Psy 400 - Social Psychology

Social Psychology

PSY - 400

June, 2013

Social psychology is a discipline that is about understanding individual behavior in a social environment. Social psychology applies scientific methods to study the influences of our situations, with special attention to how we view and affect one another. In other words to be more specific, it is the systematic study that explains how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals are predisposed by other human beings.

Social psychology shows at a extensive variety of social topics, including group behavior, social perception, leadership, nonverbal behavior, conformity, aggression, and prejudice. It is significant to note that social psychology is not just about observing at social influences. Social perception and social interaction are also vital to understanding social behavior.

While personality psychology focuses on individual qualities, characteristics, and thoughts, social psychology is focused on situations. Social psychologists are interested in the impact that the social environment and group interactions have on attitudes and behaviors. It is important to distinguish between social psychology and sociology. While there are many similarities between the two, sociology tends to search at social behavior and influences at a very broad-based level. Sociologists are interested in the institutions and cultures that influence how people behave. Psychologists instead focus on situational variables that affect social behavior. While psychology and sociology both study similar topics, they are observing at these topics from different perspectives.

There are many different types of psychology, but perhaps the two most popular categories we hear about are clinical and social psychology. While some may use these titles interchangeably, they are actually separate types of psychological study. According to the Society of Clinical Psychology, clinical psychology is the practice of analyzing, predicting, and alleviating disturbances associated with psychological issues. Clinical Psychologists work directly with individuals to help them understand ways to minimize their distress. However, Social psychology studies relationships, group behaviors, and how people interact with one another. Social and external influences/relationships are stressed in social psychology, whereas clinical psychology focuses on the inner workings of an individuals' mind.

General psychology differ from social psychology, because in general psychology, psychologists explore concepts such as perception, cognition, attention, emotion, phenomenology, motivation, brain functioning, personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships. Psychologists employ empirical methods to infer causal and correlation relationships between psychosocial variables. In addition, general psychology explores the psychological findings linking to research and perspectives from the social sciences, natural sciences, medicine, and the humanities, such as philosophy. General psychology is employed in industrial and organizational settings, or in other areas such as human development