Social Psychology

Social Psychology

Social psychology like many other fields of psychology has a relatively long history but is still a very young field in the science community. In psychology the social psychology field uses research to determine how individuals view and affect each other. Social psychology is often mistaken for personality psychology can overlap in sociology, and clinical psychology because of the view on personal development and mental well-being of the individual. Social psychology uses three major fields of research: experimental research, survey research, and correlational research. Each field addresses the individual and the individual’s aspect of life situations. A well-known experiment in social psychology is the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Philip Zimbardo in 1973. A well-known subfield of social psychology is forensic psychology, a field, which searches the mind and behaviors of criminals while working closely with law enforcement and the judicial system. To define social psychology a person would look into how a person and others view themselves and the world, the person would use social psychology over other disciplines because social psychology address how individuals effect each other, and the person would use research methods to do this, these methods could include experimental, survey, and correlational research, a well-known experiment in this field is the Stanford prison experiment, and subfield that fits this experiment is forensic psychology.

Social Psychology Defined

The way a person looks at the world or how he or she believes or conceives a situation and how people look at each other is social psychology. This field of psychology is a part of science, it studies and researches situations and how these situations influence, along with how people view and affect each other. Social psychology also works closely with sociology. Unlike sociology, social psychology uses experimentation, and looks at the individual. This also is more of how individuals affect one another and view one another. Social psychology studies relationships by asking questions that intrigue as-well-as studying influences, and our thinking (Myers, 2010). Social psychology does more than this it looks at social topics, group beahvior, nonverbal behavior, leadership, social perception, aggression, conformity, and prejudice. Gordon Allport, (1985) describes social psychology as a discipline using scientific method for an understanding of and how to explain behavior of individuals, thought, feelings, and how behavior influences an individual’s implied by imagined or actual presence of others. Social psychology is not just about the social influences it is also about social interaction and social perception these are keys to social behavior and the individual. Social psychology like other fields of psychology has a long history but is still a relatively new field.

One of the earliest idealists in social psychology was Plato; his contribution was the idea of the “crowd mind.” This idea of Plato’s suggests links between power and persuasion. Norman Triplett in the 19th century brought the first research forays into social psychology. Norman Triplett’s work was with the effect of competition on children’s performance in reel-winding. Sigmund Freud did an analization of the ego through group psychology and laid ground work in the 20th century for social psychology today. Freud also touches on other fields of psychology. Each field of psychology is import and how these other fields of psychology compare to social psychology.

Social Psychology versus other Disciplines

Social psychology is often mistaken for and compared with a general psychology field known as personality psychology, which is a study of mind dealing with the unconscious and conscious mental states. Personality psychology is also about the individual but more on difference of the individual rather than the how individuals can affect each other. Social psychology also over laps with many other parent fields of and has a marginal status. Sociology, which is the study of group life and social relations, is another type of discipline mistaken for social psychology. Social psychology is comparative to and differs from clinical psychology; this discipline integrates clinical knowledge with theory to understand, relieve, and prevent psychological-based distress or dysfunction, and helps with personal development and well-being. All of these studies do deal with individuals, but social psychology is different because it uses research, it employs the scientific method, and the study of social phenomena (Allport, 1985). While looking at these different fields it is easy to see the pattern of the individual, but how each field addresses the individual is what makes these other disciplines stand out. One aspect of Social psychology that does stand out from the others is the use of research in this field.

Research in Social Psychology

Research is a necessary part of social psychology, Kelley (2002) notes that while working with John Holmes of the University of Waterloo a main goal is to develop more systematically view of how personality variables link to situations. The three main types of research are experimental research, survey research, and correlational research. Experimental research uncovers causal relationships between variables. The experimental group and the control group will have participants randomly assigned to them. With experimental research the control group is the baseline, and the experimental group will have manipulated levels of independent variables, to measure the effects. An example would be how people differ in the valuation dispositions of self, one may put high values on their own outcome and another may put high values on their partner’s outcome showing more concern for common welfare (Kelley, 2000). The next major method of research in social psychology is survey research.

Survey or descriptive research uses random sampling; each member of the group will have an equal effect on the results. Survey research is useful in finding present opinions and variables. This type of social psychology research will not assist in predicting future likelihood of events or opinions. How it is very effective when trying to discover how individuals feel about a candidate for office such as presidency. The downfall of such research can be the wording, response options, and even what order the questions are in, give bias to the survey results. The last most commonly used research method does not allow determination between changes in variables.

Correlational studies may help determine if two variables have a relationship but this study does not show if one of these variables caused the other variable to change. This method is useful in finding relationships between variables. The research can be done through directly observing behaviors, compiling research from earlier studies, or by conducting surveys. According to Robak & Nagda, (2011) a current correlational study is self-determination theory, which uses earlier test of this theory to see how they interact with current test results. A famous experiment in social psychology comes from Philip Zimbardo.

Zimbardo in Social Psychology

Philip G. Zimbardo took social psychology to a new level with his Stanford Prison Experiment. In 1973 Zimbardo and two colleges took normal college students and “some presumably mentally sound experimenters, and dramatically transformed them in the course of six days within a prison-like environment” (Haney & Zimbardo, p 1, 1998). When the experiment began all the volunteers were equal, it was a flip of coin that decided who would be a guard and who would be a prisoner. Each prisoner went through a form of humiliation; they were stripped, searched, and deloused. Keeping up with the humiliation the prisoners were made to wear a smock with nothing underneath, a nylon stocking cap, and a heavy chain on their ankle. The chain was a reminder of oppressiveness of the fake prison environment, even while sleeping they could not escape the oppression (Haney & Zimbardo, 1998). This oppressive and humiliating environment does have a relevance to social psychology.

The experiment degenerated quickly as the dark and inhuman side of human nature was seen very quickly. Prisoners were suffering humiliation and punishment from the guards and began to break both emotional and mental. Only two days into the experiment a riot occurred with because of conditions. The experiment showed that one third of the guards showed signs of sadism, and even Zimbardo noted to become internalized (Haney & Zimbardo, 1998). Two prisoners were released early because of the emotional distress in such a short time. Those who stayed become institutionalized rather quickly and took on their roles. When a new prisoner was introduced and told to hunger strike for early release, he was seen as a troublemaker and not as victim who was offering help to the other inmates. When offered to help the hunger striking inmate be released from confinement early, the others refused to help him. On the sixth day Christina Mastack did an interview on the guards and was concerned with the treatment and what was happening, it was this that ended the experiment (Haney & Zimbardo, 1998).

This experiment on human nature demonstrated that individuals when given authority could be swamped. Ideological and social factors show that individuals act as they believe is required of them and will not use their own judgment. Instead of relying on beliefs and morals the subjects reacted to the need of the situation.

Subfield of Social Psychology

Forensic psychology is a subfield of social psychology. This field of psychology is maturing as a discipline, and is making considerable progress toward its goal of close integration of foundational science with practice (Heilbrun & Brooks, 2010). Defining forensic psychology is not simple because of the interaction within psychology and the law. This field performs many roles, as people within the field may have degrees in school psychologists, counselors, clinical psychologist, and neurology. The forensic psychologist will work closely with individuals, treating and diagnosing, those who come in contact with the justice system. This field will also work with children suspected of being abused or who have to give court testimonies. Unlike other fields of psychology the psychologist and individual do not normal bond working on assessment for treatment, the individual is usually not there on his or her own accord, making treatment, assessment, and diagnosis difficult (Heilbrun & Brooks, 2010).

Conclusion

In conclusion social psychology may be similar to other fields, but it uses scientific method to understanding how the behavior of individuals, thought, feelings, and how behavior can influences others. This field can be compared to clinical psychology because it helps with personal development and well-being. This field can also comparative with sociology because of the study of group life and socialization and with personal psychology for the individual. Unlike other disciplines social psychology is about research. Research is important because it can define how others influence an individual’s environment. This is seen with Stanford Prison Experiment, when a new inmate introduced was thought to be a troublemaker and not someone looking after other inmate’s best interest. When looking into this experiment a person can see forensic psychology as it deals closely with those being accused, or helps children, and others who are victims.

Reference

Allport, G. W. (1985). The historical background of social psychology. In G. Lindzey, and E. Aronson, (Eds.), Handbook of Social Psychology, 1, (3), 1-46.

Haney, C., & Zimbardo, P. (1998). The past and future of U.S. prison policy: Twenty-five years after the Stanford Prison Experiment. American Psychologist, 53(7), 709-727. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.53.7.709

Heilbrun, K., & Brooks, S. (2010). Forensic psychology and forensic science: A proposed agenda for the next decade. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 16(3), 219-253. doi:10.1037/a0019138

Kelley, H. H. (2000). The proper study of social psychology. Social Psychology Quarterly, 63(1), 3-3-15. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/212700284?accountid=35812

Myers, D. G. (2010). Social psychology (10th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Robak, R. W., & Nagda, P. R. (2011). Psychological Needs: A Study of What Makes Life Satisfying. North American Journal of Psychology, 13(1), 75-86. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.