What
is Social
Psychology?
According
to a Psychologist “Gordon Allports”(1985) Social Psychology is a discipline
that uses scientific methods to understand and explain how the thought,
feelings and behavior of individual are influenced by the actual, imagined or
implied presence of other human beings.
Social Psychology look at a wide range of
topics including group behavior, social perception, leadership, manpower
behavior, conformity, aggression, prejudices etc. It is important to note that
Social Psychology is not just about looking about social influence but that
social perception and social interaction are also vital to understand these
social behaviors.
CAPSULE
HISTORY OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Plato
refers to the idea of a “Crowd Mind” and concepts such as “Social
Loafing” and “Social Facilitation”in the late 1800s. It was after World War IIthat research in Social
Psychology that began in horror; the
holocaust(mass destruction) led
researchers to study the effect of “Social
influence”, “Conformity”and“Obedient”.
The United State government also became
interested in applying Social Psychological concept to influence citizens.
Social Psychology has continued to influence and grow throughout the 20th
Century in research that has contributed to our understanding of Social
experience and behaviors. The discipline of Social Psychology began at the
start or beginning of 20th Century. A list landmark movement will
have to include the publication of Charles
Horton Cooley of “Human Nature and
Social Order” in 1902. Cooley sort to explain the social order by the use
of the concept of “Looking Glass-self”
and to explain the notion of the society
The
first text books in Social Psychology were published six (6) years later by E.A Ross and William Mc Douglas. The former (E.A Ross) approaches the topic from
a sociological point of view while the later (William Mc Douglas) from a
psychological point of view. The first major journal of abnormal and Social
Psychology was published in 1922 later called “The Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology”.
In a period during the mid 20th
century, Social Psychology was conceived as an inter-disciplinary effort
capable of addressing issues which psychologist have in common.
However, the tide turns sharply against these
inter-disciplinarians as many of those research bodies which had attempted to
find a common intellectual ground broke down under the strength of various academic
pressures; as a result, Social Psychology was divided into two traditions,
namely;
1.
Those who allied with Psychology – whosort
to explain how the minds of an individual are influenced by Social factors.
2.
Those who allied with sociology – who
understood human action as being invaded (and determine largely by) a rich
network of human relationship.
Today, for better or worse, the sociological
and Psychological traditions of Social Psychology maintain relatively little
contract with one another.
SOCIAL
RELEVANCE OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
(Importance of Social Psychology)
1)
Social Psychology belongs to the class
of research Psychology which is interested in finding answers to mundane
questions for the sake of making knowledge known;
2)
Social Psychologist are partners in
progress to other professionals like law-makers, town-planners, policy makers,
medical professionals, economist, mass communicators etc. There major
pre-occupation is to contribute to the utilization of the authorities,
techniques and resources of other professionals;
3)
The specific roles of the Social
Psychologist is to analyzed, diagnose and advice with respect to only one
aspect of social problem and that aspect is the behavior of people;
4)
They seek to answer questions of
general mind-interest and the ability to do this is the means of satisfying the
curiosity and sometimes the anxiety surrounding such issues.
METHODS
OF RESEARCH IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Social
Psychology is an empirical science that attempts to answer a variety of
question about human behavior by testing hypothesis (assumptions) both in the
laboratory and in the field, careful attention to sampling research design and
statistical analysis is important and results are being published.
1)
Experimental
Method: This involves the researcher altering the
variable in the environment and measuring the effect on other variable. For
example, allowing two groups of children to play a violent and none-violent
video game and them examine their subsequent level of aggression during a free
play period;
2)
Correlation
Method: This examines the statistical association
between to natural occurring variables. For example; one could correlate the
amount of violent programs children watch at home with the number of violent
incidences the children are participating at schools. Note that this study will not prove that violent TV programs causes
aggression in children. It may be possible that aggressive children choose to
watch more violent TV programs;
3)
Observational
Method: These are purely descriptive and includes
naturalistic observation i.e. participant observation, none participant
observation and anarchical analysis, these are less common in Social Psychology
but are sometimes use when investigating a phenomena for the first time.
4)
Survey
Method: Social Psychologist frequently uses survey
research when they are interested in results that are high in external
validity. Survey uses various random sampling to obtain a sample of respondents
that are a representative of a population. This type of research is usually
descriptive or correlation, however, new statistical methods like structural
equation modeling is used to test potentials, causal relationship in this type
of data.
Whichever method is used, it is important to
evaluate the research hypothesis (assumptions) in the light of the results
either confirming or rejecting the original prediction.
CONCEPT
OF SOCIAL INFLUENCE
Social
influence is a situation where our behaviours, feelings, attitudes are
influenced or altered like what others say or do. The influence can be direct
or indirect, consciously or unconsciously, it can be formal and informal.
Social psychology centers on the influence i.e. every social action is either stimulus
or a response.
Some
of the bi-products of social influence includes; the tendency towards
socialization, de-socialization and re-socialization
Socialization
Socialization
is a process through which the individual consciously or unconsciously learns
and acquire social attitude and world behaviour appropriate to his particular
society. The individual adjust to the group by learning behaviours which needs
the group’s approval (i.e. you cannot be in a particular group and acts in
contrary to that particular groups way of life or behaviour). Socialization is
a life-long process of its continuity; it gives rise to modification and
alteration – it is these modifications that translate into de-socialization and
re-socialization.
De-Socialization
De-Socialization
is a way of unlearning some of the values already imbedded during
socialization. It is the removal of the formal key values and role behaviour
which formed the core of the individual’s social function. De-Socialization is
the wiping out the previous attitude and habits and substituting with new ones
i.e. changing of belief system.
Re-Socialization
Re-Socialization
is a process whereby the individual adopts new sets of values and role
behaviour to replace those previously learned and now abandon or discard them.
There are three (3) types of social influence;
these influences can come through conformity, compliance and obedience.
1.
Conformity: This refers to
the yielding to group’s pressure or accepting group pressure when no direct
request is made (i.e. willingly give yourself to the group’s pressure) to be
compiled to the group or by the group. It is the process of imbibing new
feelings, thoughts and behavior by internalizing some of the group’s values in
other not to become or seen as an outcaste; sometimes an individual does not
believe in those values andenjoys them (values) but somehow, find himself
conforming.
2.
Compliance:
This involves the response to direct attempt
to influence the means of request by that he/she behaves in a particular way.
It is also defined as a situation in which a direct request is made and the
person agrees to behave in accord to the request (open condition is given).
3.
Obedience:
This is a special form of compliance in which the request is made in form of an
order (conditions are given in form of an authority)
ENVIRONMENTAL
INFLUENCE:
The
totality of human behaviour is a bi-product of human interaction; the physical
environment where human operates also determines human behaviour. By physical
environment we refers to physical things like the climate, nature of the
geo-political outlets, the terrain, the architectural outlets (buildings
around), the furniture in the houses, offices etc. all these mentioned
determine our behaviour.
This aspect of Social Psychology is one of the
most recent aspects of Psychology. It has been developed to specifically
address the area of human needs in terms of industrialization era. Some of
these aspects are to solve a problem created by industrialization since these
problems cannot be solved by areas of study such as geography, chemistry etc.
Environmental Psychologist looks to solve these problems
Social Psychology are now pre-occupied with
issues such as responses between territorial consciousness and human behaviour;
they are also worried about how variations in architecture affects behaviour,
they effect on high or low population on behaviour and the lively affect the
noise, heat, smell and other stressful environmental conditions that affects
human behaviour. Psychologist generally agrees that the physical environment
affects inter-personal behaviour by limiting the person’s behavioural choices;
this thinking is consonant with a hypothesis and assumptions which says that
human interaction with the physical environment and with people follow a
homeostatic principles – this means that people seems to seek an optimal amount
of stimulation from the environment not too much or too little.
How Environmental Influence does affect our behaviour?
Environmental
influence can be considered at two levels, namely;
1.
The Level of Personal Space and;
2.
The Level of Larger Space or
Territorial Space
PERSONAL SPACE
Personal
Space has been defined by Robert Baron as the imaginary or the invincible
boundary we maintained between ourselves and others. In another definition by
Lawrence Serveren, he defined Personal Space with the area an individual will
like to have between themselves and others in direct situation. There are three
(3) steps to consider before a space is to be personal, namely;
1.
There must be a boundary;
2.
The boundary must be monopolized for
the individual’s own use and;
3.
The invincible boundaries must exist
in different situations.
You should note that it is not always that we
create and utilizes this space, sometimes we allows others to use it just as
the physical body protects us as humans, so personal space protects humans
symbolically (socially). A personal space is symbolic and can only be access
through imagination.
Personal Space can be expanded or contracted
depending on how close or distance we wish to be in relations with others. This
means that if one desires closeness with other, he contracts his personal space
and if it is expanded, it means one does not desire any closeness with people you
interacting with.
Personal space is given by nature and it
serves some purposes for us. According to Robert Baron, Personal Space performs
two major functions, namely;
1.
It acts as a booster or demarcation
against threats and;
2.
It facilitates communication.
v
IT
ACTS AS A BOOSTERmeans that Personal Space can be a
shield against series of real or imaginary threats to our comfort, survival and
privacy e.g. there can be a threat to our emotional wellbeing if there is no
Personal Space to check excessive intimacy. Excessive intimacy can lead to over
stimulation and over stimulation give rise to suffocation and can leads to
decline in leisure or emotional comfort like intimacy. Just as the physical
body needs a biological equilibrium (homeostatic) so also human beings needs a
social homeostatic.
v
IT
FACILITATES COMMUNICATION – sometimes it is easier to
communicate with others only if we maintain a reasonable distance from them. On
due closeness either in physical or social proximity can generates a feeling of
repulsion and discomfort of both parties, when this happens, the person
experiencing the repulsion is not likely to communicate as effectively as he
would under a more conclusive distance level from the other person.
DETERMINANTS
OF PERSONAL SPACE
1.
The factor of attraction;
2.
Similarity (things shared in common);
3.
The type of attraction;
4.
Cultural Variations and;
5.
Personality traits
THE
FACTORS OF ATTRACTION
The
greater the attraction between two people, the more physically close they
desire to be especially when they are of the opposite sex. The converse
incidentally is also free, the less attraction that exist between two people,
the more repulsion between them. If the physical presence of the person next to
you does not register any impression on you, the more you are likely to move
away from that person and if the physical presence of the person next to you
registers any impression, you are likely to move closer to that person. Where
repulsion prevails, personal space is widened and where repulsion does not prevail,
personal space is contracted.
SIMILARITIES
People
who share similar views and attributes tend to come closer than those with
dissimilar attributes. For example; people of the same age group, people with
similar hobbies, adherence to some religious beliefs, some ideological camps or
groups etc.
Psychologists
have tried to explain that the tendency for this is because those who we share
attributes, they make you confortable, and they make life meaningful to you
than people with contradictory attributes.
THE
TYPE OF ATTRACTION
A
particular event or experience can compel either closeness or separation
between people who under normal circumstances would position themselves
differently, for example; when total strangers meet to watch a football match especially
if they are supporters of the same club, or in a case of Nigeria; when a
national team is playing, people forgets their differences momentarily (for the
moment) and join together to support Nigeria or to support their club.
Another example, two enemies can
bury their differences for the sake of an immediate event, what matters at the
moment is what is going on; a reconciliation of their social and psychological
differences.
PERSONALITY TRAITS
In
this case, we consider parameters like gender categories, the image individuals
owns about themselves and the socialization process. Female to female peers
interacts at closer distances as the intimacy increases, whereas male to male
peers hardly interacts at closer distances under condition of greaterrelationship.
For example; when students returns from a protracted traits, you see girls
hissing, hugging and holding hands intimately with their fellow girls with whom
they are close than boys who just shake hands and called out their nicknames or
slapped their hands. Images that individual holds of themselves, the
arrangement and the proud, those who own high image of them tends to erects
bigger social barricades around themselves than the simple and humble hearted
people. It does not matter whether the images are real or they are imaginary
once created, the limits the creator’s capacity to allow less personal space.
Peoples have all kinds of reasons for holding peculiar images for themselves
and until they are made to have proper information about their existing
conceptions, that bias will consistently limits the circle within they can
interacts for example; some people have higher image of themselves than their
real status in life i.e. the proud and the arrogant.
RACAL OR CULTURAL VARIATION
Studies
have revealed that people with different racial and cultural background extend
these differences to the size of their personal space. This is attributable in
most respect to the differences in their socializing experience especially in
the early period of their life. It has been found for instance that cultural
groups like the French, the Arabs, Latin Americans and the Greeks use smaller
interactional distances and are less rigid in their use of space than the
English, the Americans and the Germans.
TERRITORIAL SPACE (LARGER SPACE)
A
Territorial Space is a larger space within which the individual operates. It is
the combination of the individual’s larger social world and the physical space
whose use is defined as he chooses from time to time. The personal space is
space in which one moves around with and it is invincible but a territorial
space is a space that is visible; that one cannot contract or expand at will.
One of the foremost scholars in social psychology Erwin Altman identifies three
(3) types of territorial space, namely;
1.
The Primary Territory;
2.
The Secondary Territory and;
3.
The Public Territory.
THE
PRIMARY TERRITORY
A
primary territory is an area owned, privatized or personalized by an individual
or group who use it regularly and on long-term basis as an essential part of
their everyday activities. Owners completely control and completely have access
to those areas and intrusion by an unwelcomed outsider may generate conflict,
example of primary territory includes the house where you live, your particular
room in a given house. In a house, the rooms where the adults live are more
private to adults than the general sitting room. Your room in a house or hostel
is your primary territory.
The primary territory is central to the
person’s life (essential place in your life) in the sense that more than any
other place, a great deal of privacy is observed, it also has a relatively long
term usage than any other place.
THE SECONDARY TERRITORY
A
Secondary Territory is an area used regularly by a specific group of people who
have only limited control or access to the place and who have limited ownership
and powers to regulate who comes in and who goes out or who make use of the
space, example; Mosques, Hotels, lecture rooms, hospitals, markets, churches,
shops etc.
Generally, a number of people have access to
Secondary Territory and the users varied from time to time i.e. the lecture
halls, the restaurants in your neighborhood, the prayer houses, the libraries,
the stadiums, the shopping malls etc. A Secondary Territoryis an area that
cannot be privatized by any individual no matter the regularities of the usage
(frequent usage)
THE PUBLIC TERRITORY
These
are areas occupied only temporary and which are available to almost everyone;
it is far less exclusive in ownership and the degree of control is less than
those of the Secondary Territory, example; the seats in the library, the seats
in the lecture rooms and stadium. Although, the seats in the Secondary
Territory are public territory, when the period of usage expires, you can only
re-negotiate the usage whennext is your turn.
HOW DOES TERRITORIES DETERMINES THE BEHAVIOUR OF INDIVIDUAL
In
a branch of study called ethology (study of animal behaviour) i.e. those who
concern with behaviour, they discover that animals occupies a space and leave
signs or marks to make boundaries for example; a dog when it occupies a space,
it proceeds to urinate in order to create a boundary and any other animal or
human being who venture in, they receives a fair fight.
Social Psychologist have tried to draw an
analogy as to how higher animal’s behaviour is synonymous with lower animal’s
behaviour. The territorial consciousness among animals serves a variety of
function for the animals, for example; territorial consciousness is a way of
protecting the specie and it is also a way perpetuating their existence.
Animals behave the way they do and if they do because they behave sense of
protection and if they do not regulate how they come in and go out, they leave
themselves in danger.
Some ethologists have suggested that some
aspects of human behaviour is a response to a territorial consciousness as in
the world of lower animals. This position is rejected by some other writers
from the reason that there is a general consensus that human being often
perceived a specific area or space under the control of its occupants and
therefore, they resist any intrusion.
FUNCTION OF HUMAN TERRITORY OF INDIVIDUALS OR GROUPS
1.
The territoriality is one of the
several mechanisms by which people attend an optimal amount of privacy; privacy
includes one’s control of input from other and outputs with transmit others.
Inputs from others include seeing them physically, hearing their voices,
hearing the sound of their activities and outputs refers to them seeing you
physically. The control of our privacy is done through the use of physical
barriers such as doors and curtains and symbolic barriers like sign we often
put at doors and gates such as no trespassing, be aware of dogs, military zones
etc.
2.
The second function of human territory
is that it helps to organize inter-personal interaction (territories under
normal circumstances defined the mode of operations or businesses,
administration, social roles etc. for example; in the faculty of SMS we have
spaces reserves for lectures, for offices, for parking space, for toilets etc.
The idea of organizing inter-personal interaction by making more predictable,
what kinds of behaviours will happen and where?
3.
The third function of human territory
as suggested by an author Robert Baron;according to him territoriality provides
human beings with a sense of identity by helping them to differentiate what
belongs to different individual and groups. Territories in this sense can
become an evidence of a person worth or integrity. In general, ownership and
control of territories in some societies is a value that is often tenaciously
and even obsessively pursue or held by persons and groups, whatever threatens
this ownership and controls of such territories is viewed as a prompt or a
challenge to the territorial integrity of a group claiming the ownership of the
territory, an example of the challenge or threats is a fighting between the TIV
and the Jukuns etc. these are threats that has to do with
territorial ownership…………
No comments:
Post a Comment