Author Question: Compare and contrast social psychology with two other branches of psychology (e.g., cognitive ... (Read 191 times)

saraeharris · **on:** Jun 22, 2018

Compare and contrast social psychology with two other branches of psychology (e.g., cognitive psychology, personality psychology).

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Compare and contrast normative and informational social influence.

What will be an ideal response?

bulacsom · **Reply #1 on:** Jun 22, 2018

Answer to Question 1

a . Biological psychology: The study of what happens in the brain, nervous system, and other aspects of the body; increasingly overlapping with social psychology.
b. Clinical psychology: The study of behavior disorders and other forms of mental illness, and how to treat them; has a long history of fruitful exchange with social psychology.
c. Cognitive psychology: The study of thought processes, such as how memory works and what people notice; linked with social psychology via research in social cognition.
d. Developmental psychology: The study of how people change across their lives, from conception and birth through old age and death; relevant to social psychology but an area with little overlap historically.
e. Personality psychology: The study of important individual differences; very intertwined with social psychology.

Answer to Question 2

Possible Response Points:
Normative social influence: When people publicly comply with a persuasive argument or conform to what others are saying or doing in order to fit in or gain social approval. This type of influence is tends to occur relatively frequently among people who are high in self-monitoring and people from collectivist cultures. It also tends to occur when people are in group settings in which group members uniformly agree on a certain point of view. Normative social influence, compared to informational social influence, is not especially long-lasting.
Informational social influence: When people internally accept a persuasive argument because or conform to what others are saying or doing because they believe that others have correct information and/or know more than they themselves do. This type of social influence tends to occur when people are in ambiguous situations or crisis situations. Compared to normative social influence, normative social influence is durable and long-lasting.