Overview

Social psychology explores how individuals are influenced by the presence and behavior of others. It focuses on attitudes, social perception, group dynamics, and interpersonal behavior. Understanding these processes helps explain phenomena like conformity, prejudice, persuasion, and altruism.

Key Themes and Concepts

• Attribution Theory: Explains how people interpret others’ behavior — as caused by internal traits (dispositional) or external situations (situational).
• Attitudes and Persuasion: Attitudes are shaped by experience and can influence behavior. Persuasion depends on message content, credibility, and the audience’s motivation (e.g., central vs. peripheral routes).
• Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience: Classic studies by Asch (conformity), Milgram (obedience), and Zimbardo (role effects) reveal how social pressure shapes behavior.
• Group Dynamics: Includes groupthink (faulty decision-making in cohesive groups), social facilitation (better performance in presence of others), and social loafing (reduced effort in groups).
• Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination: Stereotypes are beliefs, prejudice is an attitude, and discrimination is a behavior. Social identity and in-group/out-group dynamics reinforce bias.
• Aggression and Antisocial Behavior: Influenced by biology, frustration, and learning. Can be reactive (impulsive) or proactive (planned).
• Prosocial Behavior: Helping others, driven by empathy, social norms, and reciprocity. The bystander effect shows helping decreases when others are present.
• Interpersonal Attraction: Influenced by proximity, similarity, physical attractiveness, and reciprocal liking.

Quick Tip

Social psychology reveals how surprisingly powerful social influence can be. We often underestimate how much behavior is shaped by group norms and authority. Concepts like the bystander effect and conformity show that context matters — understanding them can make us more aware, more ethical, and more empathetic in social situations.