MODULE 1​

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY

Chandana Sujith ​
30th June, 2025
Contents

1.​ Definition of social psychology

2.​ Nature of social psychology
3.​ Goals of social psychology
4.​ Scope of social psychology
5.​ Methods of social psychology
6.​ Origin and development
7.​ Reflection

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Definition

According to Gordon Allport (1954), Social psychology is best defined as the discipline that uses
scientific methods in "an attempt to understand and explain how the thought, feeling and
behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other
human beings.

Barron and Byrne (2007) defined social psychology as "the scientific field that seeks to
understand the nature and cause of individual behaviour and thought in social situations".

Nature

1. Social Psychology Applies Scientific Methods of Study

Social psychology is scientific. It uses the scientific method, involving observation, description,
and measurement, to study human behavior in social contexts. Social psychological studies
collect data through direct observation or experiments. Researchers conduct these experiments
and observations carefully and report them in detail. This allows other researchers to repeat and
verify their work. Scientific social psychology focuses on three main activities: describing,
explaining, and predicting social behavior. It offers a scientific view of social behavior based on
direct observation, not on common beliefs. Additionally, social psychology seeks to explain why
people act a certain way in specific social situations. These interconnected explanations of social
behaviors lead to the formation of theories that aid in predicting and managing social behaviors
in a positive direction.

2. Social Psychology Studies Individuals' Thought, Feeling and Behaviour.

The diverse issues in social psychology involve individuals' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Cognition refers to how people process information. Social psychology examines cognition
related to social activities, which helps us understand and predict our social behaviors. It also
looks at the feelings we experience as individuals in our social lives. Our thoughts and feelings
in social contexts ultimately show through our behaviors during social interactions. Social
psychology studies these behaviors, including cooperation, helping behavior, conflict, and
aggression.

3. Social Psychology Studies Individuals' Behaviour in Social Contexts.

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Social psychology looks at how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are shaped in social
settings. This field highlights that our actions are affected by the presence of others, and we also
impact how others behave. The social context mentioned in social psychology doesn't always
have to be real or immediate. Even the suggestion or thought of others nearby can significantly
affect individuals (Gordon Allport, 1985). To find general rules about human social behavior,
social psychologists sometimes consider non-social factors too. Kurt Lewin (1936), a key early
figure in social psychology, introduced a model for understanding social behavior. This model
suggests that social behavior results from the interaction between the situation and the
individual's traits.

Scope

Four main concerns

Impact of Individuals on Individuals: Individuals are influenced by others in various ways. In

daily life, communication from others can greatly shape a person's view of the social world.
Efforts by others to persuade can alter an individual's beliefs about the world and their attitudes
toward people, groups, or other things.

Impact of Groups on Individuals: The other issue in social psychology studies is how groups
affect the behavior of their individual members. Because individuals belong to many different
groups, families, work groups, seminar classes, and clubs they spend, generally, several hours
with fellow members every week. Essentially, groups influence and regulate the behavior of their
members by way of norms or rules. One possibility is conformity: the adjustment of behavior on
the part of the group member so as to conform to group norms.

Impact of Individuals on Groups: A third concern of social psychology is the impact of

individuals on group processes and products. Just as any group influences the behavior of its
members, these members, in turn, may influence the group itself. For instance, individuals
contribute to group productivity and group decision making. Moreover, some members may
provide leadership, performing functions such as planning, organizing, and controlling,
necessary for successful group performance.

Impact of Groups on Groups: A fourth concern of social psychology is the impact of one group
on the activities and structure of another group. Relations between two groups may be friendly or

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hostile, co- operative or competitive. These relationships, which are based in part on members'
identities and may entail group stereotypes, can affect the structure and activities of each group.

1. Social Perception and Cognition

The processes through which people create opinions and draw conclusions about other people
are referred to as social perception. This emphasis is expanded by social cognition to include the
mental processes involved in comprehending, analyzing, and reacting to social information. It
includes things like stereotypes, impression formation, and attribution-the process of determining
the reasons behind actions. Although these processes aid people in successfully navigating social
situations, they can also result in biases.

2. Attitudes and Persuasion

Attitudes are long-term assessments of individuals, things, or concepts. Social psychology

studies the formation, maintenance, and modification of attitudes, particularly through
persuasion. The two ways that messages affect attitudes-centrally through logical argumentation
and peripherally through superficial cues-are explained by persuasion theories. This field has
real-world uses in advertising, politics, the media,and health campaigns.

3. Social Influence

The term "social influence" describes how other people's actions impact an individual's behavior.
This includes obedience (following explicit instructions), compliance (agreeing to requests), and
conformity (aligning with group norms). Fundamental studies on obedience by Milgram (1963)
and conformity by Asch (1955) show how social pressures can drastically change an individual's
behavior, frequently in unexpected ways.

4. Group Dynamics

Individual behavior within groups and the psychological mechanisms underlying group
interactions are the main topics of group dynamics. Among the subjects covered are group roles,
norms, leadership, communication, and decision-making. It also looks at things like
deindividuation, social facilitation, and groupthink. Improving team performance and conflict
resolution in social and professional contexts requires an understanding of group dynamics.

5. Intergroup Relations

This field investigates how people view and relate to people from different social groups, as well
as the psychological underpinnings of discrimination, prejudice, and stereotyping. It also looks

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into strategies to lessen conflict between groups, like teamwork and common objectives.
Addressing social inequality and advancing diversity and inclusion require an understanding of
intergroup relations.

6. Social Identity

According to social identity theory, people get some of their sense of who they are from
belonging to certain groups. Individuals create in-group bias and out-group discrimination by
classifying others and themselves into groups. Collective action, nationalism, organizational
behavior, and cultural identity are all significantly impacted by social identity, which also affects
behavior, attitudes, and interactions between groups.

.Goals of social psychology

The primary goals of social psychology are to understand how people think about, influence, and
relate to one another. Social psychologists aim to scientifically explain social behavior by
developing and testing theories about why people act the way they do in social contexts.
Additionally, they strive to predict social behavior by applying research findings to anticipate
how individuals will respond in different situations. Finally, a major goal of the field is to help
improve human relationships and society as a whole by using this knowledge to reduce conflict,
promote cooperation, and enhance overall well-being.

Methods of social psychology

1.​ Observational research :In terms of naturalistic observation, the scientist studies human
or animal behavior in its natural environment which could include the home, school, or a
forest.The researcher counts, measures, and rates behavior in a systematic way and at
times uses multiple judges to ensure accuracy in how the behavior is being measured.This
is called inter-rater reliability.The advantage of this method is that you witness behavior
as it occurs and it is not tainted by the experimenter. The disadvantage is that it could take
a long time for the behavior to occur and if the researcher is detected then this may
influence the behavior of those being observed. In the case of the latter, the behavior of
the observed becomes artificial.Laboratory observation involves observing people or
animals in a laboratory setting. The researcher might want to know more about
parent-child interactions and so brings a mother and her child into the lab to engage in pre
planned tasks such as playing with toys, eating a meal, or the mother leaving the room for
a short period of time. The advantage of this method over the naturalistic method is that

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 the experimenter can use sophisticated equipment and videotape the session to examine it
at a later time. The problem is that since the subjects know the experimenter is watching
them, their behavior could become artificial from the start.
2.​ Case studies: Psychology can also utilize a detailed description of one person or a small
group based on careful observation. This was the approach the founder of psychoanalysis,
Sigmund Freud, took to develop his theories. The advantage of this method is that you
arrive at a rich description of the behavior being investigated but the dis- advantage is
that what you are learning may be unrepresentative of the larger population and so lacks
generalizability. Again, bear in mind that you are studying one person or a very small
group.The other issue is that the case study is subject to the bias of the researcher in terms
of what is included in the final write up and what is left out. Despite these limitations,
case studies can lead us to novel ideas about the cause of behavior and help us to study
unusual conditions that occur too infrequently to study with large sample sizes and in a
systematic way. Though our field does make use of the case study methodology, social
psychology does not frequently use the design.
3.​ Surveys: A survey is a questionnaire consisting of at least one scale with some number of
questions which assess a psychological construct of interest such as parenting style,
depression, locus of control, attitudes, or sensation seeking behavior. It may be
administered by paper and pencil or computer. Surveys allow for the collection of large
amounts of data quickly but the actual survey could be tedious for the participant and
social desirability, when a participant answers questions dishonestly so that he/she is seen
in a more favorable light, could be an issue.
4.​ Correlational research: This research method examines the relationship between two
variables or two groups of variables. A numerical measure of the strength of this
relationship is derived, called the correlation coefficient, and can range from -1.00, a
perfect inverse relationship meaning that as one variable goes up the other goes down, to
0 or no relationship at all, to +1.00 or a perfect relation- ship in which as one variable
goes up or down so does the other. In terms of a negative corre- lation we might say that
as a parent becomes more rigid, controlling, and cold, the attach- ment of the child to the
parent goes down. In contrast, as a parent becomes warmer, more loving, and provides
structure, the child becomes more attached. The advantage of correlational research is
that you can correlate any- thing. The disadvantage is that you can correlate anything.
Variables that really do not have any relationship to one another could be viewed as
related.

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 5.​ Experiment: An experiment is a controlled test of a hy- pothesis in which a researcher
manipulates one variable and measures its effect on another variable. The variable that is
manipulated is called the independent variable (IV) and the one that is measured is called
the dependent variable (DV). A common feature of experiments is to have a control
group that does not receive the treatment or is not manipulated and an ex- perimental
group that does receive the treat- ment or manipulation. If the experiment includes
random assignment, participants have an equal chance of being placed in the control or
experimental group. The control group allows the researcher to make a comparison to the
experimental group, making a causal statement possible, and stronger.

Origin and development

●​ In 1898, Norman Triplett conducted one of the first social psychology experiments. He
observed that cyclists rode faster when racing against others than when racing alone
against the clock. Triplett proposed that the presence of others had a dynamogenic effect -
meaning it released or enhanced energy, increasing performance. He theorized that the
sight of a competitor acted as a "pacemaker," stimulating individuals to perform better
because it aroused competitive instincts and facilitated higher levels of effort.

Triplett tested this with children winding fishing reels: they wound faster in the presence
of co-actors (other children doing the same task) than alone, supporting his dynamogenic

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 hypothesis. This early work helped establish the concept of social facilitation, showing
how social presence can energize performance.

●​ Floyd Allport, in the 1920s, expanded on Norman Triplett's earlier findings and
formalized the idea of social facilitation, describing how the mere presence of other
people can enhance an individual's performance on simple or well-learned tasks. Allport
argued that this effect arises because the presence of others increases physiological
arousal, which boosts dominant responses - making people perform routine tasks better,
but potentially harming performance on complex or new tasks. This became a
foundational concept in social psychology, demonstrating how group presence directly
influences behavior.
●​ Muzafer Sherif (1936) studied how people conform when they are unsure what to do. He
used a dark room with a small light that seemed to move (an optical illusion called the
autokinetic effect). When people judged the light alone, their answers varied. But in a
group, their answers slowly became similar, showing that people look to others to form a
common view in unclear situations.
●​ Solomon Asch (1951) explored conformity in clear, unambiguous tasks. In his line
judgment experiments, participants were asked to match line lengths while confederates
in the group deliberately gave wrong answers. About one-third of participants conformed
to the incorrect majority, even though the correct answer was obvious, demonstrating the
powerful influence of group pressure.
●​ Stanley Milgram (1963) wanted to find out why people obey authority even when it
means harming others. In his experiment, participants were told to give electric shocks to
another person (who was actually an actor and not really being shocked) whenever they
gave wrong answers. Despite hearing the other person's screams, many participants kept
giving shocks when ordered to do so by the experimenter in a lab coat. Milgram found
that people are surprisingly willing to follow authority, even against their own morals.
●​ The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted in 1971 by psychologist Philip Zimbardo
to study how people conform to roles of authority (guards) and subordination (prisoners)
in a simulated prison environment. Twenty-four college students were randomly assigned
to either guard or prisoner roles in a mock prison set up in the basement of Stanford
University. The guards quickly began to display abusive and authoritarian behavior, while
the prisoners showed signs of stress, emotional breakdown, and helplessness. The
situation became so extreme that the experiment, initially planned for two weeks, was
terminated after only six days. Zimbardo concluded that situational factors and assigned

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 social roles can powerfully influence individual behavior, sometimes overriding personal
morals or values.
●​ John Darley and Bibb Latané investigated why people sometimes fail to help in
emergencies, which connects to human aggression in the sense that bystanders may not
intervene to stop aggressive acts. Inspired by the murder of Kitty Genovese, they
conducted experiments showing that the presence of other bystanders reduces the
likelihood that any one person will help - a phenomenon known as the bystander effect.
According to their research, when more people are present, individuals feel less personal
responsibility to act, known as diffusion of responsibility. This helps explain why
witnesses to aggressive acts or emergencies may not help, even when someone is clearly
in danger. Their work highlighted how social situations powerfully influence human
responses to aggression and helping.
●​ Irving Janis studied how group decision-making can sometimes go wrong, developing the
concept of groupthink. Groupthink occurs when the desire for group harmony overrides
realistic evaluation of alternatives, leading to poor decisions. Janis found that cohesive
groups, especially those under pressure to reach agreement, may suppress dissent, ignore
warnings, and fail to consider other viewpoints. This can result in flawed outcomes, such
as risky or unethical decisions. Janis analyzed historical examples, like the Bay of Pigs
invasion, to show how groupthink can have serious consequences in political and military
settings.

Reflection

This module has helped me develop a clearer understanding of how social psychology
explains human behavior in social contexts. I have come to see how individual thoughts,
feelings, and actions are shaped by the presence and influence of others, whether actual
or perceived. The concepts of conformity, obedience, group dynamics, and social identity
have provided meaningful insights into how social forces operate in everyday life.
Learning about the scientific methods used to study these processes has also highlighted
the importance of systematic research in drawing conclusions about social behavior.
Overall, this module has encouraged me to think more critically about social influences
and their impact on individual and group behavior