Social Psychology
Heather Nelson
Social Psychology/PSY 400
April 11, 2010
Joyce Willis
Social Psychology
Each human being has an individual perception of themselves that plays a major role in determining behavior and beliefs. Social Psychology is a discipline that utilizes the scientific method in order to understand and provide an explanation on individual thoughts, feelings, and behavior that is influenced by other human beings as well as how each individual interacts with other people (Allport, Gordon, 1985). Social psychology also focuses on the study of many social issues such as group behavior, social perception, nonverbal behavior, leadership style and ability. It is also important when looking at social psychology to study influences and thinking, perception, and social interaction or relations (Meyers, David, 2008). Behavior is viewed as a function of an individual person and their environment and social psychologists attempt to define that behavior and relationship by conducting experiments and research (Sewell, W. H., 1989).
Social Psychology in relation to other disciplines
Social psychology and sociology are often linked together. While both disciplines study social interactions and behavior, they research and study from different perspectives. These two disciplines of research differ in that sociologists study social behavior and influences in a broad spectrum. Sociologists are interested institutions and the culture that influence social behavior and social psychologists focus on the individual situations that affect and cause behavior (Meyers, David, 2008). Social psychology is also closely related to personality psychology, but these two disciplines differ in that social psychologists focus on social influences on individual behavior. Personality psychologists focus more on the individual differences between individuals. Organization psychology is also linked with social psychology. Organizational psychology...