Psychology and Social Psychology
Social psychology is considered the scientific study of how individuals thoughts, behaviors, and feelings are influenced by other peoples behaviors and characteristics, notwithstanding if these behaviors and characteristics are inferred, real, or imagined. Social psychology is critical in understanding how the psychology of individuals works and the external factors that have an overarching impact on developing the self-concept.
Psychology and social psychology intersect as the individuals interact; they may act following social expectations or depending on peoples behaviors, attitudes, and thoughts in different cultures (Morris & Maisto, 2016). Thus, behaviors often are perceived as reflections of individual traits, such as values and attitudes, instead of situational behavior that other peoples social expectations may prompt.
Social psychology acknowledges peoples behaviors are greatly influenced by a sense of universality, exploring how social behaviors differ in different cultures. Further, social psychology is not oblivious to the biological influence on a persons behavior; thus, neuroimaging and social cognition are examined extensively to understand factors that come into play in social interactions.
Social cognition is one of the main sub-topics in social psychology explored in-depth in social psychology. Social cognition refers to a set of complex mental abilities that are the foundation of stimulus perception, processing, interpretation, and responses (Morris & Maisto, 2016).
Collectively, these cognitive abilities aid the development of sufficient social competence and adaption. In social psychology, the process of influence in a social setting is associated with the organization and interpretation of information about other people that seek to understand their behavior to determine the extent to which they influence our behavior.
Before starting a conversation with a new person, a person forms an ideal perception of the individual that informs their interaction for the first time. After that, even if the individual share is contrary to the first impression. For example, the first impression...
Consequently, the schema we develop about an individual often informs our behaviors based on what we expect their behaviors might be or our expectations of what an interaction with an individual might be like. This effect is self-fulfilling if the other person mirrors our behavior.Notably, social cognition focuses mainly on the axioms upon which the thinking process is predicated upon. As established, individuals rely on schemas to understand the world, but these schemas differ among people. The cultural background of an individual mainly determines the differences in schemata.
The cultural influence at an early age informs how individuals think and perceive their environment and people from other cultural backgrounds (Hunt et al., 2012). These are stereotypes that are presumed to be shared unanimously across all members of a social grouping. Notably, after forming the first impression, people are reluctant to change perceptions based on the newly acquired information but infer from that individuals distinguishing feature.
Social cognition is essential in social psychology since it creates a foundation for studying social interactions and the dynamics of social interactions. Study the cognitive process before an individual interacts with another person to educate people on their own biases that might inhibit successful interactions. For example, the stereotypes traditionally held across races have been dismantled by establishing that life experiences in different cultures do not differ, but their perception does. Social cognition gives us an insight into the manner individuals…
References
Hunt, C., Borgida, E., & Lavine, H. (2012). Social Cognition. Encyclopedia Of Human Behaviour, 456-462. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-375000-6.00331-1
Morris, C., & Maisto, A. (2016). Understanding psychology (11th ed.). Pearson.
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