Social Psychology: Scope and Nature

Psychology is a scientific study of human behaviour and cognitive processes. The field of social psychology also studies behaviour and cognitive processes but takes into account the social world in which we exist, as we are surrounded by others to whom we are connected and by whom we are influenced in so many ways. This relation of human with the surroundings is called social interaction. Such interactions provide opportunity to directly or indirectly influence the behaviour, feelings and thoughts of others, such a process is called social influence. Social psychology tends to study the behaviour of humans in social context. Hence, it can be said that:

Social Psychology is a scientific study of how a person’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour influence or are influenced by social groups.

Social Psychology is an area of psychology in which psychologists focus on how human behaviour is affected by the presence of other people.

Social Psychology is the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual behavior in social situations (Baron, Byrne, and Suls, 1989).

Social psychology is the study of persons in their interactions with one another and with friends to the effect of this interplay upon the individuals’ thoughts, feelings, emotions and habits (Kimball Young).

Characteristics of social psychology:


1. It is scientific in nature because it uses core values to understand social behavior and thought. These core values are: accuracy, objectivity, skepticism, open-mindedness.

2. The main concern of social psychology is social process. It is concerned with the interaction of an individual with another individual, of an individual with another group and the interaction between two groups.

3. It studies the effect of cognitive processes on one’s understanding of the world and their actions.

4. It studies both the nature and causes of social behavior.

5. Social psychology is composed of three main areas: Social influence, social cognition and social interaction.

 
Scope of Social Psychology:


1. Attitude- An attitude is a tendency to respond positively or negatively toward a certain idea, person, object, or situation. Attitudes influence the way people view things before they’ve actually been exposed to them.
ABCs (components) of attitude:

    a. Affective (feelings)

The affective component is the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude. It deals with feelings or emotions that are brought to the surface about something, such as fear or hate. For example, someone might have the attitude that they love all babies because they are cute or that they hate smoking because it harms health. Affective attitude is usually inexplainable, one may like ice cream just because they like its taste and everything.

    b. Behavioral (interactions)

The behavior component of an attitude consists of a person’s tendencies to behave in a particular way toward an object. It refers to that part of attitude that reflects the intention of a person in the short-run or long run. Using the above example, the behavioral attitude may be ‘I cannot wait to kiss the baby,’ or ‘we better keep those smokers out of the library’, etc. One may like their neighbor mostly because of behavior component of the attitude. Their neighbor always helped them and they returned their help.

    c. Cognitive (thoughts)

The cognitive component of attitudes refers to the beliefs, thoughts, and attributes that we would associate with an object. It is the opinion or belief segment of an attitude. It refers to that part of the attitude that is related to the general knowledge of a person. Typically, these come to light in generalities or stereotypes, such as ‘all babies are cute’, ‘smoking is harmful to health’, etc. When attitudes are guided by cognition, there’s always a reason involved. One may not like his air conditioner because of his feelings towards it but because the air conditioner helps him, it keeps him cold in hot summers.

2. Social Perception: Social perception refers to the ability to make accurate interpretations and inferences about other people from their general physical appearance, verbal, and nonverbal patterns of communication. It includes People Perception and Non-Verbal Communication for example things like facial expressions, tone of voice, hand gestures, and body position or movement are all cues’ people with higher levels of social perception pick up on to work out what other people are thinking, feeling or are likely to do next.

3. Prejudice and discrimination: When a person holds an unsupported and often negative stereotyped attitude about the members of a particular social group, it is called prejudice. When prejudicial attitudes cause members of a particular social group to be treated differently than others in situations that call for equal treatment, it is called discrimination. Prejudice is the attitude and discrimination is the behavior that can result from that attitude.

4. Interpersonal attraction: Liking or having the desire for a relationship with another person is called interpersonal attraction. Several factors are involved in the attraction of one person to another, including both superficial physical characteristics, such as physical beauty and proximity, as well as elements of personality.

5. Leadership: Leadership is the process of influencing others in a manner that enhances their contribution to the realization of group goals.

6. Social influence: The process through which the real or implied presence of others can directly or indirectly influence the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of an individual is called social influence.

7. Group dynamics: This entails studying group behavior, intergroup relations, group decision-making processes, leadership, and more. Concepts like groupthink and group polarization emerge from this area.

8. Altruism, Aggressiveness, Cooperation, Competition: Prosocial behavior that is done with no expectation of reward and may involve the risk of harm to oneself is called altruism. Aggression can be defined as any behavior, whether physical or verbal, that is carried out with the intent to harm another person. The key here is determining the intention or motive for the aggressive behavior. Aggression should also be distinguished from being angry, which is an emotional reaction to an event but can just stay that – an emotion. Just because someone is angry does not mean they will necessarily act on it and engage in aggressive behavior. Working together with others to obtain shared goals is called cooperation. Competition is a social behavior in which each individual competes with another towards a common goal.

9. Rumor: It is an information on a situation or a person/thing which is unverified and not based on facts.