Social Psychology:An Introduction
James Neill
Centre for Applied Psychology
University of Canberra
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Learning Objective
- To define social psychology
Social Psychology - Related Areas
Defining Social Psychology
- There are several ways of describing social psychology.
- Social Psychology examines the influence of social processes on the way people:
- think (thoughts; cognition)
- feel (feelings; emotions)
- behave (behaviour; actions)
- (Westen, et al, 2006)
Allport's Classic Definition
- The scientific study of how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of people are influenced by the real, imagined, or implied presence of others (Allport)
Examples of Questions (Topics)
- Where do attitudes come from? (Attitudes)
- What leads to ethnic prejudice? (Prejudice)
- Why do people help others? (Altruism)
- How are we influenced by others? (Influence)
- Why do people obey their leaders? (Leadership)
- Why do people behave aggressively? (Aggression)
- Why are we attracted to others? (Attraction)
Themes
- Social Thinking - how we think about others e.g., Attributions
- Social Influence - how we are influenced by others, e.g., Conformity
- Social Relations - how we interact with others, e.g., Relationships
Domains in Social Psychology
Is Social Psychology Important?
Next
- "The Power of the Situation" [27 min video] (Annenberg, 1989)
- Attitudes & Social Cognition
- Interpersonal Processes
Notes
Social Psychology studies...
- Social Thinking or Social Influence, i.e., people’s attitudes and how these influence behaviour.
- Social Influence, i.e., the influences of others, people’s behaviour in groups and individually.
- Social Relations, e.g., stereotypes, prejudice, aggression, attraction and what makes relationships work. Includes individual-group relations and group-group relations.
- Culture and its influences, including self-presentation and person perception. Culture is the human made part of the environment (Herskovits, 1955).
See also
- Psychology 305: Social Psychology - 3rd year Social Psychology course outline and online materials
References
Annenberg (1989). The Power of the Situation (Program 19). [27 min video] Annenberg: Santa Barbara, CA.
Herskovits (1955). *.
Myers, D. G. (2001). Social Psychology (Ch. 18). In D. G. Myers (2001). Psychology (6th ed.) (pp. 643-688). New York: Worth.
Population Reference Bureau (1994). World Population Growth Through History. *.
Westen, D., Burton, L., & Kowalski, R. (2006). Psychology. Australian and New Zealand Edition. Queensland: Wiley.
Wikipedia. Social psychology.