SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Social psychology is studied in different ways by both psychologists and sociologists. For the subfield of Psychology, see Social psychology (psychology). For the subfield of Sociology, see Social psychology (sociology).

In some limited ways, Social Psychology can be thought of as a single field uniting psychology and sociology. As such it is broadly conceived as the study of how individuals perceive, influence, and relate to others.

Social Psychology is usually considered a subfield of either psychology or sociology, though there are differences depending on which discipline is being referring to. Some of these differences are organizational in nature. Social psychologists in each field tend to publish in different journals. Other differences include the type of processes emphasized by the respective disciplines and methods used to study them.

Psychologists who study social psychology tend take an approach to human social behavior which emphasizes factors within the person (cognition, affect, motives, neurophysiology, and personality traits) and in the immediate social environment, as well as interactions between these two.

Sociologists who study social psychology tend to emphasize processes outside of the person at a more distant macro-level, such as social structure and a more immediate micro-level, such as social interaction. Both include the use of the individual and the group as units of analysis in their research.

There are also perspectives overcoming the distinction between the individual and the social (or the opposition inside and outside the person) by taking a different unit of analysis. Discursive Psychology and Social Constructionism, for example, take language as their primary concern.