Social Psychology & Multicultural Psychology Essay

All individuals are unique and each has his own character features, which were formed under the influence of multiple factors, including family, innate qualities, friends, close people and society in general; certainly separate role is played by cultural and ethnic background. Different types of psychology are studying all these aspects, in order to make the process of mutual cooperation and communication of all individuals easier and more advantageous. Thus “social psychology is the scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others” (Moscovici, Markova, 2006, p. 5). Scientific here could be substituted with the word – empirical. Thoughts, behaviors and feelings make up the psychological variables in individuals. Most of the researchers prove that individuals continue to be under the influence of the society, they are living in, even under the condition of absence of other members of this society, their behavior is directly dependant upon the cultural norms, which are widely accepted in this society.

“Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the interaction of mental states and immediate social situations.” (Moscovici, Markova, 2006, p. 8). One of the tasks of social psychologists is to study the actions of individuals in presence of other people, the way this factor influences their emotions and feelings. Also they investigate human thoughts, intentions, beliefs, which are formed under the influence of communication with other individuals. This is the main reason, why social psychology is often seen as a bridge, connecting sociology and psychology. There was a period of time, when these two disciplines were seen as closely connected to each other, however later on their specializations varied. Sociologists continue to study mostly the issues of social structure and only sociological approaches are used for psychological studies.

Taking into consideration that social psychology is an empirical science, studying human behavior, a lot of attention is paid to research design and statistical analysis. (Moscovici, Markova, 2006, p. 10). The central place is said to be occupied by experimental methods. “Experimental methods involve the researcher altering a variable in the environment and measuring the effect on another variable.” (Moscovici, Markova, 2006, p.10). One of the examples of using of this method is suggesting two groups of teenagers to play non-violent and violent computer games and monitoring of their aggression level afterwards. Correlation methods are also used with the aim of revealing of the association between two possible options, for example studying of the influence of violent TV programs upon behavior of children at schools. Making any conclusions here should be well- considered.  Observation methods are built upon observation practices, they are however les often used. “Whenever possible, social psychologists rely on controlled experimentation. Controlled experiments require the manipulation of one or more independent variables in order to examine the effect on a dependent variable” (Moscovici, Markova, 2006, p.13). Experiments are important for social psychology, they are considered to be the best ways to reveal the causal relationships. Of course it is not possible to study all people, thus usually social psychologists use the approach of surveys, as forms of random sampling. At any rate the major aim of any research is to either support or reject the prediction, which was made before starting this research.

Multicultural psychology is a rather sophisticated term, in order to better understand it, it is necessary to define psychology first, which is a study of cognition, behavior and affect. (Matsumoto, 2000, p. 120). Psychologists are usually occupied with studies of humans’ reactions, actions, behaviors and ways of thinking. Thus multicultural psychology is concentrated upon studies of all these things, however under the influence of their culture. Culture is a complex issue, it is able to have both external and internal influence upon individuals. It is usually considered as external factor, as it has sufficient impact upon communication and cooperation between people. At the same time person’s internal processes, such as consideration and interpreting of the things, are also related to culture. “The prefix multi- means “many,” and the suffix -al means “of” or “pertaining to.”  Therefore, the term multicultural means pertaining to many cultures.  If we put this together with psychology, we can conclude that multicultural psychology concerns the systematic study of behavior, cognition, and affect in many cultures.” (Matsumoto, 2000, p. 122). Thus multicultural psychology is a kind of unbreakable study of various aspects of human behavior with consideration of different settings for the individuals of various cultural backgrounds. Usually in psychology multiculturalism is related to behaviorism, humanistic philosophy. The main themes, which are studied in this relation, are different worldviews, discrimination on the racial basis, multicultural competences, development of the cultural identity and so on.

Comparing the two above-described fields of psychology, namely social psychology and multicultural psychology, it should be mentioned that they are rather closely connected, because both are related to studies of an individual within society, their interactions, relations and communications, which have certain impact upon individual behaviors, choices and actions. At the same time social psychology is more generalized, whereas multicultural psychology is concentrated purely upon cultural impacts over individuals’ behavior.

Overall, psychology is one of the important means for people to better understand their relations, motives, behaviors; taking into consideration the sufficient impact of such aspect as cultural background upon formation of person’s views and behaviors, it could be concluded that the field of multicultural psychology is utterly important for drawing the final conclusions about human behaviors and choices, traditions, which could be even passed from one generation of people to the other, with the aim to preserve the cultural peculiarities and customs of the concrete cultural or ethnic group.

 

References:

Allport, G. W (1985). “The historical background of social psychology”. In Lindzey, G; Aronson, E. The Handbook of Social Psychology. New York: McGraw Hill

Matsumoto, D.R. (2000). Culture and psychology (2nd ed.). Pacific Grove, C.A.: Brooks/Cole

Moscovici, S; Markova, I (2006). The Making of Modern Social Psychology. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

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"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]
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