IGNOU MAPC SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BLOCK 1 UNIT 1

1. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
“scientific study of the experience and
behaviour of Individuals in relation to
other individuals, group and culture.”
Floyd Allport(1924)

2. Nature of Social Psychology
• Scientific
–Carefully made observations
–integration of observation
–formulation of principles
–general principles for future
predictions

3. Cause of social behaviour and thought
• Behaviour of others
• Cognitive processes within an individual
• Ecological Variables-environment
• Cultural context
• Biological aspects

4. Historical Developments
stage I
• Aristotilian thought-human beings are social by nature
• Platonic- Primacy of State over individual
• Hedonism- Maximise pleasure, reduce pain
• Utilitarianism- greater the number, greater the happiness
• Hobbes and machiavelli - power and role in social
relations
• influenced by sociology and theory of evolution.

5. Stage II
• solution to socio-psychological problems in other subjects
• separation of social psychology from sociology and
psychology
• description of independent sociopsychological problems

6. First form of socio-psychological theories
• people’s Psychology
• origin in Germany
• founding of Linguistics
• Introductory Thoughts in People’s Psychology -Lazarus &Steinthal
• Individual consciousness- a product of mental connections with people
• William Wundt(1832-1900)
• Mass Psychology
• Theory of Instincts

7. Mass Psychology
• Emerged in France
• Sipio Sighele and Gustav Le Bon-Study of irrational
movements in social behaviour
• emotions over intellect,
• triggered by industrialisation

8. The First Textbooks
• An Introduction to Social psychology by William McDougal
• Social Psychology by Edward A Ross
• Social and Ethical Interpretation in Mental Development

9. Experimental Research- the beginning
• Social Psychology to an experimental science- beginning of 20 th
century
• 1897- Norman Triplett-Individual Performance and the Influence of
others.
• 1908, William MC Dougall -An Introduction to Social Psychology
• 1908, Edward Ross- A Book on Social Psychology
• 1924, Floyd Allport- Experimental Social Psychology
• 1935, Muzaffar Sheriff -The Nature and Impact of Social Norms.
• 1939, Dollard,Doob & Miller-Relationship between frustration and
Agression
• 1948, Kurt Lewin-Research centre at MIT

10. Middle Range Theories by Robert Merton
• SP theories should be specific and focussed, not general
&global
• Kurt Lewin - A model of Middle Range theory
• conformity-Solomon Asch (1956)
• cognitive Dissonance - Leon Festinger (1950,1954,1957)
• Attribution Theory (Fritz Heider, Harold Kelly, EE Jones)
• Present middle range theories
• Behaviourism, Psychoanalysis,Cognitivism

11. Social Psychology and other disciplines
• Three Levels of Analysis
• Societal level analysis
• Individual level Analysis
• Interpersonal Level Analysis

12. Inter Disciplinary Appproaches
• Social Psychology & Sociology
• social Psychology & Anthropology
• Social Psychology &Socio Linguistics

13. •Thank You