Social Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Social Psychology - Essay ExampleThis paper focuses on companionable psychology as a branch of psychology. As a branch of psychology, fond psychology concerns itself with the perceptiveness of individuals mental behaviors, functions and processes within a cordial context (Vala and Costa-Lopes, 2012). Myers and his co-authors (2010) also define societal psychology as the scientific sports stadium that aims at understanding the causes and nature of the behavior of an individual in social situations or contexts. Therefore, it looks at the behavior of an individual as influenced by the social context and early(a) people around where this takes place. In other words, social psychology can be described as a discipline that employs scientific methods in understanding and explaining how the feeling, behavior, and thought of an individual ar influenced by the implied, imagined, or actual presence of other people in a particular context, or different situations (Letitia, et al., 2005) . slice the discipline also relates with sociology by looking on group factors such as socio-economic class and race, it relates to psychology in the sense that it looks at these factors by focusing on an individual. The discipline focuses on a grand range of social topics such as social perception, non-verbal behavior, prejudice, conformity, leadership, aggression, and group behavior, among others (Funder and Krueger, 2004). Apart from looking at the social influences, this discipline also looks at the issues to do with social interaction and social perception, all of which are inherent in understanding an individuals behavior within a social context (Rogers, 2011). uniform other disciplines, social psychology has get under ones skined over years to become an acceptable and scientific field of study and practice around the world. While the influences of social psychology can be traced to early centuries, it started to develop as a discipline in the wake of the twentieth cent ury (Vala and Costa-Lopes, 2012). The earliest influences of this discipline came from such philosophers as Aristotle and Plato. Aristotle held the belief that human beings are naturally sociable creatures, a feature that allows them to live together. His compute was considered as an individual-centered approach because it considers an individual essential in a social context. On his part, Plato believed that the state was lively in controlling individuals and encouraging social responsibility through social situations and contexts. Platos view came to be known as the socio-centered approach (Letitia et al, 2005). In the 1800s, there was the introduction of social psychology concepts such as social facilitation and social loafing. This discipline developed further at the dawn of the twentieth century when texts in the field started to emerge, the most notable text being An Introduction to Social Psychology, which McDougall wrote in 1908. The writing of texts in the field in subseq uent years greatly contributed to the development of this discipline (Myers, et al., 2010). The period after the sec World War is credited for the substantial development of social psychology and research in social psychology. The horrors of the war led several researchers to develop interest in researching various social psychology topics such as conformity and social influence (Vala and Costa-Lopes, 2012). Some of the research focused on how individual behaviors and attitudes are shaped by social context, how they are formed, and how they can be measured in order to hold back if change