NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Social psychology (sociology)

Social Psychology is a subfield of sociology which looks at the social behavior of humans in terms of associations and relationships that they have. One offshoot of this perspective is the Personality and Social Structure Perspective, which emphasizes the links between individual personality and identity, and how it relates to social structures. Social interactions of people and their consequences are the subject of sociology studies. ...

History

The discipline of social psychology began at the dawn of the twentieth century. Landmark moments include the publication of Charles Horton Cooley's "Human Nature and Social Order" in 1902, which sought to explain the social order by use of the concept of a looking-glass self. The first textbooks in social psychology would be published six years later by E. A. Ross and William McDougall. Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929) was an American sociologist. ... There have been several people called William McDougall For the Canadian politician, see William McDougall (politician) For the British psychologist, see William McDougall (psychologist) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Relevant academic fields

Social psychological as carried out by sociologists looks at the social behavior of humans in terms of associations and relationships that they have. This type leans toward sociology. One offshoot of this perspective is the Personality and Social Structure Perspective, which emphasizes the links between individual personality and identity, and how it relates to social structures. Sociological social psychologists tend to publish in Social Psychology Quarterly. Sociological social psychologists usually are members of social psychology section of the American Sociological Association (ASA). The American Sociological Association (ASA), founded in 1905, is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology by serving sociologists in their work and promoting their contributions. ...

Relation to other fields

Social psychology has close ties with the other social sciences, especially psychology. It also related to the field of social philosophy. Psychology is an academic and applied field involving the study of the human mind, brain and behaviour. ... Social philosophy is the philosophical study of interesting questions about social behavior (typically, of humans). ...

The concerns of social psychology

General research interests

Social psychology attempts to understand the relationship between minds, groups, and behaviors in three general ways. Image File history File links Soc-psy_diagram. ...

First, it tries to see how the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other(s) (Allport 3). This includes social perception, social interaction, and the many kinds of social influence (like trust, power, and persuasion). Gaining insight into the social psychology of persons involves looking at the influences that individuals have on the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of other individuals, as well as the influence that groups have on individuals. This aspect of social psychology asks questions like:

How do small group dynamics impact cognition and emotional states?

How do social groups control or contribute to behavior, emotion, or attitudes of the individual members?

How does the group impact the individual?

How does the individual operate within the social group?

Second, it tries to understand the influence that individual perceptions and behaviors have upon the behavior of groups. This includes looking at things like group productivity in the workplace and group decision making. It looks at questions like:

How does persuasion work to change group behavior, emotion or attitudes?

What are the reasons behind conformity, diversity, and deviance?

Third, and finally, social psychology tries to understand groups themselves as behavioral entities, and the relationships and influences that one group has upon another group (Michener 5). It asks questions like:

What makes some groups hostile to one another, and others neutral or civil?

Do groups behave in a different way than an individual outside the group?

In European textbooks there is also fourth level called the "ideological" level. It studies the societal forces that influence the human psyche.

Specific research interests

The scope of social psychological research. Based on input from Cote and Levine, 2002.

Some of the basic topics of interest in social psychology are: Image File history File links Soc-psych-scope. ... Image File history File links Soc-psych-scope. ...

Impression Formation - which investigates the cognitive processes underlying the way we form impressions of others. This includes the biases guiding our impressions, the inferences we make, and the weight we give to different pieces of information.

Social Judgment - which investigates the cognitive processes underlying our beliefs about the social world. Some of the heuristics or “rules of thumb” include the availability heuristic, representativeness heuristic, and anchoring and adjustment. We are sometimes also biased toward over-attributing our own personal beliefs to society at large, i.e. the false consensus effect. Some people also tend to believe in a just world which can lead to blaming the victim in some circumstances.

Self and Identity – Social Psychologists in this area study self-schemas and their influence on social cognitive processes, self-esteem, self-enhancement and social identity.

Attitudes – The focus of this area is the study of the relationship between attitudes and behavior and the use of persuasive communication to change attitudes. The primary theories used to explain and predict the relationship between attitudes and behavior are the theories of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) and planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985). The primary theory of attitude change is the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Caccioppo, 1986).

Social influence - This area of research studies the methods people use to make us comply, conform, or obey their authority. Social Impact Theory is the most heavily used theory in this area (Latane, 1981).

Group Processes - includes the study of group formation, effectiveness and influences on the individual.

Interpersonal attraction - Social Psychologists in this area study the factors the influence attraction and liking.

Close Relationships - Social Psychologists in this area study the processes underlying relationship formation, maintenance and dissolution. Prominent theories in this area are Interdependence Theory (Rusbult, Agnew & Arriaga, 2001) and Attachment theory (Reis & Patrick, 1996).

Aggression - Social Psychologists in this area study the factors that influence anti-social behavior.

Anti- and Pro-social behavior - Social Psychologists in this area study the factors that influence helping behavior.

Intergroup Relations - which studies prejudice and discrimination.

Socialization (which investigates the learning of standards, rules, attitudes, roles, values, and beliefs; and the agents, processes, and outcomes of learning) and Development (which looks at the contribution of both nature and nurture in production of social behavior).
- Gender roles - the effects of role schemas on the perceived makeup of gender and the sexes
- Personal development and life course - the general facets of life in various societies, including personal careers, identities, biological development, and shifts in roles

Communication (which delves into the learning and processing of verbal and non-verbal language, and the effects of social structures and societies on the use of both).
- Impression management and Dramaturgy - investigates the use of self-presentation, along with tactical impression management, deception, and failed identities. See Erving Goffman
- Sociolinguistics and sociology of language - looks at how societies affect language use, and vice-versa (respectively)
- Semantics - analyzes the topic of meaning in general, especially with respect to formal usage, and Pragmatics which analyzes the rules of usage in conversation

For heuristics in computer science, see heuristic (computer science) Heuristic is the art and science of discovery and invention. ... The false consensus effect refers to the tendency for people to overestimate the degree to which others agree with them. ... Self might refer to various different things: Look up self on Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In philosophy, identity is whatever makes an entity definable and recognizable, in terms of possessing a set of qualities or characteristics that distinguish it from entities of a different type. ... In psychology, self-esteem or self-worth is a persons self-image at an emotional level; circumventing reason and logic. ... Social identity is a theory formed by Henri Tajfel and John Turner to understand the psychological basis of intergroup discrimination. ... Attitude is a key concept in psychology. ... We dont have an article called Theory of reasoned action This page meets Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... In psychology, the theory of planned behavior is a theory about the link between attitudes and behavior. ... The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) of persuasion (Petty & Cacioppo, 1979) is a model of how attitudes are formed and changed (see also attitude change). ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... // INTRODUCTION In sociology, a group is usually defined as a collection consisting of a number of humans or animals, who share certain aspects, interact with one another, accept rights and obligations as members of the group and share a common identity. ... Interpersonal attraction is the attraction between people which leads to friendships and romantic relationships. ... An intimate relationship is an interpersonal relationship with a great deal of physical and/or emotional intimacy. ... Attachment theory is a theory (or group of theories) about the psychological concept of attachment: the tendency to seek closeness to another person and feel secure when that person is present. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards and make it easier to understand, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Anti-social behaviour is that lacking in judgement and consideration for others, ranging from careless negligence to deliberately damaging activity, vandalism and graffiti for example. ... Anti-social behaviour is that lacking in judgement and consideration for others, ranging from careless negligence to deliberately damaging activity, vandalism and graffiti for example. ... Pro-social behavior is behavior intended to benefit others or society as a whole. ... This article belongs in one or more categories. ... Hans Baldung Grien: The Ages And Death, c. ... A bagpiper in military uniform. ... Personal development (also known as self-development, self-improvement or personal growth) comprises the development of the self. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In social psychology, impression management is the process through which people try to control the impressions other people form of them. ... Dramaturgy is the art of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage. ... E.GOFFMAN Erving Goffman (June 11, 1922 â€“ November 19, 1982), was a Jewish Canadian sociologist and writer. ... Sociolinguistics is the study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used. ... Sociolinguistics differs from sociology of language in that the focus of sociolinguistics is the effect of the society on the language, while the latters focus is on the languages effect on the society. ... In the main, semantics (from the Greek and in greek letters ÏƒÎ·Î¼Î±Î½Ï„Î¹ÎºÏŒÏ‚ or in latin letters semantikÃ³s, or significant meaning, derived from sema, sign) is the study of meaning, in some sense of that term. ... Pragmatics is generally the study of natural language understanding, and specifically the study of how context influences the interpretation of meanings. ...

Research methods and theoretical issues

Basic considerations

Social psychologists use a wide range of research methods; depending on the research questions.

There are several important issues to consider when setting up research, among which the essential questions:

Is the research question exploratory (gathering information in order to build a theory) or confirmatory (gathering information in order to confirm a theory)?
How important is experimental control (internal validity) compared to being able to generalize results to a naturalistic situation for the population at large (external validity)?

Based on considerations above, the type of research (qualitative, or quantitative) and the exact methods, theories and statistical analyses are chosen. Internal validity is a term pertaining to scientific research that signifies the extent to which the conditions within a research design were conducive to drawing the conclusions the researcher was interested in drawing. ... External validity is a term used in scientific research. ...

Methods

Social psychologists make use of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Qualitative is an important qualifier in the following subject titles: Qualitative identity Qualitative marketing research Qualitative method Qualitative research THE BIG J This is a disambiguation page â€” a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ... A quantitative property is one that exists in a range of magnitudes, and can therefore be measured. ...

Quantitative methods include surveys, controlled experiments, and mathematical modeling, with some emphasis upon correlational research. Statistical surveys are used to collect quantitative information about items in a population. ... In the scientific method, an experiment (Latin: ex-+-periri, of (or from) trying), is a set of actions and observations, performed in the context of solving a particular problem or question, to support or falsify a hypothesis or research concerning phenomena. ... A mathematical model is an abstract model that uses mathematical language to describe the behaviour of a system. ... In probability theory and statistics, correlation, also called correlation coefficient, indicates the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two random variables. ...

As it is impossible to test every person in a population research is conducted on a sample of persons from a wider population. Social psychologists typically use random assignment of participants and a control group that resembles the experimental groups in all respects other than the independent variable. When experiments take this form, it tends to mitigate the effects of potential confounds. Sample can refer to any of the following. ...

Social psychologists rely often on experimentation. Controlled experimentation requires the manipulation of one or more independent variables in order to examine its effect on a dependent variable. Also required is the experimental control of potential confounding influences, known as extraneous variables. Controlled experiments are attractive for use in social psychology because they are high in internal validity, meaning that they are free from the influence of extraneous variables, and so are more likely to accurately indicate a causal relationship. However, the small samples used in controlled experiments are low in external validity, or the degree to which the results can be generalized the larger population. From Latin ex- + -periri (akin to periculum attempt). ... In experimental design an independent variable is that variable which is measured, manipulated, or selected by the experimenter to determine its relationship to an observed phenomenon (the dependent variable). ... In experimental design, a dependent variable is a variable dependent on another variable (called the independent variable). ... Extraneous variables are variables other than the independent variable which may bear any effect on the behavior of the person being studied. ... Internal validity is a term pertaining to scientific research that signifies the extent to which the conditions within a research design were conducive to drawing the conclusions the researcher was interested in drawing. ... External validity is a term used in scientific research. ...

Social psychologists frequently utilize survey research when they are interested in results that are high in external validity. Surveys use different forms of random sampling (simple, stratified, clustered) to obtain a sample of respondents that are representative of a population. This method of subject selection increases the chances that the results from a survey study are generalizable to the population in question. On the other hand, surveys tend to be low in internal validity because they rely on correlational analysis, or the strength and direction of the relationship between variables. Because surveys do not systematically manipulate variables or control for confounds, the nature or direction of a potential causal relationship is unknown. However, new statistical methods like structural equation modeling are being used to test for potential causal relationships in correlational data. Statistical surveys are used to collect quantitative information about items in a population. ... Sampling is that part of statistical practice concerned with the selection of individual observations intended to yield some knowledge about a population of concern, especially for the purposes of statistical inference. ... Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is a statistical technique for building and testing models, which are often causal in nature. ...

Also available to the social psychologist is the close examination of existing scientific literature, which is called a meta-analysis. A meta-analysis is a statistical practice of combining the results of a number of studies. ...

Qualitative methods include naturalistic observation and field research, participant observation, content analysis, discourse analysis, ethnomethodology, and etogenia. Naturalistic observation is a method of observation, commonly used by psychologists and social/behavioral scientists, that involves observing subjects in their natural habitats. ... Participant observation is a major research strategy which aims to gain a close and intimate familiarity with a given group of individuals (such as a religious, occupational, or deviant group) and their practices through an intensive involvement with people in their natural environment. ... Content analysis (also called: textual analysis) is a standard methodology in the social sciences on the subject of communication content. ... Discourse analysis is a number of approaches to analysing language use above the sentence or clause level. ... Ethnomethodology (literally, the study of peoples methods) is a sociological discipline which focuses on the way people make sense of the world and display their understandings of it. ...

Observational methods like participant observation are sometimes employed by social psychologists. These methods have very little internal but a decent level of external validity, as the behavior studied is not confounded by a prior assumptions of the researcher. They are used mainly to generate theory and hypotheses for later testing through experimental or survey research. Participant observation is a major research strategy which aims to gain a close and intimate familiarity with a given group of individuals (such as a religious, occupational, or deviant group) and their practices through an intensive involvement with people in their natural environment. ...

Many researchers emphasize the importance of a multimethodological approach to social research, drawing from both qualitative and quantitative approaches. (Roth, 1987) For example, using qualitative methods to provide the hypothesis, quantitative methods to test the hypothesis, and subsequent qualitative methods to understand deviations from the hypothesis. Multimethodology, or mixed methods research, is an approach to professional research in the social sciences. ...

Underlying issues

In social psychology, as in any other discipline, there will be a number of underlying philosophical predispositions in the projects of scientists. Some of these predispositions involve the nature of social knowledge itself, the nature of social reality, and the locus of human control in action (Cote and Levine, 2002; Slife and Gantt, 1999).

One main and lasting crisis has been the debate over positivism and phenomenology. In the former, the research focus has been an attempt to find overarching, universal laws to social behavior and history. In the latter, by contrast, the emphasis is upon a focus of empirical study, and making accurate descriptions of social reality, regardless of whether or not they fit a grand theory or explanation. These two forms have tended to lend themselves to favor either quantitative or qualitative methods, respectively. In addition to these two orientations, there is a third outlook: a kind of social rationalism, which makes use of axiomatic presuppositions in order to explain social reality. Positivism can have several meanings. ... Look up Phenomenology in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ...

One underlying problem for the social psychologists is whether or not their studies can or should ultimately be understood in terms of the meaning and consciousness behind social action, as with folk psychology, or whether or not more objective materialist and behavioral facts are to be given exclusive study. This problem is especially important for those within social psychology who study meaning and language, and for those in the sociological social psychology tradition who favor symbolic interactionism, because a rejection of the study of meanings would lead to the reclassification of such research as non-empirical. Folk psychology (sometimes called naïve psychology) is the psychological theory implicit in our everyday ascriptions of others actions, and includes concepts such as belief (he thinks that Peter is wise), desire (she wants that piece of cake), fear (Alex is afraid of spiders) and hope (she hopes that he... In philosophy generally, empiricism is a theory of knowledge emphasizing the role of experience. ...

Three persistent themes in the philosophy of the social sciences, and which directly affect social psychology, have been the structure-agency debate (see structure and agency), and the related arguments over determinism and free will. // The problem of reconciling social structure and human agency A central issue in both classical and contemporary sociological theory is the question of social ontology - what the social world is made of; or what has the status of cause and what has the status of effect. ... Determinism is the philosophical proposition that every event, including human cognition and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. ... Free will is the philosophical doctrine that holds that our choices are ultimately up to ourselves. ...

Research ethics

Social psychologists are concerned with ethical issues, and there are certain ethical controversies that are especially apparent in this area. The goal of social psychology is to understand naturally occurring cognition and behavior in a social context, but the very act of observing people in social contexts tends to influence and alter their behavior. For this reason, many social psychology experiments utilize deception to conceal or distort certain aspects of the study. Deception may include false cover stories, false participants (known as confederates or stooges), false feedback given to the participants, and so on. This practice has been challenged by some psychologists who maintain that deception under any circumstances is not ethically correct, and that other research strategies (e.g. role-playing) should be used instead. Unfortunately, research has shown that role-playing studies do not produce the same results as deception studies and this has cast doubt on their validity. In addition to deception, experimenters have at times put people into potentially uncomfortable or embarrassing situations (e.g. the Milgram experiment), and this has also been criticized for ethical reasons. The experimenter (E) persuades the participant (S) to give what the participant believes are painful electric shocks to another participant (A), who is actually an actor. ...

To protect the rights and well-being of research participants, and at the same time discover meaningful results and insights into human behavior, virtually all social psychology research must pass an ethical review process. At most colleges and universities, this is conducted by an ethics committee or institutional review board. This group examines the proposed research to make sure that no harm is done to the participants, and that the benefits of the study outweigh any possible risks or discomforts to people taking part in the study. Furthermore, a process of informed consent is often used to make sure that volunteers know what will happen in the experiment and understand that they are allowed to quit the experiment at any time. A debriefing is typically done at the conclusion of the experiment in order to reveal any deceptions used and generally make sure that the participants are unharmed by the procedures. Today, most research in social psychology involves no more risk of harm than can be expected as by routine psychological testing or normal daily activities.

Important terms and concepts

Heuristics

Heuristics - Broadly, a Heuristic is a method for problem-solving. The word comes from the same Greek root as "eureka". In psychology heuristics seen to be are simple, efficient rules of thumb which have been proposed to explain how people make decisions, come to judgments and solve problems, typically when facing complex problems or incomplete information. These rules work well under most circumstances, but in certain cases lead to systematic cognitive biases. For heuristics in computer science, see heuristic (computer science) Heuristic is the art and science of discovery and invention. ... Eureka (or Heureka; Greek ) is a famous exclamation attributed to Archimedes, see: Eureka (word). ... Cognitive bias is any of a wide range of observer effects identified in cognitive science and social psychology including very basic statistical, social attribution, and memory errors that are common to all human beings. ...

availability heuristic is a heuristic which occurs when people estimate the probability of an outcome based on how easy that outcome is to imagine. As such, vividly described, emotionally-charged possibilities will be perceived as being more likely than those that are harder to picture or are difficult to understand, resulting in a corresponding cognitive bias.

representative heuristic is a heuristic wherein we assume commonality between objects of similar appearance. While often very useful in everyday life, it can also result in stereotyping and false generalizations when used improperly.

The availability heuristic is a rule of thumb, heuristic, or cognitive bias, where people base their prediction of an outcome on the vividness and emotional impact rather than on actual probablity. ... Informally, probable is one of several words applied to uncertain events or knowledge, being closely related in meaning to likely, risky, hazardous, and doubtful. ... The representative heuristic is a heuristic wherein we assume commonality between objects of similar appearance. ... In philosophy, an object is a thing, an entity, or a being. ... For the term used in Computing, see Stereotype (computing). ...

Persuasion

Persuasion is a form of influence. It is the process of guiding people toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic (though not only logical) means. It is a problem-solving strategy, and relies on "appeals" rather than force. There are four basic aspects: Persuasion is a form of influence. ... An idea (Greek: Î¹Î´ÎÎ±) is a specific thought which arises in the mind. ... Attitude may refer to: Aircraft attitude Attitude (magazine) Attitude, a song by American pop and jazz singer Suede Attitudes (band) Attitude Adjustment (Hardcore/Crossover/Thrash metal band) Attitude, song from Metallica on their album Reload. ... Action, as a concept in philosophy, is what humans can do. ... Rational may be: the adjective for the state of rationality acting according to the philosophical principles of rationalism a mathematical term for certain numbers; the rational numbers the software company Rational Software; now owned by IBM, and formerly Rational Software Corporation This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid... Logic (from ancient Greek λόγος (logos), meaning reason) is the study of arguments. ... Problem solving forms part of thinking. ... A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, as differentiated from tactics or immediate actions with resources at hand. ... In physics, force is that which changes or tend to change the state of rest or motion of a body. ...

The Communicator, a person whose credibility, expertise, trustworthiness and attractiveness all play a role.
The message, possessed of varying degrees of reason or emotion, is either one-sided or two sided, and is emphasized by primacy or recency.
The Channel, whether it be interpersonal or media based, passive or active in nature.
The audience, possessed of a wide variety of demographics and preferences.

Influence - Social psychology considers a great number of ways in which an individual can be influenced. Two of the reasons why people consciously allow themselves to be influenced are:
- Normative influence - the desire to conform and obtain group acceptance, avoiding the fear or rejection and conflict, and
- Informational influence - the desire to obtain useful information through conformity, and thereby achieve a correct result.

Credibility is the believability of a statement, action, or source, and the ability of the observer to believe that statement. In public speaking, Aristotle considered the credibility of the speaker, his character, to be one of the forms of proof. Contemporary social science research has found that there are several dimensions of credibility. Berlo and Lemert (1961) noted three: competence, trustworthiness and dynamism.

Elaboration Likelihood Model distinguishes between two routes to persuasion: the Central Route and the Peripheral Route of processing. This is a dual-process theory of information processing. Central route processes involve careful, logical scrutiny of a persuasive communication (e.g., a speech, an advertisement, etc.) to determine the merits of the arguments. Under these conditions, a person’s unique cognitive responses to the message determine the persuasive outcome (i.e., the direction and magnitude of attitude change). Peripheral route processes, on the other hand, require little thought, and therefore predominate under conditions that promote low elaboration. These processes often rely on judgmental heuristics (e.g., “experts are always right”) or surface features of a message (e.g., the number of arguments presented) or its source (e.g., their attractiveness). Which route is taken is determined by the extent of elaboration. Both motivational and ability factors determine elaboration. Motivational factors include (among others) the personal relevance of the message topic, accountability, and a person’s need for Cognition (their innate desire to enjoy thinking). Ability factors include the availability of cognitive resources (e.g., the presence or absence of time pressures or distractions) or relevant knowledge needed to carefully scrutinize the arguments. Under conditions of moderate elaboration, a mixture of central and peripheral route processes will guide information processing.

Foot-in-the-door technique is a persuasion method. In it, the persuader does something small in order to catch the target's interest, before moving on to what he really wants. A related trick is the Bait and switch. An example is the practice of charities mass-mailing small free gifts (such as pens) to recipients in the hope of persuading them to open the letter and consider donating money, rather than simply throwing the letter in the wastebasket.

Communicator may mean: A practioner of the art of Communication Communicator (Star Trek), a portable communication device from the Star Trek fictional universe A suite of Internet applications by Netscape This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ... Credibility is the believability of a statement, action, or source, and the ability of the observer to believe that statement. ... Expertise is the property of a person (that is, expert) or of a system which delivers a desired result such as pertinent information or skill. ... The personal state or quality of remaining true to ones commitments to others. ... When used with people, this term is often synonymous with sexual desirability, but can also simply mean whether or not someone is considered appealing to look at. ... Message in its most general meaning is an object of communication. ... Reason is a term used in philosophy and other human sciences to refer to the faculty of the human mind that creates and operates with abstract concepts. ... It has been suggested that Feeling be merged into this article or section. ... Wiktionary has a definition of: Primacy Primacy is the state or condition of being prime or first, as in time, place, rank, etc. ... Look up Channel on Wiktionary, the free dictionary In general, channel refers to the path between two endpoints. ... This page meets Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... An audience is a group of people who participate in and experience or encounter a work of art, literature, theatre, music or academics in any medium. ... Demographics is a shorthand term for population characteristics. Demographics include race, age, income, mobility (in terms of travel time to work or number of vehicles available), educational attainment, home ownership, employment status, and even location. ... Preference (or taste) is a concept, used in the social sciences, particularly economics. ... Influence Science and Practice (ISBN 0321188950) is a Psychology book examining the key ways people can be influenced by Compliance Professionals. The books authors is Robert B. Cialdini, Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University. ... Conflict is a state of opposition, disagreement or incompatibility between two or more people or groups of people, which is sometimes characterized by physical violence. ... Credibility is the believability of a statement, action, or source, and the ability of the observer to believe that statement. ... Aristotle (Greek: , AristotÃ©lÄ“s) (384 BC â€“ March 7, 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. ... Look up competence, incompetence in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The personal state or quality of remaining true to ones commitments to others. ... Dynamism is a term coined by libertarian pundit Virginia Postrel to describe her social philosophy that embraces cultural change, individual choice, and the open society. ... The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) of persuasion (Petty & Cacioppo, 1979) is a model of how attitudes are formed and changed (see also attitude change). ... Persuasion is a form of influence. ... Typically, processing describes the act of taking something through an established and usually routine set of procedures to convert it from one form to another, as a manufacturing procedure (processing milk into cheese) or administrative procedure (processing paperwork to grant a mortgage loan). ... Heuristic is the art and science of discovery and invention. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Look up Cognition in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Knowledge is information of which a person, organization or other entity is aware. ... In general, information processing is the changing (processing) of information in any manner detectable by an observer. ... Foot-in-the-door technique is a persuasion method. ... Persuasion is a form of influence. ... A bait and switch is a form of fraud in which the fraudster lures in customers by advertising a good at an unprofitably low price, then reveals to potential customers that the advertised good is not available but that a substitute good is. ... // Legal definitions A charity is a trust, company or unincorporated association established for charitable purposes only. ... The United States Postal Service defines bulk mail broadly as quantities of mail prepared for mailing at reduced postage rates. ...

Group dynamics

Group dynamics is the study of how individual behaviors differs depending on individuals' current or prospective connections to a sociological group. The term group dynamics implies that individual behaviours may differ depending on individuals current or prospective connections to a sociological group. ... Behavior or behaviour (see spelling differences) refers to the actions or reactions of an object or organism, usually in relation to the environment. ... Social interactions of people and their consequences are the subject of sociology studies. ...

Social facilitation was traditionally seen to be the tendency for people to be aroused into better performance of simple tasks when under the eye of others rather than while they are alone. Complex tasks are often performed in an inferior manner in such situations however. Social facilitation has been redefined as the increased likelihood of the individual performing already likely tasks when in the company of others. This effect has been shown to be strongest among those who are most concerned about the opinions of others, and when the individual is being watched by someone they do not know, and/or cannot see well. Social facilitation is a term within social psychology, traditionally seen to be the tendency for people to be aroused into better performance of simple tasks (or tasks at which we are expert) when under the eye of others rather than while they are alone. ...

Social loafing is the tendency of individuals to slack when work is pooled and individual performance is not being evaluated. A good example of social facilitation is a foot race (where the individual runs faster when in the presence of others) as opposed to a group tug-of-war (where the work is pooled, and an individual's lack of performance is hard to notice). In the social psychology of groups, social loafing is the phenomenon that persons make less effort to achieve a goal when they work in a group than when they work alone. ... Withdrawal in disgust is not the same as apathy. ...

De-individuation is the phenomenon of relinquishing one's sense of self-awareness or identity. This can happen as a result of becoming part of a group, such as an army or mob, but also as a result of meditation. It can have quite destructive effects, sometimes making people more likely to commit a crime, like stealing (Diener, 1976) or even over-enforce the law, such as police in riot situations. Deindividuation refers to the phenomenon of relinquishing ones sense of identity. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... In philosophy, identity is whatever makes an entity definable and recognizable, in terms of possessing a set of qualities or characteristics that distinguish it from entities of a different type. ... // INTRODUCTION In sociology, a group is usually defined as a collection consisting of a number of humans or animals, who share certain aspects, interact with one another, accept rights and obligations as members of the group and share a common identity. ... Army (from French armÃ©e) can, in some countries, refer to any armed force. ... MOB may refer to: M.O.B., hip hop group Mail-order bride Man overboard Marching Owl Band Mobile Regional Airport Montreux-Oberland Bernois, Swiss railway Movable Object Block, used in computer graphics See also Mob The Mob This page expands a three-character combination which might be any or... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Risky shift - in group conditions, people with relatively moderate viewpoints tend to assume that their groupmates hold more extreme views, and to alter their own views in compensation--a phenomenon known as groupthink. This can occur simultaneously and in isolation: all group members might adjust their views to a more conservative or liberal position, thus leading to a "consensus" that is totally false. The risky shift occurs when the group collectively agrees on a course of action that is likewise more extreme than they would have made if asked individually. Risky shift is one side of a more general phenomenon called group polarization. The risky shift is a concept in social psychology. ... Groupthink is a term widely (and mistakenly) attrbuted to psychologist Irving Janis. ... This article deals with conservatism as a political philosophy. ... Look up liberal on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Liberal may refer to: Politics: Liberalism American liberalism, a political trend in the USA Political progressivism, a political ideology that is for change, often associated with liberal movements Liberty, the condition of being free from control or restrictions Liberal Party, members of... Consensus has two common meanings. ... Group polarization effects have been demonstrated to exaggerate the inclinations of group members after a discussion. ...

Groupthink - In a groupthink situation, each member of the group attempts to conform his or her opinions to what they believe to be the consensus of the group. In a general sense this seems to be a rational way to approach the situation. However this results in a situation in which the group ultimately agrees upon an action which each member might individually consider to be unwise (the risky shift). Groupthink is a term widely (and mistakenly) attrbuted to psychologist Irving Janis. ... Consensus has two common meanings. ... The risky shift is a concept in social psychology. ...

Minority influence and leadership - Minority influence is the degree to which minorities influence the group. Their ability to influence is based upon several factors, including the consistent maintenance of their position, the degree of their defection from the majority, and their self-confidence. Leadership is the ability to guide, mobilize, and maintain the group. Some view leadership as a form of minority influence, in this case a minority of one. Leadership can be divided into two types: task leadership, and social leadership. Task leadership focuses on organization, standards and goals. Social leadership offers support and help to others, fosters teamwork and mediates conflict. Most organizations include aspects of both leadership styles within the hierarchy of their management. The definition of a minority group can vary, depending on specific context, but generally refers to either a sociological sub-group that does not form either a majority or a plurality of the total population, or a group that, while not necessarily a numerical minority, is disadvantaged or otherwise has... The word leadership can refer to: the process of leading the concept of leading those entities that perform one or more acts of leading. ... Consistency has three technical meanings: In mathematics and logic, as well as in theoretical physics, it refers to the proposition that a formal theory or a physical theory contains no contradictions. ... A defector is generally a person who gives up allegiance to a certain country in exchange for allegiance to another. ... A majority is a subset of a group that is more than half of the entire group. ... Self-confidence is an attitude which allows individuals to have positive yet realistic views of themselves and their situations. ... An organization or organisation (read more about -ize vs -ise) is a formal group of people with one or more shared goals. ... For the various types of hierarchy, see hierarchy (disambiguation) A hierarchy (in Greek: , it is derived from -hieros, sacred, and -arkho, rule) is a system of ranking and organizing things or people, where each element of the system (except for the top element) is subordinate to a single other element. ... Management characterizes the process of leading and directing all or part of an organization (often a business) through the deployment and manipulation of resources (human, financial, material, intellectual or intangible). ...

Conformity is the degree to which members of a group will change their behavior, views and attitudes to fit the views of the group. The group can influence members via unconscious processes or via overt peer pressures on individuals. Group size, unanimity, cohesion, status, prior commitment and public opinion all help to determine the level of conformity an individual will reflect towards his group. Conformity is the act of consciously maintaining a certain degree of similarity (in clothing, manners, behaviors, etc. ... // INTRODUCTION In sociology, a group is usually defined as a collection consisting of a number of humans or animals, who share certain aspects, interact with one another, accept rights and obligations as members of the group and share a common identity. ... Attitude is a key concept in psychology. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Peer pressure comprises a set of group dynamics whereby a group in which one feels comfortable may override personal habits, individual moral inhibitions or idiosyncratic desires to impose a group norm of attitudes and/or behaviors. ... Unanimity is near complete agreement by everyone. ... This page is about the computer concept Cohesion, for the concept in chemistry see Cohesion (chemistry). ... Look up commitment in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Public Opinion is a book on media and democracy by Walter Lippmann. ...

Major theories in Social Psychology

Attribution theory

Attribution theory - Attribution theory is concerned with the ways in which people explain (or attribute) the behavior of others. The theory divides the way people attribute causes to events into two types. Attribution theory is a field of social psychology, which was born out of the theoritical models of Fritz Heider, Harold Kelley, Edward E. Jones, and Lee Ross. ...

"External" or "situational" attribution assigns causality to an outside factor, such as the weather,
"internal" or "dispositional" attribution assigns causality to factors within the person, such as their own level of intelligence or other variables that make the individual responsible for the event.

According to Harold Kelley, the three basic methods of determining if the actions of others are due to internal or external factors are: Distinctiveness (does the person behave in a manner unique to the situation, or do they often act this way?), consensus (would others behave this way in such a situation?), and consistency (does the person generally behave this way given this situation?). In copyright law, attribution is the requirement that authors be given credit for their work in any context in which it is used. ... Weather is an all-encompassing term used to describe all of the many and varied phenomena that can occur in the atmosphere of a planet. ... Intelligence is the mental capacity to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn. ... Harold Kelley (1921-2003) was an American social psychologist. ... Consensus has two common meanings. ... Consistency has several technical meanings: In NASCAR Racing, consistency is a term coined by NASCAR drivers about the frequency of finishing well in the top ten or top five each race as it helps to get enough points to make the Chase For The Cup and win the Nextel Cup...

Symbolic interactionism

Symbolic interactionism - a sociological theory, originating in the ideas of George Herbert Mead, that contains two major versions: Structural SI and Process SI. Structural SI utilizes shared social knowledge from a macro-level to explain social interactions and psychological factors at the micro-level. Structural SI focuses on the relatively static patterns in micro-level interactions that are caused by these macro-level structures. Structural SI researchers tend to use quantitative methods. Identity Theory (Styker & Burke, 2000) and Affect-Control Theory (Heise, 1979) grew out of this tradition. Process SI stems from the Second Chicago School and views social interactions to be constant flux and study it without reference to a larger social structure. Process SI researchers tend to use qualitative and ethnographic methods. Symbolic interactionism is a sociological perspective which examines how individuals and groups interact, focusing on the creation of personal identity through interaction with others. ... George Herbert Mead (February 27, 1863 â€“ April 26, 1931) was an American philosopher, sociologist and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatists. ...

Other theories in social psychology

social cognition - is mainly concerned with how people process social information, especially its encoding, storage, retrieval, and application to social situations. Social cognition’s focus on information processing has many affinities with its sister discipline, cognitive psychology.
Discursive psychology - also described as the second cognitive revolution. Its main idea states that there is no "cognitive level" as such, and that discursive phenomena like cognition should be studied only by observable methods like careful analysis of everyday use of language.
Social exchange theory - emphasizes the idea that, in relatively free societies, social action is the result of personal choice between optimal benefits and costs. See also rational choice theory.
Social learning theory - in contrast to reinforcement theory, social learning theory attempts to explain all of human behavior by observation and mimicry.
Social representation theory - an attempt to understand how people represent ideas of the world and themselves in similar ways.

Social cognition is the name for both a branch of psychology that studies the cognitive processes involved in social interaction, and an umbrella term for the processes themselves. ... Cognitive Psychology is the school of psychology that examines internal mental processes such as problem solving, memory, and language. ... Discursive psychology is a school of psychology developed in the 1990s by Jonathan Potter and Derek Edwards at Loughborough University. ... Social exchange theory is a social psychological perspective that explains social change and stability as a process of negotiated exchanges between parties. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Decision theory. ... In criminology, Ronald Akers and Robert Burgess (1966) developed Social Learning Theory to explain deviancy by combining variables which encouraged delinquency (e. ...

Well-known cases, studies, and related works

Famous experiments in social psychology include:

The Milgram Experiment: The experimenter (E) persuades the participant (S) to give what the participant believes are painful electric shocks to another participant (A), who is actually an actor. Many participants continued to give shocks despite pleas for mercy from the actor.

the Milgram experiment, which studied how far people would go to avoid dissenting against authority even when the suffering of others was at stake. (At the time a poll of psychiatrists showed a belief that only 1% of the populace would be capable of continuing to cause pain to an extreme point.) Coming soon after World War II, it suggested that people are more susceptible to control by authority than was then assumed in the Western democratic world.

the Asch conformity experiments from the late 1950s, a series of studies that starkly demonstrated the power of conformity in groups on the perceptions/cognitions and behaviors of individuals.

the Stanford prison experiment, by Zimbardo, where a role-playing exercise between students went out of control.

Muzafer Sherif's boy camp experiment. Conducted twice in Robbers Cave. Researchers divided boys in to two competing groups and tried to combine them again later on through mutual challenges. Also known as the realistic conflict theory, because the intergroup conflict was induced through scarce resources.

The Authoritarian Personality by Theodor Adorno - looked at the attitudes, values, and mental habits of what he called the "authoritarian" personality

The Open and Closed Mind by Milton Rokeach - a follow up on the authoritarian personality that clarified cognitive differences

The Kitty Genovese case - looks at aggregate group behavior in a time of crisis — the bystander effect, showing the phenomenon of diffusion of responsibility.

Amal and Kamal - Indian children who had no human contact.

Bobo doll experiment by Albert Bandura

Facial expression studies of Paul Ekman

Emotions of Ifaluk of Micronesia by Cathrine Lutz. Cathrine Lutz made a fundamental field research revealing many problems of traditional emotion research.

Presentations of self in everyday life, the so called Dramaturgy or theater analogy developed by Erving Goffman, which looks at the meanings behind how people present themselves

The article Social Psychology as History by Kenneth Gergen. This article was one of the major works on the incident known as the 'crisis of social psychology' in the '70s.

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (500x634, 16 KB)Illustration of the setup of a Milgram experiment. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (500x634, 16 KB)Illustration of the setup of a Milgram experiment. ... The experimenter (E) persuades the participant (S) to give what the participant believes are painful electric shocks to another participant (A), who is actually an actor. ... In politics, authority (Latin auctoritas, used in Roman law as opposed to potestas and imperium) is often used interchangeably with the term power. However, their meanings differ. ... This article is becoming very long. ... The Asch conformity experiments, published in 1951, were a series of studies that starkly demonstrated the power of conformity in groups. ... In psychology, conformity is the degree to which members of a group will change their behavior, views and attitudes to fit the views of the group. ... The Stanford prison experiment was a landmark psychological study of the human response to captivity, in particular, to the real world circumstances of prison life, and the effects of imposed social roles on behavior. ... In role-playing, participants adopt characters, or parts, that have personalities, motivations, and backgrounds different from their own. ... Muzafer Sherif (born July 29, 1906, in Odemis, Izmir, Turkey â€“ died October 16, 1988, in Fairbanks, Alaska) was one of the founders of social psychology. ... The concept of authoritarian personality denotes a number of qualities, which according to the theories of Theodor Adorno predict ones potential for fascist and antidemocratic leanings and behaviors. ... Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and JÃ¼rgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg. ... Milton Rokeach (1918-1988) was a psychologist and served as Professor of Psychology at Michigan State University for many years. ... Kitty Genovese, picture from the New York Times article Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didnt Call the Police. Catherine Genovese (1935â€“March 13, 1964), commonly known as Kitty Genovese, was a New York City woman who was stabbed to death near her home in the Kew Gardens section of... The bystander effect (also known as bystander apathy) is a psychological phenomenon where persons are less likely to intervene in an emergency situation when others are present than when they are alone. ... Diffusion of responsibility is a social phenomenon which tends to occur in groups of people above a certain critical size when responsibility is not explicitly assigned. ... The Bobo doll experiment was conducted by Albert Bandura in 1961 and studied patterns of behaviour associated with aggression. ... Kenneth J. Gergen is a notable American psychologist and professor at Swarthmore College. ...

References

Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social behavior. NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Ajzen, I. (1985). From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior. In J. Kuhl & J. Beckman (Eds.), Action-control: From cognition to behavior (pp. 11-39). Heidelberg: Springer.
Allport, G. (1954). The nature of prejudice, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. p. 3.
Brehm, S.S., Kassin, S.M. & Fein, S. (2002). Social Psychology. Houghton Mifflin: Boston.
Cote, James E. and Levine, Charles G. (2002). Identity formation, Agency, and Culture, Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Freud, Sigmund (1920). Group Psychology and Ego Analysis
Heise, D. R. 1979. Understanding Events: Affect and the Construction of Social Action. New York: Cambridge University Press.
House, J.S. (1977). The three faces of social psychology. Sociometry, 40, 161-177.
James, William (1890). The Principles of Psychology part II, 469-471.
Kearl, M. and Chad Gordon. (1992). Social Psychology. Needham Heights: Allyn and Bacon.
Mead, G.H. (1934). Mind, Self, and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Latane, B. (1981). The psychology of social impact. American Psychologist, 36, 343-356.
Michener, H. Andrew et al. (2004). Social Psychology. Wadsworth: Toronto.
Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 19, pp. 123-205). New York: Academic Press.
Roth, P.A. (1987). Meaning and method in the social sciences: A case for methodological pluralism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Smith, E.R. & Mackie, D.M. (2000). Social Psychology. Taylor & Francis: Philadelphia.
David Myers (2005) Social Psychology, 8th edition McGrawHill: New York, NY ISBN 0072977515
Harry Reis & Brian Patrick, (1996). "Attachment and Intimacy: Component Processes." In Higgins, E. T. (Ed); Kruglanski, A.W. (Eds). Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles. (pp. 523_563)
Rusbult, C. E., Arriaga, X. B., & Agnew, C. R. (2001). Interdependence in close relationships. In G. J. O. Fletcher & M. S. Clark (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Interpersonal processes (pp. 359-387). Oxford: Blackwell.
Stryker, S., & Burke, P. J. (2000). The past, present, and future of an identity theory. Social Psychology Quarterly, 63, 284-297.

Gordon Willard Allport (November 11, 1897 - October 9, 1967) was an American psychologist. ... Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud Bold textItalic textis an ass hat(May 6, 1856 â€“ September 23, 1939; (IPA pronunciation: []) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ... George Herbert Mead (February 27, 1863 â€“ April 26, 1931) was an American philosopher, sociologist and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatists. ...

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