Often times while in a social setting with people from different
cultural backgrounds or different age groups there is always a chance that
there will be individuals that behave in certain ways that everyone may not
understand. Individuals tend to behave
in ways that reflect their cultural background and if someone is not familiar
with that culture than they will have questions about the behavior that is
being displayed. A branch of psychology
that was developed to help understand the interactions between individuals is
known as social psychology. In this
essay I plan to define social psychology, discuss the differences between
social psychology and other branches of psychology such as general psychology,
clinical psychology and sociology, and I will explain the role of research in
social psychology.
One of the first studies
in social psychology was developed during a bicyclist experiment conducted by
Norman Triplett. Norman Triplett’s
experiment revealed that bicyclist would pedal faster when others were present
as opposed to racing against the clock, which is now known as social
facilitation. Social facilitation is all
about how the presence of an individual affects the performance of someone
else. The results of the experiment
conducted by Triplett suggested that people tend to do more and work harder in
the presence of the others which are characteristics that are seen in everyday
life.
Social psychology is defined as “the scientific studies of how
people think about, influence, and relate to one another” (Myers, 2010 p.
4). Social psychology primary focus is
on an individual’s behavior and psychological development as it relates to
their social and cultural surroundings and how it relates to others. The main objective in social psychology is to
interpret how an individual views the world socially, how one’s social
perception can occasionally be misleading, and how an individual’s social
behavior is influenced by other people, as well as their attitude, personality
and biology.
Social psychology gives explanation to an individual’s life, it
helps them to see and understand things that motivate their thought process and
behavior. Social psychology also gives
and individual the ability to learn more about themselves, gain friends and
motivate others. The main objective of
social psychology indicates that the methods in this branch of psychology can
be applied to an individual’s everyday life.
Psychology is defined as “the scientific study of behavior and the
mind” ("Psychology," 2009).
General psychology main focus is on the human mind and behavior to try
to understand an individual’s thought process, feelings and behavior. General psychology differs from social
psychology because its main focus is on the individual, whereas social
psychology focuses on an individual’s behavior in a social setting. Social psychology is a branch of psychology
that can help to understand social influences on behavior.
Clinical psychology differs from social psychology because it deals
with “the study, assessment and treatment of people with psychological
difficulties” (Myers, 2010 p. 526), whereas social psychology focuses on
finding out what factors played a role in an individual developing
psychological difficulties. Social
psychology supports clinical psychology because by learning what factors may
have contributed to an individual developing psychological difficulties it can
help implement a treatment plan.
Sociology is “the scientific study of society and the various
groups that constitute a given society” ("Sociology," 2009). The field of sociology sometimes may focus on
an individual in relation to the type of behavior they display, however
sociology may be more concerned with events that happen inside groups such as
organizations and communities. Worldwide
changes are also a major concern in sociology.
Sociology and social psychology are very similar because they both study
factors in the environment that affect an individual’s behavior just from
different viewpoints, however they differ in the manner that sociology studies
a wider range of behavior and focuses more on group settings.
Social psychology practice different scientific methods to conduct
research. Research is done to gain
understanding from ideas that were developed from observation. Correlational research is “the study of the
naturally occurring relationships among variables” (Myers, 2010 p. 19). One benefit of correlational research is that
it uses real world settings when testing hypotheses; however the relationship
among the variables could sometimes be unclear. Experimental research conduct studies that
look for evidence to “cause-effect relationships by manipulating one or more
factors (independent variables) while controlling others (holding them
constant)” (Myers, 2010 p. 19). Being
able to control the variables is a benefit of experimental research, however
there are “some important variables that cannot be studied with experiments”
(Myers, 2010 p. 30).
In conclusion, without even realizing it social psychology is
relevant to many aspects of everyday life. Social psychology covers many areas,
such as social influence on behavior, social perception and social interaction
just to name a few. Social psychology differs
from other scientific disciplines because it is devoted to the sole
understanding of how people think about, influence and relate to each other in
a social setting. Social psychologists
conduct different types of research to try and gain understanding of the
behaviors of individuals in different social settings.
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