Social Psychology: Bringing It All Together
Social Psychology: Bringing It All Together
PSY 301
Sarah Koerner-Jordan
October 22, 2012
Franchelle Guy
Social Psychology: Bringing It All Together
Social psychology is the scientific study of human thoughts, feelings, and behavior as they relate to and are influenced by others (Feenstra, 2011). It is a broad field that covers a variety of topics. Social psychologists study a variety of topics, including views of the self, persuasion, attraction, and group processes. Researchers study all aspects of social psychology and in some cases enlist the help of a “confederate”, someone who appears to be a naïve part of the experiment. The confederate ensures that the experiment is going as planned. A part of social psychology is developing a sense of self. As human beings, we like organization and patterns.
We naturally categorize and organize information that comes into our environment. They are called self-schemas or self-concept, knowledge structures about the self. Schemas are organized packages of information. We have schemas about ourselves as well. Our self-schema is influenced by our culture, social life and environment around us. Self-concept is a set of ideas and beliefs that are gathered from capabilities or characteristics of oneself. Self-concept is gathered from academics, gender, and sexuality. Self-schema on the other hand, is put together by one self on what we believe of one self. It is not gathered by what we do or what skills we may have. If we are self-determined then we may think others who lack or have less determination are lazy or don’t want a better life. In reality we may be a self-handicapping type of person. All because our acting self wants to portray a better version of whom we really are.
Self-esteem and self-efficacy have lots to do with our acting self. Self-esteem is the way you feel and value yourself. Self-efficacy is your evaluation of your ability to perform tasks. Our acting
PSY 301
Sarah Koerner-Jordan
October 22, 2012
Franchelle Guy
Social Psychology: Bringing It All Together
Social psychology is the scientific study of human thoughts, feelings, and behavior as they relate to and are influenced by others (Feenstra, 2011). It is a broad field that covers a variety of topics. Social psychologists study a variety of topics, including views of the self, persuasion, attraction, and group processes. Researchers study all aspects of social psychology and in some cases enlist the help of a “confederate”, someone who appears to be a naïve part of the experiment. The confederate ensures that the experiment is going as planned. A part of social psychology is developing a sense of self. As human beings, we like organization and patterns.
We naturally categorize and organize information that comes into our environment. They are called self-schemas or self-concept, knowledge structures about the self. Schemas are organized packages of information. We have schemas about ourselves as well. Our self-schema is influenced by our culture, social life and environment around us. Self-concept is a set of ideas and beliefs that are gathered from capabilities or characteristics of oneself. Self-concept is gathered from academics, gender, and sexuality. Self-schema on the other hand, is put together by one self on what we believe of one self. It is not gathered by what we do or what skills we may have. If we are self-determined then we may think others who lack or have less determination are lazy or don’t want a better life. In reality we may be a self-handicapping type of person. All because our acting self wants to portray a better version of whom we really are.
Self-esteem and self-efficacy have lots to do with our acting self. Self-esteem is the way you feel and value yourself. Self-efficacy is your evaluation of your ability to perform tasks. Our acting