Psy 400 Social Psychology Definition Paper

Social Psychology

Yasmin Walls

Psy 400

October 17, 2011

Leah, Reagan

Although social psychology has evolved exceptionally since its introduction, it is still a fairly new aspect of science. Social psychology has developed and matured significantly as the vibrant field it is today.

Social psychology focuses on the study of human thoughts and how they interact, relate, and adapt to the environment. It influences a relationship among social thinking, social influence, and social relations.

In this paper, I will define social psychology; discuss how social psychology differs from other disciplines such as clinical psychology, general psychology, and sociology, and explain the role of research in social psychology, and its challenges.

Gordon Allport suggested that social psychology is a discipline that employ scientific methods to understand how human existence influence thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Social psychology is a science that studies the influences of various situations and events that occur in everyday life. It focuses on people’s perspectives and how they interact, think about, and relate to one another in the social world (Myers, 2010).

Some big ideas in social psychology include social thinking in which people construct their social reality, the social intuitions are powerful and sometimes perilous, attitudes shape and can be shaped by behavior; social influences, which suggest social influences and dispositions shape behavior, and social relations in which social behavior is biological behavior such as feelings and actions toward others, which can be positive and negative (Myers, 2010)

Social psychology is still a new science, and it is significantly distinctive from other disciplines such as clinical psychology, general psychology, and sociology.

Clinical psychology is an aspect of psychology, and is recognized as psychology’s most common and largest specialty area, which main focus involves studying, diagnosing, and treating mental...