Social Psychology: Concepts, Applications, and Everyday Life

Introduction and Learning Goals

What I would like to understand about social psychology is the full range of ways in which this concept can be applied — not just in scholarly situations, but in everyday activities: among friends, at work, and in social settings. Having a solid understanding of any aspect of psychology is helpful for a student, or for any thoughtful person, in these times. The pursuit of that understanding brings insight and knowledge.

The discoveries available in the literature are going to be interesting to explore. I expect they will address human behavior from a scientific perspective. Those scholarly sources will likely touch on leadership, on social behaviors from the perspective of both individuals and groups, on why certain people act the way they do, on how people respond to hostile situations, and on how prejudice and bias shape social behavior.

Defining Social Psychology and Its Boundaries

Social psychology has always interested me, because every new thing learned in a psychological context either reminds me of a situation I have been in, calls to mind someone I have known, or simply helps explain why humans behave the way they do.

Kendra Cherry explains that social psychology is not limited to reviewing social influences; perceptions within social settings and the dynamics of social interaction are also central to this field of study (Cherry, 2008). Writing for About.com, Cherry explains that social psychology did not become an established field of research until after World War II. "The horrors of the Holocaust" provided the impetus for researchers to devote serious attention to the study of "social influences" — including conformity and obedience. The range of topics covered in social psychology includes leadership, nonverbal behavior (i.e., body language), conformity, aggression, and prejudice.

How does social psychology differ from related disciplines? Cherry notes that social psychology is often confused with "folk wisdom, personality psychology, and sociology." Unlike folk wisdom, however, social psychology embraces "scientific methods and the empirical study of social phenomena" (p. 1). Folk wisdom relies mostly on "anecdotal observations and subjective interpretation," while personality psychology focuses on "individual traits, characteristics, and thoughts." Social psychology, by contrast, is concerned with situations (Cherry, p. 1).

What social psychologists are mainly interested in exploring is the "impact that the social environment and group interactions have on attitudes and behaviors" (Cherry, p. 1). Sociology, meanwhile, looks at social behavior from a "broad-based level," with sociologists researching the cultural and institutional influences that explain human behavior (Cherry, p. 1). Psychologists, on the other hand, are interested in "situational variables that affect social behavior" — which means examining many of the same topics sociologists study, but from a different perspective (Cherry, p. 1).

Social Psychology in Educational Settings

Professor Hunter Gehlbach of the Harvard Graduate School of Education writes in Educational Psychology Review that there are "scores of empirically grounded, fundamental principles" connected to social psychology (Gehlbach, 2010, p. 349). The problem, he asserts, is that many — if not most — of the principles social psychologists have "amassed" have yet to be brought into the classroom (p. 349). Gehlbach insists that these principles should and could be infused into learning environments, where they hold "untapped potential to improve pedagogy," have the ability to "motivate students," and carry the "capacity to enrich students' understanding of subject matter" (p. 349).

Gehlbach takes an interesting approach to making his case: rather than listing the advantages of incorporating social psychology into teaching, he describes the costs of ignoring it. His initial argument (p. 350) is built around the price paid when social psychology is absent from the classroom.

First, he points to the problem of "achievement gaps" in education — the well-documented pattern in which minority students, particularly African-American and Latino students, tend to score well below their Asian and Caucasian peers. By ignoring the "social aspects of school," educators are likely to "reify discrepancies between racial groups" (Gehlbach, p. 350). Teachers who do not "de-bias their perceptions and expectations of students" may be fostering "differential achievement outcomes for students of different races" (p. 350). As the student population in American schools becomes increasingly diverse, addressing this disparity has become ever more urgent.

Second, Gehlbach posits that students who experience a "diminished sense of belonging" in school are far less likely to engage with their studies or feel motivated to learn. Those without a sense of belonging are more likely to become part of the growing dropout statistics (p. 350). He notes with particular concern that Latinos — the largest and fastest-growing minority group in the United States — have a dropout rate exceeding 20%, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics. He clearly believes that incorporating social psychology into the classroom could cultivate the sense of belonging that many Latino students currently lack.

Third, Gehlbach argues that ignoring the "social facets of school" has "troubling implications for school safety" (p. 350). He alludes to bullying, school shootings, cyber bullying, and psychological safety, asserting that the social climate in schools has "a tremendous impact on the extent to which students feel safe" (p. 350). Importantly, Gehlbach is not speaking only of students' needs; he emphasizes that teachers, too, must be brought up to speed. His definition is succinct: "social psychology is the scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another" (p. 351).