Social Psychology is a branch of Psychology. General Psychology is briefly introduced here before explaining Social Psychology. Psychology is comprehensively defined as follows:

“Psychology is the study of human behavior and mental processes”. (R.S Feldman)

Psychology studies human behavior with regards to the underlying mental processes. Human behavior is determined by mental processes such as thinking, emotions, feelings, cognition; and learning and past experiences. Hence, Psychology attempts to understand the dynamics of human behavior as well as mental processes, e.g., what is an aggressive behavior? What are the mental processes involved in aggressive behavior? How are mental processes triggered by our memories or social experiences in a way that leads to aggressive behavior?

   SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Social Psychology is a branch of Psychology. It studies of human behavior in groups. The word ‘social’ means in relation to others. Hence, it studies an individual’s behavior in relation to others. In simple words, it studies how and why an individual behaves in the presence of others the way they behave. It attempts to understand how human behavior is influenced by others.

The difference between general psychology and general psychology is that general psychology studies dynamics of human behaviour in isolation whereas social psychology studies the dynamics of human behaviour in groups.

The subject matter of Social Psychology can be divided into two major parts:

1. Study of an individual’s behavior in groups
2. How is an individual’s behavior influenced by others?

Kimble Young defined Social Psychology as follows:

“Social Psychology is the study of an individual’s behavior in groups and how individual’s behavior, feelings and thoughts are influenced by others.”

We behave differently in different social situations. We behave very respectfully and soberly in front of our parents but we behave very boldly and enthusiastically in front of our friends. A student sits very calmly in a library but the same student acts very excitedly (dancing and shouting) in a concert hall. Similarly, a student may sit calmly in a classroom while a teacher is delivering a lecture, but the same student may behave very differently when he is with his friends in the cafeteria.

Why do we behave differently in different social situations? The answer is that our behavior is influenced by others. When we interact with others, others influence our feelings, emotions and thoughts which in turn mould our behavior accordingly. Behaving respectfully and soberly when we are with our parent is the result of the influence of our parents on our behavior. Similarly, behaving boldly and excitedly when we are with our friends is the result of the influence of our friends on our behavior. This means human behaviour changes in different groups. Social psychology attempts to understand how our behaviour (and emotions and feeling) is influenced by the presence of others.

Kurt Lewin, a psychologist known as a father of modern Social Psychology, has defined social psychology as follows:

“Social Psychology is the scientific study of individual’s behaviour in social situations”.

The words ‘behavior in social situation’ means situations where more people are involved. An individual may behave differently in different social situations. An individual while driving his car may sing a song loudly, but the same individual while traveling in a public bus may not sing a song loudly because he would feel very awkward to do so. Similarly, an individual behaves joyfully on a happy occasion (e.g., a wedding, a party) but the same individual may behaver very differently on sorrowful occasions (e.g., condolence occasion of death of loved ones). It is because every situation has a social influence that impacts human behaviour accordingly.

Gordon Allport, an American psychologist, defined social psychology as follows:

“Psychology is the scientific study of how human behavior, feelings and thoughts are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others”

The above definition states about three types of the presence of others:

1. Actual Presence
2. Imagined Presence
3. Implied Presence

Actual Presence: It simply means when other individuals are physically present, e.g., behaving in a group of friends.

Imagined Presence: It means when an individual imagines the presence of others who are not physically and actually present. For example, you are preparing a speech which you will deliver next week in front of many people. Hence, rehearsing your speech at home, you may imagine the presence of others to properly prepare how to deliver the speech.

Implied Presence: It means the indirect presence of others that is implied. Individual’s behavior and feelings can also be influenced by an indirect or implied presence of others. For example, while watching a movie, a sad scene in the movie may trigger our emotions of sadness and sympathy. The characters of the movie are not actually in front of us but indirectly present in front of us and their actions and words also influence us like their real presence.

Robert Baron defined social psychology as follows:

 “Social Psychology is the scientific study of the nature and causes of individual behavior in social situations”

The above definition is almost the same as the previous definition, however, it elaborates them further. Individual’s behavior is a product of the interplay of social causes (presence of others, internalized norms, relationship to other, role, status etc) and psychological causes (mental process, e.g., feelings, emotions, thoughts etc). Similarly, the learned socio-cultural norms also mould human behaviour. Social psychology attempts to understand these factors with specific regard to the social situation. The focus is on social interaction which involves inter-influence on one another. Due to this interference, an individual’s behaviour is influenced by others while interacting with them.