Meaning and Nature of Social Psychology

Submitted By:- Isha Arora

Submitted To:- Dr. Nidhi Verma Ma'am
Enrollment No:- A50706920034
Course:- B.A (H) Applied Psychology
Semester:- 3rd
 What is Social Psychology
• It is difficult to provide a definition for practically any field. This challenge is increased in
social psychology by two factors: the field's large scope and its rapid rate of change.

• The interests of social psychologists are extremely diverse. Despite this, most researchers
concentrate on the following task: understanding how and why people behave, think and feel
the way they do in social situations- situations in which other people are present physically
or symbolically.

• Accordingly, we define social psychology as the scientific field that seeks to understand the
nature and causes of individual behaviour, feelings and thought in social situations.

• Another way of putting it is that social psychology studies  how our ideas, feelings and
behaviours are influenced by the social situations in which we live- by other people or our
perceptions of them.
 What is Social Psychology
                (contd.)
• According to psychologist Gordon Allport, social psychology uses scientific methods "to
understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings and behaviour of individuals are influenced by
the actual, implied or imagined presence of other human beings."

• In simple words, social psychology is concerned with determining how each individual's behaviour
is influenced by the social environment in which that behaviour occurs.

Video Link: What is Social Psychology? An Introduction

This video is an introduction to social psychology. It covers all the basic information like its history, earliest
experiments and some theories. This video will give you an overview of what social psychology is all about.
 What do Social Psychologists do
• Now it is important to understand what social psychologists
do. If you plan to become a social psychologist, you should
know what sort of work they do.

• The majority of social psychologists go into teaching or

research at a college or university. 

• Social psychologists are also employed in the private sector

in a variety of roles such as consultants, researchers,
marketing directors, managers, political strategists and
technology designers. Social psychologists also work in
government and nonprofit organizations, developing and
evaluating policies and programs in education, conflict
resolution and environmental protection.
 Importance of Studying Social Psychology

• Learning more about social psychology can help you gain a better understanding of yourself and
your surroundings.

• You can gain a better understanding of how social relationships influence individual functioning by
learning more about how people perceive others, how they behave in groups and how attitudes are
formed. 

• Social psychology helps people manage their stress, depression and other social issues and improve
their decision making and predict accurate future behaviour based on the understanding of past
behaviour.
 Importance of Studying Social Psychology
(Contd.)
• Whosoever is studying psychology or wants to study psychology in the future, or if you
want to become a counsellor, studying social psychology can be very beneficial for you
because the theories of group dynamics and predicting how individuals will respond, a
good understanding of social psychology can greatly help a counsellor to perform his/her
duties. Understanding human needs is one of the foundations of counselling, so a
background in social psychology is essential.
 Key Topics/ Issues covered in Social Psychology
Social Psychologists look into a wide range of topics in their research. Many of these
topics are concerned with social influence, social perception and social interaction. Here
are just a few of the major areas of interest within social psychology.

Social Cognition

• Social Cognition is concerned with the processing, storage and application of social information.  

• This research area is closely related to the field of cognitive psychology, which
focuses heavily on the concept of schemas. 

• Schemas are our general ideas about the world, how things are and how things work.

• Social cognition isn't just a topic in social psychology; it's a way of looking at any subject
through the lens of social psychology. Researchers can examine a wide range of problems
using a social-cognitive viewpoint, including attitudes, human perception, prejudice,
stereotypes, self-concept, discrimination, persuasion, decision-making and other areas.
 Key Topics/ Issues covered in Social Psychology
(contd.)
Attitudes 

• The study of attitudes is another important field of research in social psychology. The components of
attitudes, how attitudes develop and how attitudes change are all of interest to social psychologists.

• Attitudes are defined by psychologists as a learned tendency to evaluate things in a particular way.
This can include evaluations of people, issues, objects or events. Such evaluations are often positive
or negative, but they can also be ambiguous at times. 

• For Example- You might have conflicting views about a specific person or problem. 

• Researchers also suggest that there are several different components that make up attitudes. They
have identified three core components of attitude: an affective component, a behavioural component,
and a cognitive component. Often referred to as the "ABC's of attitude", these elements describe how
we feel, behave and understand.
 Key Topics/ Issues covered in Social Psychology
(contd.)

Social Attribution

• In social psychology, attribution is the process of inferring the causes of events or behaviours. 

• In real life, we all do attribution on a daily basis, usually without realising the underlying
processes and biases that contribute to our conclusions. For example, during the course of a
typical day, you are likely to make multiple attributions about your own behaviour as well as that
of the people around you.

• When a classmate gets a good score on the same quiz, you might attribute his good performance
to luck, ignoring the fact that he has superb study habits.

• The attributions you make on a daily basis have a significant impact on your feelings, as well as
how you think and interact with others.
 Key Topics/ Issues covered in Social Psychology
Social Influence (contd.)
• The process by which an individual's attitudes, beliefs or behaviour are influenced by the presence or action of
others is referred to as social influence. Conformity, compliance, obedience and minority influence are the four
areas of social influence.

• Conformity- It is a type of social influence defined as a shift in belief or behaviour as a result of real or
imagined social pressure. It is also referred  as majority influence.

• Compliance- This refers to situations in which a person publicly agrees with a group of people but privately
disagrees with the group's viewpoint or behaviour.

• Obedience- It is a form of social influence that involves performing an action under the orders of an authority
figure.

• Minority Influence- It is a type of social influence that results in a change of opinion among the
majority of a members in a group. It involves an individual or a minority of a population convincing
other members to accept their argument, even if it contradicts the  more popular viewpoint held by the
majority.
 Nature of Social Psychology
Social psychology is not only a branch of general psychology it is also considered as a basic social science.

 Social Psychology as a Science

Social psychology is a science because it assesses and explains human behaviour. The scientific method
involves systematic and detailed attempts, which include the following:

(i) The careful collection of observations or data (methodology)

(ii)  The ordered integration of these observations into hypothesis and scientific laws (theory building)

(iii) Tests of the adequacy of these laws in terms of their ability to predict future observations (Scientific
experiment and observation).

• Social psychologists entirely rely on two kinds of research: basic and applied. The goal of basic research
is to simply increase knowledge about social behaviour and the goal of applied research is to increase
understanding and find solutions of real world problems using current social psychological knowledge.
Social psychologists propose theories that organize their observations and imply testable hypotheses and
practical predictions in their search for insight.
 Nature of Social Psychology
(contd.)
• To test a hypothesis, social psychologists may do research that predicts behaviour using correlational studies,
often conducted in natural settings or they may seek to explain behaviour by conducting experiments that
manipulate one or more factors under controlled conditions. After conducting a research study, they look for
ways to apply their findings to improve people's everyday lives.

 Focus on Individual Behaviour

• Individuals are responsible for their social thoughts and actions. They might be influenced by the society.
But the thought and actions are of the individuals, and not of group. 

• The social psychology has a very strong focus on individuals and tries to understand the behaviour of
individuals. It also attempts to understand various environmental influences on social thought and actions
such as culture, social norms and so on.  Still the focus of the social psychology research is individual.

 Understand Causes of Social Behaviour and Thought

Human social behaviour and thoughts are caused by many things. Some important factors are as follows:
 Nature of Social Psychology
(contd.)
a) Actions and Characteristics of Other Persons

• The actions of others have an impact on us. Our behaviour is often influenced by the behaviour of others.

• For Example- if you are walking in a market and suddenly see everyone running, you will also run without
questioning and later ask what happened.

b) Cognitive Process

• What we do in social situations is determined by our thinking. This is studied in the area of social cognitions.
Cognition is our thinking process. Our behaviour is determined by what we think while judging another person.
We heavily depend upon our memory and information- processing capacities. 

• That is one of the reasons why two people do not respond to the same situation in the same way because two
people have different perspectives on situations and social realities, that's why they respond differently.

c) Ecological Variables
 Nature of Social Psychology
(contd.)
• To a large extent, our behaviour is determined by the physical world around us. According to research findings,
the physical environment has a significant impact on our social behaviour. 

• For example- on hot and humid days, some people become more irritable and aggressive.

d) Cultural Context

• Our behaviour is influenced by the culture in which we live, are born and brought up. Culture is the sum of
values, beliefs, practices, art, language and so on. 

• Every culture has its own set of beliefs and values. For Example- marriage or preference of number of children
are influenced by values and cultural norms.

e) Biological Factors

• The biological factors also influence our social behaviour. They can be understood as physiological factors,
neurological factors, genetic factors and evolutionary factors. 

• The physiological factors contain hormones, functions of various glands, immune system, motor system etc. 
 Nature of Social Psychology
(contd.)
• The neurological factors include the brain structures, the neural cells (neurons), the neurotransmitters
etc.

• The genetic factor include the study of influence of genes on human behaviour. 

• The evolutionary factors focuses on explaining the social behaviour as a function of process of
evolution. 

• Psychologists like Buss (1990) and Nisbett (1990) believe that genetic factors strongly influence our
social behaviour like our preferences, behaviours, emotional reactions and even attitudes and values.
 Research Findings
Topic- Evolution of Social Psychology

Research by Kathleen Haynes in January, 2018

In this research paper, the author explores those individuals who have made contributions  to the field of social
psychology. He specifically mentioned three psychologist(Kurt Lewin, Stanley Milgram and Henri Tajfel) whose
contributions were critical to the evolution of modern social psychology.

• Kurt Lewin contributions are still relevant to the changing, turbulent world that exists today.

• Stanley Milgram research on social influence based on “destructive obedience”  in the face of authority has
played an important role in the evolution of social psychology. 

• Henri Tajfel and his student John Turner are the researchers  responsible for another important development in
social psychology. Tajfel and Turner research on intergroup conflict has significantly impacted how people
choose to interact with different cultures, leading to a group-based diversity. 

Website Link:  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322577060_Evolution_of_Social_Psychology
Thank You