Social Psychology Resources

Social psychology is the scientific study of how people’s emotions, behavior, thought process is influenced by definite, imagined, or possible presence of other. This discipline focuses on several issues such as social observation, attitudes, discrimination, and group behavior. Social psychology can be confused with sociology and personality psychology. They have similarities within topics, but social psychology focuses on the impact that circumstantial variables have on social behavior.

• A Sociological Social Psychology: Explores social psychology and the theories and methods within this branch of social science.
• Social Psychology Basics: The basics of social psychology theories.
• Theory & Science: This paper seeks to show that social psychology is not founded on a social and significant understanding of oneself, as it should be.
• Sociological Perspectives on Social Psychology: An investigation of the dimensions and considerations of social psychology.

Self and Social Identity

• A Sociological Approach to Self and Identity: Jan E. Stets and Peter J. Burke examine the character of society and its effect on a person's self-identity.
• Self and Social Identity: Basic theories, responses, and strategies of conditions that affect identity.
• Social Identity and Preferences: This article investigates choices that impact racial and ethnic social identity.
• Theory of Leadership: Explores the theory and concepts that defines a person's identity in a leadership role.

Social Cognition

• Categorical Person Perception: The British Psychological Society evaluates the method people use to understand others.
• Social Cognition: Explains what social cognition is and the many theories behind the perception of social cognition.
• Social Cognition and Revictimization Risk: This paper studies detecting violations and the likelihood of evading harmful relationships.
• Augmented Social Cognition: This paper takes a look at the importance of researching augmented social cognition.
• A Balanced Social Psychology: Joachim I. Kruger and David C. Funder look to bring a more balanced approach to social behavior and cognition.

Attitudes and Attitude Change

• Attitudes and Attitude Change: Describe the nature and origins of attitudes and the theories of attitudes.
• Understanding Attitudes: A guide to understanding attitudes and attitude changes.
• Attitudes: Explains the concept of attitudes.
• Attitudes Over Time: An in-depth look at attitude perception over time and examinations of models of attitudes.

Diversity, Prejudice, & Discrimination

• Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination: Explicit descriptions of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination.
• Perceiving and Reporting Discrimination: An analysis of the social psychological theory and research on reporting discrimination.
• Sexual Prejudice: A resource on the prevalence and motivation of sexual prejudice.

Social Influence

• Influence Theory: Describes several theories of social influence.     
• Gender and Social Influence: Explores the theory that women are more influential than men.
• Creating Social Reality: An assessment of the theory that stereotypical beliefs are used to confirm a person’s idea about someone.
• Social Influence in Adolescences: A look at who influences adolescences to smoke.

Group Behavior

• Emergent Processes in Group Behavior: A depiction of group experiments that demonstrate how people of the group react in certain circumstances.
• Characterizing Group Behavior: A research paper on distinguishing behavior of a group dealing with a universal budget limit.
• Behavior Identification: This paper looks at identifying behavior in a group economic experiment.
• Group Size and Group Behavior: Explores how group size effects group behavior.

Interpersonal Relations

• Types of Interpersonal Relationships: Describes six types of interpersonal relationships and expectations of those in the relationship.
• Interpersonal Relationships: Observes two theories of interpersonal relationships.
• Emotional Intelligence and Interpersonal Relationships: A look into several studies that make a connection between emotional intelligence and interpersonal relationships.

The Psychology of Gender

• All Mixed Up: A transgendered professor of psychology  shares her story on dealing with gender identity disorder.
• Parental Influence on Children's Socialization to Gender Roles: This article analyzes the impact of parental influence on the development of children’s’ gender roles.
• Explanation for Sex Differences: Two theories of why the sexes are different.
• The Psychology of Gender and Sexuality: Wendy and Rex Stainton Rogers provide an explicit introduction to the psychology of gender and sexuality.

Prosocial Behavior

• Social Exclusion Decreases Prosocial Behavior: This paper looks at seven experiments that use social exclusion to create emotional reduced prosocial behavior.
• Relationships With Prosocial Behavior: This study used spiritual, narcissism, and satisfaction to describe prosocial behavior.
• Multilevel Perspectives: Three perspectives of prosocial behavior examined.
• Prosocial Behavior: Graduate student Roberta L. Knickerbocker defines prosocial behavior, the history behind it, and the significance of the behavior.

Violence & Aggression / Conflict Resolution & Peace

• Violence and Aggression: An examination of the influences that cause violence and aggression.
• Violence in America: Theories of the causes of violence in America.
• Resolution: Peace building and conflict resolution in ethnic conflict.
• Social Psychological Dimensions of Conflict: The history, components, perceptions, identity, and negotiations of the social psychological dimensions of conflict.