Define Social Psychology. How Does Social Psychology Emerge as a Discipline in 20th Century? Discuss.

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According to psychologist Gordon Allport, social psychology is a discipline that uses scientific methods "to understand and explain how the thought, feeling and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of other human beings" (1985). It is important to note that social psychology is not just about looking at social influences. Social perception and social interaction are also vital to understanding social behavior. Emergence of Social Psychology as a discipline in 20th century Social psychology began to assert its individuality as a discipline with a series of texts written by various authors (e.g., Baldwin, 1897; Bunge, 1903; McDougall, 1919; Orano, 1901), each exploring a variety of social psychological topics such as emotions, morals and individual character. McDougall (1919) argued strongly for the separation of social psychology from sociology and anthropology, while also arguing that social processes should be studied experimentally. Arguably, however, social psychology was first established as a distinct discipline at the beginning of the 20th century with the publication of Floyd Allport’s (1924) book Social Psychology – an influential book that was subsequently adopted by teachers of psychology for many years. Inspired by the growth of experimental psychology in the USA, Allport argued that social psychology would develop as a discipline if it approached its questions as an experimental science. Others followed this perspective (e.g., Murphy and Murphy, 1931) and this North American approach to social psychology rapidly replaced the German tradition. Early work in social psychology was also strongly influenced by behaviourism. In the early 20th century, there was a surge of research, especially animal research, focusing on the impact of positive and negative events on behaviour. Put quite simply, behaviourists

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