introduction to social psychology

• Social psychology


  The scientific investigation of how thoughts, feelings and behaviours of individuals are influenced by actual, imagined or implied presence of others
• Areas of focus in social psychology

  • Helping
  • Obedience
  • Conformity
  • Prejudice
  • Aggression
  • Attraction
• Social psychology


  • Focuses on the influence of the individual, the group, the society and the culture on individual's behaviour
• Assumptions of social psychology

  • All behaviour occurs within a social context
  • A major influence on people's behaviour, thoughts and feelings are other people and society
• Methods of investigation in social psychology

  • Experimentation
  • Surveys
  • Observations
• Experimentation in social psychology

  • Involves the manipulation of an independent variable and the measurement of a dependent variable, both in the laboratory and on the field
• Surveys in social psychology

  • Useful tool in researching people's attitudes
• Observations in social psychology


  • Carry out observations of real life social settings
• Contributions of social psychology

  • Criminology
  • Education
  • Industry
  • Sport
  • The Environment
• Social psychology is scientific and very useful, but it can be unethical
• Strengths of social psychology

  • We can see how our behaviour is determined by those around us and the society in which we interact
  • We can discover how we are likely to behave in social situations
  • It tends to be a 'holistic' approach - as it looks at different levels of explanations
• Weaknesses of social psychology

  • Social knowledge may become redundant as societies change
  • Social behaviour may be culture-bound
  • Studying social behaviour is difficult in terms of controlling variables
• Consider why people have acted in a certain way, what influenced their reactions/responses, and how this may have been different