a relationship is to ensure the ongoing survival of our genes by promoting them to others. Basically this approach suggests that any behaviour we carry out I selfish because the main reason it is being carried out is to protect and promote our genes. This theory of why we form a relationship relates to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution that states that creatures will adapt their behaviour in a way that will best protect and promote their genes. This is known as Adaptive Behaviour. A criticism of the socio–biological approach is that it does not explain homosexual behaviour because such behaviour will not enable an individual to spread their genes. An alternative to the socio–biological approach is the Reinforcement and need satisfaction theory, which was introduced by Byrne (1971) who based it on Thorndikes Law of Effect, which states "any act that is rewarded is likely to be repeated" This means Get more content on HelpWriting.net
  • 14. Social Psychology, The Social Identity Within social psychology, the social identity tradition (Tajfel, Billig, Bundy, & Flament, 1971) argues that individuals possess more than their characteristic personal identities, which are activated during interpersonal contact with others; in addition, people can engage in intergroup behavior as informed by their social identities (Gudykunst & Bond, 1980). Such social identities comprise memberships in any psychologically relevant grouping with which an individual identifies, including kin, peers, profession, nation, and cultural identity (Galang, QuiГ±ones, Adriano, Portillo, & Carvajal, 2015). The ingroup identification afforded by social identities then allows individuals to distinguish between people belonging to and excluded from the ingroup (Brewer & Yuki, 2007), and to bolster one's self–concept through affiliation with high–status groups and individuals (Gudykunst & Bond, 1980). In addition, these social identities are created and manifested in different ways across cultures as a function of the values endorsed by society, the ways in which society's members construe themselves, and the manners in which their interpersonal relationships are structured (Feitosa, Salas, & Salazar, 2012). Moreover, social identity theory (SIT) has been invoked as an explanation for a social psychological phenomenon introduced in Robert Cialdini and his colleagues' (1976) research: basking in reflected glory (BIRG). As reflected in the opening quote, individuals are able to emphasize Get more content on HelpWriting.net
  • 15. Sexism And Social Psychology Sexism in Relation to Social Psychology People, on many occasions, have preconceived opinions that are not based on any reason or actual experience, this is known as prejudice. Whereas sexism is a discrimination or prejudice based on an individual's sex; a preconceived belief that one sex is superior and more valuable than another sex. In Personality and Social Psychology Factors Explaining Sexism the authors state, "The personality approach holds factors within the individual as the major causes of prejudice, the social psychology approach links prejudice to factors like people's social group membership and social identity, and situational factors" (Akrami, N., et al. 2011). Within the first study written by Akrami, the participants were non psychology university students, 194 women and 185 men; with the mean age being twenty–four and a half years. Responding to the Swedish translation of the Big Five Inventory (BFI; 44 items divided among the five personality dimensions) and the Swedish version of the 16–item Social Dominance Orientation Scale (SDO; a 15–item Right–Wing Authoritarianism Scale (RWA) and the 8–item Modern Sexism Scale, the participants completed the questionnaire on their own and anonymously. Ultimately, the results revealed notable positive connections of sexism with SDO and RWA (Akrami, N., et al. 2011). Two studies were conducted to investigate the harm and ubiquity of benevolent sexism and modern sexist beliefs. The first study consisted of a group Get more content on HelpWriting.net
  • 16. The Elements Of Social Psychology Essay Elements of social psychology can be related to events in our everyday personal lives. Thinking back at my life thus far and trying to relate these elements to my experiences has made me realize how many aspects of social psychology are present in everyday occurrences. There are many events in my life that I can use to support this but one event that I feel will be best fitted to demonstrate how these social psychological principles can be seen in our day–to –day life is my experience during a "spend a day" at a high school I applied to, where prospective students get to experience a day in high school before actually attending the school. This experience was intended to provide me with the opportunity to see what life as a student was like at this particular school. By spending time with a current student, attending classes and eating lunch with other students at the school, I was going to have another vantage point when deciding what school to attend. This particular high school was a private school with a majority white student body. My day started out with my mom dropping me off at the school before she went to work. As I was walking into the school with my mom, my mom was giving me some advice on how to act, what I should and should not do and giving me some reassurance that everything was going to be fine and most importantly to be friendly and not be shy since she understood better than anyone else that I am a bit reserved. As we were walking through the hallway we Get more content on HelpWriting.net
  • 17. Social Psychology Essay Social psychology is a young science, barely a century old (Myers, 2010). Yet already its scientific explorations have shed light on love and hate, conformity and independence – social behaviors that we encounter each day (Myers, 2010). Social psychology is the scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another. (Myers, 2010). As we mature in life, our social world molds us as we interact in social thinking, social influences, and social relations. Social psychology had the potential to illuminate our lives, making it visible to the subtle influences that guide our thinking and acting. (Myers, 2010). Social psychology has open many avenues for psychologist of the present to understand how our...show more content... Kurt Lewin pioneered the use of theory, using experimentation to test hypothesis, which left an everlasting significance on an entire discipline group dynamics and action research (Harvey, OJ., 1989). Lewin's group dynamics has been utilized in such areas as educational facilities, industrial settings, and communities (Harvey, OJ., 1989). With all the different aspects of Lewin's group dynamics, he has opened many avenues for social psychologist in the field today. Studying the behavior of groups is one of the largest research areas in social psychology (Cherry, 2005). Group dynamics expert Marvin Shaw states that all groups have one thing in common: their members interact (Myers, David G., 2010). Through interaction in group dynamics, social orders and social norms co–exist. Social orders exist only as a product of human activity (Berger, P., Luckmann, T., 1966). Social Psychology4 Nevertheless, just like in the physical world, in order to at in the social world, we need some order (Boeree, 1999). The social order is based on shared expectations (beliefs, rule, values) known as social norms (Boeree, 1999). Social norms are used as standards with which we measure the appropriateness of Get more content on HelpWriting.net
  • 18. Social Psychology And Social Influence In social psychology, social influence is a process where someone's beliefs, thoughts and behaviour change by being exposed to beliefs, thoughts and opinions of others. It manifests in several forms, such as obedience, compliance and conformity. All these types of social influence have been studied by numerous researchers who investigated the reasons why people conform to social norms and obey to authorities, such as Milgram's classic studies on obedience. His experiments support the popular idea of 'banality of evil' –Hannah Arendt (1963)'s famous phrase referring to the capability to accomplish dreadful things out of banal reasons–, revealing that people conform submissively and thoughtlessly to the orders that authorities deliver, no ...show more content... Accordingly, Rotter proposed that people with an internal locus of control, having a confident personality, are more likely to resist to social influence. There are different studies supporting this idea. For instance, in their experiment consisting in interviewing the subjects, Oliner and Oliner (1988) suggested that the 406–non–Jewish participants who lived during the Holocaust in Germany and protected Jewish people were more inclined to have a higher internal locus of control in contrast to the 126 individuals who obeyed to commands. This outcome supports Rotter's theory that internals are not as likely to follow commands in contrast to externals who may be more easily persuaded, although there may be other aspects that have to be considered in view of the circumstances people lived in WWII. Additionally, Spector (1983) utilised Rotter's scale on 157 students to evaluate whether conformity is linked with locus of control. He discovered that participants with a higher internal locus of control weren't as likely to conform only in circumstances of normative social influence, where people adapt in order to be accepted, whereas there was no significant difference between the two groups in situations of informational social influence, where people conform for their need to be right. (Deutsch & Gerard, 1955) This finding proposes that normative social influence Get more content on HelpWriting.net
  • 19. Social Psychology Essay Social psychology is a study which seeks to study and understand social behavior. It tells us more about the group behavior, how we interact and how it impacts our decision. According to scientist Gordon Alliport, Social psychology is a discipline that uses scientific method to understand and explain how the thought, feeling and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, implied or imagined presence of other human beings. Social psychology is not limited to any social topics but looks at a wide range of social topics such as group behavior, social perception, leadership, non verbal behavior, conformity, aggression and prejudice. In short social psychology aims at understanding each and every aspect of the social behavior of the...show more content... Very few people have the will power or the determination to preserve their originality even in changing social environments. Among the various factors that affect human behavior, culture and society are the 2 main factors. The society is composed of a full range of learned behavioral patterns. These patterns have great influence on an individual as it shapes their personality from the day they are born. Let us take an example of situation. Mr. X is a fresher in Orlando Institute of Technology and he is very happy to have earned a seat in one of the most reputed institutes of Michigan. Mr. X is a very good student but his problem is that he has a very weak moral character. During his college years he was not exposed to any kinds of bad habits hence his behavior wasn't affected much but suddenly he enters into an environment where he is exposed to students who have acquired all kinds of bad habits such as smoking and drinking. From day 1 he sees students doing all the things he hadn't seen before, this has a very deep impact in his thinking and his behavior. His parents witness a sudden behavioral change in him and are astonished to see their little boy smoking tobacco in the local pub. These kinds of situations are quite normal in the society. Generally youngsters are highly vulnerable to all kinds of sudden and astonishing behavioral changes. This is seen in Get more content on HelpWriting.net
  • 20. Reflection Paper On Social Psychology Response to the Class Social psychology is a combination of psychology and some aspects of sociology to study the effects on people. This class, as well as the field of psychology in general, is very interesting. There is something about learning how behaviors and thoughts of all natures can affect everyday life; also, it is amazing how those thoughts and behaviors come from our minds as they process things throughout the day. By taking this upper level psychology class, I learned a lot about myself in the mental sense as well as about what I am supposed to do as I go forth in life. I was a psychology major up until a few weeks ago when I decided that this kind of class, while intriguing, was not really my plan in life. Last semester, I took General Psychology with you, Dr. Pivik. I loved it even though it was one of my more difficult to grasp prerequisite classes. There is nothing about this class that I would change. I just now know that my heart is in theatre and it always will be. Anytime someone asks who to take for general psychology, I always recommend you. The classes are always so relatable because you do things like show us memes or silly commercials instead of dry lecture to us every day. I encourage other people who want to possibly major in psychology to give it a chance because you will never know the things that you might miss out on if you decide it is not for you without a clue of how the classes go. We talked once about what I should take next after Get more content on HelpWriting.net