What is Social Psychology?

We explain what social psychology is, what its object of study is and what it can teach us.

When we gather information about the teachings and theories that for decades have been contributed by the so-called Social Psychologywe can realize that this is a discipline that began to be recognized and developed as such at the beginning of the 20th century in the United States.

Social psychology: definition

The social psychology is a branch of psychology that analyzes psychological analyzes the psychological processes that influence the way in which a society functions, as well as the way in which social interactions are carried out.. In short, it is the social processes that modulate the personality and characteristics of each person.

Social psychology is also often described as the science that inquires about social phenomena, trying to unravel the laws and principles that govern coexistence among humans. Thus, this branch of psychology is in charge of investigating the different social organizations, trying to extract patterns of behavior of the people who make up the group, their roles and the set of situations that modulate their behavior.

What exactly does social psychology study?

The object of study of social psychology are, as we have said, the influence of social relations on people's behavior and mental states. To this effect, one of the key theories in this discipline is that of symbolic interactionism. symbolic interactionism. One of its predecessors, George H. Mead developed a profound study on language, gestures and behavior, as products of interpersonal relationships that allow life in community and, specifically, their personal face-to-face interactions.

Obviously, in our societies there are organizations and institutions constituted around certain socio-cultural conditioning factors that are a product of the interaction between people. This being the case, it is not difficult to imagine that there exists a collective consciousness that facilitates our understanding of these social articulations.

Social psychology, then, studies observable psychological and social processes, which helps us to understand how individuals act when they are part of groups or societies.. Social psychology also encompasses the study of personal attitudes and (bidirectional) influence with social thinking.

And, of course, another element that social psychology takes into account is the historical context in which psychological events occur, given that behavior always takes place on a series of material and symbolic precedents that influence what we do.

Representatives and researchers of social psychology

Let's meet some of the most prominent representatives of this field of psychology.

August Comte

One of the main representatives of social psychology for his relevance in the emergence of this discipline, is the French sociologist Auguste Comte (1798 - 1857). This researcher was the pioneer in proposing concepts such as the positive morality and wondered about various aspects that related the role of the subject in the yes of a society and culture.In addition, he did not abandon his curiosity about the psychobiological foundations that also influence human behavior.

2. Karl Marx

Another pioneer of the discipline of social psychology was the German philosopher, economist and sociologist Karl Marx. Karl Marx (1818 - 1883). This fruitful intellectual began to suggest certain concepts and elements that would serve, later after his death, to establish the foundations of social psychology. For example, he was the precursor of a line of research that related cultural, institutional, religious, material and technical influences on the psychology of the individual.

Among Karl Marx's contributions to the beginnings of social psychology we find the fact that what we think and feel is historically constructed, it does not arise from within us in isolation.

3. The American school: Mead, Allport and Lewin

To the two intellectuals mentioned above, we can add the enormous influence of those who, this time, are considered the founding fathers of psychology. the founding fathers of social psychology. Three American psychologists: George Mead, Floyd Allport y Kurt Lewin.

The last of them, Kurt Lewin (in the picture), is considered the architect of the so-called Modern Social Psychologywhich eventually laid the foundations on which Gestalt Psychology would be built. He is also the author of the Field Theorywhich explains that individual variations in behavior in relation to the norm are strongly conditioned by the struggle between the subjective perceptions of the individual and the psychological environment in which he finds himself.

Thus, Lewin concludes that human behavior can only be cognizable within its own surroundings, in its environment.. Behavior, then, must be understood as a myriad of interdependent variables.

Psychological schools that are nourished by social psychology

Since social psychology is a very broad subdiscipline that deals with multiple processes of interaction between the individual and society, it is not surprising that many schools of psychology have based much of their teachings on social psychology, it is not surprising that many schools of psychology have based much of their teachings and developments on it. and their developments to it.

For example, we can find different approaches in psychoanalysis, behaviorism, postmodern psychology and group psychology.

Psychoanalysis

The psychoanalysisPsychoanalysis, whose main representative is Sigmund Freud, is one of the most traditional schools. Psychoanalysis employs some principles of social psychology as the discipline which inquires about collective drives and repressions, which emerge from within the unconscious of each person to subsequently influence the collective and condition the social. and condition the social.

However, it should be noted that psychoanalysis is not part of social psychology, nor is it based on the epistemology of scientific psychology in general.

2. Behaviorism

On the other hand, behaviorism conceives social psychology insofar as it provides us with data on social influence. Behaviorism focuses on observing and analyzing individual behavior taking into account the influence of the social and cultural environment..

3. Postmodern psychology

The postmodern psychology psychology tries to analyze, through social psychology, those elements elements that influence the diversification and fragmentation of society..

4. Psychology of groups

From the approach of the group psychologyIn the group psychology approach, every group forms a unit of analysis with its own particular idiosyncrasies. Consequently, social psychology attempts to carry out a balanced study between the social and the depersonalized and between the subjective and the particular..

Famous experiments in social psychology

The most famous experiments, research and studies in the field of social psychology are the following:

1) Albert Bandura's Bobo doll experiment.

In this study showed that violence and aggression are learned by imitation.. It was one of the pioneering studies in this field, and has been repeated to evaluate the extent to which exposure to violent content in the media influences the aggressive behavior of viewers.

You can learn more about this experiment by accessing this post:

• "Albert Bandura's Theory of Personality."

2) The Stanford Prison Experiment, by Philip Zimbardo.

One of the most controversial and famous studies in social psychology consisted of a simulated exercise in which university students took on the role of inmates and guards in an artificial prison for a few days. Zimbardo demonstrated that, under certain circumstances, people would assume their role up to the point of extinction, people would assume their role to the point of acting in an unethical manner.. It is a classic study on the power of the social situation.

Discover all the details of this experiment by reading this article:

• "The Stanford Prison Experiment, by Philip Zimbardo."

3) Asch, Sherif, Milgram...

Other notable experiments such as Solomon Asch's experiment, Sherif's Cave of Thieves experiment or Milgram's experiment are also of crucial importance in the field of social psychology.

In an article, we explain these (and other) experiments in detail. You can consult it:

• “Los 10 experimentos psicológicos más perturbadores de la historia”

Referencias bibliográficas:

• Allport, G.W. (1968). The historical background of modern social psychology.In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds.) The handbook of social psychology.(2nd ed.) Vol. l.
• Blanco, A (1988). Cinco tradiciones de la Psicología Social. Madrid: Morata.
• Costa, M. & López, E. (1986). Salud Comunitaria. Barcelona: Martínez Roca.
• Forsyth, D.R (2006). Group dynamics. Belmont, CA: Thomson-Wadworth.
• Moscovici, S.; Markova, I. (2006). The Making of Modern Social Psychology. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
• Rueda, J. M. (1992). La intervención psicosocial. El psicólogo de la comunidad. Intervención psicosocial, 1, 27-41.
• Uchelen, C. (2000). Individualism, collectivism, and community psychology. En J. Rappaport & E. Seidman, Handbook of Community Psychology, (65-78). New York: Kluwer Academic.