ANS:
Although social psychologists and sociologists often study related issues, an important difference between social psychology and sociology is the level of analysis used in each discipline. Sociologists tend to classify people in terms of groups, such as socioeconomic class, nationality, or race, whereas social psychologists tend to focus on the individual, even in the context of groups. In addition, social psychologists use experiments to study human behavior to a greater extent than do sociologists. Compared to the other subdisciplines of psychology, social psychology is more concerned with human behavior in social situations—that is, with thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and desires that are relevant to social behavior. A critical difference between social psychology and the approach taken by a journalist who examines the social behaviors of various individuals is that social psychologists use the scientific method of systematic observation, description, and measurement, whereas the journalist would tend to use much less scientific methods and might rely more on personal observation and specific anecdotal observations.
REF: What Is Social Psychology?
2. Max Ringelmann, Floyd Allport, and Kurt Lewin all made singularly important contributions to the development of social psychology as a field. Summarize these contributions.
ANS:
Max Ringelmann was an engineer who, around the beginning of the 20th century, found that individuals who carry out simple tasks in the presence of other people tend to perform worse than they would if they carried out the task by themselves. Because this finding represents an effect of social factors on performance, it is social psychological in nature. Thus, Ringelmann is often considered one of the founders of the field. Floyd Allport wrote one of the first social psychology textbooks, and helped establish the use of the scientific method and the focus on individuals in a social context as part of the field’s doctrine. Kurt Lewin emphasized the importance of seeing behavior as an interaction between an individual’s personality and the situational factors influencing that individual, and also argued that social psychology must be applicable to important, practical issues. Social psychology today is applied to many domains, including law, business, health, politics, education, medicine, and many others.
REF: A Brief History of Social Psychology
3. The middle of the 20th century was an important period in the establishment of social psychology as a field. Name two general themes in the topics studied by researchers of that era, and give examples.
ANS:
Because of the events of World War II (and in particular, Nazi Germany), one general theme in research of that era was an investigation of social influence. For example, Asch and Sherif conducted studies with the aim of understanding the conditions under which people conform with majority behavior, and Milgram studied destructive obedience to authority figures. Another theme concerned social perception, with a particular focus on stereotyping and prejudice. For example, Gordon Allport published The Nature of Prejudice in 1954. Festinger showed how attitudes could be influenced by one’s own behavior. To the extent that prejudice is an attitude, inducing behavioral change could result in alteration of the prejudiced attitude.
REF: A Brief History of Social Psychology
4. The field of social psychology endured significant critique in the 1960s and 1970s. What were the most important elements of this critique, and how has the field addressed them?
ANS:
During that time, social psychology was criticized because some thought that its findings did not take historical and cultural context into consideration, and that its use of an experimental methodology suffered from ethical problems, artificiality, and potential experimenter bias. Social psychology has responded to the latter problems by adopting a multi-method approach while at the same time tightening ethical standards for conducting experiments and taking measures to reduce experimenter bias. Moreover, many social psychologists are now considering cross-cultural and multicultural similarities and differences in human behavior. All of these changes represent a more “pluralistic” approach to research in the field.
REF: A Brief History of Social Psychology