Psychology is an intriguing field that dwells on studying the interactions between people within a group or community. In this paper, we shall look at the definition of social psychology, the research strategies applied in social psychology as well as the breakdown of similarities and differences between social psychology and multicultural psychology.
In life, people receive influence from a lot of things, events and situations. These events and situations later have an impact on how individuals manage to interact on a social platform. The consequences on social interaction are again influenced by how an individual feels thinks and behave. Having an understanding of how people form attachment and enter into relationships with each other is vital in understanding how social psychology and multicultural psychology work. Although many cultures promote behavioral norms, other multicultural factors like racial identity, ethnic identity, context, religious beliefs, parental factors and attitudes exhibited by students must be considered when interacting with people from different populations.
Definition of Social Psychology
According to Aronson, Wilson and Akert (2010), social psychology can be defined as a scientific effort that aims at explaining how feelings, thoughts and behaviors of people are impacted by imaged, actual or indirect presence of other people in their surroundings. In other words, social psychology is the discipline that analyzes human interaction in social contexts. It is in the field of social psychology that people are studied and analyzed in groups. Social Psychology considers how people think and why they act as they do, how they feel and why they deserve certain consequences for their action (Myers 2010). To some extent, we can comfortable point out how social psychology is similar to sociology because of their focus on social groups. However, sociology is different in the sense that it focuses specifically on factors like socioeconomic status and race while on the other side social psychology deals primarily with individual behaviors in particular circumstances.
Research Strategies
In a field or lab controlled event of social psychology, the primary research methods are utilized in a controlled area, place and time. In social psychology, the research determines his subjects. One example of a controlled experiment would be one where the researcher investigates whether video games are the cause of violent reactions. In this experiment, the researcher divides his subjects into two groups, one group playing very violent video games and the other group presented with video games that are not violent. After playing, the research can assume a fight between both groups to reveal which group is more violent. This could be a real life experiment though like a pretense. In such an experiment, the investigator uses the method of direct observation.
Hidden In-depth Investigations
Another research method used in social psychology is hidden in in-depth investigations where the researcher gets deeper into the community to gather qualitative data from all ecological validity levels. In Sigmund Freud’s research, he applied in-depth investigations to study his patients private lives in order to acquire a higher level of understanding to assist them in overcoming their illnesses.
Interviews
Interviews are also another way researchers can investigate a community. Most researchers used unstructured or informal casual conversations that have no set questions to investigate on their participants. Other times, researchers can also use formal or structured set of questions that are written to gather qualitative data.
Qualitative and qualitative data collection methods
In his study, BF Skinner investigated in the concept of operant conditioning by observing his animals. In his study, he pretended to be a formal members but secretly observing his subjects. He recorded behavior in controlled, natural, non-participatory and participatory settings.
Similarities and differences
Multicultural psychology can be defined by as a designed investigation of all human behavior factors as they occur in locations where there is association of people from different cultural backgrounds. Very many times multicultural psychology is defined as cross cultural psychology (Smith, Fischer, Vignoles & Bond 2013). A primary aim of multicultural psychologists is to develop an in-depth look into unique and universal actions to point out the manner in which we are influenced by culture. Multicultural psychology is a scientific study that investigates on people within minority setting which is similar and somehow different from social psychology.
While multicultural psychology investigates in cultural experiences, social psychology finds its base on individual or group connections. Social psychology brings together other factors like biological, social, cognitive and environmental factors through high level socio-emotional associations in groups and individuals. On the other hand, multiculturalism only identifies individual or groups social identification which allows one to transfer into another culture. Multiculturalism unlike social psychology takes into account cultural membership regardless of physical characteristics, one’s place of birth and previous group association. As Shiraev & Levy (2013) note in their article, in multiculturalism many cultures are permitted to co-exist. Multicultural psychology reveals to us how culture impacts the discipline while social psychology narrates how people affect human behavior.
Conclusion
There is not group that is not affected by societal forces. Multicultural psychology as well a social psychology is scientific fields that take us through the consequences of these cultures on environments and individuals. The above discussion presents us with an in-depth understanding of our personal behaviors and attitudes and how they are related to social groups.
