In this essay we will discuss about Social Psychology. After reading this essay you will learn about: 1. Historical Background of Social Psychology 2. Definition of Social Psychology 3. Field, Scope, Aim and Problems 4. Relationship with Other Sciences 5. Applying Social Psychology 6. Status of Social Psychology in India.
Contents:
- Essay on the Historical Background of Social Psychology
- Essay on the Definition of Social Psychology
- Essay on the Field, Scope, Aim and Problems of Social Psychology
- Essay on the Relationship of Social Psychology with Other Sciences
- Essay on the Method of Applying Social Psychology
- Essay on the Status of Social Psychology in India
1. Essay on the Historical Background of Social Psychology:
Social Psychology, being a branch of General Psychology, Greek philosophers like Aristotle and Plato talked a lot about this. Though social psychology did not exist then, people talked about things which came under the fold of social psychology. Particularly the problem of human nature was discussed by Aristotle and Plato in the book ‘Republic’ which maintains that man is essentially a product of the society.
So he explains human behaviour in terms of the influences of the society. According to All-port (1985) speculation about social behaviour has continued since the days of antiquity. Thomas Hobbes (1661) a political thinker and philosopher well known for his theory of social contact views that man being essentially selfish talks in terms of himself and is engaged in his selfish interest.
Thus conflict arises between man and society. On the other hand, society is there to control him even though it sprung up from the utter selfishness of the individual. Quite opposite to the view of Hobbes, Russeu a political thinker of human nature opined that man is unselfish and thinks in terms of others.
According to him conflict in the society is the result of civilization. Darwin (1859) published his famous book “Origin of Specis” with an outlook to establish the theory of evolution.
Social scientists tried to deal with the problems relating to human behaviour. From the standpoint of theory of evolution, Darwin’s theory of evolution added to Galton’s individual differences and made evolutionary concept much more prominent in the fields of social sciences.
Fransis Galton agreed to Darwin’s theory of evolution and accounted for the psychology of individual difference due to hereditary background which plays an important role in mental makeup.
Herbert Spencer talked of different stages of human behaviour from evolutional point of view. He talked of several stages in the development of human behaviour and one pattern of behaviour becomes the succession of previous one. Human beings develop behaviour which are the character of a particular stage.
Towards the end of the 19th century some sociologists in France were working upon problems which are of fundamental importance to social psychology. Gabriel Trade, one great social psychologist speaks how important is socialization in human life.
He talked a lot of law of limitation which is one of the several fundamental problems of social psychology. French sociologist LeBon did lot of work on the analysis of crowd mentality.
The study of crowd and group mind WQS then the most important subject matter of social psychology. LeBon found that there is a significant difference between the reaction of an individual in a group situation and in a lone situation. People at that time thought the individual mind different from the group mind.
The concept of group mind, crowd mind and collective mind came into existence during this period. Psychologists and sociologists thus thought social psychology can explain every human behaviour with the concept of group and collective phenomena. In the beginning of the 20th century, Durkheim also talked a good deal on the relations of individual and society.
He held that the individual has no separate existence except as a member of the society. Thus naturally the problem of relation between individual and society came to wide prominence. Field man (1985) holds that social psychology did not really emerge as a science until the very end of the 19th century.
Norman Triplett (1897) conducted the first laboratory experiment on the social facilitation to investigate how performance alone in a given task was inferior to performance in the presence of others or in a group situation.
Till this time, no book with the title of ‘Social Psychology’ was published. After 11 years the first two American Text books fully dedicated to Social Psychology were published. In 1908 E.A. Ross published his first book on Social Psychology.
In the same year ‘An Outline of Social Psychology’ authored by William McDougall was published which became very popular. McDougall who is widely known for his theory of instincts indicated in this book how a particular instinct is responsible for a particular behaviour.
Gradually towards 1912, in Germany many people began to start working upon human behaviour in lone and group situations. Experimental method got its scope in the field of social psychology as well. The behaviour of the individual in different situations were experimented and studied.
Since a number of people were doing the same experiment one had to think in terms of the other as the performance of different experimenters were to be compared.
This feeling was aroused in each and every subject working on such problems. While in a lone situation the subject may not be influenced by anybody as he thinks and works only in terms of himself, in a group situations he has to think in terms of others guided by factors relating to group behaviour.
Difference between group and lone situation was noticed by comparing the performances and output under these two situations.
Some people were working on problems like competition and rivalry and Moode (1908) is one of them. Tomes, Zanicke were also doing experimental studies on such problems of social importance because of the introduction of experimental method in social psychology.
The progress gradually became more rapid and a large number of books were published on social psychology. Many journals exclusively devoted themselves to publication of articles on social psychology.
Soon thereafter social psychology began to broaden its horizons by studying the influences of external factors on the individual with the publications of Allport’s Social Psychology in 1924. Specially F.H. All port (1924) did a lot of work by introducing the concept of social facilitation or collective mind.
Thus between 1920 to 1930 Sherif and Lewin came to lime light in the realm of social psychology with their work on the transmission of social norms and application of social psychological experimental techniques to social problems.
In the 1940s and 1950s there was an increasing orientation towards practical issues of social psychological problems like the study of prejudice, group behaviour, propaganda stereotype and attitude change.
The end of 1950 brought a turn towards more theoretical issues with a particular emphasis being placed on how people’s cognitions are affected by inconsistencies between behaviour and cognitions by the theory advanced by Leo Festinger (1957).
In 1960s thus there has a shift of interest towards ultra individual social processes and away from inter individual process. This led to a lot of research work on attribution which refers to the process by which one makes inferences regarding the causes of others behaviour. Thus in 1970s social cognition became the important area of work.
It seems that in 1980-90s social psychologists were moving backward to a problem solving orientation. Of late, social psychology is having greater influence on areas related to every ones lives so to say like medical care, law, business, arms negotiation, reduction of international tensions and cold war and many other important topics. Also theoretical researches are being done on social psychology.
According to Resemberg and Gara (1983), Oskamp (1984), both purely theoretical and applied research are seen as part of the mainstream of social psychology currently.
Experimental studies were accelerated for years together to explain the fact that group situations produce different effects in the behaviour of participating individuals. Grander Murphy published two important books named “Experimental Social Psychology” and “Minds of Men.”
Under the impact of sociological findings on groups, the experience and behaviour of the individual in actual group situations and in his culture were studied.
Emphasis was put on the emerging qualities and products in group situations. The study of structural properties typical to the group became the core of group studies. Important studies were also conducted and books written on Psychology of Ego involvement, “Concept of Frame of Reference,” Propaganda, Sociogram, Group dynamics etc.
Problems like group morale, attitude, leadership, which are so important also were investigated by that time. The intergroup and intragroup relations were also studied.
2. Essay on the Definition of Social Psychology:
Social psychology is defined by Ottoklienbrterg as the scientific study of the behaviour of the individuals as related to other individuals. These other individuals may influence the single individual or the group in a global way. Thus the behaviour of any individual is socially determined.
According of Kimballyoung (1946) “Social Psychology is the study of persons in their interaction with one another and with reference to the effects of this interplay upon the individual’s thoughts, feelings, emotions and habits.”
Kimballyoung while defining social psychology has emphasised the effect of social interaction (interaction between different individuals) on the mental process and personality development of individuals which is a very vital point.
All port has tried to approach social psychology from the angle of behaviour of individuals in their relations to other individuals and in social situations. He opines that social psychology is the study of behaviour of individuals in their relations to other individuals and in social situation.
He has emphasized on two basic factors in Social Psychology:
(i) Relationship of individuals with one another
(ii) The individual’s behaviour in social situations. Murphy says that social psychology is the study of the way in which the individual becomes a member of and functioning into social group. Kretch and Crutchfield say that social psychology is the science of behaviour of the individuals in the society. The whole individual as well as his total behaviour in a social situation is emphasised by them.
Mathur defines social psychology as the scientific study of the behaviour of an individual when he comes in contact with the other individuals or interacts with any social group or groups or is confronted with some social situation in which he participates consciously or unconsciously. Kupuswamy has opined that social psychology attempts to study the characteristics of various forms of social behaviour.
Social Psychology studies the behaviour of the individual in relation to the society or group and not the society or group itself. He defines social psychology as “the branch of knowledge which studies the relationships arising out of the interaction of individuals with each other in social situation. In brief it deals with thinking, feeling and acting of the individual in the society.”
An analysis of all these definitions would indicate that in all these definitions, study of the interaction of the individual with the society is emphasized. Briefly it can be said that social psychology is the study of psychology of the individual when confronted in a social situation. It basically deals .with social interaction which may not involve face to face contacts.
Social behaviour may also arise indirectly through the medium of symbols. Social psychology is therefore a basic social science in that it is concerned with every aspect and total behaviour of the individual in the society.
It may therefore be appropriate to define social psychology as the science of social behaviour of the individual where social behaviour indicates behaviour arising out of the interaction with the other members in the society. What is a social situation and what is a social behaviour?
A social situation includes various types of stimuli, like visual, auditory, and tactual and the attitudes, values and past experiences of the individual that colour the perceptions of these stimuli present in the society.
Thus, the stimulus may be same for all members of a group. But the reactions may vary as attitude, value, need and past experiences are unique for a particular individual and vary from person to person. Hence the social behaviour is determined by the physical stimuli present in the environment, as well as by need, past experiences, social rules and social codes, traditions and customs, cultural factors etc.
Social psychology is not only a branch of general psychology it is also considered as a basic social science by itself as it is concerned with each and every aspect of a person’s behaviour in the society. Like other scientists social psychologists currently rely heavily on the same basic methods to understand social behaviour.
Thus, the overall approach of social psychology is clearly a scientific one. Like any other science it deals with a general set of methods and techniques that can be used to study diverse topics coming under the scope of social psychology.
Social psychologists have been interested to focus most of their attention and choice upon the actions and thoughts of individuals in social situations. No doubt such behavioural actions almost always occur in a group situation, when group means more than one person with some common interest.
It may occur against a backdrop of socio cultural factors like group ‘membership, culturally shared values, norms and standards.
But the major interest of social psychologists is to understand and acquaint themselves with factors that shape, mould and direct the action of individual human beings in a wide range of social situations. They are also actively interested to know how their action, feeling, thought, attitude and learning are shaped with respect to other individuals.
Social behaviour is formed and developed by varied factors.
Important among them are:
(1) Behaviour and characteristics of other persons,
(2) Social cognition i.e., thought, attitudes and memories about persons around,
(3) Ecological variables like direct and indirect influences of the physical environment, the socio cultural context in which social behaviour occurs and different aspects of the biological nature of man relevant to social behaviour.
Biological factors which refer to inherited aspects of our physical appearance and innate capacity of the person to process social information also affect and influence key aspects of behaviour in many situations.
According to Fieldman (1985) social psychology is a dynamic evolving scientific discipline with substantial relevance to people’s lives. It is an attempt to understand and explain how the thought, feeling and behaviour of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined and implied presence of others.
3. Essay on the Field, Scope, Aim and Problems of Social Psychology:
Social psychology is a very vast area and covers wide territory. Especially in the modern age where there is always tension and cold war of some sort study of social psychology is of tremendous importance. Social psychology is a dynamic science evolving a scientific discipline with substantial relevance to the peoples’ life.
It deals with the whole of the individual. Accurate and useful information about human social relations can be readily acquired by the study of social psychology through scientific methods. Even complex aspects of social behaviour can also be undertaken in a scientific manner by social psychologists.
Social psychology comes to help the administrators and politicians in order to advise them as to the methods that should be adopted for the improvement of society and how to live successfully by removing the social tension. It directs as to how the results of physical sciences should be handled for the benefits of the individuals.
As already indicated the scope of social psychology is very wide and growing wider day by day. New techniques are developed every day and new application of old techniques are discovered. Contact with neighbouring disciplines increases constantly. Social psychologists also direct their attention to practical problems which arise at the local, national and international level.
Social psychology focusses mainly on the task of understanding the causes of social behaviour, unidentified factors that shape one’s feeling behaviour and thought in social situation. Social psychology seeks to accomplish this goal through the use of essentially scientific methods. Studies on social interaction have proved quite fruitful in this regard.
Interpretation of general psychology in the light of various social situations, the examination of the manner in which social factors enter into activities which are not usually considered social like motivation, emotional behaviour, social perception and memory etc. have also been included under the scope and field of social psychology.
The situation may be perceived differently by different persons because of the difference in socialization process, need, value and past experience.
Difference in perception produces difference in behaviour. Social psychology also involves the translation of traditional social psychological concepts like imitation, suggestion, prejudice and discrimination etc. in terms of basic psychological concepts like learning and perception, social influence on the individual social interaction between two or more individuals group processes etc.
Even when one is in a lone situation, the way he thinks, feels and acts is affected and influenced by others. The effect of others are particularly more salient when their physical presence is felt in the environment. Manifestation of achievement motivation, formation and development of attitudes, opinions and ideas are also studied under social psychology.
The socialization of the child, culture and personality is another major feature of social psychology.
The manner is which the child becomes a socialized adult under different cultural conditions, how personalities and social behaviour vary with cultural differences are very interesting topics which have attracted the attention of social anthropologists. Interaction between and among individuals have been studied in social psychology, with added importance.
When two or more people are taking, working, discussing, sharing and interacting, planning, or even fighting verbally social psychologists study them with primary interest. Further communication processes, social influences in attitude change, bargaining and negotiating, interpersonal attraction, aggressive and helping behaviour are also important in social psychology.
How attitude can be changed by advertising, how nonverbal behaviour can be used to infer emotions and how friendship, love, relationship can be developed with others, how tensions and cold war can be reduced are the responsibility of social psychologists.
Study of group processes, group dynamics and socio-metry is also of prime importance to social psychologists. Social psychologists on a larger scale study organisations, social institutions like government and legal system and physical environment to find out how people respond to these influences.
Study of individual and group differences relate to the field of differential psychology. It represents continuous interests of the social psychologists in the study of the characteristics ides of temporary national groups and the problems of national character.
Cognitive factors like attitudes and opinions, beliefs, values, influences, communication research, content analysis, propaganda etc. are studied in social psychology as they play a key role in social behaviour.
By knowing the basic cognitive processes social behaviour can be modulated and changed according to need. The growing influence of cognitive perspective has therefore been recognised by social psychologists particularly during the 1970s.
The measurement of attitudes, the use of polling devices and other survey techniques, investigations of the effects of various mass media, the study of attitude change through propaganda and other methods, the study of trends in public opinions towards T.V., cinema, family planning, dowry system, widow marriage, caste system, gender issue, women education are studied in social psychology.
Social interaction, socio-metry and leadership include interrelated group of techniques and problems which are attracting tremendous attention of social psychologists working in the area of group dynamics and national and international relations.
If the group is carefully analysed the process of interaction (action and reaction) starts from the very beginning i.e., from the moment of birth. The neonate is helpless at birth and the biological needs of the new born infant are satisfied by the society.
During this process there is integration between the infant and the members of the society. Even in the lone situations the behaviour of a person is not free from social influences.
The way he feels, thinks, acts and behaves is determined in relation to the social customs, traditions, values and norms even when he is alone. However, one can say that the social influence may be minimum in a lone situation, while it is maximum when one is in a group. Hence the difference of influence is in degree and not in kind.
The structure of the group, its morale and cohesiveness also contribute a determining influence on the individual’s behaviour. The group may be divided into a number of subgroups but these subgroups differ and the difference may have an unhealthy influence upon the group morale.
From this angle the problem of leadership should be given top priority because the leaders reflect the characteristics and functions of the subgroups. The various techniques of propaganda and change of attitudes are made in this direction.
Problems relating to international tension are also included in the scope and field of social psychology. Particularly in the modern era when the distance in the international field is narrowed down, international tension is an interesting area to analyse and understand.
Like any other tension and conflict, the root of international tension is prejudice and discrimination. Hence prejudice, stereotypes and social tension etc. are studied in social psychology with special emphasis.
Of late, there was a shift in interest towards intra individual social processes and away from inter individual processes. Thus work on attribution and social cognition and person perception has been given emphasis.
More recently, everyone is experiencing the influence of social psychology in medical care, law and business etc. some social psychologist have also shifted their interest to study on impression formation. Research on social pathology has also interested the social psychologists.
Pathological aspects of social life has been studied with the development of adequate therapeutic methods. This interest has been directed particularly to the problems of mental abnormality, delinquency and crime and of the forms of inter group hostility reflected in prejudice and discrimination and industrial conflict.
Social motivation is a very important factor. Need for prestige, status recognition, honour are vital aspects of study in social psychology.
Biological, sociological and psychological factors have entered in the realm of social psychology. That is why its field is very vast. Briefly the development of social psychology includes the application of evolutionary and hereditarian principles to society, the emphasis on the psychological characters of groups as distinct from individuals, the theory of social motivation and the reactions against it, the application of experimental methods to the problems of social psychology and the increasing realisation of the part played by society in determining the behaviour of individual.
For the last few decades, social psychology has become increasingly comparative experimental and applied. During this period a large number of studies have been done in the area of social psychology which indicates its tremendous popularity and the interest shown by the psychologists in the area of experimental social psychology. But the progress in the area of experimental social psychology is not upto the mark.
Social psychology has not been encouraged so much due to the following reasons:
(i) A lot of people consider scientific social psychology research to be unnecessary and not worth the expense,
(ii) This is because of their belief that they have been quite successful in political, economic and social field without having a scientific knowledge of social psychology,
(iii) The most important purpose of science is to understand, predict and central, but social psychology as a science has not been able to predict human behaviour in the true sense of the term because unlike physical sciences psychology deals with human beings who are dynamic in nature.
4. Essay on the Relationship of Social Psychology with Other Sciences:
(i) Social Psychology and Sociology:
While studying the relationship between sociology and social psychology the absence of any sharp dividing line is noticed.
Sociology deals with the society, groups and institutions, how the society and groups function, its various manners and behaviour etc. The group and society as a whole, its structure and functions is also studied in sociology.
Adequate knowledge of the structure of the society, its customs and manners etc. would help one to understand the behaviour of the individual in the society as society influences the behaviour of the individual. On the other hand social psychology studies the individual behaviour in relation to the group or society.
According to Kupuswamy sociology is the science which studies the development and principles of social organisation and generally group behaviour as distinct from the behaviour of the individuals in the group. Basically the group is its unit of study.
It studies the structure and organisation of groups. More analytically speaking, sociology is interested in the origin and development of groups, the factors leading to the continuance of a group, how a group or society imposes its own discipline on its members and demands their compliance. How and why of change of groups and social institutions are also investigated by sociologists.
On the contrary, the field and scope of social psychology is very limited. It is only concerned with the individuals, how an individual interacts with other individuals in the group/social. Society psychology studies the psychological factors involved in the formation and development of a group. This psychological factor is also of basic necessity for the formation, development and change of social institutions.
According to MacIver and Page “Both Sciences are concerned with different aspects of an indivisible reality.” Individuals cannot be understood apart from their relations with one another, the relations cannot be understood apart from their units (or terms) of the relationship.
Nevertheless a group is made up of individuals and overlapping in the scope and subject matter of sociology and social psychology is inevitable.
For example, while considering the problems of gang and gang behaviour the sociologist would be concerned with the social and economic causes of gang life, the relation of the gang to law and order, and institutions like the school and the church and the geographical distribution of gangs, their effect on the life of the community etc.
On the other hand, the social psychologist might be expected to study the nature of the individual in the gang, their intellectual and personal characteristics, the effect of the gang on the individuals constituting it, the life history of the individual members, etc.
When, however, a sociologist attempts to write a book or an article on GANG he would certainly not make any such artificial distinction and interestingly many of his findings would relate properly to the field of social psychology.
(ii) Social Psychology and Anthropology:
Anthropology is defined as the science of man, study of individuals and their cultures. Anthropology involves the biological and socio cultural aspects. It takes even a larger approach to social phenomena than sociology by focusing its attention on the universal or total population of a particular culture such as family structure. It places very little importance or emphasis on the individual.
The science of anthropology particularly ethnology bears a similar relation to social psychology. Wissler regards social psychology as concerned with individual performance in group and anthropology with group- behaviour.
The anthropologist is least interested in the function of the individual in the group. But there are occasions where the individual becomes of utmost importance to the anthropologist. Literatures and facts dealing with the life histories of members of many different cultural groups bear ample testimony to the growing interest of anthropologists in the individual and culture.
A human being not only transmits his beliefs, customs and values of social institutions to his children and descendants, he also transfers his skills to them. This is called culture. “Culture stands for the sum total of human behaviour, verbal and nonverbal and its products, material and non material.” Anthropology is interested in studying how culture influences the behaviour of an individual.
Culture has two aspects such as material and non-material. Material aspects refer to the modes of culture or modes of living, house building, tools and the objects which give a particular technique of living to different people. Non-material aspects refer to the customs, traditions, manners, taboos etc. prevalent in the society and this varies from culture to culture. A cultural anthropologist deals with such things.
Margaret Mead in “From the South Seas Patterns”. Ruth Benedict in “Patterns of Culture”, Kardinar in “The Individual and the Society”, and in “Psychological Fronters of Society” have analysed different cultures and their effects on individual’s personality and living standard.
The social psychologist studies the behaviour of the individual in a group and these people of a group come form different cultures. Whether different people of the same group come from same culture or different cultures will determine the behaviour of the individual.
Difference in behaviour is marked because of difference in cultural conditions. The behaviour of people coming from homogeneous culture ought to be different from the activities and behaviour of persons coming from heterogeneous culture and there may be conflict among the people coming from heterogeneous culture ‘ because of the difference in cultural conditions.
According to Majumdar and Madan socio-cultural anthropology studies four types of human activities:
(i) Activities leading to the satisfaction of biological and psychological needs;
(ii) Activities reading to social organisation like family, marriage, clubs and other social institutions for satisfaction to biological and psychological social motives through group behaviour;
(iii) Activities and attitudes towards the unseen presence of supernatural powers; and
(iv) Activities required for the expression of aesthetic activities of a group. No human behaviour or nature is purely biological. Different biological traits of behaviour are coloured and conditioned by the cultural training and upbringing. Approval of a particular trait demands upon the norms of the group.
While aggressiveness and competitiveness is approved in New Guinea, it is disapproved in Zuni Red Indians of New Mexico. While the ideal qualities of Mudugammers are violence and aggressiveness, in Arapest tribe the ideal and accepted qualities are mildness and responsiveness.
In the Tchembuli tribe, the woman is dominant, responsible and impersonal while the man is less responsible and emotionally dependent person says Margret Mead.
Similarly in Indian tribal groups technique of up-bring and socio cultural values influence personality traits and socialization process. The chief aim of an anthropologist is to study the patterns of culture in different parts of the universe particularly the illiterate tribal and rural groups of the world, their customs, traditions, mores, values and norms.
Culture is considered as a very important force which studies the values and mores of a person and how they determine, control and regulate the behaviour of the individual.
Though by and large a particular culture of a society determine, regulate and control individual behaviour and though the majority of the individual in any particular group are found to be of conforming type, it cannot be forgotten that some individuals bring change in the existing culture by their revolutionary and novel ideas.
While a cultural anthropologist studies the pattern of culture, social psychologist studies the way in which a particular individual of a particular group acquires the culture.
According to Kupuswamy while anthropology makes use of culture and customs as concepts to understand patterns of social organisation, it is the task of social psychology to analyse the processes underlying these concepts. An anthropologist also attempts to determine how customs are found and transmitted from generation to generation.
Data collected by both anthropologists and social psychologist is of tremendous value in classifying many psychological problems. Psychologists have become more and more culture conscious and they are found using the data of anthropologists.
Gradually they are familiarizing themselves more and more with anthropological research and are insisting on its growing need to separate the accidental from the universal in human nature.
In some cases psychologists and psychoanalysts have applied their theories and techniques to the understanding of ethnological phenomena. Similarly in other cases, ethnologists have borrowed from psychology those modes of interpretation which they have found most useful.
It is observed that application of psychological techniques to the comparative study of culture is increasing day by day. Psychologists and anthropologists have cooperated in this development in some instances combining their techniques and points of view in carrying joint research undertakings.
Although overlapping is observed among social psychology, sociology and anthropology, the major focus of interest and the approach to problems differ among these fields. The major focus of social psychologist has been individual psychological process and their social integration with others while sociologists and anthropologists focus on the larger groups to which people belong.
According to Linton “The individual has been assigned to psychology, society to sociology and culture to cultural anthropology. The integration between individual, society and culture is so close and their interaction is so continuous that the investigator who tries to work with any of these disciplines without reference to the other two soon comes to a dead end.”
Social psychology is also related to social sciences like economics and politics in some way or other. The individual may have some effimination to certain political parties, it may have some view about a particular economic problem. Therefore particular problems which are related to the individual in the society are also related to social psychology.
5. Essay on the Method of Applying Social Psychology:
Though of late a lot of work has been done on experimental social psychology, social psychology nevertheless begins and ends in the laboratory. Basic research in social psychology naturally leads to application. Almost as soon as the field was established, social psychologists were found rightly showing interest in the application aspect.
Many social psychologist devote their primary professional efforts to solving societal problems. Social psychology is very helpful in providing data relevant to issues as diverse as the improvement of day care for children and evaluation of affirmative action policies.
It is thus seen that the job of the social psychologist is besides establishing principles of social behaviour to apply these principles and theories in social situations for understanding a specific behaviour.
An applied social psychologist not only analyses but also diagnoses and advises on various social problems. When social psychology is shifted from academics and carried to occupations and applied setting, increasing emphasis on applied activity is visualized.
Many of the modern social psychologists are currently working in hospitals, government offices, business organisations and other semi-academic and non- academic institutions to assess, control and predict human behaviour under different settings and solve social problems.
In view of the period bias attached to social psychology today Rodin (1985) has defined social psychology as the utilisation of social psychological principles and research methods in real world settings in the attempt to solve social problem.
(i) Role of social psychology in legal system,
(ii) Health psychology,
(iii) Psychology in work setting i.e. organisational behaviour,
(iv) Consumer behaviour.
(i) Role of Social Psychology in Legal System:
In a society, there is enough scope for interaction and when people interact their behaviour and judgement etc. are affected by various factors like attitudes, emotions, beliefs and cognitions. In the court room or in the legal system these attitudes and beliefs affect the participants like the judges and jury, pleaders, attorney, dependants and witnesses in a major way.
Huge Munsterberg started investing the accuracy in the statements of eye witnesses at the turn of the century.
On the basis of his observations, pointed out that people have by and large a tendency to reconstruct events in ways that do not match what actually occurred. He opined that emotions strongly affect the memories of witnesses as a result of which accounts of what occurred or happened were very often greatly distorted or transformed by fear, anxiety and anger etc.
Recently there was an effort to increase the accuracy of the testimonies of eye witnesses.
Munsterberg devises a physiological instrument to detect lying and also investigated the application of the technique of hypnosis as means to bring accuracy in the testimony of the witnesses. Both lie detection and hypnosis are the centre of current research efforts in this field.
Munsterberg further believed that not only witnesses but also judges and juries were subject to the effects of suggestibility and persuasion. Thus applied research on the legal system provides convincing evidence that psychological factors influence witnesses, jurors and defendants, attorneys and judges according to Baren and Byrne (1988).
(ii) Health Psychology:
It refers to the social psychological aspects of health care. Gundola (1985) views that some personality variables predispose a person having certain illnesses. Increase in physical fitness leads to an improvement in psychological characteristics such as creativity. Thus according to Rogers (1983) health psychology studies the psychological processes that affect the prevention and treatment of physical illness.
Prevention being always better than cure, preventing illness is always desirable than treating illness. Kirscht (1983) holds that any health programme must deal with individual differences in the willingness to follow medical advice. Analysis of the problem led to the development of health belief model. It means that an individual’s beliefs about health and threat of illness are used to predict his health related behaviour.
Weinstein (1904) noted that college students hold unrealistically optimistic beliefs about their health risks. These findings may lead one to hold lack of knowledge on the part of the students which is not actually correct. Rudy and Salovey (1984) further say that the problem lies not in having the information but in applying it to oneself.
(iii) Work Setting:
This refers to organisational behaviour. It seeks to know, understand and predict human behaviour in original work situation or environment through scientific study of individuals and groups as well as the structure and function of such organisations.
By the following factors one can achieve job satisfaction and assess its effects on production as well as on the employees:
(a) Selection of the right employee can ensure full job satisfaction and productivity. The employee and the job must fit with each other.
(b) To make jobs more interesting and stimulating variety, novelty and change can be introduced to routined task.
(c) Flexible time schedules i.e. freedom in deciding when to work leads to decrease in absenteeism and hence more and better performance.
(d) Organisational commitment on the part of the employees should be ensured.
(e) Meetings of employees should be called voluntarily once in a week to discuss problems on the job and to suggest solutions also may improve the quality and quantity of productions and overall psychological condition of the employees.
According to Marks (1986), Koch (1982) the relationship between job satisfaction and one’s personal life is fairly direct. Those who are happily married like their jobs better than do those who are single. Thus it seems reasonable to expect that satisfaction or dissatisfaction involving either one’s work or one’s home life would obviously have an effect on the other.
(iv) Consumer Behaviour:
The behaviour of the individual in advertising, product information packaging, brand names and all other factors involved in marketing products and services come under applied social psychology. Consumer psychology is that field which deals with the factors affecting consumer behaviour.
All these discussions lead one to conclude that application of social psychology to organisational and consumer behaviour is of crucial importance in every aspect of one’s life. It would really be difficult to conceive any human behaviour where the findings of social psychology would be inapplicable and irrelevant.
The science of social psychology as an applied science contributes a lot in dealing with the problems of national and international tension, communal and social prejudice, discrimination and conflicts relating to socio-economic status in uncovering the relevant causes of these problems in specific situations.
The concrete details of various problems of social psychology are to be known for applying social psychology to the concrete situation. For all these work, careful research on applied social psychology is essential.
The various problems of social psychology change from time to time and from culture to culture and even to some extent in the same culture depending upon the parental and neighbourhood social values built up for long years. How particular intercultural and interpersonal problems influence various social problems are also studied by applied social psychologists.
However, it is reasonable to hold that the findings of social psychological research with certain exceptions can be widely generalizable and potentially useful to all human beings of the society provided they have an applied bias. Only formulating theories and principles on social psychology is not enough.
6. Essay on the Status of Social Psychology in India:
Scientific studies, researches and investigations elevate the status and scope of a subject. In view of this, social psychology holds a lower status in India compared to its western counterparts. Psychological researches in India started around the first part of the twentieth century when Calcutta University started its first psychological laboratory in 1915.
During these eighty years though certain research works have been carried out by Indian social psychologists they are not enough to give even a moderate status to social psychology. Even if some have shown initial interest in the research work on social psychology, no continuity has been maintained. In most of the cases the works have been left half way, incomplete, unfinished due to various reasons.
However, it cannot be denied that in the post independent period there has been a great rise in the research work on social psychology. While between 1950-1960 the total number of research papers published in India in the area of social psychology come to 96,306 papers were published during the period 1960-1970. Besides these published works, many unpublished research works have also been conducted.
The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) has undoubtedly helped immensely in accelerating the interest of Indian psychologists to conduct research in the area of social psychology by providing funds and sponsoring schemes.
Research studies have been conducted in the area of attitude, stereotype, culture and personality pattern, family structure and socialization process, effect of socioeconomic structure on aspiration and achievements, marriage, cross cultural comparisons, social tension, caste, sex and religious prejudices among children and adults of various religious and socioeconomic groups, social change and factors influencing the resistance to social change, psycho linguistics, public opinion and communication process, cognitive consonance, rumour, social life of tribals.
Several scales have also been constructed for use in social psychology research. Attempts have been made to develop innovative methods etc. Studies on inter-group and inter-caste tensions have also been carried out by some.
India being a country where people of innumerable castes, languages and religions reside, there is enough scope for varied studies in social psychology, particularly on inter-caste, inter-religion and different linguistic groups. But unfortunately the researches conducted are not quite encouraging and meaningful as they have not been of much help in reducing the social problems and social burden of Indian democracy.
Of course, several huddles and difficulties have obstructed the speedy growth of research in social psychology and India. Illiteracy, poor socio-economic condition of people of the disadvantaged class, lack of initiative on the part of the common people to cooperate heartily with research are some of the important obstacles.
Thus, by and large, the psychological climate is not favourable for such research. People look towards the researchers with suspicion who go to collect data with suspicion because of lack of proper education. Enough research facilities are not available in many colleges and universities of the country.
Want of funds and sponsoring authorities for conduction of research are some basic handicaps also. India being a developing country, education for all has still become a dream than a reality. Though we are approaching 21st century primary education is not provided to all school going children due to financial and other constraints.
When people are not able to fulfil their minimum needs, provision for funds for research has not been and cannot be given top priority.
Inspite of the above handicaps, the Indian social psychologists have taken tremendous trouble to improve the standard of research during the last several decades. In the mean time, attempts have been made to conduct highly sophisticated research in the area of social psychology.
The basic deficiency in the research of Indian social psychologists appears to lie in its lack of applicability. Unless social psychologist researches indicate the utility and applicability of their findings no one can afford and encourage the luxury of researches without any application and utility. Thus the approach and orientation towards social psychology, researches should be shifted from theory to practice.
The above review of the status of social psychology in India makes it amply clear that though social psychology was neglected branch of psychology in India before 1960, after 1960 it got the special attention of the Indian social psychologists. With the establishment of the various university centres and institutes in India, research in social psychology has been speeded up after 1960.
The Indian Council of Social Science Research New Delhi, The A.N.S. Institute of Social Studies, Patna, The Institute of Psychological Researches, Patna University, The Centre for Social Assistance in Psychology Allahabad, University, Centre for Advanced Studies in Psychology, Utkal University, The N.K.C. Institute of Special Sciences Bhubaneswar, Orissa, the P.G. Deptts. of various universities of the country have stimulated a number of valuable and original research in social psychology.
Leading Indian social psychologists like Durganand Sinha, R. Rath, H.C. Ganguly, A.K. Singh, Adinarayan, Anant, Aslhan, J.C. Dasgupta, Kupuswamy, V. Jhosi, Bhusan Bhattacharya, V.K. Kolhurkar, C.K. Bose, A.K.P. Sinha, Majumdar, G.B. Mohanty, S.C. Panchbhai, V. Pareekh and many others have enriched the field of social psychology in India inspite of lack of research facilities.
These psychologists should be credited for their constant and continuous research interest in various areas of social psychology mostly due to their own initiative.
Currently many brilliant and young social psychologists posted at various universities and Institutes of the country have shown active interest in social psychology research. Many of them are also engaged in the research on applied and experimental social psychology.
But unfortunately journals in social psychology are not adequate to publish their research findings. Unless the research findings get adequate scope for publication, it would not be possible for other psychologists working in the same area to benefit from each other. Further large number of conferences should be conducted every year for discussion, analysis and review etc.
If the difficulties and bottle-necks discussed above can be removed to some extent the status of social psychology can be elevated to be comparable with its western counterparts with systematic and concerted efforts.