Social Psychology - 2623 Words

The desire to be accepted and belong to a group is an undeniable human need. We change because we realize that sometimes we are socially different and want to be accepted in society or it is something that we aim to achieve in becoming (Allen amp; Levine, 1969). The changes that occur have mostly been from the experiences that we see, hear, or feel to make the changes that we do on ourselves (Friedkin, 1998). Social psychologists have conducted numerous experiments and concluded that, through various forms of social influence, groups can change their members thoughts, feelings, and behaviour, intentionally or unintentionally, as a result of the way the changed person perceives themselves in relationship to the influencer, other people†¦show more content†¦The other important study was the one known as the prisoner experiment, performed by Philip Zimbardo (1973) and involved taking at random college students to pretend to be either guards or prisoners in a fake jail. Both set s of students started out equally. The surprising outcome of this simulation was that it had to be abandoned after only 6 days, well short of the planned 2 weeks, because the treatment of the prisoners by the guards was far more aggressive and dehumanizing than had been expected (Moghaddam, 1998). In our present day contacts, an infamous example to illustrate the concept of obedience will be the â€Å"26/11 attack† in 2008 in Mumbai, India, where 166 people were killed. This inhumane act can be due to the fact that the terrorists were definitely following orders blindly, doing what they were told and not considering about the harm they will be causing to the innocent people when they were committing the said act. Cialdini (1993) stated that given an appropriate context, most individuals have the potential to blindly obey commands, even if such obedience leads to harm to others. The study of obedience is of fundamental importance because one must understand the ‘crimes of obedience’ that have persisted in modern times (Moghaddam, 1998). The Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia, the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, the terror attack in Mumbai, India, â€Å"ethnic cleansing† in Bosnia, these areShow MoreRelatedSocial Psychology And Social Influence1600 Words   |  7 PagesIn social psychology, social influence is a process where someone’s beliefs, thoughts and behaviour change by being exposed to beliefs, thoughts and opinions of others. It manifests in several forms, such as obedience, compliance and conformity. All these types of social influence have been studied by numerous researchers who investigated the reasons why people conform to social norms and obey to authorities, such as Milgram’s classic studies on obedience. His experiments support the popular ideaRead MoreThe Domain Of Psychology Which Will Be Social Psychology1295 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction The research study will look at the domain of Psychology which will be Social Psychology. In psychology, social psychology is the methodical study of how people s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are subjective to change by presence of others. Social psychologists study how an individual’s or a group’s viewpoint is changed by the social influence and communication of other individuals and social groups. In this research the main concentration will be on the topic of conformityRead MoreSocial Psychology And Sociology And Psychology1450 Words   |  6 PagesSocial Psychology is a broad field that incorporates aspects of both the sciences of Sociology and Psychology. This field of study is designed to help answer the question as to why people display certain behaviors due to their interaction with others. 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Social psychologyRead MoreApplied Social Psychology On Psychology981 Words   |  4 Pages Applied social psychology 2 Applied social psychology is one way that psychologist can study our thought, feeling and belief, and how we function around each other, in our everyday lives, here are the five issues that I will be addressing in my literature review they are social influence, Attribution Theory, Group polarization, Cognitive dissonance theory, and Observational Learning. Social applied psychologyRead MorePsychology : Psychology And Social Psychology1398 Words   |  6 Pagesanswer in his lifetime. Psychology is a very broad topic in general, and is easily broken down into two main categories: experimental psychology and social psychology. These two categories of psychology can be broken down further into many subcategories such as the following: clinical psychology, forensic psychology, and sports psychology. 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As individuals we tend to give in to social influences because we either do not know how to act in certain situations, or because we follow the social norms (when we tend to embrace other ways of thinking, be having, or feeling that are shared between a group of people). Social Psychology gives us the information we need in order to understand why we, at times, behave in a wayRead MoreSocial Psychology : A Unique Subfield Of Psychology1474 Words   |  6 PagesSocial psychology is a unique subfield of psychology. The history of the psychology dates back in 387 BC when Plato had inferred that the human brain is a device comprising of mental structures. Charles Darwin coined the theory of evolution called â€Å"Survival of the Fittest† when he disseminated his On the Origin of Species in 1859. Many other names have made major contributions in the field of psychology. However, it was Leon Festinger, in 1957, who propositioned his postulation of â€Å" CognitiveRead MoreExamples Of Conformity In Social Psychology1342 Words   |  6 Pagesbeliefs, it is a respectable thing. But, if conforming contradicts one’s values and beliefs  to fulfill others’ expectations t hen it is bad to conform. The film 12 Angry Man highlights normative influence and informational influence theories of social psychology. The twelve man who acted as jurors in the movie were individuals with very different characters and interests; everyone’s task was to decide about the innocence of a young gentleman who was accused of murdering his father. In the beginning of