COURSE: THE SOCIAL ASPECT OF PSYCHOLOGY 

NAME: FESTUS UWAKHEMEN ASIKHIA

STUDENT ID#: UPD71055HPS80208

MAJOR: PSYCHOLOGY

PROGRAM: POST DOCTORATE

DATE: 9^TH April 2021

Background of the Study

The human mind is the most complex aspect of living existence and, to a large extent, determines the level of human development and behavioral changes that occur as societies advance through the ages. The attitudes portrayed by individuals and their ability to make leadership decisions are all social elements of the mental faculties and the human mind’s social extension. This is where the social aspect of psychology comes into the picture. It carries out a holistic analysis of issues that borders on individuals’ wellness in their social environment. In the same vein, Ackerman &Kernick(2008) assert that the social aspect of psychology x-rays the perception of human behavior based on social bullying and social assistance for those in need. The social aspect of psychology is dissected under a part of psychology known as social psychology, which according to Uchida et al. (2004), deals with the human mind concerning fluctuations in human behavior when relating to others. This aspect of psychology is then extended and tilted towards individuals’ mental and public health to evaluate how others’ presence or absence can influence an individual’s health. 

Description of the Subject Matter

Social psychology is derived from combining individuals’ mental capacity and people’s capacity to interact with others and their environment. According to Park et al. (2008), social psychology uses scientific techniques and methods to evaluate and analyze the process by which human thoughts, feelings, and attitudes of individuals are affected by the presence of those around. 

In essence, psychology’s social aspect focuses on getting a clear picture of how an individual’s displayed attitude is influenced by the social environment, which initiates the behavioral trait. According to Matsumoto (2001), the social environment of an individual is majorly determined by the human elements around and the people-related activities in the ambient physical contemporary location in conjunction with the caliber of individuals present. Social psychology as a broad field of study comprises several areas, including human behavioral studies, group behavior, leadership development, crime and criminology, social discrimination, social keenness, and racial prejudice. The elements of the social aspect of psychology revolve around creating influence, generating interactions, and building perceptions that inadvertently lead to social behavior formation. The reason why social psychology is critical, as it creates an understanding of how people around us shape our thinking process. According to Maener et al. (2007), individuals’ decision-making capacities depend on the presence of other people and their actions. Despite the academic nature of the social aspect of psychology, the quantum of research works that social psychologists have produced finds a great deal of usefulness in individuals’ mental health as social-psychological techniques are used to treat mental illnesses and for therapeutic interventions. These researches can help design public health policies and programs to help adolescents overcome the social vices due to substance and drug abuse, smoking, and other dangerous negative health behaviors. (Sebastian et al., 2010)

In the same vein, the ideas generated from social psychology study can help people create an introspective thinking pattern that helps individuals recover from depressions and depression-induced trauma. According to Cherry (2015), an individual’s characteristic features in conjunction with the structure of his or her ambient environment determines the person’s behavior, which is now seen scientifically as a function of the evolutionary adaptive theoretical model postulated by Charles Darwin and other evolutionary scientists. 

According to Kruglanski & Stroebe (2011), the study of psychology’s social aspect started when it becomes evident that the behavioral tendencies, thought processes, and emotional feelings of individuals in society could be systematically measured. Early scientific experimentation on the subject matter kicked off in the early 20th century running through the century into the World War when social psychologists observed the level of conformity created by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. In contemporary times, social psychology remains relevant as it has expanded into other aspects, including studies on human aggression, stereotyping and social discrimination, and group behavior.

The Social World As Divulged from Psychology

The social aspect of psychology has sometimes been confused with sociology and other human studies fields that deal with individuals in their social environment. According to Pew Research Center (2006), sociology is seen as a social science that analyses the influence of cultures, values, norms, and institutions on humans and how these factors influence their personalities. Even from pre-historic times until now, societies’ formation depends mainly on personal ideologies, values, norms, and pronounced way of life. From a cognitive point of view, culture revolves around the way of life of a group of people within a societal setting. Aluko (2003) defines culture as the socio-cultural environment in its entirety, measured in terms of the attitudes, beliefs, norms, and values that the people of a nation have and hold on to in general. Culture from the social standpoint and environmental disposition can be measured in terms of the attitudes, beliefs, norms, and values that the people at the collective level possess and hold on to in general. Culture blends from the internal perception of an environment to external reactions transmitted to either workplace or general society and are interlinked with history and tradition. 

Culture connects wirelessly into institutional settings, stemming from the perception that institutional settings can be described as a collection of individuals from diverse backgrounds knitted into a single entity by culture; therefore, the interactive construct and network in this entity creates the element of culture (Ojo,2013).In the same vein, an institutional setting can be described using Bertalanffy’s General Systems Theory, which elucidates that a system operates in an environment with the order, inter-dependency, goal-driven nature, and result-oriented situation; and likewise can be seen as a composition or conglomeration of people who formulate independent business identity for some specific purpose.

Culture can also be visualized as the value and behaviors that contribute to an institutional setting’s unique social and psychological environment, including institutional settings’ expectations, experiences, philosophy, and values that hold it together. It is expressed in its self-image, inner workings interactions with the outside world, and future expectations. The cultural perception of firms also serves as a critical driver of performance and output (Boyce et al., 2015). The concept of institutional setting culture arises from the premise that individual employee behavioral patterns blend in the long run to form common values and belief systems for firms.

The institutional setting culture can be tagged a system of shared meaning, values, beliefs, rituals, and traditions that produce behavioral norms, attitudes, and patterns of the basic assumption that guide how to work is done and determines desired outcomes in an institutional setting (Mulabe, 2013; Owoyemi and Ekwoaba, 2014). This implies that culture can be connotatively described as a myriad of shared values and beliefs that produces norms of behavior and establishes an institutional-setting way of life towards the achievement of institutional-setting goals, in conjunction with the internal environment of the institutional setting, its external environment, and its core mission statement/objectives (Vele, 2013). These elements encapsulated in culture are the formative building blocks of strategic planning for firms. It is believed that culture defines the kind of behavior expected from institutional-setting members to adapt and discharge their duties within the environment.

Culture is much more than just a theoretical statement. It is the means and channeled access to think, act, and interact within an institutional setting’s predetermined confines. It reflects how employees undertake operational tasks and carry out managerial objectives in line with their strategic plans (Ozigbo,2012; Mayhew,2017). This shows that managers make top-management decisions on staff recruitment based on how the candidates fit into the institutional setting culture, and employees also align their needs with the value system of their firms, thereby creating competitive advantage and increased value (Sakhrekar&Deshmukh, 2014).

However, social psychology uses a scientific approach to determine human behavior by interacting with the individual mind and mental capacities. 

Social Aspect of Psychology and Public Health

According to Cherry (2015), apart from individuals that do not have any connection with people in their environment, those who feel they have sufficient support from others enjoy a more significant deal of happiness which reduces their susceptibility and vulnerability to psychological health challenges similar to eating disorders and insomnia amongst other challenges. This gives a clear perspective of the connection between the social aspect of psychology and public health issues, especially those bordering around mental health, community health development, and family health programs. The ideas and skills in social psychology, which is the social aspect of psychology, can be implemented in psychotherapy to enable individuals to form and build good social support groups, which will inadvertently drive relationship goals. These relationship goals are helpful as therapeutic intervention treatments for mental health issues. Alongside the strengthening of the mental health of individuals, building social networks through social psychology is an enhanced methodology in improving the physical health status of individuals in a community or a social setting, as asserted by the works of Cherry (2021) and Swaim(2020) which analyzed sports psychology from the perspective of injury recovery and physiological functioning of the immune system. 

Social psychology and the Concept of Wellness Therapeutic Intervention

One of how social psychology’s techniques and skills can be implemented in the health sector is the process of wellness therapeutic intervention. As its name implies, wellness therapeutic intervention attempts to help mental health patients recover from the trauma of depression and associative depressive tendencies. This form of intervention also helps redirect individuals’ mental focus by altering negative thoughts into positives and blending these positives into real-life practice. This methodology was developed by an Italian scientist Giovanni Fava at an institution in Bologna; wellness therapeutic intervention is focused and premised majorly on the research studies conducted by psychologist Carol Ryff and her multidimensional model of subjective well-being. The model is made up of 6 elements: environmental mastery, personal development, life purpose, self-perception, and positivity in relationship issues. 

In practical terms, wellness therapeutic intervention is much like cognitive behavioral therapy. A patient keeps a journal to keep track and recognize the positive events that occur each day. Next, the patient starts recognizing negative thoughts and beliefs that distract from or disrupt positive events. The ultimate goal is to challenge and eventually change negative thinking ways to enable positive events to impact the patient’s life more.

Theoretical and Empirical pieces of evidence

Social psychologists utilize several theories to emphasize psychological studies’ social aspect, and these theories include structural social psychology, cognitive and intrapersonal social psychology, theory of symbolic interactionism, and behaviorism theory. Other theories used include Health belief theory, Social Cognitive Theory, and Theory of Reasoned Action/Planned Behavior. The ideas developed from the theory of symbolic interactionism dealt with the study of the mind, human self, and society as symbolic elements and originated from George Mead’s works in the 1960s. On the aspect of the cognitive and interpersonal theory of social psychology, it focused on the influence of the mind’s internal processes on an individual’s capacity to interact with its environment. The theory was inspired by the works of several scientists in the 19th century led by Wilhelm Wundt.

Health Belief Theory

The Health Belief theoretical model is a model that directly focuses on the beliefs of people concerning the situation of their health, with clear direction on the prediction of health behaviors among individuals. According to this model’s tenets and concepts, the main factors that determine individuals’ health behaviors include the individual’s perceived vulnerability to disease infection, likely gains of positive behaviors, likely impedances to action, and successful confidence. A famous example of this theoretical model is the Michigan model, designed to be implemented in health centers and rehabilitation facilities to address situations and challenges ranging from substance usage, feeding habits, personal hygiene, and others. (Ukeni, 2013)

Social Cognitive Theory

The SCT theory explains with a strengthened focus on individuals’ situations, their actions towards others, and factors in the environment that affect individuals’ health behaviors. The concept of SCT generates social support opportunities infused due to a long time of learning through observation and strengthened self-confidence. 

Theory of Reasoned Action/Planned Behavior

This theory combines two models – reasoned action and planned behavior, explaining the predictability and understandability of human behavior in critical terms. Deductions from the theoretical model show that individuals’ behavior is under the influence of certain factors, including behavioral attitude, reasonable behavioral control, and subjective norms, resulting in greater perceived control and increased likelihood of intentions governing behavior changes.

Another theoretical underpinning that supports the notion of social psychology is behavioral psychology which has been developed into the behavioral theory, a concept that studies how the environment of an individual shapes his or her attitudes or behavioral traits. Behaviorism also called the learning perspective, where any physical action is behavior, is a philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things that organisms do, including acting, thinking, and feeling, can and should be regarded as behaviors. The theory used in this study is B.F. Skinner’s operant conditioning theory. The behaviorist school of thought maintains that behavior can be described scientifically without recourse either to internal physiological events or hypothetical constructs such as the mind. Behaviourism comprises the position that all theories should have observational correlates but that there are no philosophical differences between publicly observable processes such as actions and privately observable processes such as thinking and feeling. Also, the frontiers of knowledge of behavior theory were expanded to include internal reinforcements like thoughts and emotions in the stability of such behavior in an individual. In other words, the internal reinforcement helps to maintain and sustain the external rewards and punishments. (Seruvorno, 2017)

Social Learning Theory

Social learning theorists accept behaviorists’ view that behavior is learned and the environment influences that development, but they reject the mechanistic view that altered behavior is a mindless response to stimuli. Social Learning Theory emphasizes the role of both cognition and environmental influences in development. We are all thinking creatures with some self-determination powers, not just robots that show B response when A stimulus is introduced. We can think about what is happening, evaluate it, and alter our responses accordingly. 

Albert Bandura (1977), a Stanford University psychologist, is one of the most critical social learning theory exponents. Bandura opined that children learn by observing others’ behavior and imitating and modeling their behavior (Grusec, 1972).

Social learning theorists accept behaviorists’ view that behaviors are learned and that the environment influences that development, but they reject the mechanistic view that altered behavior is a mindless response to stimuli. The social teaming theory emphasizes the role of both cognition and environmental influences in development.

Albert Bandura (1977), a Standard University psychologist, is an essential contemporary social learning theory exponent. Bandura opined that children learn by observing the behavior of others and imitating and modeling their behavior.

Target Audience

The audience targeted for this research study is the active working population of the United States located within its healthcare sector, especially those working with government or state-owned medical facilities, privately owned establishments and laboratories, and rehabilitation and community health centers.  

Methods

The research method that would be used in this study for the generating of data is the survey method of research. It will, however, be conducted in the form of semi-structured oral interviews and questionnaire administration. The data derived from descriptive research is analyzed using descriptive statistical tools of frequencies and percentages that would reveal the factors affecting social psychology and how it can be utilized in the health sector of the United States. This study’s sampling technique is the stratified random sampling method, based on the research targeted at collecting data from various strata and segments of the United States health sector, ranging from staff in government-owned health institutions to private medical facilities like rehabilitation centers. The data collected would be analyzed and presented with the cognitive content analysis.  The analyzed data was then presented in descriptive statistics in a frequency distribution, mainly frequencies and percentages. The data will be presented mainly in qualitative means, using content analysis to state observations and making inferences since the concept of social psychology is more like an abstract concept that requires a great deal of introspection and analytical efficiency. 

Results 

Concerning the survey questions, the participants were assessed based on the level of involvement of the different social psychology components and their level of impact in the United States healthcare sector. In the course of analyzing the survey, it was seen that 55% of the respondents thought that group behavior studies were the most relevant component of social psychology. In comparison, 25% believed it was crime and criminology. Another 13% suggested social perception and keenness, while 7% believed that social discrimination and prejudice was the most relevant component. Most of the respondents thought that the component areas of study in social psychology all have relevance in the healthcare sector, especially for counseling sessions and therapeutic interventions. 

Conclusion

The link between the human mind and the individual’s nominal human behavior has been observed over the ages. Several external factors are influenced by several external factors, notably the social environment from where the behavior is being generated. This clearly shows the social aspect of psychology, which has helped man understand to a great extent how attitudes are shaped and the science behind social conformity, discrimination, leadership abilities displayed by individuals amongst other elements of social psychology. This study connected theoretical underpinnings to empirical evidence to effectively analyze the social aspect of human psychology and evaluate how this has influenced human behavior, personal mental health, and public health in contemporary societies. The survey method shows how the study was able to find out the most critical component aspect of social psychology as being implemented in the American healthcare sector. 

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