INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

The way we perceive ourselves in relation to the rest of the world plays an important role in our choices, behaviors and beliefs. Conversely, the opinions of others also impact our behavior and the way we view ourselves. Social psychology is a branch of psychology concerned with how social phenomena influence us and how people interact with others

Understanding social psychology can be useful for many reasons. First, we can better understand how groups impact our choices and actions. Additionally, it also allows us to gain a greater appreciation for how our social perceptions affect our interactions with other people.

What is Social Psychology?

Social psychology is a branch of psychology that studies individuals in the social context. In other words, it is the study of how and why people think, feel, and do the things they do depending upon the situation they are in. Social psychology is related to sociology in this regard, but instead of focusing on group factors such as race and socioeconomic class, it focuses on the individual. Also, it relies on the scientific research to generate the theories of social behavior.

Why is social psychology important to us?

In studying how people act in certain situations, we can better understand how stereotypes are formed, why racism and sexism exist, how a person can seem like an entirely different person in different situations, and even how people fall in love. (Social psychology can't explain all of our social problems, of course. There are always different ways to explain a social phenomenon.)

Social Perception
Self-perception

There are many important factors in how one perceives oneself. One is self-esteem,a person's

positive and negative evaluations of his or her self. People who have low self-esteem can get caught in cycles of self-defeating behavior, leading to depression or other mental disorders. There are theories concerning how low self-esteem develops. One is a result of large discrepancies between one's actual self and desired self. A serious manifestation of this example is anorexia nervosa, which usually results from distorted perceptions of one's own body. Selfawareness can encourage people to notice self-discrepancies. In general, people spend little time thinking about themselves, but mirrors, audiences, etc. can put the focus on oneself and cause people to notice their self-discrepancies. Most people find ways to keep up their self-esteem through self-enhancement techniques. These include (but are not limited to) taking credit for success but making excuses for failure, comparing oneself to less fortunate people, and selfhandicapping, which is purposely handicapping oneself in order to excuse an anticipated failure. Research suggests that such positive illusory thinking can maintain mental health, but that too much of it can be self-defeating.

Perceiving Others
In regards to how people perceive others, there are a group of theories, called Attribution Theory, which describe how people attribute the cause of a behavior. A personal or internal attribution is an attribution to a person's characteristic that is from within, such as intelligence or effort. A situational or external attribution is an attribution something outside the individual, such as luck or God. The Fundamental Attribution Error states that in perceiving other people's behavior, people tend to focus on personal causes and underestimate situational causes. Such thinking can lead people to hold on to bad first impressions as well as stereotypes.

Perceiving groups
A stereotype is a set of beliefs that associates a whole group of people with a few certain traits. They are formed through 2 different processes: categoration, sorting individual objects or people in groups, and outgroup homogeneity effect, which is a tendency of people to overestimate to similarity of people in the outgroups than people in the ingroup. Although categorization and other short-cut methods of thinking can be very helpful, they also contribute and arise from racism, sexism, and other forms of prejudice and discrimination.

Social Influences

Aggression
Aside from unjust court verdicts, hot weather can contribute to aggression, as well as lack of personal space (crowded cities), and smog. Other more significant factors include viewing

aggressive behavior or pornographic material, frustration, and highly arousing stimuli.

Altruism
So when do people help? Aside from self-interest, empathy has been found to be a major factor in influencing altruistic behavior in people. It has even been shown that a baby, when put near another baby who is crying, will start to cry as well. However, it's been argued that it since helping the other person reduces his or her distress, it reduces one's own stress (from empathizing with the other person) that it really stems from self-interest.

Attraction and Love

The old proverb "opposites attract" has in recent times been found to be just an old wives' tale. In fact, similarity breeds attraction. Such similaries include, demographics, mood ("misery loves company"), personality, physical attractiveness, and attitudes. Other forces that encourage attraction are familiarity (like that bad song they keep playing on the radio 'til you find yourself singing it one day), close encounters, and proximity. So "Birds of a feather" really do "flock together." But it takes a lot more than feathers to develop into love.

Social Interaction
Group Processes
When in a group discussion or debate with similar but not identical opinions, people's beliefs, whether they are moderate or not, become more extreme. (Ever had a discussion with an extremely conservative person and felt like you were a radical liberal?)

Comformity and Individuation

There is a lot of pressure in society to conform to a group. In America, majority rules, but the minority plays an important part in our society. The majority has more influence on direct overt measures of conformity while the minority influence impact private covert measures of conformity. Minorities encourage other people to resist comformity and practice more individuation.

Attitudes
Cognitive dissonance is a state in which one feels tension because one's attitudes are different

from one's behavior. In order to alleviate the discomfort, people will often change one's attitudes to justify the behavior (like paying $50 to see a bad concert and then convincing yourself that it wasn't that bad).

Question: What Are the Major Perspectives in Social Psychology? Answer: Sociocultural Perspective

Stresses the importance of social norms and culture. Proposes that children learn behavior through problem-solving interactions with other children and adults. Through these interactions, they learn the values and norms of their society.

Evolutionary Perspective

Argues that social behaviors developed through genetics and inheritance. Emphasizes the role of biology and gene transmission across generations to explain current behavior.

Social Learning Perspective

Stresses the importance of unique experiences in family, school, community, etc. According to this viewpoint, we learn behaviors through observing and mimicking the behavior of others.

Social-Cognitive Perspective

Supports an information processing model of social behavior, where we notice, interpret, and judge the behavior of others. New experiences can either be assimilated (using already held beliefs to interpret the event), or accommodated (which involves changing existing beliefs in response to the event.) By understanding how information is processed, we can better understand how patterns of thoughts impact behavior.

RESEARCH AREAS IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

The following are just a few of the areas of interest within social psychology.

1. 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, this research area focuses largely on the concept of schemas. Schemas are our general ideas about the world, how things are and how things work. These mental shortcuts allow us to function without constantly stopping to interpret everything around us. We also develop associations between related schemas, which plays an important role in the thought process and social behavior.

2. Attitudes and Attitude Change: Another major research area in social psychology involves the study of attitudes. Social psychologists are interested in the components of attitudes, how attitudes develop and how attitudes change. Researchers have described three core components of attitude: an affective component, a behavioral component and a cognitive component. Often referred to as the "ABC's of attitude," these elements describe how we feel, behave and understand.

3. Violence and Aggression: What causes violence and aggression? Social psychologists are interested in how and why people engage in violence or act aggressively. Research in this area looks at numerous factors that may cause aggression including social variables and media influences. Researchers often look at the role social learning plays in producing aggressive behaviors and actions.

4. Prosocial Behavior: Prosocial behavior is another major research area in social psychology. What is prosocial behavior? Prosocial behaviors are those that involve helping and cooperating. Researchers often look at why people help others, as well as why they sometimes refuse to help or cooperate. The bystander effect is an example of a social phenomenon in the subject area. Much of the research in this area was prompted by the murder of a young woman named Kitty Genovese. This case captured national attention when reports revealed that neighbors had witnessed her attack and murder, but failed to call the police for help. Research inspired by the case produced a great deal of information on prosocial behavior and how and why people choose - or sometimes refuse - to help others.

5. Prejudice and Discrimination: Prejudice, discrimination and stereotypes exist in any social group. Social psychologists are interested in the origins, causes and effects of these types of attitudes and social categorizations. How does

prejudice develop? Why are stereotypes maintained in the face of contrary evidence? These are just a few of the questions social psychologists seek to answer.

6. Self and Social Identity: Our perceptions of social identities and ourselves are another important research area in social psychology. How do people come to know and understand themselves? How do these self-perceptions affect our social interactions? Social psychologists are interested in learning more about how this inner life influences our outer lives and social world. Self-awareness, self-esteem and self-expression are just a few of the factors that influence our social experience.

7. Group Behavior: The behavior of groups is one of the largest research areas in social psychology. Most people realize that groups tend to behave differently than individuals. These group behaviors are sometimes beneficial and positive, but they can also be detrimental and negative. Social psychologists often look at topics such as group dynamics, leadership, group decision-making, conflicts, cooperation and group influence. Further Reading: Leadership Styles Leadership Theories Leadership Style Quiz

8. Social Influence: Social psychologists are also interested in the role that social influence has on behavior and decisionmaking. Topics such as the psychology of persuasion, peer pressure, conformity and obedience are just a few of those studied in this area of social psychology. Research has helped reveal the power of social influence and has uncovered ways to help people resist influence. Further Reading: Persuasion Techniques 9. Interpersonal Relationships:

Social relationships play a major role in shaping behavior, attitudes, feelings and thoughts. Social psychologists study how these interpersonal relationships affect people by looking at attachment, liking, love and attraction. How do close relationships affect individuals? How important are these interpersonal relationships? These are just a few of the questions social psychologists seek to explain.

RESEARCH METHODS IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Descriptive Research

The goal of descriptive research is to portray what already exists in a group or population. One example of this type of research would be an opinion poll to find which political candidate people plan to vote for in an upcoming election. Unlike causal and relational studies, descriptive studies cannot determine if there is a relationship between two variables.

Correlational Research

Social psychologists use correlational research to look for relationships between variables. Conducting surveys, directly observing behaviors, or compiling research from earlier studies are some of the methods used to gather data for correlational research.

While this type of study can help determine if two variables have a relationship, it does not allow researchers to determine if one variable causes changes in another variable.

Experimental Research

Experimental research is the key to uncovering causal relationships between variables. In experimental research, the experimenter randomly assigns participants to one of two groups: the control group and the experimental group. The control group receives no treatment and serves as a baseline. Researchers manipulate the levels of some independent variable in the experimental group and then measure the effects. Because researchers are able to control the independent variables, experimental research can be used to find causal relationships between variables.