HISTORY AND MEANING OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Individualism greatly shapes Social Psychology, which simply asserts that society
is a collection of unique individuals who seek and strive towards their own interests
and goals and strive to be relatively free from others.

Collectivism, another term which has a contribution towards Social Psychology,

states that people become human only when they are integrated into a group rather
than being isolated from one.

Different individuals have contributed towards development of Social Psychology

as a discipline.

Aristotle (Greek Philosopher, and a student of Plato) believed human beings are
naturally social, which is a necessity to living together. This view asserts the
individualistic aspect that has been defined above, as it views sociability in human
beings as inherent. That is, a trait every human being possesses.

Plato (Greek Philosopher and a student to Socrates) had the view that the state
controlled individuals and encouraged social responsibility through social
context. This is informed by collectivism as social responsibility is asserted by the
state through social contexts rather than the individual.

German philosopher, Georg Wihelm Friedrich Hegel felt that the society has
inevitable links with the development of the social mind. This brought about the
concept of the group mind, which we will cover as we move along the course work.
In general, the group or collective mind emerges where the community and culture
as a whole influence an individual’s personality development. Language is cited as
one of the strongest cultural influence in bringing about the collective mind.
Wihelm Wundt, a German psychologist is also a major contributor towards the
discipline of Social Pyschology. He predicted that there will exist two branches of
Psychology, Physiological Psychology and Social Psychology. He viewed it as
necessary to separate the two branches as the earlier (Physiological Psychology) did
not account for the mental processes that occurred during social interaction. This
justifies the reason for Social Psychology, which aims to understand how we think
and behave as a result of social interactions. Wundt believed that as much as social
behavior included distinct individuals, social interaction was informed by more than
an individual’s mental activities and processes. As a result, Wundt categorized
Social Psychology as a Social Science. On the other hand, he classified
Physiological Psychology as a natural science aligned with Biology.

(Question- explain why Physiological Psychology is considered a natural science

while Social Psychology is considered a Social Science

Answer- Physiological Psychology is concerned with the study of behavior and

perception by observing the human mind. This makes it a natural science as it is
concerned with the study of the human mind, which is biological. Social Psychology
on the other hand is concerned with how human behavior and thought as it is
influenced by social interaction making it a Social Science).

These scholars’ ideas influenced the development of Social Psychology as a

discipline.

The early years (1895-1935)

Norman Tripled, an American Psychologist based at Indiana University is credited

for conducting the first Social Psychological study in 1895. He investigated how
people’s performance was altered when other people were present. In the
experiment, he asked children to wind line on a fishing reel either alone or in the
presence of other kids doing the very task. The children wound the line faster when
in the presence of other children. This was published in 1897 and introduced the
experimental method to the social sciences.

In 1908, there were further contributions towards the discipline by English

Psychologist William McDougall and American Sociologist Edward Ross.
McDougall identified the person as the principle unit of analysis and believed social
behavior was rooted in instincts and the Darwinian evolutionary process. This idea
was however opposed and did not gain much ground in later informing the budding
discipline of Social Psychology. Ross on the other hand highlighted groups as the
structure of society.

In 1924, Floyd Allport published another text in contribution towards Social

Psychology that stated that the individual is the core in the study, as within the
individual is where behavior mechanisms that inform social interactions exist.
Psychology of groups is therefore informed by the psychology of individuals.
Allport called for experimental method in the study of topics such as conformity,
social facilitation and non-verbal communication. The advantage of the
experimental method is that it allowed the researcher to systematically examine the
effect of single variables, either alone or in a selected combination, while holding
other variables constant. In these experiments, the individual was studying being on
either the receiving or manipulating end of the social influences. However, this had
a weakness in that cultural influences and how they influence a person’s behavior
was ignored.

In the early 30s, Turkish national Muzafir Sherif established that a group was more
than the sum of its individuals or members’ non-group thinking. The experiments he
performed are known as the ‘autokinetic’ experiments. Ten years later, Theodore
Newcomb furthered these findings outside the lab with his longitudinal field study
of reference group influence at Bennigton College.

In Germany, the discipline was further evolving, led by the Gestalt Social
Psychologists. The idea of the group or collective mind and the individualistic point
of view was rejected for the idea that an environment is made up of individuals and
relations between individuals and these relations have psychological implications.
Therefore, based on this, groups are viewed as real social entities.

The Coming of Age: 1936-1945

The events that had the greatest influence in the development of the discipline in this
period moving forward were the Great Depression and the World Wars.

After the stock market crash of 1929, many psychologists lost their jobs and were
unable to find other ones. In 1936, the Social Psychologists formed an organization
whose aim was to study important social issues and support progressive social
action. This organization was called the Society for the Psychological Study of
Social Issues (SPSSI).

In other countries like Russia, the end of World War 1 led to the decline in the
individualistic oriented research that characterized the American Psychological
Association.

With the rise and advancement of fascism in Germany, Italy and Spain, many
Social Scientists immigrated to the United States. They proved useful to the
government during wartime activities, such as selection of officers for the now CIA,
developing of propaganda to reduce the enemy’s morale, amongst others. This
proved useful for the government and showed the applicability of the discipline.
With the end of the war, Social Psychology had developed and was still growing in
North America. The devastating effects of the war slowed down the development of
the discipline in Germany. As the United States became the super power, it became
the leading nation in the study and practice of Social Psychology as well.

Rapid expansion: 1946-1969

With the infusion of European intellectuals and the young trained American Social
Psychologists, the discipline expanded its theoretical and research base. Germany
was a focus of study. The main aim of research in this society was to establish an
understanding of why a developed and civilized economy like Germany would fall
under the influence of a dictator and ruthless leader like Adolf Hitler. There was the
study of the authoritarian personality led by Theodor Adorno, which assessed how
personality factors emerging during childhood shaped later adult obedience and
intolerance of minorities. Stanley Milgrim further developed this research by
conducting obedience experiments, which examined the situational factors that
would make people obey destructive authority figures.

At Yale, Carl Horvland and his colleagues expanded the research by focusing on
communication. This arose from concerns such as propaganda, military morale and
the integration of ethnic minorities during the World War 2.

Social Psychology’s attention to theory and research in the 50s was informed
majorly by the political space, the international conflict and a fear of communism.

Social Psychology in the United States further developed with the subject of
prejudice coming into play. Research indicated that segregation in education
affected the self-concept of black children, which then informed desegregation in
schools in America.
In the same 50s, another area of research in the discipline sprung up. This is the
theory of cognitive dissonance. Leon Festinger asserted that people’s thoughts and
actions were motivated by a desire to maintain cognitive consistency.

In the 60s, the United States experienced turmoil in terms of the Vietnam war,
political assassinations, violence, social protests, amongst many others. This shifted
the discipline towards subjects such as aggression, helping, attraction and love. The
Bystander intervention also informed research during this very period. This will be
elaborated as we move further through the course.

Crisis and reassessment: 1970-1984

During this period, the number of social scientists increased, many of whom being
women with a few minority members. The issue of ethics in experiments also sprung
up. The concerns concerned with ethical situations was the potential harmful
psychological consequences that those in the experiments were exposed to. As a
result, the US government required health and safety of human participants from all
institutions seeking federal funding.

Other issues emerging in the discipline were one, whether it should be considered a
science or not. After World War 2, many experts in the discipline carried out
research and experiments with an attempt to solve social problems identified.
Twenty years afterwards, those identified problems were still not solved. One of the
views was that it ought to be regarded as a historical rather than a scientific
discipline. Another critique, expressed mostly by women and minorities, was that its
theoretical perspectives were mostly white and male.

An assortment of views as to why people act in regards to their needs also emerged.
One of the approaches to understanding human needs was the “hot” approach, that
stated that people act as a result of their needs, desires and interests. Therefore,
behavior was primarily the driver of meeting desires and needs. The other
approach towards meeting of needs and psychology is the “cold” approach. It states
that the way a person thinks affects what they want and how they feel.

Expanding global and interdisciplinary view: 1985-present

The discipline continued to develop worldwide with new and different ideas
springing up. Certain social beliefs and ideas that were previously considered
universal were actually determined to specific to individual cultures. With this, the
discipline has evolved throughout the years and in different societies.