The subject of social psychology and its tasks

Social psychology lies at the intersection of two basic sciences - psychology and sociology, therefore the subject of social psychology is rather difficult to isolate. General psychology is interested in the states, processes, mechanisms that occur in the psyche of the individual as such. Psychologists, rather, focus on the differences of individuals. Social psychology, first of all, is interested in how the social group influences the personality , whether there is an inverse process (the influence of the individual on the social group), how individuals in one social group interact with people from another social group. Thus, it can be determined that psychology and social psychology coincide in the object of study, which is the individual.

Sociology studies large and small groups of people, leaving behind the brackets the individual differences between them. The subject of this science is the study of the processes occurring in classes, strata, ethnoses and other groups of society, the relationship between these groups. The subject of social psychology lies in a more concrete plane - the interaction of a particular individual with society. That is, sociology and social psychology study how people behave in groups, but social psychology focuses on psychological aspects.

In addition, the subject of social psychology affects those layers of social relations that sociology does not interest in science. For example, the relationship "patient-doctor", "novice-class", "leader-subordinate", "child-parent", etc. It can be defined, therefore, that social psychology is a science that studies people's perceptions of each other, the relationships between social groups and the mutual influences between them. Social psychologists are worried, for example, what creates fashion, which causes panic or enthusiasm in large gatherings of the people, what is the aggression of the assembled crowd, etc.

We all perform different social roles for one day. From the morning we alternately reincarnate from the parent (child) to the passenger of public transport, the head (the executor, but also the member of the working collective), the buyer, the patient in the polyclinic, the neighbor, the person gathered in the circle of friends, the rally participant and so on, In mutual communication with the rest of the world. What influences us, what shapes our knowledge and understanding of how to behave with these or other representatives of different social groups? Can we influence and change the established order of relations? The subject and task of social psychology is precisely to answer these questions.

On the individual - whether he wants it or not - affects gender, social education, education, fashion, advertising. This is superimposed on the social processes taking place in society: the impoverishment of a huge number of masses, or, on the contrary, increasing prosperity, growing bitterness or hope, enthusiasm or apathy. The subject of social psychology is the study of the behavior of man as a participant in social relations. And the participant of different social groups, both small (family, circle of friends), and medium (personality - collective) and large (class, ethnos).

Social psychology is also concerned with the mechanisms of social influence on man. What makes an individual to treat one or another group of people anyway? What or who can influence the change of this attitude? What individual characteristics should a person have to become a leader or acquire charisma in a given society and influence this or that social situation? And this is also an object of study of social psychology. Thus, the subject of social psychology is the study of the psychological processes, states and properties of the individual, manifested in the course of relationships with other people, the inclusion of this individual in various social groups and in the system of economic, legal, political and other relations of society.