The development of social psychology

There are many classifications of psychology, and different classification forms reflect different research focuses. Social psychology is not a psychological study represented by society, or the research object is not society, but the reaction of individual social attribute representation. Social psychology studies the manifestations of social psychological phenomena of individuals or certain groups. The mode of psychological influence is reverse, which is the external influence of social environment on people, and then forms comprehensive psychological quality.

Psychosocial psychology was once considered as a research tendency of social psychology, but now it exists as a branch of psychology.

At present, psychologists say that social psychology usually refers to psychological-social psychology, and sociologists say that social psychology usually refers to social-social psychology. But on a few occasions, the term social psychology is understood as the sum of psychological-social psychology and social-social psychology research results.

The theoretical value of social psychology lies in improving people's ability to know themselves and improving people's quality of life.

Since its birth, social psychology has inherited two basic research directions from its two parent bodies-psychology and sociology, forming the so-called "social psychology of psychology" and "social psychology of sociology". Scholars of these two research orientations have different views on the question of "what is social psychology". American psychologist F.H. allport pointed out in his book Social Psychology (1924) that social psychology is "a subject that studies individual social behavior and social consciousness."

From the beginning, social psychology has two different research directions, namely, social psychology in sociology and social psychology in psychology. Different theoretical viewpoints to explain social psychological phenomena do not hinder the basic characteristics that social psychology should have as an independent discipline. Generally speaking, general psychology studies the general relationship between subject and object, including natural object and social object.

Generally speaking, personality psychology is to study the law of the formation and development of personality traits.

From 65438 to 0908, British psychologist McDougall William and American sociologist Ross published monographs on social psychology respectively. This indicates that social psychology has become an independent discipline.

American social psychologist G.W. allport (G.W. allport, 1954) believes that social psychology tries to understand and explain how individual thoughts, emotions and behaviors are influenced by the real, imaginary and implied existence of others. He advocates that social psychology mainly adopts experimental research methods to reveal the dependent conditions of individual social behavior and analyze the changing process of individual psychology.

Among the definitions of sociology, C.A.Ellwood (1925) is a representative one. He pointed out that "social psychology is a science about social interaction, based on group life psychology. Starting from the explanation of the group shaping types of people's reaction, communication and instinctive habitual behavior, "studying the psychology of individual social behavior is conducive to understanding the historical and social environment in which individuals live." "

Looking back at the development of western social psychology, it can be roughly divided into several stages:

1, the germination and birth of western social psychology (19 to the beginning of the 20th century).

1908, American sociologist Ross's Social Psychology and British psychologist McDougall William's Introduction to Social Psychology were published at the same time. The west regards this year as the age when social psychology was born. In the 1920s, social psychologists in the United States and the Soviet Union introduced scientific experimental methods into this discipline, which turned social psychology from describing objects to exploring and revealing laws, and social psychology became an independent science. Its founder is generally considered to be F. allport.

1924, American psychologist allport published the book Social Psychology Based on Experiments, which declared the official start of social psychology as a science.

There are three main reasons why social psychology has become the basis of a science:

1) began to use the experiment;

2) Use quantitative analysis to supplement the qualitative analysis of the phenomenon;

3) From describing phenomena to revealing and utilizing laws.

2. Establishment of scientific system of western social psychology (1920s-40s)

As early as 1898, triplett made an experimental study on social promotion, but for many years, this valuable proposal did not attract widespread attention until after the First World War, when American psychologist allport and German psychologist Maud initiated the direction of experimental social psychology. After them, experimental social psychology began to become the mainstream of social psychology research in the west, especially in the United States.

1928, thurston put forward the method of attitude measurement, perfected the attitude research started by Thomas and Zenanetsky, and became the research center of social psychology at that time. 1934, Moreno proposed a social measurement method to measure interpersonal attraction and exclusion within a group. Lei Wen introduced field theory into social psychology in 1938,

These research methods are embodied in establishing a rigorous scientific system based on mathematical and physical principles for "social psychology", thus establishing its quantitative and accurate research direction.

3. The expansion of the research field of western social psychology.

The main topics of social psychology research are different with the evolution of the times.

Social psychology came out.

1928, thurston put forward the method of attitude measurement, which perfected the attitude research initiated by Thomas and Zenanetsky and became the research center of social psychology at that time. 1934, Moreno proposed a social measurement method to measure interpersonal attraction and exclusion within a group; 1938, Lei Wen introduced field theory into social psychology, and put forward the concept of personal living space or field, holding that behavior is a function of interaction between personal characteristics and situational factors.

Study history

The specialized research of social psychology began in the second half of the 9th century. 1860, a series of papers on ethnic psychology written by Raqqa Ruth and Heymann Steinthal appeared. Since then, Freud's Imitation Law, Siegel's Crime Mass and Lebon's Popular Psychology have come out one after another, which laid the foundation for the formation of social psychology. From 65438 to 0908, McDougall William, a British psychologist, and Ross, an American sociologist, published monographs on social psychology respectively, which marked that social psychology became an independent discipline.