Social Psychology by R. Smith, M. Mackie, and M. Claypool (fourth edition) – Summary chapter 1
Social psychology is the scientific study of the effects on social and cognitive processes on the way individuals perceive, influence and relate to others. Social processes are the ways in which input from the people and groups around us affect our thoughts, feelings and actions. Cognitive processes are the ways in which our memories, perceptions, thoughts, emotions and motives influence our understanding of the world and guide our action. Social processes affect us, even when other individuals are not present. The social processes that affect us when other individuals are present depend on we interpret others, thus, including cognitive processes. Social psychology seeks an understanding of the reasons people act the way they do in social situations.The presence of others often facilitates performance when individual contributions are easily identified, but it reduces performance when this is not the case. Early social psychology rejected the behaviourist view that thoughts, emotions and attitudes did not have to be taken into account when trying to explain behaviour. Social psychology focusses on how external stimuli are interpreted by the individual and how this influences behaviour. Nazism in Europe influenced social psychology because many gestalt psychologists fled to North America, where a mix between gestalt psychologists and behaviourists was created. The aftermath of the second world war also led to many questions which social psychology had to answer.Europe’s and North America’s social psychology research integrated with each other and the field started to expand. There was also an integration of cognitive and social processes in the field of social psychology and integration with other research trends. Social psychology research can be applied in education, law, the environment, business and health.There are two fundamental axioms in social psychology:Construction of realityEach person’s view of reality is a construction,...
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