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Social Psychology mathematics HEALTH ENGINEERING DESIGN MEDIA management GEOGRAPHY EDUCA E MUSIC C PHYSICS law O ART L agriculture O BIOTECHNOLOGY G Y LANGU CHEMISTRY TION history AGE M E C H A N I C S psychology Social Psychology Subject: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Credits: 4 SYLLABUS The field of social psychology Social psychology – a working definition; social psychology focuses on the behaviour of individuals; Research methods in social psychology. Behaviour and Attitudes: Attitude formation, Attitude measurement, attitude change - theory of cognitive dissonance. Conformity Classic studies - Sherif’s studies of norm formation Asch’s studies of group pressure, Milgram’s obedience experiment, Interpersonal Attraction & Altruism : A simple theory of attraction, linking : proximity, physical attractiveness, similarity vs complementarity, determinants of attraction and altruism, sociometry, Communication: Process - Channels - Types – Barriers to communication - Communication and interpersonal behaviour. Groups Processes Types of groups, group cohesiveness, group morale & social climate; group Vs individuals in problem solving, positive and negative impacts of group influence, cooperation and competition; Leaders and leadership - types of leaders, functions of leaders, basic styles of leaders, personal qualities of leaders. Aggression The nature of aggression, process of aggression, causes of aggression - reducing aggression; war and peace - aggression in various social settings; psychological causes of war, facts about war, suggestions for Peace. Public opinion and propaganda: Dynamics of public opinion, measurement of public opinion, changing public opinion propaganda: Techniques of propaganda: Instruments of propaganda. Suggested Readings: 1. Baron, Robert. A. and Byrne, Donn Social Psychology, 7th edition, Prentice Hall of India Pvt. Ltd. 2. Lindgren, Henry. C. An introduction to Social Psychology, John Wiley & Sons. 3. Myers, David G. Social Psychology 2nd Edition McGraw Hill Book Company. 4. Adinarayanan. S.P. Social Psychology. THE FIELD OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY STRUCTURE Learning objectives Social psychology—a working definition Social psychology focuses on the behavior of individuals Research methods in social psychology Behavior and attitudes Attitude formation Attitude measurement Attitude change Theory of cognitive dissonance Review questions LEARNING OBJECTIVES After reading this chapter, you should be able to: Discuss that that the superior part of our life and behaviour is social; Explain the method needs are satisfied in the social context; Distinguish flanked by physical and social environment; Analysis the different types of research methods used in the field of social psychology; Explore several experimental and non-experimental methods used through social psychologists; and Identify the merits and demerits of the different methods of research. Describe attitudes; Differentiate flanked by attitudes, values and beliefs; SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY—A WORKING DEFINITION The study of individual in the social context is the subject matter of the field of psychology described social psychology. Social psychologists not only try to understand the social behaviour and social influence but have urbanized several methods to measure the social phenomena like leadership, modeling, and prejudice etc. They employ several experimental as well as non- experimental methods to carry out their research in the field of social psychology. As dealing with human life and human problems, social psychologists also take care to follow the ethical code and to avoid common bias in social science research. The several definitions of social psychology are given: Social psychology is the discipline that explores deeply the several characteristics of this social interaction. Social psychology is a branch of psychology which is concerned with the social aspect of life – how people interaction with and think in relation to the others. This branch of knowledge studies human behaviour in all its perspective which further helps in establishing equal relationships and solving social problems. Baron and Byrne describe social psychology as the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual behaviour in social situations. In other words, social psychologists seek to understand how we think in relation to interact with others. Social psychology attempts to understand how thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of individual are influenced through actual, imagined, and implied attendance of others. Social psychology is the study of how people influence other people. Concept of Social Psychology It is a truth that human actions do not take place in a vacuum. Every behaviours occur in some ‗physical context‘ and most of what we do take place in the attendance of others – that is, in an interpersonal context or social context. Moreover, a considerable portion of the behaviour that individuals perform when alone is based on ‗past encounters‘ with other people. Psychology studies behaviour which is a result of individual‘s thoughts and feelings, but individuals thoughts and feelings are inferred from his expressed or overt behaviour. Behaviours which contain learning, problem solving, perceiving are the ‗overt behaviour‘, on the other hand, behaviours like dreaming, imaging, memorizing represents ‗covert behaviour‘. There is another category of behaviour. Behaviour which is result or caused through or occurs because of others attendance or influence is described social behaviour. This social behaviour is of great significance to social psychology. Whenever our psychological processes of perceiving, learning, motivating, decision making etc. are influenced through or a result of or related to / or occur in a social context, these processes are described as social perception, social learning, social motivations, group conventionality respectively. These behaviours which have a social context and occur in social environment and involve social stimuli are the main subject matter of social psychology. Concept of Social Behaviour If I ask you to create a list of all the activities which you perform from the time you get up till you sleep, you will observe that in relation to the20% of these activities are just ‗behaviours‘ but the remaining 80% of these are ‗social behaviours‘. This would create you understand social behaviour in conditions of the significance of ‗others‘ in our life, as most of our time of the day is spent in interacting with other members of our family or society. A careful look at these ‗social interaction‘ would create it very clear that in several of these interactions, our behaviour is influenced through others and we influence others behaviour. So our life is not only ‗social‘ but our social interactions to a large extent are shaped, influenced and changed as a result of social influence. A major part of our behaviour occurs in a social context, as well as in an environment involving ‗others‘. Concept of Social Interaction Unlike animals that come together either for progeny or protecting themselves from danger, human being is a truly social animal. Each one of us is bounded through and interacts with at least one or two individuals who are close to us. Human being live, grow and strive within the close interpersonal relationship. Several of our needs are satisfied in this social context. In satisfying the needs one establishes contacts, co-operates with other people, and adjusts with other members of the society. Actions that are performed through the individual in relation to the members of the society are described ‗Social Actions and Interaction‘ as these actions affect two or more individuals. This results in action, social actions, and interaction. This interaction with others is described ‗Social Interaction‘ and this social interaction is the basis for establishing lasting relationship in life. Two mechanisms underlie every social interaction, these are: Social interaction requires a social get in touch with or social relationship: Every social situation involves social get in touch with at least flanked by two people without which no interaction can take place. This get in touch with may be direct or indirect and can have negative and positive impact. Positive social get in touch with provides rise to pro-social behaviours like co-operation, organisation as simulation, adjustment, version, and accommodation. Negative social get in touch with may retract a person absent from entering into social interaction and even if s/he ‗has to‘, it results in unhelpful social behaviours like unhealthy competition, aggression etc. Social interaction involves communication: Social interaction flanked by any two individuals involves some form of communication that is verbal or non-verbal without which the social interaction cannot take place. As is recognized, social interaction takes place at three levels, a) Individual to individual, b) Individual to groups, and c) Group to group level. Concept of Social Influence Each one of us depends on others to satisfy, several of our day to day needs – food, clothing, housing, love, security. This interdependence produces interaction flanked by persons. In the course of this interaction an individual is influenced through parents, friends, teachers, and they are also in turn influenced through the person. Therefore other people affect and influence our outlook, our belief our values and so on marginally or profoundly. Such influence are exerted directly and deliberately, subtly and implied. The individual behaviour
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