SOCIAL

PSYCHOLOGY
Arun Choudhary
MA Psychology -3rd Sem
Social psychology is about understanding individual behavior in a social context.

Baron, Byrne & Suls define social psychology as ...

“the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of
individual behavior in social situations”.

It therefore looks at human behavior as influenced by other people and the social context in
which this occurs.

Social psychologists therefore deal with the factors that lead us to behave in a given way in
the presence of others, and look at the conditions under which certain behavior/actions
and feelings occur. Social psychology is to do with the way these feelings, thoughts, beliefs,
intentions and goals are constructed and how such psychological factors, in turn, influence
our interactions with others.
 SELF CONCEPT
SOCIAL INFLUENCE

PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
AGRESSION BEHAVIOR

FEELINGS
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

• It is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. All of
these variables are the ones we use to measure a human being.
• What is it that shapes our attitudes? Why are some people such great leaders?
How does prejudice develop and how can we overcome it?
Feelings: while the animals just act or react with impulses, the
humans use feelings to express emotions. The feelings
transform the personality , the character and how a person see
the world.
Thoughts: Thought can refer to the ideas or arrangements of
ideas that result from thinking, the act of producing thoughts,
or the process of producing thoughts. Although thought is a
fundamental human activity familiar to everyone, there is no
generally accepted agreement as to what thought is or how it
is created. Thoughts are the result or product of spontaneous
acts of thinking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkMYkXLlad0
Behavior: Human behavior is believed to be influenced by the
endocrine system and the nervous system. It is most commonly
believed that complexity in the behavior of an organism is
correlated to the complexity of its nervous system. Generally,
organisms with more complex nervous systems have a greater
capacity to learn new responses and thus adjust their behavior.
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND
SOCIAL NETWORKS.
The advent of the Internet has changed the way individuals and groups of
individuals interact with one another and the world. In fact, an entire generation
has been brought up with the idea that “socializing” includes an online
component. Yet despite the recent technological advances in social
communication, and the fact that social bonding is a crucial psychological aspect
of being human, there are certain individuals for whom social interactions are
difficult, leading to real-life anxiety.
 How social media affects our relationships to
others…
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HffWFd_6bJ0
 Social media of all kinds has become such an important part of our society
that looking at it in a negative way will only set us back. We as a society must
push forward and continue to incorporate social media in more positive ways.

• In March 2013, Facebook reported having 1.11 billion active users, Instagram
reported having 100 million users, and Twitter had 200 million active users. These
numbers have experienced immense growth even in the past year alone. This just
proves the fact that social networking is a rapidly changing field, and even if we
solve the question of how current social media affects interaction, more questions
will continue to arise as these sites continue to change. So now the question
remains: Is our society really ready to harness these new social media technologies
to our advantage? Will we be able to handle it and maintain face-to-face interaction
as our main source of communication?
THANK YOU!