Social psychology is concerned with
the study of an individual’s social behavior in his social attitudes
. Social psychology helps people manage their stress, depression and other social issues and improve their decision making and predict accurate future behavior based on the understanding of past behavior.
Social psychology can be used in different areas of our lives such as, our way of thinking, relationships (personal and professional), physical and mental health etc. … At the center of all these, it’s human social cognitive system interacting with everyday situations.
Social psychologists study how
social influence, social perception and social interaction influence individual and group behavior
. Some social psychologists focus on conducting research on human behavior.
One of the important applications of social psychology is in the area of
mental health and psychotherapy
.As a branch of behaviour sciences, it attempts to apply basic psychological knowledge to both the prevention and cure of individual behaviour disorders which threatens the security of either the individual or the …
Social psychology is
the study of how individual or group behavior is influenced by the presence and behavior of others
. The major question social psychologists ponder is this: How and why are people’s perceptions and actions influenced by environmental factors, such as social interaction?
Social Thinking, Social Influence, and Social Behavior
. Social psychology focuses on three main areas: social thinking, social influence, and social behavior. Each of these overlapping areas of study is displayed in Figure 1.1.
In other words, where general psychology is the study of human behavior on an individual level, social psychology is the study of human behavior in a social context. There are four key characteristics of social psychology including
broad scope, cultural mandate, scientific methods, and search for wisdom.
Social Psychology and Education
It helps students
in improving their learning skills, cognition skills and intelligence level
. … It also guides students on how to cope with stress related to their studies such as exam stress.
- Group behavior.
- Social perception.
- Leadership.
- Nonverbal behavior.
- Conformity.
- Aggression.
- Prejudice.
Normative social influence is usually associated with compliance, where a person changes their public behaviour but not their private beliefs. For example, a
person may feel pressurised to smoke because
the rest of their friends are. … This means any change of behavior is temporary.
Learning more about social psychology can enrich your understanding of yourself and the world around you. By learning more about how people view others, how they behave in groups, and how
attitudes
are formed, you can gain a greater appreciation for how social relationships influence individual functioning.
There are different social psychology approaches to explain human behavior. Explore the four major perspectives of social psychology –
social cognition, the sociocultural perspective, social learning, and the evolutionary perspective
– and learn how each perspective views human behavior.
Social psychology is
the study of how people think about, influence and relate to others
. … Social psychology on the other hand, analyses the nature and the relation of man to society. The sphere of social psychology is social and its focus is individual. It is the study of individual in social situation.
- We Construct Our Social Reality.
- Social Influences Shape Behavior.
- Personal Attitudes and Dispositions Shape Behavior.
Social psychologists use
correlational research to look for relationships between variables
. For example, social psychologists might carry out a correlational study looking at the relationship between media violence and aggression.
Social loafing describes
the tendency of individuals to put forth less effort when they are part of a group
. Because all members of the group are pooling their effort to achieve a common goal, each member of the group contributes less than they would if they were individually responsible.