Social psychology has been a formal discipline since the turn of the 20th century. How do potentially destructive social attitudes, such as prejudice, form?įor example, have you ever noticed you act and think differently among people you know than you do among strangers? Have you ever wondered why that is? Social psychologists spend their careers trying to determine the answers to questions like these and what they might mean.How does social perception influence behavior?.Is human behavior an accurate indication of personality?.How do individuals alter their thoughts and decisions based on social interactions?.In seeking the answer to that basic question, researchers conduct empirical studies to answer specific questions such as: The major question social psychologists ponder is this: How and why are people’s perceptions and actions influenced by environmental factors, such as social interaction? Social psychology is the study of how individual or group behavior is influenced by the presence and behavior of others. What follows is an overview of social psychology as a science, including a definition, its origins, and topics related to the field. Social psychology is one of the broadest and most complex subcategories because it is concerned with self-perception and the behavioral interplay among the individuals who make up society. The American Psychological Association (APA) lists 15 subfields of psychology, including clinical psychology, brain and cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, quantitative psychology, and more. Today, researchers and academics examine nearly every aspect of human existence through a psychological lens. This gave rise to subcategories of psychology, including social psychology. These and other researchers wanted to uncover how human perceptions - of themselves, of others, and of the world at large - influence behavior.Īs the field of psychology matured, researchers began to focus on specialized aspects of the mind and behavior. Yet its importance as a discipline is clear from the well-known names and concepts of early 20th century research into human behavior: Pavlov and his salivating dog, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Jung’s archetypes of the unconscious. Psychology as a field of scientific exploration remains relatively new the first formal psychology course in the United States was initiated at Harvard University by William James in 1875.