What is Health Psychology?

Social psychology attempts to study the interaction between individuals and groups. The goal of social psychology is to explain the individual’s behavior as it is influenced by other people. Social psychologists are interested in changes to the individual’s thoughts, attitudes and emotions. Popular topics in this field include social cognition, cognitive dissonance, and social influence. Behaviors of interest that may be studied by social psychologists range from altruism to aggression.

Most people who hold a social psychology degree come from a psychology background. Psychology is rooted at the level of the individual, and thus social psychology is mostly concerned with social situations that influence the individual and their behavior.

Sometimes, a sociologist will conduct work that takes a similar perspective to social psychology, but even with comparable research designs a sociologist is usually working within a larger framework that is centered on studying groups of people. In other words, the end goals between psychologists and sociologist are usually different, but the research they conduct may be very similar.

Interest in social psychology began to accelerate after WWII when the horrors of the war needed a better explanation. Researchers began to study the effects of conformity, obedience, group mentality and social influence to determine how ordinary people could commit horrendous crimes against other humans. Government interest in social psychology began to pick up as well, as the idea of influencing and socializing citizens became an achievable goal.

If you are thinking of earning a social psychology degree, you should begin to look for schools that offer an undergraduate degree in psychology. After achieving a bachelor’s degree in psychology, enrolling in a master’s or doctoral program is necessary to become a social psychologist. Look for online colleges or universities that can offer such programs, or enroll at a traditional academic institution for onsite learning.