Social Psychology - Essay Example

Social Psychology Introduction Psychology is an academic and applied field involving the study of the human mind, brain, and behavior. It refers to the application of such knowledge to various spheres of human activity, including problems of individual’s daily lives and the treatment of mental illness. Psychology is an extreme broad field, encompassing many different approaches to the study of mental processes and behavior. The sub-field and areas within psychology are mainly been divided into two types, Applied Psychology and Research Psychology. Applied Psychology encompasses both psychological research that is been designed to help individuals overcome practical problems and the application of this research in applied setting. Applied Psychology includes the areas of Clinical Psychology, Human Factors, and Forensic Psychology, Health Psychology, School Psychology, Industrial psychology, and Organizational Psychology. It is also been utilized in other fields, such as Business Management, Product Design, Ergonomics, and Nutrition Research Psychology is the study of behavior for the use in academic setting, and contains numerous areas. It contains the areas of Cognitive Psychology, Comparative Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Biological Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, and Social Psychology. Social Psychology is a subfield of Psychology or sociology, it is been defined as the science that studies individual beliefs, attitudes, and behavior in setting where other people are present, in simpler words it is the study of Human Behavior. Social psychology aims to understand how we make sense of social situation, for example, this could involve the influence of other on an individual’s behavior. Sociologists tend to emphasize processes outside of the person at a more distant, such as social structure and a more immediate such as social interaction. Psychologist who study social psychology tend to take an approach to human social behavior which emphasizes factors within the person for example emotions, motives, and personality traits), and also the social environment, as well as the interaction between person and environment. Both include the use of the individual and the group as units of analysis in their research. Human Social Behavior is about as familiar an object of study as one could possibly imagine. In a general conversation, we usually say, “it is in his nature to behave like that” or “being like that comes naturally to her”. We perceive it and participate in it constantly. Even without the help of social psychologist, we feel we know a very great deal about it, and often with very good reason. We are been taught about right and wrong, about human nature, about what is done, and the lessons we learn more than a fortuitous correspondence to our experience. Social psychology can answer questions like why people feel and act towards one another in the ways they do’ why they hold particular attitudes, why they explain each other’s behavior in particular ways, and why they accept particular roles and rules of conduct. In the assignment, we will study about the widely accepted view about mental health that accurate perceptions of oneself and the world is the essential element of psychological well- being, however others say that people tend to have positive illusion about themselves and that Positive promote well-being. We shall review evidence and discuss which position is more Defendable. Important points regarding Taylor & Brown (1988) (1994) Articles and Colvin & Block (1994) Taylor and Brown published a article regarding the model of mental health maintains that certain positive illusions are highly prevalent in normal thought and predictive of criteria traditionally associated with mental health. The article was been initially derived from research with cancer patients but was integrated in the 1988 essay with literature on social cognition, suggesting that the formulation could also make sense of previously anomalous and somewhat unrelated error and biases in human thought. As is the case with any theoretical model, the goal of the article was to generate research. The 1988 article by Taylor and Brown stated that the accurate perceptions of self and the world are essential for mental health. It stated that positive illusions foster mental health has garnered considerable attention and acceptance. It also stated that people’s perceptions in these domains are positively biased and that these positive illusions promote psychological well-being. This was widely accepted, however, others say that people tend to have positive illusions about themselves. On this base, the article appeared to have been quite successful. The article was highly criticized by Colvin and Block, as an examination of the logic and Empirical evidence used to relate mental health to three positive illusions- unrealistically positive views of the self, illusions of control, and unrealistic optimism-failed to substantiate Taylor and Brown’s thesis. Colvin and Block criticized the article stating that the significant theoretical and applied implication of their view for mental health requires a critical evaluation of their argument. Further survey of more recent studies on positive illusion and mental health also failed to lend support to the Taylor and Brown generalization. Some of the important points of this Article, which were been criticized by Colvin and Block in their article were. The overriding implication that we draw from our analysis is that certain biases in perception that has previously been thought of as amusing peccadilloes at best and serious flaws in information processing at worst may actually be highly adaptive under many circumstances. Three pervasive, enduring, and systematic illusions about the self-unrealistically positive self- Evaluations, exaggerated perceptions of control or mastery, and unrealistic optimism- were been said to be the key elements that help bring about and maintain psychological well-being despite the inaccuracy of these self-evaluations. The effective individual in the face of threat seems to be one who permits the development of illusions, nurtures those illusions, and is been ultimately restored by those illusions. The perception of self that most individuals hold is been heavily weighted toward the positive end of the scale. Most individuals see themselves as better than others see them. The individual who experiences subjective distress is more likely to process self-relevant information in a relatively unbiased and balanced fashion. Realistic perceptions of personal control thus appear to be more characteristic in a depressed affective state than individuals, who are in a no depressed affective state (Taylor and Brown, 1988). These were some of the point, which were been criticized by Colvin and Brown in their article, which stated that, it is apparent that the preponderance of evidence presented by Taylor and Brown in their review refers only to few points, relating to the existence of certain typical behavior that, by certain criteria, may have to be call illus ional (Colvin and Block, 1994). Colvin and Brown divided the criticism into three major parts, in which they criticized one major statement in the Taylor and Brown article about enduring, and systematic illusions about the Self-unrealistically positive self-evaluations, exaggerated perceptions of control or mastery, and Unrealistic optimism. The article contained three important issues; Unrealistically Positive views of the self, Illusion of control, and Unrealistic Optimism. In unrealistically positive views of the self, Colvin and Brown stated that, though Taylor and Brown referred many books, review articles, and empirical reports pertaining to typical self- relevant behaviors, but were not able prove their points in reference to many books and articles. Colvin and Block’s article state that out of so many books, which were been referred by Taylor and Brown, only a few support their few statements in the articles. They also stated about the statements about thinking positive when one is depressed, they stated that depressed persons are often more negative in their self-evaluation, but relative to evaluation of them made by others, they may be no more discrepant than are no depressed persons (Colvin and Block, 1994). In the second and third part, the statements about the illusion of control and unrealistic optimism were been criticized, as these statements were written on the evidence of laboratory research. They said that the evidence on which these statements were been written are not enough to prove them right, they asked for more evidence. Some other concerns regarding the Taylor and Brown formulation were, Problems with declaring that certain typical behavior are illus ional, human errors in Cognitive processing, and on the construct and operationalisation of mental health. In this part, Colvin and Block stated that Taylor and Brown did not think about the negative effect of their articles on the person, who is ill mentally, those persons who have aids and reading their article will think that he does not have it or become careless. This point was been raised in the last part, which also stated that Taylor and Brown did not have enough evidence and proofs to prove their article right in some or the other way. Taylor and Brown argued instead that people’s perceptions in these domains are positively biased and that these positive illusions promote psychological well-being. They published another article, which reviewed their theoretical model, correct certain misconceptions in its empirical application, and address the criticisms made by Colvin and Block. In the article, they review some of the central points of their theoretical model, examined Colvin and Block’s article in view of these issues, presented research germane to their thesis, and raised some important issues that were yet to be solved. After documenting the prevalence of positive illusions in normal populations, they examined whether positive illusion promote psychological well-being. They identified mental health from the relevant clinical literature; positive attitudes towards the self, the ability to care for others, to Grow; develop, to perform creative and productive work, openness to new ideas and people, creativity, and self-actualize in response to stressful events (Taylor and Brown, 1994). Then they reviewed evidence suggesting that positive illusions contribute to each of these behaviors. Then the article moves to the criticism made by Colvin and Block, beginning with the steps made by Colvin and Block in their article, which states that the evidences given and the statements made by Taylor and Brown are not correct. Taylor and Brown state that if a person holds positive illusion about themselves and the world, we cannot stop him. If a person thinks, she has a wonderful sense of humor, who is to say that she is wrong (Taylor and Brown, 1994). If a person thinks positive, just to overcome his/her problems, what is wrong in it? This was one of the important points raised in this article. Considering our claim that people hold unrealistically positive views about themselves, this assertion is not based on evidence that people’s self- conceptions are more positive than negative (Colvin and Block, 1994). With respect to illusion of control Taylor and Brown state that does illusion exist; it is associated with the tasks and criteria traditionally associated with mental health. In examining their original article and some of the studies have been generated at that time; Colvin and block suggest that depressed people are not more realistic than healthy adults in terms of illusion of control are. With respect to unrealistic optimism, Taylor and brown gave evidence for the unrealistic optimism in normal samples. They gave evidence of more than 100 articles for supporting their statements. In the article, they also mentioned some important points that, more illusion is better, positive illusions are simply defense mechanism in another guise. Defensiveness should be associated with mental health, all illusions are good, illusion is necessary for mental health, illusion cure people of physical illness, the absence of depression is mental health, experiments with college students are sufficient to yield a model of mental health, and the human mind is unturned to reality detection. (Taylor and Brown, 1994) However, Colvin and Block presented their article very nicely and with evidence, criticizing some of the important points from Taylor and Brown article, they failed to prove many points false. Though they presented their article with evidence, Taylor and Brown opposed their article by saying that they focused heavily on a very small portion of Taylor and Brown’s (1988) essay, hardly three pages, which I think that, were not enough to prove their article wrong. They the part which is been criticized does not make any such sense or meaning which is given in criticism, apart from that the criticism was a misstatement of fact. Colvin and Block criticized only a few points repeatedly, which made their article a little confusing and not very easy to understand or accept it, as they stated that the evidence given in the Taylor and Brown’s article are not correct, but they were correct. I feel that the widely accepted view about mental health, which state that accurate perceptions of oneself and the world are essential elements of psychological well-being, is more defendable than the statement, that positive illusion promotes well-being. The first statement is more defendable as it has number of evidence and it is been proved correct in many ways. As mentioned in the Taylor and brown (1994) article, that positive thinking is very good for mental health and one can survive bad conditions by thinking positive and no one can tell us that we are doing wrong by thinking positive. More illusion is better as it helps the one who think positive in many ways for overcoming problems and bad conditions. Positive illusions are simply defense mechanisms, as positive illusions are directly responsive to threatening circumstances. One should think that what ever happens in his/her life is for good or what ever is happening in his/her, life is God’s wish and it is good for us, in future or at present. All illusions are good as they help one to overcome problems and for proving this there are number of evidence and one cannot argue on those statements. Some of the evidence and statements prove that Illusion is necessary for mental health as it cure people of mental illness; the person who is having some mental illness can cure himself by thinking positive. The one who is physically ill, who is having disease, which cannot be cured, can think positive, and try to come out from the depression and can be safe from getting mentally ill. As depression is not the obverse of mental health, it is the only one form of mental illness; a person is depressed due to problem in his/her’s life or due to physical illness, thinking that whether he/she can be cured or not. By thinking positive, one can overcome problems and cure disease, which can be cured. Reference:  Colvin and Block (1994) Psych Bull. 116 (1), 3-20. A critique of Taylor and Brown (1988).  Colvin and Block (1994) Psych Bull. 116 (1), 28. A response to Taylor & Brown (1994)  Taylor, S.E & Brown, J.D. (1994). Positive illusions and well-being revisited Separating fact from fiction. Psychological bulletin 116, 21-27.  Taylor & Brown (1988) Psych Bull. 103 (2), 193-210.  Taylor & Brown (1994) Psych Bull. 116 (1), 21-27. A response to Colvin & Block. Read More