Definition of social psychology

Social psychology is a scientific method that is used to understand how individuals thoughts and behaviors are influenced by the very presence of another human being. Social psychology studies a vast amount of social topics such as social perception, group behavior, leadership, aggression, prejudice, nonverbal behavior, and conformity. When dealing and trying to understand social behavior it is vital to also have an understanding of the social perception and interaction. Social psychology just like any other kind of psychologies wasnt really acknowledged until the late 1800s early 1900s. For social psychology it really got its boost around World War 2 because researches wanted to study the social influence, obedience, and conformity. Social psychology continued to bloom and still is to this day because this research and practice can better help us understand the social behavior and experience. Some of the major topics that is studied by social psychologists is social influence, social interaction, and social perception. So with these three major topics a few other branches come up. Social cognition is concerned with the storage, processing, and application of social information. This branch is closely related to cognitive psychology because these researches are is full of schemas; which is our general ideas about the world, things in it, how things work, and how things are. Schemas are a wonderful thing because their shortcuts in ones own mind that allows you to continue with your day rather than stopping to interpret everything around. Naturally schemas will develop associations between related schemas which eventually affect social behavior. Attitudes and attitude changes are a major study because of the components of attitudes like how they develop and their changes. Researches description of the three core components of attitude; the affective, behavioral, and cognitive components. Researchers say that these three elements describe how we behave, understand, and feel. Social psychologists are always interested in the whys and how people are engage in violence or hostility. Social psychologist has come up with many factors as to why people become aggressive including social and media influences. Prosocial behaviors are a major study in social psychology as well because prosocial behavior is behaviors that involve helping and cooperating with others. The reason why this is big in social psychology is because it is focusing on why people help each

other or refuses to. Prejudice and discrimination is present in every social group and the origins are what really intrigue researchers; also the cause and effect. Self and social identity yet another important research area; social psychologists want to learn more about this inner life influence and how it affects our outer lives and the social world. Group behavior is one of the largest study areas in social psychology because everyone behaves a little differently in groups compared to when their by themselves; also group dynamics such as leadership, conflicts, group influence, decision making, and cooperation. Social influence and the influences it has over behavior and decision making is an interesting role that social psychologist is studying. The reason this is an interesting subject to social psychologists are because of peer pressure, persuasion, obedience, and conformity. Interpersonal relationships have a major impact in shaping behaviors, feelings, attitudes, and thoughts. Social psychology is related to personality and organizational psychology and sociology. Social psychology is commonly mistaken for personality psychology or even more common sociology. Unlike sociology and others social psychology uses scientific methods and empirical study of a social phenomenon not anecdotal observations and subjective interpretations. Personality psychology studies personal and individual traits, thoughts, and characteristics; social psychology focuses on situations. Social psychologist is more interested on the impact of social environment and from group interactions that an effect on behaviors and attitudes. There are many similarities between sociology and social psychology in many ways but they are different. Some can say that its looking at the same situation from a different perspective. Sociologists are more interested in institutions and cultural influences. Social psychologists focus on situational variables that affect behaviors, similar in many ways but different in many as well. Social psychology uses a variety of different scientific methods. These methods that are used allow researchers to test hypotheses, theories, and the relationship between the variables. Since they use a variety of different methods; they have to determine which ones are best to use per study. There is the descriptive research which goal is to portray something that already exists in the group and/or the

population. An example of this type of research is the use of an opinion poll to see which candidate people are planning to vote for. Unlike relational or casual studies the descriptive study cannot determine the relationship between variables. Correlation research is used to look for the relationship between variables. They do this by taking surveys, compiling research from earlier studies, or by directly observing behaviors. While this type of research allows researchers to find the relationship between variables it does not however allow researchers to determine if one variable cause changes another variable. The next is experimental research which allows the uncovering of casual relationships between variables. The experimental research uses the control and experimental groups; controlled groups get no special treatment and are used as a baseline. The experimental group however ends up being manipulated by the researchers in some way or another. The researchers then measure the effects of the manipulation of the experimental group. The researchers are able to control the independent variables so through this form of research only the casual relationship between variables is revealed. Social psychology may be similar to other forms of psychology but then at the same time its not and can be opposite of what it may have seemed to be. Its like looking at some situation through a different perspective; you get a different answer.

Resources Research areas in social psychology by Kendra Cherry http://psychology.about.com/od/socialpsychology/p/socialresearch.htm What is Social Psychology by Kendra Cherry http://psychology.about.com/od/socialpsychology/f/socialpsych.htm Social Psychology Network FAQs http://www.socialpsychology.org/facq.htm#howdiffer