Socialzation Paper

Social psychology is the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of the individual behavior and thought in a social situation. Social psychology investigates the ways in which our thoughts, feelings, and actions are influenced by the social environments in which we live. Social interactions help to shape who we are and how we act in different situations. The factors affecting social interaction are a broad range of social, cognitive, environmental, cultural and biological factors.

As a matter of fact, social interactions help to shape who we are and how we act in different situations. Socialization is an important process to learn because when we interact with other human beings, we arrive at conclusions about the social world. We construct a social reality. Everyone does not belong to the same religion, support the same political parties nor do they dress the same way or speak the same language. As a result, the socialization process provides people with different experience and perspective on what may be right, wrong, and acceptable or not and how people treat each other. For instance, prejudice arises from social inequalities, social divisions, and emotional scapegoating. As well, aggressive behavior is also learned through social interactions and observations.

In addition, different types of social environments encourage the development of different behaviors. For example, family, school, peers, neighbors, friends, religious influences, and media all help to define a person’s behavior.

Equally important, conformity refers to an individual’s behavior that is performed because of group pressure, even though that pressure might not involve a direct request. Many people want to think that they are conformist enough so that they are not looked upon as strange to others and nonconformist sufficient to demonstrate that they are capable of thinking for themselves. For many years, psychologists have been interested in human conformity....