Major Social Psychology Perspectives

Have you ever wondered why people sometimes act differently when they are in a crowd? Or have you ever wondered how society at large influences your own behavior? Social psychologists look at these sorts of questions, but like many other fields within psychology, they often utilize different perspectives when looking at questions about social behavior.

Sociocultural Perspective

The sociocultural perspective in social psychology stresses the importance of social norms and culture in explaining human behavior.

This approach proposes that children learn behavior through problem-solving interactions with other children and adults. Through these interactions, they learn the values and norms of their society.

Social psychologists using this perspective might look at how cultural norms and social influence impact social behavior. When considering something like aggression, for example, a person taking this perspective would look at how people are socialized to behave aggressively in certain situations.

Evolutionary Perspective

The evolutionary perspective in social psychology argues that social behaviors develop through genetics and inheritance. It primarily takes the "nature" side of the nature vs. nurture debate, suggesting that genetic influences play the most significant role in shaping human behaviors.

You can get a better idea of how this perspective works by looking at how social psychologists might apply it. When looking at a social problem such as aggression, a psychologist taking this perspective would consider how genetics and evolutionary influences contributed to the development of the behavior.

Social Learning Perspective

The social learning perspective in social psychology stresses the importance of unique experiences in families, school, and communities.

According to this viewpoint, we learn behaviors by observing and mimicking the behavior of others. Psychologist Albert Bandura made important contributions to this area of social psychology. His theory of observational learning suggests that a great deal of learning occurs by watching others.

In our earlier example of aggression, someone taking the social learning perspective would be interested in how people learn aggressive behaviors from parents, peers, and media influences.

Social-Cognitive Perspective

The social-cognitive perspective in social psychology supports an information-processing model of social behavior. According to this model, how we notice, interpret, and judge the behavior of others plays an important part in social behavior and interactions.

New experiences can either be assimilated (using already-held beliefs to interpret the event) or accommodated (which involves changing existing beliefs in response to the event.)

By understanding how information is processed, we can better understand how patterns of thoughts impact behavior.

How Psychologists Use Social Psychology Perspectives

Looking at how social psychologists might utilize these perspectives can help you better appreciate how each one might affect the research process. For example, imagine that researchers are trying to understand interpersonal aggression. Researchers might opt to view the problem through the lens of one of these perspectives:

• Evolutionary: Someone taking an evolutionary perspective might look at how biology and genetic inheritance play a role in aggressive behavior.
• Social learning: Another social psychologist might approach the same problem from the social learning perspective and analyze the various environmental influences that contribute to aggression, including family, friends, and popular culture.
• Sociocultural: Someone taking a sociocultural perspective might look at broader cultural patterns to understand how these influences contribute to individual aggression in a society.
• Social-cognitive: Psychologists using a social-cognitive perspective might want to study how our interpretations of other people's behaviors might play a part in aggressive behaviors or how other people understand and explain the aggressive actions of others.

How Perspectives Are Used Today

While some social psychologists tend to have a dominant perspective, many researchers draw on a variety of theories when tackling a question or hypothesis. In other words, a psychologist might use a certain lens to view a problem, but will also consider how other factors might also play a role.