The History of Social Psychology

Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are
influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.[1] In this

definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings,
and behaviors include all psychological variables that are measurable in a human being. The
statement that others' presence may be imagined or implied suggests that we are prone to social
influence even when no other people are present, such as when watching television, or following
internalized cultural norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of
the interaction of mental states and immediate social situations.
Social psychologists therefore deal with the factors that lead us to behave in a given way in the
presence of others, and look at the conditions under which certain behavior/actions and feelings
occur. Social psychology is concerned with the way these feelings, thoughts, beliefs, intentions
and goals are constructed and how such psychological factors, in turn, influence our interactions
with others.
Social psychology is a discipline that had traditionally bridged the gap between psychology
and sociology. During the years immediately following World War II there was frequent
collaboration between psychologists and sociologists.[2] However, the two disciplines have
become increasingly specialized and isolated from each other in recent years, with sociologists
focusing on "macro variables" (e.g., social structure) to a much greater extent.
Nevertheless, sociological approaches to social psychology remain an important counterpart to
psychological research in this area.
In addition to the split between psychology and sociology, there has been a somewhat less
pronounced difference in emphasis between American social psychologists and European social
psychologists. As a generalization, American researchers traditionally have focused more on the
individual, whereas Europeans have paid more attention to group level phenomena (see group
dynamics).[3][page needed]
The History of Social Psychology

The science of social psychology began when scientists first started to
systematically and formally measure the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
of human beings (Kruglanski & Stroebe, 2011). The earliest social
psychology experiments on group behavior were conducted before 1900
(Triplett, 1898), and the first social psychology textbooks were published
in 1908 (McDougall, 1908/2003; Ross, 1908/1974). During the 1940s and
1950s, the social psychologists Kurt Lewin and Leon Festinger refined the
experimental approach to studying behavior, creating social psychology
as a rigorous scientific discipline. Lewin is sometimes known as the
father of social psychology because he initially developed many of the
important ideas of the discipline, including a focus on the dynamic
interactions among people. In 1954, Festinger edited an influential book
called Research Methods in the Behavioral Sciences, in which he and
other social psychologists stressed the need to measure variables and to
use laboratory experiments to systematically test research hypotheses
about social behavior. He also noted that it might be necessary in these
experiments to deceive the participants about the true nature of the
research.
Social psychology was energized by researchers who attempted to
understand how the German dictator Adolf Hitler could have produced
such extreme obedience and horrendous behaviors in his followers during
the World War II. The studies on conformity conducted by Muzafir Sherif
(1936) and Solomon Asch (1952), as well as those on obedience by Stanley
Milgram (1974), showed the importance of conformity pressures in social
groups and how people in authority could create obedience, even to the
extent of leading people to cause severe harm to others. Philip Zimbardo,
in his well-known prison study (Haney, Banks, & Zimbardo,
1973), found that the interactions of male college students who were
recruited to play the roles of guards and prisoners in a simulated prison
became so violent that the study had to be terminated early.
Social psychology quickly expanded to study other topics. John Darley and
Bibb Latan (1968) developed a model that helped explain when people
do and do not help others in need, and Leonard Berkowitz
(1974) pioneered the study of human aggression. Meanwhile, other social
psychologists, including Irving Janis (1972), focused on group behavior,
studying why intelligent people sometimes made decisions that led to
disastrous results when they worked together. Still other social
psychologists, including Gordon Allport and Muzafir Sherif, focused on
intergroup relations, with the goal of understanding and potentially
reducing the occurrence of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination.
Social psychologists gave their opinions in the 1954 Brown v. Board of
Education U.S. Supreme Court case that helped end racial segregation in
American public schools, and social psychologists still frequently serve as
expert witnesses on these and other topics (Fiske, Bersoff, Borgida, Deaux,
& Heilman, 1991). In recent years insights from social psychology have
even been used to design anti-violence programs in societies that have
experienced genocide (Staub, Pearlman, & Bilali, 2010).
The latter part of the 20th century saw an expansion of social psychology
into the field of attitudes, with a particular emphasis on cognitive
processes. During this time, social psychologists developed the first
formal models of persuasion, with the goal of understanding how
advertisers and other people could present their messages to make them
most effective (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Hovland, Janis, & Kelley,
1963). These approaches to attitudes focused on the cognitive processes
that people use when evaluating messages and on the relationship
between attitudes and behavior. Leon Festingers important cognitive
dissonance theory was developed during this time and became a model for
later research (Festinger, 1957).
In the 1970s and 1980s, social psychology became even more cognitive in
orientation as social psychologists used advances in cognitive psychology,
which were themselves based largely on advances in computer technology,
to inform the field (Fiske & Taylor, 2008). The focus of these researchers,
including Alice Eagly, Susan Fiske, E. Tory Higgins, Richard Nisbett, Lee
Ross, Shelley Taylor, and many others, was on social cognitionan
understanding of how our knowledge about our social worlds develops
through experience and the influence of these knowledge structures on
memory, information processing, attitudes, and judgment.Furthermore,
the extent to which humans decision making could be flawed due to both
cognitive and motivational processes was documented (Kahneman,
Slovic, & Tversky, 1982).
In the 21st century, the field of social psychology has been expanding into
still other areas. Examples that we consider in this book include an
interest in how social situations influence our health and happiness, the
important roles of evolutionary experiences and cultures on our behavior,
and the field of social neurosciencethe study of how our social
behavior both influences and is influenced by the activities of our
brain (Lieberman, 2010). Social psychologists continue to seek new ways
to measure and understand social behavior, and the field continues to
evolve. We cannot predict where social psychology will be directed in the
future, but we have no doubt that it will still be alive and vibrant.

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How did early social psychologists study group behavior?

What are some examples of how social psychology has expanded its areas of study?

Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are

influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.[1] In this

The History of Social Psychology

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