Social psychology is a branch of psychology that studies the social psychological phenomena of individuals and groups. Individual social psychological phenomenon refers to the thoughts, emotions and behaviors of individuals restricted by others and groups, such as interpersonal perception, interpersonal attraction, social promotion and social inhibition, obedience, etc. Group social psychological phenomenon refers to the unique psychological characteristics of the group itself, such as group cohesion, social psychological atmosphere and group decision-making.
Social psychology is a borderline discipline between psychology and sociology, and it is influenced by these two disciplines. From the beginning, social psychology has two different research directions, namely, social psychology in sociological direction and social psychology in psychological direction. Different theoretical viewpoints to explain social psychological phenomena do not hinder the basic characteristics that social psychology should have as an independent discipline.
Generally speaking, general psychology studies the general relationship between subject and object, including natural object and social object. Social psychology mainly studies the special relationship between subject and social object, that is, the relationship between people and groups. The laws obtained by general psychology in studying the general relationship between subject and object can be applied to social psychology. The laws obtained by social psychology in studying the relationship between subject and social object can also enrich general psychology, which traditionally focuses on the relationship between individuals and things, while social psychology focuses on the relationship between individuals, groups and people in groups.
The relationship between social psychology and personality psychology is closer and more complicated. The American Psychological Association still puts personality and social psychology in one branch. Generally speaking, personality psychology studies the formation and development of personality traits, involving the relationship between nature and education and relatively stable psychological traits, while social psychology mainly studies the influence of direct social situations on individuals and the role of individuals in explaining such situations. An important discovery of social psychology shows that the role of direct social situations is often underestimated.
The special study of social psychology began in the second half of19th century. A series of papers on ethnic psychology by Laka Ruth and Heymann Steinthal were published in 1860. Since then, Tarde's Imitation Law, Siegel's Crime Masses and Lebon's Popular Psychology have come out one after another, which laid the foundation for the formation of British social psychology. 49660.68668688666
After World War I, American psychologist allport and German psychologist Maud initiated the direction of experimental social psychology. Although the experimental study of social psychology can be traced back to the experimental study of social promotion in 1898, it is allport and Maud who really initiated and popularized this direction. After them, experimental social psychology began to become the mainstream of social psychology research in the west, especially in the United States.
Since the publication of allport's book Social Psychology, social psychology has entered a period of rapid development. In 2008+0928, thurston put forward the method of attitude measurement, which improved the attitude research started by Thomas and Zenanetsky and became the research center of social psychology at that time. In 2008+0934, Moreno put forward the method of social measurement. It is used to measure interpersonal attraction and exclusion within a group. 1938, Lei Wen introduced field theory into social psychology, and put forward the concept of personal living space or field, holding that behavior is a function of interaction between individual characteristics and situational factors. In the 1940s and 1950s, influenced by World War II and Lei Wen, social psychology mainly studied group influence and attitude.
In 1950s, Ashe and others studied obedience. Yale College, led by hovland, published a series of studies on persuasion. Festinger put forward the theory of cognitive dissonance, which became the research center in 1960s. In 1970s, the attribution theory based on Hyde's Psychology of Interpersonal Relations became a research hotspot. Since 1980s, cognitive social psychology and applied social psychology have been paid more and more attention.
Before 1950s, China's social psychology existed as an independent discipline. As early as the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, social psychology was introduced as an important branch of psychology. In the 1920s, Le Bang's Popular Psychology, McDougall William's Introduction to Social Psychology and allport's Social Psychology were translated and published, and China scholars themselves wrote some social psychology works.
The main topics of social psychology research are different with the evolution of the times. Early social psychology focused on the psychological phenomena of large groups and the public, such as the research on national psychology by Lacha Ruth, Heymann Steinthal and Feng Te; Tarde, Siegel and Lebon's Research on Popular Psychology. Some viewpoints put forward by these researchers are still influential today, such as Tarde's imitation law, Lebon's group extremism, and the disappearance of personality. At the beginning of the 20th century, the research on attitude became the center. After the direction of experimental social psychology appeared, the research on social promotion became the center. Later, group process, persuasion, obedience, cognitive dissonance and attribution became the research center of a certain period.
The United States is the country that studies social psychology the most and has the greatest influence, and its research topics are representative to some extent, which will often affect other countries. 1980, American psychologist Smith and others made a survey on the articles published in major American social psychology journals since 1979. This survey shows that attribution and attitude change are the most studied, with more than 50 papers. Followed by social and personality development and cognitive process, reaching more than 40.
With the development of social psychology, research topics are increasingly enriched and expanded. From early social promotion research to social loafing research, from obedience to anti-obedience and independence, from aggression to altruism, from attraction to love, from interpersonal perception to attribution. This shows that the research field of social psychology is getting wider and deeper.
Since the mid-1960s, the views of social psychologists have changed, which are mainly manifested in: recognizing the limitations of experimental methods, attaching importance to on-site research, attaching importance to applied research, attaching importance to testing the theory obtained by laboratory research with on-site applied research, and revising, supplementing and developing it. Today's social psychologists emphasize that from field research to laboratory research, or from laboratory research to field research, it is repeated and mutually demonstrated. At the same time, the widespread use of computers also
The research methods of social psychology should be diversified and problem-centered, that is, the corresponding research methods should be selected according to the subject to be studied. The experimental methods overemphasized by mainstream American social psychology have been challenged by European and American academic circles. Some people appropriately criticized this experimental process, calling it "an experiment in a vacuum, in which a grand social reality is distorted into a false social interaction between unrelated individuals in an artificial laboratory" [4]. It is too extreme to think that only by using "scientific" and quantitative methods to study social psychological problems can the results be true and reliable. Professor Chen Li, a senior psychologist, pointed out that psychological research can only use empirical methods in the laboratory. Other methods can also be used. Walking on two legs is safer and more effective than jumping on one leg [5]. This is true for the study of general psychological problems, especially for the study of social psychological problems. Open a large number of American social psychology experimental reports, in addition to the disadvantages of "experiments in a vacuum." It is not uncommon for people to summarize the reliable experience with the so-called fine experimental design and tedious statistical analysis in their long-term life practice. This kind of research is a waste of resources. The so-called diversification of research methods means that in addition to the appropriate application of empirical methods, humanistic methods can also be applied, such as cultural anthropology methods and spiritual product analysis methods, which are often very effective in revealing people's social and psychological essence.
Finally, it needs to be clear that we have to focus on finding problems in the development of social psychology in China, but this does not mean denying the development of social psychology in China. In fact, in recent 20 years, with the efforts of scholars, China's social psychology has produced many excellent research results. This is a sign of the continuous development of social psychology in China, and it is also a strength to enhance the self-confidence of social psychologists in China.