Social Psychology
Social Psychology
Social psychology is the study of how society affects an individual’s behavior, feelings and thoughts. “Social psychologists study attitudes and beliefs, conformity and independence, love and hate.” (Myers, 2008)
Social and biological groups and the process in which these groups are molded from best describe the behavior in social psychology. These social groups consist of gender, spiritual groups, ethnic groups, and socioeconomic groups; and biological groups can be described as the biological gender and class. Without being aware, individuals use social psychology when debating an individual’s opinion, trying to gain control over a group of individuals or when trying to come up with a reason as to why an individual is behaving in a meticulous way. Causes of behavior within social psychology greatly depend upon the present social position and social situation; though social psychology does not put a great deal of importance on the explanation of social and biological groups, the role of evolution theory does. The study of emotions as a way of intervening with unpredictable behavior as well as schemas and personality traits are what social psychologist is studying today.
Social psychology covers an extensive variety of disciplines within the field of psychology, “with particular attention to how we view and affect one another.
Sociology and social psychology remains frequently confused because of there interest in the study of groups. When compared with sociology (the study of people in groups and societies), social psychology focuses mainly on individuals with methods that often use experimentation. Compared with personality psychology, social psychology focuses less on differences amongst individuals, and more on how individuals perceive and affect one another.” (Myers, 2008)
Psychologist in general attempt to explain and predict behavior, but social psychologist tend to dig a little deeper as...
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