Evolution of Social Psychology

Social psychology is considered by some to have begun in 1895 with the work of Norman Triplett (1897), who examined the impact of fellow cyclists on the performance of an individual cyclist. Triplett observed that the mere presence of other cyclists improved an individual's performance. Since Triplett's pioneering work, social psychologists continue to examine the powerful impact of situationism-that is, the importance of examining people's surroundings when trying to understand individual behavior. According to one of social psychology's founders, Gordon Allport (1954), "[S]ocial psychology is the scientific attempt to explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings." According to Fiske (2014), there are five core motives for our behavior, which are the product of human interaction with our respective context: belonging, understanding, controlling, enhancing the self, and trusting.

For this Discussion, review this week's media The History of Social Psychology and select three key points in the evolution of social psychology that you feel are paramount to the field. You must include one element of Lewins' influence on situationism. Consider how situationism influenced the other key points you selected and how situationism might influence your current or future work setting. * Media Transcript is at the end

With these thoughts in mind:

a brief description of the three key points in the evolution of social psychology you selected. Include one element of Lewin's influence on situationism. Then explain one way situationism influenced the key points you selected. Finally, explain one way situationism might influence your current or future work setting.

References:

Allport, G. W. (1954). The historical background of modern social psychology. In G. Lindzey (Ed.), Handbook of social psychology (Vol. 1, 99, 3-56). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Triplett, N. (1897). The dynoamogenic factors in peacemaking and competition. American Journal of Psychology, 9, 507-533.
Discussion 2: Core Social Motives

According to Fiske (2014), there are "core social motives" that influence human cognition and behavior. The motives include belonging, understanding, controlling, self- enhancing, and trusting, and they are contingent upon an individual's interpretation of any given situation. An individual's cultural values, beliefs, and practices can also affect his or her experiences and perceptions, which can in turn influence an individual's core social motives.

For this Discussion, identify a current event that involves multiple people and focus on one particular person in that event. Consider the core motives of the person in the event that might explain his or her behavior.

a brief description of the current event you selected and one individual involved in the current event. Then describe two potential core social motives that might explain the individual's behavior in the event and why. Finally, explain one way you might use core social motives to predict individual behavior within your current field or your field of interest.

Media Transcript

Social psychology is the study of how a person's feelings, thoughts, and behaviors are influenced by the presence of others. As you begin this course, step into history to see the people and the seminal research that has influenced the development of this exciting field.

History of Psychology: Background

1821-1894: Hermann von Helmholtz, German natural scientist, conducts research on vision, hearing, and perception-important studies focusing on individual behavior.

1875: William James establishes first known, informal laboratory in the United States and gives first U.S. psychology course/lectures at Harvard University.

1883: G. Stanley Hall founds the first formal American psychological laboratory at Johns Hopkins University.

History of Social Psychology in Particular

1895: Norman Triplett at Indiana University conducts what is understood as the first experiments within social psychology, which studied factors affecting enhanced or decreased individual cyclist performance when in a bicycle race.

1895: Gustave Le Bon, French sociologist, notes the potential role of suggestion with regard to group behavior to denote how different individual behavior can become in the presence of others.

1913: John Watson publishes behaviorist-oriented research Psychology From the Standpoint of a Behaviorist.

1917: Kurt Lewin, while not originally a social psychologist, creates field theory, a theory based on physics but that denotes how internal and external factors influence individual behavior, which, in turn, had a profound influence on the field of social psychology.

1920s: Attitude research becomes understood as a central concept within social psychology.

1924: Floyd Allport builds upon work of Triplett and coins the term social facilitation while studying individual performance during World War I.

1931: Gardner Murphy and Lois Murphy of Columbia University publish Experimental Social Psychology, reviewing over 800 studies of social psychological functioning.

1932: Frederick Bartlett first discusses schemas in Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology.

1936: MuzaferSherif studies the impact of group norms on individual performance.

1939: Kurt Lewin conducts seminal research on social climate and group behavior in 11-year-old boys. Boys were in groups with one of three different leadership styles: democratic, autocratic, or laissez-faire and leadership style related differentially to group norms. 1944: Fritz Heider publishes first organized construction of attribution theory, Social Perception and Phenomenal Causality.

1950: Leon Festinger conducts seminal work on affiliation and proximity in housing complexes and begins work in the area of social comparison.

1951: Solomon Asch conducts seminal work in conformity.

1951: Situationism is formally defined in that social behavior is understood by a person's response to his/her social environment and not a function of individual personality. Situationism is reflected in Lewin's equation explaining psychological functioning: B =ƒ (P, E): behavior is a function of the person and their environment.

1952: Leon Festinger publishes work on deindividuation with group behavior.

1957: Leon Festinger begins work on cognitive dissonance theory.

1963: Stanley Milgram begins seminal research on obedience to authority.

1965: Edward E. Jones and Keith Davis produce correspondent inference theory of attribution.

1967: Harold Kelley produces the covariation theory of attribution.

1968: John Darley and Bibb Latané conduct research on bystander intervention, spurred on by the famous 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese in New York City.

1971: Henri Tajfel conducts research on social identity theory, noting the role of both personal and social identity as integral to sense of self.

1984: Shelley Taylor's Social Cognition text is published, reflecting the burgeoning field of social cognition research to include work in social inference, schemas, person memory, attention and consciousness, and social identity.

1986: Richard Petty and John Cacioppo produce elaboration likelihood model (ELM), which distinguishes two routes by which a message might persuade the recipient.

1987: Alice Eagly conducts work on gender and social roles and gender and leadership.

1989: Patricia Devine conducts work on the automatic nature of stereotyping.

1994: David Buss conducts work on evolutionary theory and human mating strategies.

1998: Applied Social Psychology is increasingly a focus within the field of Social Psychology.

2000: ShinobuKitayama and Hazel Markus conduct work on independent versus interdependent cultures.

References

Fiske, S. T. (2010). Social beings: Core motives in social psychology (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Hogg, M. A. & Cooper, J. (Eds.). (2007). The Sage handbook of social psychology (concise student ed.). Los Angeles, CA:
Sage.

Sansone, C., Morf, C. C., &Panter, A. T. (Eds.). (2004). The Sage handbook of methods in social psychology. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.

Steg, L., Buunk, A. P., &Rothengatter, T. (Eds.). (2008). Applied social psychology: Understanding and managing social
problems. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.