How We Are Influenced

How We Are Influenced Social psychology is the “scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another” (Myers, 2010, p. 4). There are many different “external social forces” (Myers, 2010, p. 8) that influence our thoughts, feelings, behaviors and attitudes, such as our family, peers, culture and gender; all of which persuade us in one direction or another. Any social situation we may encounter can be so powerful that it “leads us to act contrary to our expressed attitudes” (Myers, 2010, p. 7). Society in general will agree that “we are as Aristotle long observed, social animals” (Myers, 2010, p. 7). Animals that have two lives, personal and social; meaning that even though our thoughts and feelings are our very own and make up our self concept, which is unique, we are still “a product of our social and cultural environment” (Bernstein, 2010, p. 549). Society revolves in a world where we are influenced by others due to “we long to connect, to belong, and to be well thought of” (Myers, 2010, p. 7). Often we look to others to help “define the standard by which we define ourselves” (Myers, 2010, p. 40), also known as social comparison. Social comparison is the “evaluating one’s abilities and opinions by comparing oneself with others” (Myers, 2010, p. 40). Individuals are able to determine their weight by getting on a scale or even their height by using a measuring tape. In order to answer the questions of are we smart, attractive, creative or even rich, we look to others to give us our answers; “much of life revolves around social comparisons” (Myers, 2010, p. 41). People also long for others to think highly of them, “when people think well of us, it helps us think well of ourselves” (Myers, 2010, p. 41). It is coined as the looking glass self; “we use our interactions with others as a mirror for our own thoughts and actions, our sense of self depends on how we interpret what others do and say” (Kendall, 2010,