Social+Psychology

**What is Social Psychology?**
Social Psychology is the study of how human thought is influenced by human interaction. Researchers look at social situations and determine if they have an effect on the attitude of the person being studied.

If I wanted to study Social Psychology, what are some areas that I could look at?
Social Psychology looks at a wide variety of areas. It looks at group behavior, leadership, social perception, nonverbal behavior, conformity, aggression, and prejudice. Group behavior is how a group interacts with each other. Leadership is the actions of one person to move a group toward a common goal. Social perception is how someone thinks about other people in a specific group. Nonverbal behavior is body language. Conformity is when people change the way that they act so that they will fit in with a specific type of group. Aggression is acts of hostile behavior. Prejudice is the act of verbally or physically disliking another person because of their race, age, or gender.

**What are some questions that I could research?**
What effect do social interactions have on attitudes and behaviors? Do social environments and the media have an influence on violence and the media? Why do people help others? Why do some people refuse to help or cooperate? How does prejudice develop? How do stereotypes survive even after they are disproven? How do people come to know and understand themselves? How do relationships affect individuals? How important are interpersonal relationships?

**Where did Social Psychology even come from?**
Social Psychology started in the United States in the late 1800s-early 1900s. The U.S. government was interested in social psychology in order to influence citizens through propaganda. This specialty really took off after the end of WWII. Psychologists were troubled by the effects of the Holocaust, and wanted to know the effects of social influence, conformity, and obedience. In the sixties, new interest arose in the topics of cognitive dissonance, bystander intervention, and aggression. In 1970, social psychology slowed down because people started to question whether attitudes could really predict behavior. Social psychology reached its true birth in the 1980s and 1990s when ethics were put in place for the researchers of social psychology.

**Who are some well known Social Psychologists?**
Muzafer Sherif: Robbers’ Cave Experiment. He divided boys into two competing groups to see how much aggression would emerge. Leon Festinger: Cognitive Dissonance Experiment- He asked people to do a boring task. At the end of the study, he paid one group $1 to say that they liked doing the task, and paid the other group $20 to say the same lie. Results showed that the $1 group liked the task better, and that people were willing to change their previously unfavorable attitudes about the task. Milgram Experiment: After the Holocaust, researches wanted to show that Americans were capable of following orders from an authority that would harm an innocent person. Albert Bandura: Bobo Doll Experiment, aggression is learned by imitation. Philip Zimbardo: Stanford Prison Study, simulated a exercise between student prisoners and guards. Showed that the power of the immediate social situation has the capacity to overwhelm normal personality traits.