There are many different approaches in psychology that seeks to explain behaviour through various prospective but each approach differs in explaining the cause or causes of behaviours in a person or groups. For instance, Freud’s Psychoanalytic approach argues that human behaviour is the cause of a person’s unconscious thoughts, conflicts between internal drives and childhood experiences whilst on the other hand, Behaviourist approach argues that all human behaviours are learnt through the process of operant and classical conditioning or in other words, behaviour arises as a response to conditioning. Social psychological approach argues that the influences of other people can affect human behaviour. Many approaches in psychology focus on the internal causes of a person’s behaviour but social psychological approach focus on both internal characteristics of a person and external influences like our social environment to understand the causes of human behaviour. Social psychology draws on some of the principles from the behaviourist approach that people learn to behave in response to their environment, either by stimulus-response association, or as a result of reinforcement. For the purpose of this essay, I will discuss social psychological approach in psychology drawing upon some of the types of questions social psychologist seek to answer.
For generations the field of psychology has debated whether an individual behaviour is a result of their personality or their social context (i.e. nature vs. nurture) and in attempting to answer these kind of questions, social psychologist has focus their studies in understanding the many factors and conditions that shaped human behaviour in social context, factors such as; how humans develop a ...
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... tasks compared to those without the presence of others (Crisp & Turner 2010).
Further studies and experiment in social psychology has shown how certain conditions and factors such as attitude and social influences can change or effect human behaviour, for example, studies on attitude has shown that we are not born with attitude but it’s something that humans learn through social learning with others and most importantly for social psychologist, studies also reveal that attitudes can serve as different functions for the individual and how attitude significantly affect the behaviours of people, Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory supports the view that one of the ways we learn behaviour is through the process of observational learning which in turn shows that attitude is learnt through the process of social human interaction (Mcleod, 2013 ; Baron & Byrne 2004).
Hogg, M.A., Abrams, D., & Martin, G.N. (2010). Social Cognition and Attitudes. In Martin, G.N., Carlson, N.R., Buskist W., (Ed.), Psychology (pp 646-677). Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
However, behaviourists urge that our behaviour is determined by what we learn from our environment. In contrast, the psychodynamic perspective maintains
There are some human phenomena, which seem to be the result of individual actions and personal decisions. Yet, these phenomena are often - on closer inspection – as much a result of social factors as of psychological ones.
The central concepts following social psychology is that which dares to explain what makes people do what they do. Social psychology is the scientific analysis of how someone influences another’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Though considered to be a fairly young science, social psychology has endeavored to examine particular theories, concepts, and phenomenon that has shaped our society. As the centuries roll on, technology alongside social media, has evolved into something more sophisticated and has developed into a mechanism in which to entice and challenge social norms.
You are right that we may not realize how social psychology has played an important role in the things we do. The decisions and behavior a person has does help us to better understand others we interact with. Social influence plays a big role in social psychology in the way we are willing to react to one another by our peers, coworkers, and families. When working with people I think in any profession you would have to separate your personal feeling from your profession so you would have to be able to do you job. Your examples where great and gives great insight of how social psychology was
Social psychology is one of the many variations of psychology. By definition, social psychology is how humans influence each other’s way of behaving and thinking. Under social psychology, there are various ways to define human behaviour and understand why we behave in a particular manner. These approaches deal with multiple concepts such as conformity, obedience, and social influences. They help answer questions about our behaviour and actions, while also analyzing our cognitive processes in certain situations. Social experiments conducted throughout history have also led to more understanding in the aforementioned areas. With these understandings of social behaviour, society can benefit and become aware of themselves and their mentalities.
Human behavior is a highly debated topic in the scientific community. While geneticists argue that an individual's innate qualities and genetic makeup cause individual differences in human behavior, psychologists believe that an individual's personal experiences or their environment causes those differences. This debate is known as “nature versus nurture,” and the two sides have evolved as more information has been found in genetic research. While there are still different ideas about how much effect genes and environment have on human behavior, there is a consensus that the two factors work together to influence or predict how a person is most likely to act. But these predictions are not absolute or deterministic, and the factors are not necessarily deterministic.
Crisp, R, J. Turner, R, N. (2007). Essential Social Psychology. Sage Publications Limited. London. (UK). First Edition.
Wood, W. (2000). Attitude change: Persuasion and social influence.. Annual Review of Psychology, 51(1), 539.
Social psychology essentially became the focus on the individual rather than the group as a whole. Many thoughtful ideas are collected in response to the studies of social psychology. Human cognition is understood to arise from interacting socially, highlighting the importance of socialization. We use social cognition to develop our explanations and our ideas on why a person’s behavior is/does what it is/does. As explained in class, we may have a student who never completes assignments and from that viewpoint, we determine that the student is a lazy person and more than likely does not care about the class.
Psychologists are primarily engaged in the task of explaining behaviour, rather than merely cataloguing it. The difference between theory and description – “why” versus “what” – echoes the difference between science and common sense. Common sense certainly helps describe what takes place in behaviour, but doesn’t compel us to understand why it takes place. The develo... ... middle of paper ... ...
The key issues and controversies in psychology are Free Will vs Determinism, Free Will is the idea that behaviour is primarily caused by choices that are made by an individual and Determinism is the idea that people’s behaviour are produced primarily by factors outside their control. Nature vs Nurture, Nature is about people’s behaviour due to their genetically determined nature and how much is due to nurture, the influence and social environment a child is raised. A third questions addressed from a psychologist is Conscious vs Unconscious Cause of Behaviour, it is about how much of our behaviour is produced by forces of which we are aware of and how much is due to unconscious activity such as mental processes that are not accessible to the conscious awareness. An additional key issues is Observable Behaviour vs Internal Mental Processes, Where do psychologists focus solely on behaviour that can be outside observes or on unseen thinking processes. Some of
Social psychology is an in-depth study of socialization. Gordon Allport (1985) defined it a discipline that utilizes scientific methods to understand as well as explain how thoughts, feelings and behaviors of human beings are influenced by the actual, implied or imagined presence of other people (Smith & Mackie, 2000). Cantril (1934) regards it as being the scientific learning o...
In the classroom environment, it is easy to see that the instructors or teachers are leaders by example. Furthermore, the first thing the students are going to notice about an instructor is their dress attire. Is what their wearing respectable for shaping younger or older minds? In a more professional field, college instructors should wear formal or conservative attire. Instructor’s attire has an impact of how students learn and achieve goals in the classroom based on aspects of social learning theory. If the students do not find the professor credible, it’s hard for them to learn and reinforce classroom teachings if the source itself doesn’t seem legitimate.
The development point of view of social psychology has changed the understanding of human nature in relation to social contexts. Social psychology is the study of how individuals act, think, and feel in relation to the context of society. Furthermore, social psychology concentrates on how other people influence an individual’s behavior, thoughts, and feelings. Basically, social psychology has changed our understanding of human nature as it investigates how an individual’s behavior influences a groups’ behavior or internal mechanisms; attitude or self-concepts. Post-World War 2(WW2), researchers were curious to investigate the reasonings for why people follow orders, despite the potential repercussions of those actions. Furthermore, social experiments are usually applied to demonstrate key