Social Psychology Mid Term

Sociologist

• Study the degree to which status characteristics, social relationships, and structural contexts influence individuals thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

• look beyond individuals to examine society through specific
  associations (e.g., family, race, religion) to better understand current social issues

Psychologist

• study the mechanisms through which social factors affect individuals

• delve into the mind of an individual or small group to
  understand human behavior and social and emotional reactions

Social Psychology

• the intersections between sociology and psychology – developed as “an attempt to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others” – covers a broad array of topics – the individual is the unit of analysis

History of Social Psychology

1. Social Psychology was developed as “an attempt to understand and explain how
the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual,
imagined, or implied presence of others”
2. When we consider the influence the fields of Sociology and Psychology have had
on Social Psychology, we find that Sociology has the weakest connection Social
Psychology
3. Sociology provides a couple of insights to Social Psychology, including helping
psychologists pay attention to people’s natural social habitats and broadening
research attention to activities in daily chronic situations

5 types of social psychology

1.       Psychological Social Psychology

-            Interested in how relationships happen

-            Relies on experimentation

-            Develop explanations of these kinds of patterns

2.       Cognitive Psychology

-            Focus on the influence of social cognitions on thoughts and feelings

-            How people process information; their response times, implicit biases, and shortcuts to processing

3.       Social Structure and Personality

-            Focus on the influence of locations in the social structure (sex, relative power/status, features of situations) on thoughts, feelings and behaviors

-            Relies heavily on survey data

4.       Symbolic Interactionism

-            How society influences the self and the self influences society

-            Emphasizes the individuals effect on the social order

-            Qualitive methods (interviewing, surveys)

5.       Formal Group Processes

-            Focus on how the presence of a group or the structure of a group influences individual thoughts, feelings and behaviors/ group behaviors

Psychological Social Psych vs Sociological Social Psych

1. Psychological Social Psychology focuses more on trying to explain processes and
pays little attention to variables often used by sociologists (status characteristics,
etc.); also more interested in explaining conformity
2. Sociological Social Psychology focuses more on examing the consequences of
social status, roles, and/or social contexts for individuals’ thoughts, feelings, or
behavior; Also more interested in explaining deviance

Sociological Imagination

• the ability to see the interrelationships among biography and history, the self and society – this is its task and its promise – seeing and understanding the impact of cultural and historical processes on out private lives

• Solutions to social problems lie in changing social institutions not individuals