Social Psychology: Relationships

In the category of social psychology, dealing with relationships between individuals, as well as between individuals and small and large groups of other individuals, the beginnings of early childhood serve to shape the character and behavior of the person, as he or she grows older.  This begins to happen when the child becomes a member of the family group.  Within this period, the child begins to experience the inevitable process of exposure to the traits of the family group, by way of language and acquisition of communication, consequently enhancing the child’s capacity to learn and mimic the behavior and mannerisms of his or her immediate surrounding.

There are two different types of groups with which the child relates, namely, assembled groups and disbursed groups.  Assembled groups are those that are readily accessible, such as those within the family circle. Disbursed groups are members of the same community, church and profession.

Assembled Groups

The relationship between the individual and the assembled group are those of social facilitation and social inhibition.  When members of this particular group behave in the same manner, the individual mimics the behavior that is supposedly considered to  be acceptable.  For example, when an audience cheers and laughs aloud at jokes, the individual participates in the cheering and laughter, but may not do so privately.  The term used in this regard is “social facilitation.”  On the other hand, when an audience does not favorably react to a joke, the individual, as a member of that audience shows no interest and remains unmoved.  This is known as “social inhibition.”

Disbursed Groups

In this category, what the individual has in common with other members, is based on an intellectual recognition of qualities, strengthened by emotion, through meetings, rallies and conventions.  When people are frustrated in their own lives, they tend to hate outgroups.  For example, individuals in this category may declare that “all foreigners are dirty.”  Social prejudices, shared by members of a certain group, are considered to be judgments with no basis in rational thinking.  There are three basic motives underlying race and national prejudice: l) desire for economic advantage; 2) the need to improve ones social status; 3) the need for an external object of hostility.  Prejudice seems to improve the social status of an individual who is a failure, by giving him or her a group that he can underestimate.

The study of social sciences are also defined as cultural sciences. The study deals with activities of the individual, as a member of a social group, covering sciences of anthropology, sociology, politics, economics, penology, history, jurisprudence, social work, social geography and economic geography.