Social Psychology, what is it and what can it help us learn about ourselves and others actions.

Social Psychology is a very broad subject but the definition that I believe describes it best is the scientific study of the way in which people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by real or imagined presence by other people. There are many contributing factors and situations that support the theory of Social Psychology. I believe by understanding these contributing factors better we can learn to better lead our own lives rather than other outside influences leading our behaviors. The most prominent factors I found included the following: Social behavior, Social cognition and how we use it, Self concept and Image and its importance, Attitudes and how they effect our behavior, Groups and how size effects our behavior, Types of attraction and relationships, Prosocial behavior and how the previous knowledge of Social Psychology helps us in helping others. I believe that being aware of these influences, understanding and acknowledging consciously their influences on our behavior can better help us to understand the influence that others have on our daily actions.

In Social Psychology we try to understand better social behavior and social influences there are three scientific methods used to better understand and explain the reasons behind these behaviors and influences. Those three methods are Observational, Correlational, and Experimental. The first method observational is where researchers record and measure peoples behavior by several different methods. They can use one method called ethnography which is where researchers observe a group or culture from within the group. They hope to have a better understanding of the workings of the group by seeing it in action. This however is not the only way to use the observational method another technique is archival analysis which is when researchers examine and study documents and archives of a culture. By studying these the researcher gets another...