Introduction
Psychology is defined as a scientific study of the mind and behavior. It includes many fields thus it is a multifaceted discipline with many sub fields under it. One of them being social psychology. It can be traced back to ancient grease . It affects all the human experience in life. This paper therefore brings our attention of social psychology in real life, its principles and its relation to the daily behavior and personality views.
Social psychology is explained as a way we perceive ourselves in pure relation to the whole world that plays a major role in our choices, our behavior and our behaviors at large. This branch of psychology therefore seeks to explain how social phenomena influence us and how people interact with fully with others. Allport explains that the effects of social presence are felt even with the absence of other people. It is majorly considered a branch of psychology or sociology.
Better understanding of social psychology can be of great importance to us. We better understand how groups impact and influence our choices; secondly it helps us to gain a better appreciation of how our social perceptions our own interaction with other people. Explanation that social behavior is goal oriented is given here. Our interactions fulfill needs. Some common goals include the need for social ties , the greatest desire in understanding ourselves and others, the wish to maintain or protect our status and the desire to attract groups, companies and other masses consequently.
The outcome is majorly determined by the interaction between the individuals. In many instances people interact differently as per the situation they are in at that moment as explained by Loviglia. Environmental and situational variables here play a very important goal and they usually have a strong influence on our behavior. Also people spend a great deal of time considering social situations in their hemispheres. Our perception and self concept is formed by social interaction. There reflected appraisal process helps form this self concept .this is where we imagine how other people view or see us. The social comparison method is also another criteria we can consider social status.
A critical analysis of those around us is key here. The expectation phenomenon is explained here. This is the inferring that the actions and the behaviors of others correspond to their intentions and their personality in general. Behavior therefore is informative and can also be misleading in other moments . We tend to ignore the expected attributes and only look for the conformity of our beliefs about others. This in many a times is skewed and can resist to stereotyping.
There is greatest believe that a person’s behavior portrays their personality. This can be explained by the correspondent inference theory. When we have a limited interaction with other people , the behavior or personality we tend to see is typical or may be caused by the specific situations we are with the individuals in question, rather than the by the person overriding dispositional character. Therefore the studies of social psychology enrich our understanding of the world around us and ourselves deeply.
One can discover himself in the real world by talking a survey on the shared beliefs and this help us have a sense the world but it normally hinders the better explanation for issues. These are issues like their hindsight bias. This is a tendency where we aggregate the degree after the learning of an outcome that we know it all along. Self reference enables us to ascertain information relevant to our concept of who we are and it is normally remembered well . The spot light effect is also where we irrationally think that people will notice our every action and feeling. We believe on what others think of us to build perceptions of ourselves in comparison.
Existence of unrealistic optimism is exhibited when we tend to think that we are better than an average person and that we are much immune to misfortune in other situations we tend to overestimate the number of people who agree with us on matters of fact and it is referred to as false consensus. At times we think that our talent and moral judgments are uniquely superior a concept known as false uniqueness. We construct self by facing failure and tend to perceive others as failing and put down vulnerable superior a concept called self esteem maintenance. In most cases we create an image that can cover up for later failure successfully i.e. self handicapping.
As explained by Rodgers, this motive means that we do not put ourselves first. We need to be helpful, caring and cooperate with others. The survival of our own genes can be improved by the helping of others even if we are not related to them. This can be seen when animals give out a unique cry to indicate the presence of predator thus human beings ought to be so by helping others and this can sometimes be at accost to themselves.
Human beings behave morally towards others by the understanding that to harm others without a strong reason for doing so and display compassion towards others. The behaviors of stealing from others, cheating,, bullying, and aggression are unexpected and are morally disapproved. This however doesn’t mean that people are usually friendly or helpful and even nice to others . The fundamental human motivation mean that the hostility and violence the exception rather than the rule of the human behavior.
There are a number of routes to persuade others in social psychology. Authority is major in that the subjects are highly responsive eve without the person in the position. People respond to scarcity in that they think what they need is only available for a short period. Having same interest us to like others.
Reciprocation is major in persuasion in that if someone promises us something, there is a strong attachment between us and we feel to provide something in return .Commitment and consistency also helps to persuade in that, in that if you fail to deliver what you promised you lose the peoples trust but if you deliver you win their trust in you. Social proof is looking and seeing what other people are doing or saying and then determine the next course of action. This may cause us to take actions that are against our self interest without deep consideration.
A good persuader has to possess qualities that will enable them achieve their goal. First you need to believe in yourself and in what you are addressing to others. You need to be enthusiastic and optimistic. Avoid doubts from the subjects at any level understanding your. Empathy also is crucial and a careful consideration of what they want and why they should accept what you are telling them.Persistence and energy also are critical in that they fuel enthusiasm and do it nicely to win them, in this way they will not resist you. Obedience is where we behave as if we are being instructed by authority figures like teachers and parents majorly to avoid punishment or unpleasant consequences. Conformity in the other way we yield to group pressure, we act to please peers, friends and even social groups so as to be accepted , liked or to avoid feeling silly.
Conformity is seen where there is no obvious right answer and therefore we look to others for information in order to be right. This is where the group norms emerge when there is no answer. Other factors that can influence conformance include changes over time, cultural differences, where the collectivist society is more conformist than the individualistic society. Loss of self identity called de individualization also calls for conformity and role play, gender, intelligence, and gender are key to conformity for instance students are less conformist due to intelligence and knowledge.
Obedience in the other hand is due to the presence of an authority figure to give direction, and the highly the perceived prestige of the authority figure the more the conformity. The proximity of the victim also affects obedience in that the more the order may cause harm the more the obedience and vice versa. Situations that lead to more gradual escalation of harm tend to produce more conformity, that is to say, once a person starts a process it becomes difficult to not obey.
A primary group is smaller as compared to the secondary group. Its members share close and personal relationships. There is a greater concern for one another in a primary group, closely shared cultures and activities, and the members spend a lot of time together. The major goal of this group’s is basically relationships. A good example of this group is a nuclear family and their close friends either from an extended family or other close friends from another family.
A secondary group is one that is larger than the primary. The relationships in this group are goal directed and are impersonal in nature. Their period is not determinable for they can last longer or shorter than expected. Little significance is experienced in the lives of the members of the group. Roles of the individuals are interchangeable for they are set up to achieve a given function.
Group thinking is where people put aside their beliefs and adopt the opinion of the rest of the group for uniformity purposes . They mainly do this to keep the peace of the group rather than disrupt the peace. Some of the consequences of group thinking are destructive and result to incomplete survey of alternatives, incomplete survey of objectives, high failure to examine the risks of preferred choices, much failure to reevaluate previously rejected alternatives, there is poor information search, there is selection bias in the collection of information and finally there is failure in working out contingency plans.
In a group, there is conflict between individuals and collective interest. The rules of the game then ought to be changed for the better achievement of the results. All individuals then if they cooperate they can achieve the better results than to defect. All the members in the group can both have the best ideas for solving a problem or a given idea. This therefore poses a problem in which idea to follow, which one to drop, who is to drop his idea and follow the other. This is a challenge to a large group when making critical decisions. It is difficult to choose the best solution or make the best solution for there are a lot of options to elect from an example of the social problem are the prisoner’s dilemma, the public goods dilemma and the tragedy commons dilemma . For the best to be selected out of the given choices, there should be intensive study of the available decisions before selecting the best. This can be majorly experienced in the secondary group than the primary group.
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