Social Psychology - Essay Example

Social Psychology Difference between sociology and social psychology Sociology is the study of society as awhole, which includes the values, norms, and traditions and how they influence the behaviour of the society that subscribes to the values, on the other hand, social psychology is the study of behavioural patterns of an individual and the influence of other people on them (Swartz & ONeill, 2011). While sociology is interested in the macro variables of human behaviour, social psychology is interested in the micro variables of behaviour.

For instance, sociology would be interested in understanding the mode of dressing as influenced by the characteristics of the society that an individual belongs to while social psychology would attempt to understand how the mode of dressing is influenced by the people that an individual interacts with in his life.Difference between clinical and social psychologyClinical psychology is the branch of psychology that deals with the study, diagnosis and treatment of mental problems and social psychology is concerned with the way individual’s feelings, thought and behaviour are influenced by presence of others.

The major difference between these two fields is that clinical psychology focuses more on the biological influence on an individual’s behaviour while social psychology focuses on the social influence on an individual’s behaviour. For instance, if in an area there have been increased cases of suicide among the youths, clinical psychology will focus on biological aspects of the problem like checking on the serotonin levels in the blood, which regulates the mood. On the other hand, social psychologists will focus on the social influences on the youths such as whether the youths have been neglected.

Difference between social psychology and cognitive psychologyCognitive psychology is the field of psychology that deals with rational process such as decision making, memorising and learning among others (Goldstein & Vanhorn, 2011). The major difference between cognitive psychology and social psychology is that while social psychology studies the influence of other people on an individual’s behaviour, cognitive psychology studies the influence of an individual’s mental processes on his behaviour.

for instance, while social psychologists would wish to understand how the presence of other people influences the way an individual dresses, cognitive psychologists will be interested with how the mental processes affects the dressing of an individual.Difference between developmental and social psychologyDevelopmental psychology is a branch of psychology that deals with the systematic psychological changes that happens to an individual throughout his life and can be differentiated from social psychology in that the latter deals influence of other people on an individuals behaviour.

Difference between evolutionary psychology and social psychologyEvolutionary psychology is a field of psychology that is interested in adjustment of psychological processes during the process of evolution, this branch of psychology is interested in explaining behaviour as a result of the natural selection process. For instance, an evolutionary psychologist would explain the language of an individual as a result of the process of natural selection while a social psychologist would try to understand the language an individual uses as being influenced by the people around himDifference between occupational and social psychologyOccupational psychology involves studying how individuals behave at work, it involves explaining an individual’s behaviour in relation to his work environment, this can be contrasted with social psychology, which involves studying of human behaviour as influenced by other people.

ReferencesGoldstein, E. B., & Vanhorn, D. (2011). Cognitive psychology. Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.Swartz, L., & ONeill, V. (2011). Psychology: An introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.