Nature, History &

Scope of Social
Psychology
Chapter outline
 Definition of social psychology
 Brief history of social psychology
 Introduction to main theories of social psychology
 Allied disciplines: sociology, social work, anthropology
Definition of social psychology

 Branch of psychology that seeks to understand the nature and causes

of individual behavior and thought in a social context.

 It underlies how people think, relate to and influence one another.

 Scientific study of how the thoughts, feelings and actions of an

individual is influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of
others.
Three defining characters of social psychology:

 Social Influence…defined as how a person’s behavior can be affected

by the presence of others.
 Social Cognition…defined as how a person thinks of the others.
 Social Perception…defined as the negative or positive aspects of how a
person relate to others.
Nature of Social Psychology?

1. Scientific discipline
 Uses precise, methodological, and systematic means of
investigation.
2. Focuses on individuals.
 Individual’s Affect, Behaviors and Cognitions.
3. Emphasizes the power of situation.
 Discover universal laws of human behaviors.
 Investigate how social situations influence an individual’s feelings,
actions and thoughts.
Scientific in Nature
 Set of values
 Accuracy
 Objectivity
 Skepticism
 Open-mindedness
 Methods to Study various topics
 Different Research Methods
Social Psychology is scientific in nature; that refers to

 The set of values devised empirically.

 Several methods that can be applied to a wide range of topics.
 It is defined by the accuracy, objectivity, skepticism and open-
mindedness.
 Accuracy…gathering information in a careful, precise and error free
manner as much as possible.
 Objectivity…obtaining and evaluating information without any bias
as much as possible.
 Skepticism…accurate only to the extent they have been verified
again and again.
 Open-mindedness…changing one’s views if the existing evidence
suggests that these views are in-accurate.
Focuses on the Behavior of Individuals
 Individuals fall in love, marriages are arranged in cultural
contexts
 Individuals get violent - Display of violence is different in
different societies
 Prejudice, Altruism
 Thoughts & actions (subject matter of social psychology) are
related to individuals
 Man in relation to social & cultural context
 Seeks to understand the causes of social behavior & social
thought
 The factors & conditions that shape the social behavior &
thought of individuals
 Actions, feelings, beliefs, memories, inferences concerning the people

 Social Interactions
 Cognitive Processes
 Environmental Variables

 Cultural Context
 Biological Factors
Social Interactions
 Other people’s behavior have a strong impact on us
 Outer appearance of other people
 Driving faster when in a hurry, see another car being stopped by
the traffic police
 Self image & self concept
 Ethnic & social groups
 Prejudice & groupthink
 Attitude Formation & change
Cognitive Processes
 Our inferences to other people’s actions depending on our past
experiences
 How we make sense out of the social world – leading to social
cognition (think long & hard about other people)
 What they are like
 Why they do what they do
 How they might react to our behavior etc.
 Social cognition – one of the major areas of research
Environmental Variables
 Impact of the Physical World
 The physical environment influences our feelings,
thoughts & behaviors (ecological factors)
 Is Aggressive behavior more obvious in hot weather
 Do we feel more sad & gloomy in cloudy or rainy days
 Does a fresh smell in the air makes us more prone to help others
Cultural Context
 How actions & characteristics of other people influence our social
behavior & social thought
 Our relations with others & how we affect about them are affected by
events, beliefs & trends in our culture
 Dressing in accordance with events, society
 Cultural norms & values
 Context of right & wrong
 Cultural diversity as a subject of social psychology
Biological factors
 Biological factors & genetic processes
 Our preferences, emotions, attitudes are affected by our
biological inheritance – A view of evolutionary psychology
 Our species has been subject to the process of biological
evolution, including
 Variation (organisms vary in many ways)
 Inheritance (some of these variations are heritable)&
 Selection (variations that are adaptive become common in population)
 This process applies to some aspects of social behavior (aggression, altruism)
Brief History Of Social Psychology

 Early years
 Social Psychology’s Youth ( 1940s, 1950s and 1960s)
 A Maturing Field (1970s, 1980s and 1990s)
Early Influences till 1940s

 Aristotle: Man – a social animal

 Humans are naturally sociable, a necessity which allows us to live
together (an individual centered approach)

 Plato: The state controls the individual

 Encouraged social responsibility through social context (a socio-
centered approach).
 W. Wundt, 1860, focused on the idea of a collective mind
 Personality develops because of cultural and community
influences, especially through language
 Focus on the methodological study of language and its
influence on the social being.
 1908 - 1924 – An independent field
 Different texts containing social psychology were published
 Mc Dougall – 1908 - An Introduction to Social Psychology
Topics like emotion and sentiment, morality, character
and religion, included 
He believed that social behavior was innate/instinctive
and therefore individual, hence his choice of topics. 
This belief is not the principle upheld in modern social
psychology, however.
F. Allport – 1924. Social behavior stems from different
factors (persons & their actions)
 Social behavior results from interactions between people. 
 He also took a methodological approach, discussing actual
research and emphasizing that the field was one of a
“science … which studies the behavior of the individual
 Hisbook also dealt with topics still evident today, such as
emotion, conformity and the effects of an audience on
others.
 1930– 1940 – A rapid growth in new issues and
methods
 Sherrif& K. Lewin – nature & impact of social norms (how
individuals ought to behave)
 Studies on Conformity
 Nature of leadership & other group processes
 Festinger, Kelley etc. contributed to our knowledge of social
behavior
 Triplett (1898) applied the experimental method to investigate the
performance of cyclists and school children on how the presence of
others influences overall performance – thus how individual’s are
affected and behave in the social context.

 By 1935 the study of social norms had developed, looking at how

individuals behave according to the rules of society. This was
conducted by Sherif (1935).

 Lewin et al. then began experimental research into leadership and

group processes by 1939, looking at effective work ethics under
different styles of leadership.
Social Psychology’s Youth
 1940 – 1960
 Focus on influence of Groups & group membership on individual behavior
 Links between social behavior & personality traits (authoritarian personality)
 Development of the theory of cognitive dissonance – tendency to dislike
inconsistency between thought & actions & effort to reduce it
 1960 – time of most rapid growth, including every aspect of social interaction
 Interpersonal attraction
 Impression formation
 Social perception
 Attribution
 Social influence
A Maturing Field

 1970 - 1990
 Research of 1960s expanded
 Attribution
 Gender differences
 Environmental Psychology
 Growing influence of cognitive perspective & application –
making it a more scientific & stringent social science discipline
Introduction to main theories of Social
Psychology
 Social Facilitation
 Social Learning Theory
 Cognitive Dissonance
 Social Identity Theory
 Attribution Theory
 Shock Experiment
Social Facilitation

 Allport (1920) introduced the notion that the presence of others (the
social group) can facilitate certain behavior. It was found that an audience
would improve an actors’ performance in well learned/easy tasks, but
lead to a decrease in performance on newly learned/difficult tasks due to
social inhibition.
Social Learning Theory

 Bandura (1963) introduced the notion that behavior in the social world
could be modeled. Three groups of children watched a video where an
adult was aggressive towards a ‘bobo doll’, and the adult was either just
seen to be doing this, was rewarded by another adult for their behavior
or were punished for it. Children who had seen the adult rewarded were
found to be more likely to copy such behavior.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory

 Festinger (1950) presented this idea; according to which when we hold

beliefs, attitudes or cognitions which are different, then we experience
dissonance – an inconsistency that causes discomfort. We are motivated
to reduce this by either changing one of our thoughts, beliefs or attitudes
or selectively attending to information which supports one of our beliefs
and ignores the other
Social Identity Theory

 Tajfel (1971) gave Social Identity Theory. It underlies that individuals

need to maintain a positive sense of personal and social identity: this is
partly achieved by emphasizing the desirability of one’s own group,
focusing on distinctions between other “lesser” groups.
Attribution Theory

 Weiner (1986) presented Attribution Theory which states that we look

for explanations of behavior in the social world in the form of excuses;
thus attributing the socially acceptable explanation to our behaviors.
Shock Experiment

 In 1963, Milgram did the shock experiment for obedience. The

participants were to give electric shocks to the subjects for every
mistaken task. Results showed that Obedience is most likely to occur in
an unfamiliar environment and in the presence of an authority figure,
especially when covert pressure is put upon people to obey. It is also
possible that it occurs because the participant felt that someone other
than themselves was responsible for their actions.
Allied Disciplines Of Social Psychology

 Sociology
 Social Work
 Anthropology
 Social Psychology  Sociology

 Level of investigation  Level of investigation

 Individual  Society

 Discoveruniversal laws of  Discover universal laws for

human behaviors. societies.
 Social Psychology  Personality psychology

 Power of situation.  Power of personality.

 Looking for the common  Looking for individual
behaviors in different situations.
differences.
 In some circumstances
 Some people are more
people tend to behave in a
more altruistic/selfish/ altruistic/selfish/aggressive
aggressive/… way than in … than others
other circumstances.