Social Psychology Differ When Applied in Different Cultural Context
Social Psychology within a humanistic critique
Being social is a harmless and innate characteristic of the human nature. People who like to socialize like to share their own personal space with people around them. They encourage and even initiate interactions like conversation and friendship. The reality TV shows have become a rage due to the fact that our society as a whole has become so interested in the social lives of other people. The word 'sociable' has been described by the Merriam-Webster online dictionary as "inclined by nature to companionship with others of the same species" and/or "inclined to seek or enjoy companionship" ("Sociable," 2013, n.d.). In other words, we can say that sociable is looking for companionship as, it's a part of our nature to look for companions belonging to the same genus and searching or looking for company that one can enjoy ("Sociable," 2013, n.d.).
The meaning of the word psychology doesn't get changed when social is applied with it however; the term 'social psychology' in application does become scientific. This concept is used by the psychologists and sociologists so that they can answer the questions regarding the world and life (Fiske, 2010, p. 1, para. 1).
The central themes which you glean from these readings
Broad Scope
There are four major characteristics that form social pshychology according to Susan Fiske (2010) who is not only an author but Professor of Psychology as well. Following are these four characteristics:
1. broad scope,
2. cultural mandate,
3. scientific methods and
4. search for wisdom (p. 31, para. 1).
Social psychology has been influenced by a number of things as this field has a very broad scope. Broad scope has a lot of relevance to the social psychology as there are a lot of various aspects of socialization that are addressed by it such as; self and groups, conformity and deviance, attitudes and action, and loving and hating as, all of these things are related to the human behaviour (Fiske, 2010, p. 32, para. 1). Ideas are borrowed from the principles of social psychology on continuous basis by other scholars, scientists, researchers and even other colleagues.
Cultural Mandate
Cultural mandate is the 2nd and certainly most crucial feature of social psychology. Culturally speaking a society is influenced by a number of factors like music, cuisine, fashion, music and many other fads. If this same principle is applied to the social psychology then a particular path can be seen followed by the cultural mandate which will dictate the response of an individual to a specific social scenario (Fiske, 2010, p. 32).
Exactly like religions and cultures are essential to many cultures, the social psychology is paid a lot of attention in some cultures as well as, it is considered to be very important and a source of great understanding (Fiske, 2010). It was further said by Fiske (2010) that, "social psychology is something that is mandated by a culture as an established type of knowledge" (p. 33, para. 2).
Scientific Methods
There are basically three important ways in which the social psychologists have been aided by the scientific methods in giving shape to the social psychology. Firstly, scientific theories are developed by the social psychologists and the validity of those theories is tested in order to move the scientific understandings forward (Fiske, 2010).
Secondly, in order to get trustworthy answers for the current as well as future scientific references, the scientific methods are made use of by the researches which help them in creating and using innovative ways and technologies (Fiske, 2010). Lastly, suitable research engines should be used by the social psychologists. Therefore, it can be said that at the end of the day all kinds of scientific studies are dependent upon the scientific methods to help them in supporting, proving, expanding and introducing new theories. Same is the case with social psychology (Fiske, 2010).
Search for Wisdom
Wisdom has been defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as, "scientific or philosophic learning / knowledge that has been accumulated" ("Wisdom," 2013, n.d.). However, it has to be kept in mind that wisdom itself or the search for it as it is related to the social psychology is a lot more than mere knowledge. In every field of study knowledge has an important place and efforts should always be made to obtain more and more knowledge however, a platform to make use of this knowledge in our daily lives is provided by wisdom along with improving the overall quality of a person's life (Baron et al., 2008, p. 35-6).
Concept of Situationism
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