Human beings are essentially social beings.As we stay with others, our actions, thoughts and feelings are affected by them.
when we are stayed next to a stranger; even though we may never be be able to talk to them, our minds thinks about them and our behavior at that moment will be dictated by the presence of the stranger. For example we are likely to avoid any behavior that may cause a stranger to think negatively about us.
We also influences behavior of others and this consists a large amount of human behavior. As an example, we always dress thinking about the people we will meet and how we want them perceive us.That is why you dress differently for an interview from the way you dress for a date. If we are not affected by other people around, we could as well walk into office with our night dress and continue working unbothered. But we cannot endure the unusual reaction from others and even possible disciplinary action against us for indecency. We are afraid walking naked because people will perceive us as mad or abnormal, yet some of us can comfortably walk around in nudity when inside our house undisturbed.
A large part of human behavior is determined by his social environment and this explains the importance of social psychology.
The scope of social Psychology is wide and may constitutes:
- Social cognition
- social perception
- attitudes
- self awareness
- stereotyping
- prejudice and discrimination
- interpersonal attraction
- close relations
- social influences
- pro-social behavior
- aggression
- group and individuals
- etc
We will be discussing most of this topics in this unit.
This lesson aims at helping you understand social behaviors and motivate you to want to understand yourself and others and create better and more successful relationships.
It could also help you in your course if your are a students in field of psychology.
Definitions
Social psychology is the scientific study of the manner in which the personality, attitudes, motivations and behavior of the individuals influences and is influenced by social groups.
Social psychology is the discipline that uses scientific methods in an attempt to understand and explain how thoughts,feelings and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of other human beings. (Gordon Allport,1954).
Social Psychology is the scientific study of how people think, influence and relate with one another. (Myers and Spencer, 2006).
Social Psychology is the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and cause of individual behaviors and thoughts in social situations. (Barron and Byrne, 2007)
Key questions in social psychology
- what influences our point of view about a subject
- what causes people to have a certain attitude
- what has caused us to adopt certain ideas and values
- why people acts ways considered irrational
- what causes our fears towards what others will think about us
Interactions
Interactions with other people affects all aspects of human behavior from infancy through old age.The important people in our lives shapes our emotions, thoughts, personalities an our perceptions. We usually consider the mentioned traits as private and solitary events yet they are affected and influenced by our interactions with others.
Behavior
Behavior is something that can be observed about us.
Behavior refers to gross motor activities like running, walking styles, arranging things etc and actions such as smiling, crying, putting on sad or happy face or how we talk.
In social psychology things like feelings, thoughts,beliefs,attitudes, intentions and goals may not be observable directly but can be inferred from our behavior. Our actions are as a result of what is going in inside us; our feelings, our believes, our thoughts, our fears, our passion. These none-observable processes inside us are always working to influence what are going to do.
social psychology is studied in social context as it deals with how people are affected by other people who are physically present around them. For example our best friend may influence us to dance in a party even though we are shy. Excitements in a crowd can cause us to do things we can never do when we are alone. A person who is usually reserved and calm could be shouting during picketing because of the influence he is getting from the crowd. A lady who is usually shy may drink bear in a party because she fear being labelled coward or reserved.
Our social environment can sometimes be imaginative rather than real. Take for instance somebody preparing for a date, a lot of things could be running through their mind. They will imagine their reactions when they meet the person, they may think about people around their meeting restaurant or they could be thinking about discussions they will hold about the date with their friend among other things.
Our earlier experiences with other people can also affect our behavior, for example if we had ever be laughed at when we did something silly, we will be cautious when in the crowd.
If we comes from a home where parents were very strict and particular about cleanliness, we are likely to keep our environment very clean even when nobody watching.
Themes common in social psychology
- Interpersonal trust
- human cooperation
- social justice
- forgiveness and revenge
- self-regulation
- culture e.t.c
Conclusion
Social psychology deals with the factors that leads us to behave in a certain way in the presence of others and looks at the conditions under which certain behaviors and feelings occur.
Social psychology has something to do with the way feelings, thoughts, beliefs, intentions and goals are constructed and how such psychological factors in turn influences our interactions with others.
Glossary:
| Conformity | Changing your behavior to go along with the group even if you do not agree with the group |
| Compliance | Going along with a request or demand |
| Normative social influence | Conformity to a group norm to fit in, feel good, and be accepted by the group |
| Informational social influence | Conformity to a group norm prompted by the belief that the group is competent and has the correct information |
| Obedience | Changing your behavior to please an authority figure or to avoid aversive consequences |
| Group-think | Group members modify their opinions to match what they believe is the group consensus |
| Group polarization | Strengthening of the original group attitude after discussing views within a group |
| Social facilitation | Improved performance when an audience is watching versus when the individual performs the behavior alone |
| Social loafing | Exertion of less effort by a person working in a group because individual performance cannot be evaluated separately from the group, thus causing performance decline on easy tasks |
Related Topics
- Introduction to Social Psychology
- Importance of studying social Psychology
- History of social Psychology
- How to study effectively
- Psychology as a science
- Branches of psychology
- Research Methods in Psychology
- The concept of self