Social psychology: Facts, Discussion Forum, and Encyclopedia Article

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Social psychology

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	Topics Social psychology Topic Home Social psychology is the study of how people and groups interact. Scholars in this interdisciplinary area are typically either psychologistsPsychology Psychology is an academic and applied field involving the study of the human mind, brain, and behavior.... or sociologistsSociology Sociology is the study of society and human social action.... , though all social psychologists employ both the individualIndividual In common speech, the word individual most often refers to a person, or, by analogy, to any specific object in a group of th... and the groupGroup (sociology) In sociology, a group is usually defined as a collection of humans or animals, who share certain characteristics, interact w... as their units of analysisUnit of analysis The unit of analysis is the major entity that is being in the study.... . Despite their similarity, psychological and sociological researchers tend to differ in their goals, approaches, methods, and terminology. They also favor separate academic journals and professional societiesLearned society Summary A learned society is a society that exists to promote an academic discipline or group of disciplines.... . The greatest period of collaboration between sociologists and psychologists was during the years immediately following World War II. Although there has been increasing isolation and specialization in recent years, some degree of overlap and influence remains between the two disciplines. Psychology Main article: Social psychology (psychology)Social psychology (psychology) Social Psychology is a subfield of psychology concerned with the empirical study of how individuals' behavior, attitudes, an... Most social psychologists are trained within psychology. Their approach to the field focuses on the individual and attempts to explain how the thoughtThought Thought or thinking is a mental process which allows beings to model the world, and so to deal with it effectively ac... s, feelingFeeling Feelings are affective states of consciousness.... s, and behaviorBehavior Behavior or behaviour refers to the actions or reactions of an object or organism, usually in relation to the environ... s of individuals are influenced by other people. Psychologically oriented researchers emphasize the immediate social situation, and the interactionSocial interaction Social interaction is a dynamic, changing sequence of social actions between individuals who modify their actions and reacti... between person and situation variables. Their research tends to be highly empiricalEmpirical A central concept in science and the scientific method is that all evidence must be empirical, or empirically based, t... and quantitative, and it is often centered around laboratory experimentExperiment In the scientific method, an experiment , is a set of actions and observations, performed in the context of solving a partic... s. Psychologists who study social psychology are interested in such topics as attitudesAttitude (psychology) Attitude is a concept in psychology.... , social cognitionSocial cognition Social cognition is the study of how people process social information, especially its encoding, storage, retrieval, and app... , cognitive dissonanceCognitive dissonance Cognitive dissonance is the perception of incompatibility between two cognitions, which can be defined as any element of kno... , social influenceSocial influence Social influence is when the actions or thoughts of individual are changed by other individual.... , and interpersonal behaviors such as altruismAltruism Altruism is the practice of placing others before oneself.... and aggressionAggression In psychology, aggression encompasses many different types of social behavior, some of which are not clearly related to each... . Three influential journals for the publication of research in this area are the Journal of Personality and Social PsychologyJournal of Personality and Social Psychology The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology is a monthly psychology journal of the American Psychological Association.... , the Journal of Experimental Social PsychologyJournal of Experimental Social Psychology The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology is a scientific journal published by Psychology Press, and is distributed as p... , and the Personality and Social Psychology BulletinPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin is a scientific journal published by the Society for Personality and Social Psych... . There are also many other general and specialized social psychology journals. Sociology Main article: Social psychology (sociology)Social psychology (sociology) Social Psychology is a subfield of sociology which looks at the social behavior of humans in terms of associations and relat... A significant number of social psychologists are sociologists. Their work has a greater focus on the behavior of the groupGroup (sociology) In sociology, a group is usually defined as a collection of humans or animals, who share certain characteristics, interact w... , and thus examines such phenomena as interactionsSymbolic interactionism Symbolic interactionism is a major sociological perspective that is influential in many areas of sociology.... and exchangesFacts About Social exchange theory Social exchange theory is a social psychological and sociological perspective that explains social change and stability as a... at the micro-level, group dynamicsGroup dynamics The term group dynamics implies that individual behaviours may differ depending on individuals' current or prospective conne... and group developmentGroup development The goal of most research on group development is to learn why and how small groups change over time.... , and crowdsCrowd psychology Crowd psychology is a branch of social psychology.... at the macroMacroscopic Macroscopic is commonly used to describe physical objects that are measurable and observable by the naked eye.... -level. Sociologists are interested in the individual, but primarily within the context of larger social structures and processes, such as social roles, race and class, and socialization. They use a combination of qualitative research designs and quantitative methods, such as procedures for sampling and surveys. Sociologists in this area are interested in a variety of demographic, social, and cultural phenomena. Some of their major research areas are social inequality, group dynamics, social change, socialization, social identity, and symbolic interactionism. The key sociological journal is Social Psychology Quarterly. See also List of social psychologistsList of social psychologists Famous Social Psychologists:* Gordon Allport...