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Running Head: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 1

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2

Introduction

Social psychology is one of the main branches of psychology that deals with how the social relationship determines behavior patterns, actions, feelings, and thinking patterns. It involves individuals’ perception of their lives and relationships towards the entire society (Hogg & Tindale, 2008). Social psychology characteristics play a big role in making choices, what they believe, and how they behave when facing a social problem. Social psychology allows people to have a different opinion, which either positively or negatively affects society.
Gordon Allport, a psychologist, uses scientific methods to explain and understand people’s behavior, feelings, and thoughts and how they are influenced by the implied, imagined, and actual presence of other people. Basically, social psychology determines how a person’s behavior is influenced by the social environment around a person when behavior is taking place. Individuals have a dramatic influence on the choices they make. Consider how one would behave when he/she is alone compared to when there are multiple people around. In the workplace, people behave differently when they are alone compared to when an employee or a supervisor is around them.

Incident

One of the major incidents I witnessed and partially experienced concerning social psychology was a murder case of a young lady of about thirty years old in a busy town where I had worked for two months in a big restaurant. One afternoon I noted two unfamiliar gentlemen arguing with the lady on the other side of the road. Since it is a busy town, many people seemed unconcerned with the argument between the two gentlemen and the physically familiar lady. Thus, I became anxious about what was happening.
Shortly the gentlemen started assaulting the lady sexually, and up to this time, nobody seemed concerned with the situation. After sexual harassment, one of the two gentlemen took a knife from his pocket and stabbed the lady several times. During the struggle with the assailant, the lady screamed, “Please help me! He stabbed me! On my God!” but no person responded to assist the lady.
As the struggle continued, the lady was able to break free from the assailants, but the gentlemen followed the lady, caught her, and stabbed the lady several more times. I empathized with the lady and tried to rescue her, I moved with speed at the scene, but one angry assailant took an object from the ground and threw to me. Although the object did not strike me, a piece of fiber entered between my eye and my contact lens. It was a painful experience that made me retreat from the crime scene. Finally, I managed to pull off the fiber and take my lens out. It was a sense of relief on my side, and before I realized it, the two gentle had taken off, and the lady was confirmed dead.

Emotions based on chapter 6

Based on social psychology, emotion pervades professional and social lives. It also influences how people behave and think, profoundly determines our social and relationship interactions. A few decades ago, emotions were conceptualized and studied as individual phenomenal, where researchers focused mostly on expressive and cognitive components based on neurological and physiological processes underlying emotion reactions.
Currently, due to many types of research on social psychology through the increase in scholarly awareness, it is now clear that emotions are inherently social components that are elicited by individuals and expressed to other individuals with the intention influence, regulate a social situation and adhere to the social norms that govern people in a society (Parkinson & Manstead, 2015). My decision to assist the lady was out of emotion after realizing the harassment towards the lady was not according to the norms that govern people in any society. Out of emotion, I did not realize how dangerous those assailants were, considering they were two and well equipped with weapons. Through emotions, people engage in empirically impossible situations to solve, so such people should not be condemned.

Aggression based on chapter 11

In social psychology, aggression is a term used to describe people who yell on dare need to be assisted. People may cut other individuals’ cars in traffic; some may also smash their fists out of anger (Archer & Coyne, 2005). Based on recent researches conducted on social psychologies is that aggression is unacceptable behavior that is intended to harm a person or a group of people who does not wish to be injured or harmed, according to Richardson and Baron in 1994.
There are some actions that, although they cause harm or injuries, are not considered aggression. For instance, during a football game, a player may accidentally break another player’s arm from the opponent team. Still, because the injury or harm was not intentional, the act is not referred to as aggression. Additional, not all intentional behavior that causes harm and hurts others is referred to as aggressive behavior. For instance, a dentist giving a patient a painful injection to prevent further pain on a patient’s tooth is not considered aggression.
The scenario made me understand aggression is violence, which is prosecutable in the judicial system. The two gentlemen committed violence based on the court system and committed aggression based on social psychology perception. Additionally, a person who threw an object at me, intending to harm me, also committed aggression.

Attitude based on chapter 7

In social psychology is an emotional, mental, and psychological construct acquired through experiences. There is a set of behavior, believes, and emotions towards a scenario event or a person. Attitudes are a result of upbringing experiences, and although they are enduring can also change over time. Attitude ranges from extremely positive to extremely negative.
In my case, through social psychology based on crowd attitude, individuals in the less populated environment are likely to assist during an emergency than individuals in a crowd. When people are many, they fail to understand one another’s need due to mob psychology attitude. In a crowd, individuals always take personal responsibility is solving a crisis; this gives criminals an added advantage to commit a crime and easily escape. Through my social psychology study, I understand how the lady did not get assistance despite her request o be helped.

Altruism based on chapter 14

According to social psychology, altruism is the unselfish concern for other individuals, particularly individuals with a dare need. Altruism is basically the desire to assist without been obliged to religious, loyalty, or duty reasons. The process involves just acting out of concern for other people (Wagner & Rush, 2000). In most cases, the act of altruism jeopardizes the lives of those who try to rescue other people from danger. Such acts are often acted unselfishly, and no expectations of rewards at the end.
Through social psychology, I understood my act of attempting to assist the lady from the malicious gentlemen was an act of altruism. The process jeopardizes my health because I was almost losing my eye. I was comfortable assisting an individual, although she was not my friend. Altruism is true selflessness with no desire or expectation for personal gain.

Conclusion

In conclusion, studying social psychology enlightened individuals in building a productive relationship among people in society. Studying more about people’s lives from different ethnicities, their attributes, and how their behavior is formed allows people to appreciate how relationships among individuals influence individual functioning.