Social Psychology Definition Paper

Social psychology uses scientific methods to better explain and perhaps understand an individual's conduct, thoughts, and feelings. Additionally, it views wide ranges of social topics, which include social behaviors, group behaviors, leadership, conformity, aggression, or prejudice. Social psychology not only studies the causes of social influences, it also integrates social observations and social relations thus, it is important to comprehend social behaviors. In this paper, the subject to examine is the definition of social psychology, the four key characteristics of social psychology, the role situationism plays, and the five core motives and their impact on social psychology.

Definition of Social Psychology

Social psychology can help to understand better, how stereotypes are formed. According to the text, "social psychology is all about people influencing other people and is the scientific attempt to explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual imagined or implied presence of other human beings" (Fiske, 2010, p. 2). In addition, it is important to remember this definition describes this study of social influences as understanding the various ways an individual may have an effect on another individual. Social psychology suggests people are influenced by others presence to react or respond in ways they normally would not do. Additionally, it tries to determine what influence a person to cooperate or conform to the actions of others.

The terms actual, imagined, and implied are the differences among the three degrees of perceived human presence. For example, soldiers whom follow orders of their leaders or teens caving into peer pressures suggest other individual's presence can be exceptionally powerful. An imagined presence exists in everyone. People tend to envision scenarios because he or she is influenced by their imagination. Accordingly, individuals are capable of imagining reactions or response from other people, which can deter him or her from bad choices or embarrassing situations. Last, the implied presence of others is the behaviors people demonstrate because of his or her role in society and their association in cultural groups.

Four Key Features of Social Psychology

Social influence is the main scientific ingredient behind social psychology. Social influences motivate individuals to belong and comply with the influence of others. Four key characteristics of social psychology exist as a field of knowledge. First, broad scope, which addresses most human behaviors "the domain of social psychology is indeed broad; it provides a vantage point on major human concerns, such as conformity, deviance, altruism and aggression, loving and hating, attitudes, and action" (Fiske, 2010, p. 19). Broad scope can vary in-depth because it discusses everything from a previous emotion to public knowledge. The next key characteristic is cultural mandate, which is a culturally mandated translation of an individual's knowledge of human behaviors from an older language into newer one. This suggests that social psychology research does indicate that culture dictates how a person will behave, respond, or react given a set of conditions. Similar to how cultural differences influence dress, musical styles, popular beliefs, and foods, culture also influences how society affects the individual (MeSoudi, 2009).

The third characteristic is the scientific method, which are vital to social psychology in three ways. First, psychologists must develop systematic theories and investigate validity to advance scientific understanding. Second, social psychology is reliant on the scientific method that clarifies how data helps to understand human socialization. Third, social psychologists

"conduct experimental, observational, and survey research, adhering to the rigorous standards before making assertions about how people influence each other" (Fiske, 2010, p. 20). Finally, the search for wisdom, which is the study of practical social issues the ethical goal is to explain better the human condition and to improve the human condition. Although knowledge is essential to acquire, wisdom can give science the platform for practical application and improve a person's life.

Concept of Situationism

Situationism in social psychology suggests that a person's personality is m ore influenced by an external or situational factor than by an internal trait or motive. The formal statement of situationism involves "social behavior is to a large extent than people commonly realize a response to people's social context, not a function of individual personality" (Fiske, 2010, p. 4). Situationism