Social Psychological Approaches In Tackling Societal Problems

The Impact of Society on Individual Behaviors

Topic: How Helpful Are Social Psychological Approaches When Tackling Common Societal Problems?

There are wide range of society problem now-a-days which leads to stress and other mental health related problems in an individual’s life (Haslam et al., 2018). Social issue such as racism, manipulation, abortion and capital punishment can sometime create a trauma in an individual life which leads various psychological problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (Volkan, 2018). Social psychology is a branch of psychology combined with sociology which explains human behaviours which is influenced by the society. The term was introduced by psychologist Aristotle, where he elaborated that human nature in build by the society and the ingrained problems of the society (Smith, 2017). Sometimes an individual be selfish regarding his values and beliefs which give rise to the conflicts in the society. The society when tried to control such values and attitudes it fuels the issue more. This essay answers the prime question regarding how helpful social psychological concept is in tackling of societal problems. The essay further describes the term of social psychological approaches and explain the key pointers.

There are several distinct techniques in psychoanalytic theory that attempt to interpret behavioural patterns from diverse perspectives, but each perspective contrasts in its explanation of the causes and consequences of actions in individuals or communities (Hogg & Vaughan, 1995). For example, the Psychoanalytic approach of Sigmund Freud contends that behaviour is a result of an individual's unconscious thoughts, internal divisions, and experiences growing up, whereas the Behavioural approach contends that all conscious human behaviour patterns are learned through the methodology of conditioned response and social cognitive theory, or alternatively, behaviour and attitude emerges as a reaction to behaviourism (Assmann, 2020). The social psychology perspective contends that other everyone's effects can impact individual interactions. Some of the cognitive factors that may be measured in an individual are referred to as emotions, sensations, and behaviours. The concept that individuals can be assumed or suggested implies that we are susceptible to social influences even though there are no one around, for a while monitoring broadcast or adhering to internalised societal beliefs (Gil de Zúñiga & Diehl, 2019). Social psychology is an epistemology that tests theories in the research facility and in the discipline in order to address a plethora of issues concerning human behaviour. Such a perspective to the area concentrates on the person and attempted to explain how some other people manipulate one's beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours. Social psychology is a distinguishable branch of science in psychoanalytic theory that views both intrinsic and extrinsic variables as a trigger or leads to change in human behaviour (Strauss, 2017). This branch also co-relates with the sociology it can be also seen that most of the social psychologists are sociologists. As both the field explains the human behaviour and social interactions at macro and micro levels. Individuals are of importance to sociology, but only in the framework of human frameworks and activities like roles in society, prejudice and discrimination, and institutionalization.

Distinct Techniques in Psychoanalytic Theory

The diversity of philosophical foundations of distinct points of view and methodologies is reflected in the depth and diversity of modern social psychological ideas (Moore, 2019). Early debates of cognitive psychology emphasised the contrasts among psychiatric and sociocultural psychology in order to emphasise these unique conceptual roots.

In the mid-nineteenth century, developmental psychologists in Europe like as Wilhelm Wundt developed intellectual and intercultural communication psychological principles, which attempts to comprehend how psychological dynamics influence a person's capacity to connect with everyone (Berry & Dasen, 2019). Cognition studies focuses on whether people categorise occurrences, contexts, as well as other things they've seen before, allowing scientists to better comprehend the types of schema that people develop and employ in disparate factions, nations, and environments (Rowe & Fitness, 2018). Recollection analysis enables scientists to investigate the relationship among encounters and how well they are categorised. For example, consider a person walking into a place and seeing two individuals engaging, if the individual is inclined to intervene if she classifies and categorises the encounter as an intimate rendezvous among couples rather than a dialogue among employees (Harre, 2012). Furthermore, if the individual approaching the area recognises and classifies the individual as performers as a friend or just acquaintances. Stereotypes, the real categorization used in classifying individuals and events, and self-fulfilling prediction, wherein we respond in like a way as to support our original perceptions of individuals, are some of the scientific concepts related with comprehending schemas and recollection. Contemporary scholars in perceived notion want to know how individual's interpretations of knowledge about the surroundings influence their relationships (Svalastog et al., 2017). Perception research looks at the significance humans attach to the classifications wherein experiences, circumstances, and individuals are classified. The characterizations humans create while analysing others' behaviours and the effects of all those acts, as well as the inaccuracies in those characterizations, are important theoretical principles linked with this method to investigating encounters from a cognition social standpoint. Furthermore, judgement report looks into how schemas, experiences, and interpretations influence how individuals decide. The choices made have a significant impact about whether or not an individual is interested in interacting everyone, as well as the effectiveness of such encounters (Wexler et al., 2019). Whereas the intellectual method investigates the intrinsic factors that enable regardless of whether or not an encounter occurs, and also the degree of the connection when it happens, the neurobiological approach investigates how certain chemical and biochemical factors determine humans' capacity to establish appropriate and efficient schemas, employ recollection, see things objectively, and ultimately execute appropriate decision. The neurobiological technique from a cognitively and interpersonal relationships standpoint is rarely discussed in social psychology conversations since its theory proposed that all matter appears to be unrelated to social relationships upon first inspection. Cognitive and behavioural scientists, as well as behavioural scientists, have done study with the purpose of better understanding how specific biochemical and physiological mechanisms affect cognitive performance. Physiologically oriented experts may now quantify and explore the association among these biological and chemical activities, as well as their accompanying experiences and behaviours in individuals, according to technological developments (Rock et al., 2020). Regarding the ethical concerns surrounding experiments on humans, initial study in such field concentrated on animal creatures. Studies have analysed neurological and biochemical reactions to humans' behaviours and connections using advance technology like the transportable "electroencephalogram" (EEG) and the "functional magnetic resonance imager" (fMRI) (Jiao & Qu, 2019). The consequence is that certain technology enables social psychologists to monitor socialising better and accurately and precisely.

The Role of Social Psychology in Understanding Human Behavior

Symbolic interaction theory arose from the studies of realistic philosophers George Herbert Mead and his students at the University of Chicago. The theory explains that thoughts are centred in the mind of individual and this is, what distinguishes humans as fundamentally social beings, the personality as well as how we are becoming distinctively social creatures, and civilization and also how social structures influence our relationships (Steg et al., 2013). Based on the unique interactions, according to philosophers articulating in this paradigm, contribute to the formation of institutionalized community and societal structures. As a result, understanding society necessitates an understanding of the relation that construct and perpetuate it (Jetten et al., 2012). In the functionalist perspective, there's many three basic concepts: symbolic interactionism, phenomenology, and wellbeing of individuals, all of which investigates distinctive characteristics of such interpretations and the person from that they are produced. The symbolic interactionism method is based on social psychology theories and concentrates on the how concepts are formed and sustained in social relationships, with the self-indulgent as the foundation for this kind of interaction. Human’s construct and regulate concepts through the responsibilities and personas they possess, which is the core concept of this method. It's crucial to remember that, according on the individuals who together they engage and the circumstances wherein the individuals discover themself, each person might have a range of positions and identities. The qualitative approach is based on European sociology and philosophy, and it emphasises interpretations and how they represent unacknowledged norms and assumptions for contacts. The core assumption of this method is that speech, both spoken and silent, conveys the traditional and non-traditional laws and conventions that organise social system and regulate social relationships. In symbolic interactionism, the life course perspective concentrates on the how knowledge is acquired the elements connected with encounters over the duration of their lives, as well as the steps that represent such knowledge acquisition (Charmaz et al., 2019). The primary concept of this methodology is that sometimes the conventions, standards, and principles that regulate encounters and form civilization change over time, particularly as individuals migrate into various social roles and surroundings.

Figure: Social interactionism cycle which is followed.

(Source: Simplypsychology.org, 2021)

It is a branch of social psychology that focuses on the structure. Structural social psychology arose from the research of engineers, philosophers, and social psychologists who wanted to more technically and quantitatively describe interpersonal relationships in order to generate hypotheses that can be tested (Grahek et al., 2021). Human actions, according to structured social psychology, are motivated by reasonable objectives such as maximizing incentives and limiting consequences. Additional premise is that rationally calculated exchanges culminate in formal and regulated interpersonal, collective, and organizational relationships. This method is similar to cognitively and interpersonal communication psychological research in that it focuses on constructing formalized evidence to understand relationships and targeting appropriate hypothesis to test in experiments. Influence, transaction, and negotiation analyses; social support and authoritative literatures; and social standing features, anticipatory situations concept, and interpersonal structure research seem to be the three basic conceptual programmes that characterise this methodology. Each study represents a distinct area of explaining interpersonal connections' basic framework. Studies of power, transaction, and negotiation look at how engagement and communication can indeed be characterised as transactions among members of a society, assuming that people can reasonably analyse the expenses and rewards of each given encounter. Social relations are founded on regionally and historically generated behavioural assumptions that individuals possess of each individual, according to status features, anticipation levels, and interpersonal structure studies (Doosje et al., 2002). Such culturally and historically determined expectations are linked to assumptions about how well each member will participate to a system of commerce or engagement. Those forecasts will then be used to decide whether participants are most likely to receive the maximum possibilities to meet new people and reflect. According to anticipated statuses hypothesis, those with widespread and particular status qualities that are deemed more probable to participate substantially to accomplishing team objectives would be provided more chances for engagement as well as more cultural pressure among many other individuals of the team. More to the important, theorists contend, and have effectively proved, that all these assumptions lead to the formation of particular and persistent hierarchy organizational contexts. Specifying the extent to which particular identity qualities influence assumptions, and how these assumptions evolve or whether individuals view these standards to be just, is part of current research on the subject. Sociological perspective and fundamental concept elaborate on the concepts of these diverse methods in structured social psychology by looking at how one performer's frame of mind in relation to other influences perceived behavioural control and cooperative structural resilience. The core concept of interpersonal networking analysis is that how players are connected to one side effects cultural interactions, authority, and negotiation.

The Relation between Social Psychology and Sociology

One of the aspect of diversification of sociology and term approaches of social psychology may reflect a paucity of common requirements for generating and assessing hypotheses. Alternatively, the approaches can also argue that the using such wide range of techniques in social psychology can reflects the various multidimensional aspects developed by the social psychological theories which are explained in depth above. The psychologistic who have coined such terminology also explained how social psychology is an important aspect and is an essential part in understanding human behaviour and interactions. The underlying message of these research is there are a number of elements that incentivize individuals to be affected by the others, notably everybody else' reputation or position in comparison to all of them and collective reinforcement of uniformity.

Cognitive recollection, awareness, and judgement, as well as physical, biochemical, and neurological activity, are the most researched psychological needs from this approach. Each method looks at a different facet of how such internal processes influence communication. The intellectual and psychological framework is focused on how people retain content in their brains in the pattern of schemas. Individuals recognise objects in their surroundings by labelling such items, which therefore enables the items to be categorised, which is represented by schema (Ahmed et al., 2017). Individual people can process millions of snippets of data from their surroundings using taxonomies, allowing the individuals to readily participate in discussions. The better and precise persons' comprehension in any given particular social context, as measured with how well the individuals identify and categorise it relying on signals provided from the surroundings, the much more effective and pleasant the encounter will be. In this viewpoint, the cognitive and physiological approaches look at various elements of the influence of schemas on connections. The cognitive method looks at what distinct brain activities related to remembering, cognition, and judgement procedures affects a person's capacity to comprehend the data needed to engage in effective relationships. The symbolic interaction approach is necessary to understand the interpersonal focuses on the interpretations that underpin interpersonal relationships, including how they have been generated, preserved, and also how individuals start understanding such and sustain in the society. It analysis how the concept of societies is formed and maintained by the actions and behaviour of the individuals in the society. The social psychology explains that there are a number of elements that incentivize individuals to be affected by the others, notably everybody else' reputation or position in comparison to all of them and collective reinforcement of uniformity. It is helpful in explaining socialization and dominance.

Conclusion

From the above analysis, it can be concluded that the social issues such as racism, manipulation, abortion and capital punishment are quite often seen and sometime create a trauma in an individual life which leads various psychological problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder. The term “Social psychology” was introduced by psychologist Aristotle, where he elaborated that human nature in build by the society and the ingrained problems of the society. Social psychology is an epistemology that tests theories in the research facility and in the discipline in order to address a plethora of issues concerning human behaviour. Such a perspective to the area concentrates on the person and attempted to explain how some other people manipulate one's beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours. There are several theories with which social psychology can be explained such as the theory of Intrapersonal and Cognitive Social Psychology explains that people retain content in their brains in the pattern of schemas. Individuals recognise objects in their surroundings by labelling such items, which therefore enables the items to be categorised, which is represented by schema. The theory of explain Symbolic interaction theory that thoughts are centred in the mind of individual and this is, what distinguishes humans as fundamentally social beings, the personality as well as how we are becoming distinctively social creatures, and civilization and also how social structures influence our relationships. The theory of Structured Social Psychology explains that there are a number of elements that incentivize individuals to be affected by the others, notably everybody else' reputation or position in comparison to all of them and collective reinforcement of uniformity.

Diversity of Philosophical Foundations in Social Psychology

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