Social Psychology Definition Paper February 3rd, 2013 Psy/400 Adrian Fletcher Axia Campus University of Phoenix Social Psychology Definition Paper Social psychology is a study in which a researcher or psychologist studies individuals in their social context and is also a discipline that uses scientific methods. Social psychologist’s look at or study many social topics, some of these topics include; social perception, group behavior, conformity, leadership, prejudice, and aggression. Social psychology is not only about looking at social influences, it is also about social perception and social interaction which needs to be understood first before one is able to understand social psychology completely. Social psychology is very important to us because it allows us to study how individuals will act in different social situations. For instance; we are able to learn how stereotypes are formed, why there is racism, and also how a person’s behavior changes in different types of situations.
Opinions and Social Pressure Mary Opaleke The University of Winnipeg Opinions and Social Pressure The article “Opinions and Social Pressure” was written by Solomon E. Asch. Asch (1955) examined different experiments in detail which included how people can be tricked into conforming to peer pressure even when the group is obviously wrong. Further, he went ahead to explore the following questions: “[h] and to what extent do social forces constrain people’s opinions?” (p. 2) People are easily influenced through observation of the activities that take place in our social surroundings and this is justified by a statement from Asch (1955).“That social influences shape every person’s practices, judgements and belief is a truism to which anyone will readily assent. A child masters his ‘native’ dialect to the finest nuance; a member of a tribe of cannibals accepts cannibalism as altogether fitting and proper” (p. 2). “It was not too long before social thinkers seized upon these discoveries as a basis for explaining numerous social phenomena .
Using relevant research, discuss how and why particular research methods are used at the sociocultural level of analysis There are several different research methods used in psychology such as experimentations (lab, field and quasi), naturalistic observations, and studies (case, cross-cultural). The most favourable in SCLOA are naturalistic observations in order to achieve more qualitative research. This is important in social-cultural psychology as the aim is to investigate the influences of social environment on behaviour and thoughts and to do this most effectively high ecological value is desirable. Despite this, there has been some very famous research obtained through the experimental method. The experimental method is a study of cause and effect.
Social Influences on Behavior By: Sara Tinker PSY-300 November 28, 2011 Dan Erickson Social psychology, a combination of psychology and sociology, is the study of the influence on individual behavior brought by the actual, imaginary, or implied presence of others (Gergen & Gergen, 2011). Such influence can alter or enhance one’s own beliefs and actions. Humans are inheritably social creatures often seeking others to fill the need to be loved or praised and in some cases to be different or seek motivation. The need and existence of these emotions and feelings can create positive or negative behavioral changes. Such behaviors can be seen every day in athletic events or in political topics such as homo-sexuality.
Advantages and Disadvantages of using Quantitative and Qualitative methods to study Class and Crime Sociological research is incredibly useful in identifying patterns and relationships between social institutions and forces that exist around us today. Class and Crime are at the forefront of these social institutions. Therefore, questions such as ‘Why are their inequalities in class?’ or ‘Are some people predisposed to commit crime?’ arise and it lays upon sociological research to answer these questions. However the type of research we conduct can be compromised and split into two categories; Quantitative (based on positivist data) and Qualitative (Interpreitivst). There are chosen according to the type of research and data the social researcher hopes to find.
Sociologists do not simply declare their beliefs indisputable truths – they do research to determine whether those beliefs are correct. Their investigations are rooted in the scientific method that distinguishes the sociological perspective from “commonsense” interpretations of the world. The sociological perspective emphasizes that people’s thoughts and action are strongly influenced by the groups to which they belong as well as by impinging social factors such as beliefs, values, practices and institutions. From birth to death individuals are imbedded within and influenced by groups and larger structures. As sociologists our main goal is to understand social situations and look for repeating patterns in society.
Social Psychology Definition Paper 1 Social Psychology Definition Paper September 11, 2012 Social Psychology Definition Paper 2 Social interaction plays a major role in defining social psychology because social psychology includes areas that include: psychology, evolutionary theories, and physiology. These areas according to Harold, (2000) are components of uncultivated areas of the social sciences. The principles of natural selection and adaptation can explain the biological theories that explain human hair color to choices for reproducing. At the same time sociology explains the choices of social structuring and how humans organize socially. However, social psychology has the job of explaining what people think about, how the thought affect people, and how the thoughts will interact with each other on the biological, psychological, and social levels (Myers, 2008).
The social learning theory states that people learn from one another through observation, imitation and modelling. The theory has often been called a bridge between behaviourist and cognitive learning theories because it takes into mediating cognitive factors such as attention, memory, and motivation. In crime, the social learning theory plays an important role in explaining offending behaviour. It is explained through the differential association theory developed by Surtherland (1939). The theory claims that learning crime takes place through observing people (like peers, parents and so on), from there if the person if exposed to more pro-criminal attitudes than anti-criminal attitudes then they are more likely to offend.
Armed with this information, this paper hopes to bring awareness to how we process information through reasoning, use of heuristics or rule of thumb, biases, counterfactual thinking, and how negativity bias tends to be the norm for all social interaction whether business or personal as it deals with our lives. As unpleasant as it is for humans to admit, that our understanding and how we deal with other people and most important, our perception of the individual(s) mostly derives from biases and other tainted information. In deciding which information is relevant and entering the information into memory,
“In social situations behavior adjusts to facilitate the area around a person. There are influences on social behavior but there is also the persons actions and whether or not these actions are socially acceptable behavior or not". There have been so many studies done on human social behavior, because there are many various behaviors and even more influences, such as genetic, environmental, religious, cultural, financial, educational, the list goes on and on. "Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others “ said American psychologist, Gordon Allport, . (Gupta, unknown) When people draw conclusions about behaviors they give it attributions."