According to psychologist Gordon Allport, social psychology is a discipline that uses scientific methods "to understand and explain

how the thought, feeling and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of other human beings" (1985). Social psychology looks at a wide range of social topics, including group behavior, social perception, leadership, nonverbal behavior, conformity, aggression and prejudice. It is important to note that social psychology is not just about looking at social influences. Social perception and social interaction are also vital to understanding social behavior. Brief History of Social Psychology While Plato referred to the idea of the "crowd mind" and concepts such as social loafing and social facilitation were introduced in the late-1800s, it wasn't until after World War II that research on social psychology began in earnest. The horrors of the Holocaust led researchers to study the effects of social influence, conformity and obedience. The U.S. government also became interested in applying social psychological concepts to influencing citizens. Social psychology has continued to grow throughout the twentieth century, inspiring research that has contributed to our understanding of social experience and behavior. How Is Social Psychology Different From Other Disciplines? It is important to understand how social psychology differs from other disciplines. Social psychology is often confused with folk wisdom, personality psychology and sociology. What makes social psychology different? Unlike folk wisdom, which relies on anecdotal observations and subjective interpretation, social psychology employs scientific methods and the empirical study of social phenomena. While personality psychology focuses on individual traits, characteristics and thoughts, social psychology is focused on situations. Social psychologists are interested in the impact that the social environment and group interactions have on attitudes and behaviors. Finally, it is important to distinguish between social psychology and sociology. While there are many similarities between the two, sociology tends to looks at social behavior and influences at a very broad-based level. Sociologists are interested in the institutions and culture that influence social psychology. Psychologists instead focus on situational variables that affect social behavior. While psychology and sociology both study similar topics, they are looking at these topics from different perspectives. Our perception of ourselves in relation to the rest of the world plays an important role in our choices, behaviors, and beliefs. Conversely, the opinions of others also impact our behavior and the way we view ourselves. Social psychology is a branch of psychology concerned with how social phenomena influence us and how people interact with others. There are some basic aspects of social behavior that play a large role in our actions and how we see ourselves.

Social behavior is goal-oriented. Our interactions function to serve a goal or fulfill a need. Some common goals or needs include the need for social ties, the desire to understand ourselves and others, the wish to gain or maintain status or protection, and to attract companions.

The interaction between the individual and the situation determines the outcome. In many instances, people behavior very differently in various situations. The situation plays an important role and has a strong influence on our behavior.

People spend a great deal of time considering social situations. Our social interactions help form our self-concept and perception. One method of forming self-concept is through a reflected appraisal process in which we imagine how other people see us. Another method is through a social comparison process whereby we consider how we compare to other people in our peer group.

We also analyze and explain the behavior of those around us. One common phenomenon is expectation confirmation, where we tend to ignore unexpected attributes and look for evidence that confirms our preexisting beliefs about others. This helps simplify our worldview, but it also skews our perception and can contribute to stereotyping.

Another influence on our perceptions of other people can be explained by the theory of correspondent inferences. This occurs when we infer that the actions and behaviors of others correspond to their intentions and personalities. While behavior can be informative in some instances, especially when the person's actions are intentional, it can also be misleading. If we have limited interaction with someone, the behavior we see may be atypical or caused by the specific situation rather than by the persons overriding dispositional characteristics. Studying social psychology can enrich our understanding of ourselves and of the world around us. Explore other links in this section to enrich your understanding of social behavior.

Social psychology is a vast subject. It includes Schemata theory, Self-verification theory, Social identity theory, Triangular theory of Love, Drive theory and various others. Attribution theory is one of the categories of social psychology which was put forward by Fritz Heider, Harold Kelley and Edward E. Jones. This theory explains the way a person interprets the causes of events, the behavior of himself and others too. Social Psychology Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others (American psychologist, Gordon Allport, 1985).This, of course, does not mean that social psychology explains every social trouble; instead, there are various other ways to determine the social phenomenon. By studying people's perceptions and motives, we can comprehend why various social cults like racism and sexism exist. Interestingly, by studying people's feelings and thoughts, we can tell why and what makes a person fall in love. These findings of social psychologists tend to be empirical and laboratory based theories; rather than general and global. Some of the core issues related to social psychology are:

Social cognition: This involves the study of cognitive processes to understand others and ourselves. It is basically the study of how people process, store and retrieve the socially available information, and apply the knowledge to various situations in everyday life. Self image: Self image in nothing but a mental picture of one's own self which is quite resistant to change. This change is not only in terms of physical appearance, like height, weight, complexion, sex, etc., but also other aspects like; things learnt in the past either by one's experience and mistakes or by others. Intelligence quotient (IQ): Intelligence quotient or IQ, as it is generally known, is a score inferred from certain standardized or psychological tests, to measure the cognitive abilities of a person. Attitude: Attitude is involved in every phase of life; from social perception to discipline. Our attitude is different from our behavior. A perfect example for this would be, having seen a worthless movie for $15 (our behavior) but still convincing ourself that the movie was good (our attitude). Attribution Theory Definition Attribution theory is concerned with how people interpret events and relate them to their thinking and behavior. It's a cognitive perception which affects their motivation. This theory was first proposed in a book called, The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations by Fritz Heider in 1958. According to Heider, men behave as amateur scientists in social situations. He also said that, we generally explain behavior in two ways; either we attribute the behavior to a person or a situation. Attribution literally means a grant of responsibility. Albeit, the theory was first proposed by Heider (1958), later Edward E. Jones (1972) and Harold Kelley (1967) developed a theoretical structure, which is now seen as an epitome of social psychology. The attribution theory by Heider divides the behavior attributes into two parts, external or internal factors.

Internal attribution: When an internal attribution is made, the cause of the given behavior is within the person, i.e. the variables which make a person responsible like attitude, aptitude, character and personality. External attribution: When an external attribution is made, the cause of the given behavior is assigned to the situation in which the behavior was seen. The person responsible for the behavior may assign the causality to the environment or weather. In 1967, Kelley tried to explain the way people perceive internal and external attribution. He tried this, postulating the principle of co-variation. This model was known as Covariation Model. The basic principle of the covariation model states that the effect is attributed to one of the causes which co-varies over time. It also means that the behavior at various occasions varies. The covariation model considers three major types of information to make an attribution decision and to observe a person's behavior. The three types of information are:

Consensus information: This responds to the fact, how people with similar stimuli behave in similar situations. If most people behave alike, i.e. their reactions are shared by many, the consensus is high. But, if no one or only a few people share the reactions, the consensus is low. Distinctiveness information: This is about, how a person responds to different situations. There exists a very low distinctiveness if the person reacts similarly in all or most of the situations. However, if a person reacts differently in different situations, it is said that the distinctiveness is high. Consistency information: If the response of a person to different stimulus and in varied situations remains the same, then the consistency is high. But Kelly's covariation model has some limitations. The most prominent being that, it fails to distinguish between the intentional and unintentional behavior. Attribution Theory in Education Also, known as the Attribution Theory of Motivation, this theory describes how a person's reasons, alibis and vindications about self or others influence motivation. One of the most prominent psychologist who focused on The Attribution Theory of Education was Bernard Weiner. Mr. Weiner said that all the factors influencing achievement or motivation can be classified as effort, ability, luck and level of task difficulty. These factors mainly provide details of the things which are under or beyond our control; effort, an unstable factor on which we exercise a great deal of control; ability, a stable factor on which we do not have much control; luck, an unstable factor over which we exercise little control and level of difficulty, a stable factor which is beyond our control. Usage and Applications of Attribution Theory of Social Psychology The theory helps in Criminal Law, i.e. to understand the psychology of criminals. The usage of this theory here is of utmost importance. In today's times, with the increase in crime, especially juvenile crimes; understanding criminal psychology has become essential. This can help psychologists to understand their thought process, help experts to prevent such crimes in future and also to reform criminal's personality. It also helps in understanding cognitive bias. Another major application of this theory is in marketing communication. Here, it explains the fact, that the consumer can attribute claim, either to advertiser's desire to sell product (called as one sided advertising) or to actual attributes of a product communicated by a honest advertiser. Attribution theory of social psychology is a solution to many problems the world is facing today. We can hope of a better world, without crime, dishonesty and greed, only if the advancement in the theory is possible.