What is social cultural psychology? What are the key ideas in this area of psychology, what are its sub-disciplines and who are the leading figures in social cultural psychology?
Social cultural psychology is a fast-growing area of research, covering a wide range of topics with implications for society and culture.
In this article, we explore these topics in detail. We begin by defining social cultural psychology, explaining what it covers as well as its differences from other types of social psychology.
We then identify three distinct areas within social cultural psychology – theory, methods, and subject matters – before exploring some examples of how these principles have been applied by notable researchers.
What is social cultural psychology?
Social cultural psychology is the study of how culture and society affect human behaviour. This means it focuses on topics such as how culture influences our sense of identity. how we interpret one another’s behaviour, how social relationships affect our health, how we make decisions and how our culture influences what we value.
This is different to other types of social psychology, which are focused on the psychology of groups (social psychology) and individual behaviour in social contexts (sociology).
Cultural psychology, on the other hand, is a subfield of social psychology that focuses on the psychology of culture, including how different cultures shape our ways of thinking.
Examples of social cultural psychology?
Social cultural psychology encompasses a wide range of topics, so there are many examples of social cultural psychology.
In this article, we explore three of the most popular: theory, methods, and subject matters.
Social and cultural psychologists have contributed significantly to our understanding of social and cultural phenomena within society. This has been achieved through the development of new theories, as well as the modification and application of existing theories.
The methods used within social cultural psychology are diverse and include qualitative and quantitative research methods. These methods have been applied in an array of areas and disciplines.
Social cultural psychology explores a range of topics, including how culture influences our identity, how social relationships and social interactions influence our health, how we make decisions, and how our culture influences what we value.
Sub-disciplines within social cultural psychology.
Social cultural psychologists study topics related to social and cultural phenomena within society. Within social and cultural psychology,
there are three popular sub-disciplines.- identity, social cognition, and social interaction.
Identity -Identity is the extent to which individuals have a strong sense of belonging to a particular group, such as their culture, ethnic group, gender, or sexuality.
Social cognition – Social cognition is the study of how people think about others, themselves, and the social world. It is an interdisciplinary subfield that draws from psychology, sociology, and philosophy.
Social interaction – Social interaction is the process through which people come to know each other, form relationships, and construct culture. This sub-discipline is a combination of both psychological and sociological theories and methods.
History of social cultural psychology.
While the idea of social cultural psychology goes back to the early 1900s, it wasn’t until the 1980s, that the term ‘social cultural psychology’ started to become more common.
Around the same time, researchers began to explore the benefits of combining social psychology and cultural anthropology. Since then, social cultural psychology has grown significantly, branching out into several sub-disciplines.
While social cultural psychology is a relatively new area that combines social psychology and cultural anthropology, the two fields have been around for a long time.
Social psychology has been around since the early 1900s. while cultural anthropology has been around since the early 1900s as well. Social psychology has always been interested in culture and society, and cultural anthropologists have always been interested in psychology.
Key ideas in social and cultural psychology.
– Society influences the way we behave, think, and feel. In other words, our psychology is inherently social, and our social interactions shape who we are as individuals.
– Culture is comprised of basic understandings and assumptions that are shared within a group. Culture can vary from one group to another, resulting in multiple cultural perspectives.
– Cultural identity is a person’s or a group’s feelings and attitudes about being a part of a particular cultural group.
– And Cultural values are the basic ideas about what is important or valuable. Cultural values can differ across time and place because they are influenced by things like history, geography, and social interactions.
How Does Social Cultural Psychology Affect You?
Social cultural psychology is the study of how culture and society affect our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. It is the study of how we are socialized by our culture and society.
It is often used in conjunction with other disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, cognitive science, and linguistics. Social cultural psychologists usually examine human behaviour from a cross-cultural perspective.
The Role of Culture in Social Behavior.
In this section, we will be discussing the relationship between culture and social behaviour.
It is well known that culture influences the way people behave in different ways. Culture can be defined as the shared beliefs, values, norms and symbols of a group of people. It is found that people from different cultures have different beliefs about what is acceptable to do in public or private spaces.
For example, some cultures believe that it is acceptable to eat with your hands while other cultures believe it’s not acceptable to do so in public. Some cultures believe it’s not appropriate to wear shoes inside their homes while other cultures believe it’s perfectly fine to do so.
Culture also influences how people interact with one another socially. For example, some cultures are more inclined to touch one another when interacting socially than others.
who is the founder of social cultural psychology?
The father of social and cultural psychology is believed to be American psychologist Edward Ross, who is credited with coining the term in 1914.
He applied the term to describe the study of culture and society as a whole. In the 1980s, the term was adopted by a number of psychologists. Who wanted to combine social psychology and cultural anthropology as a single, interdisciplinary field of research.
Who are the Famous sociocultural psychologists?
Clark Moustakas – Moustakas is commonly attributed with coining the term social and cultural psychology. He applied the term to describe the study of culture and society as a whole.
Erik H. Erikson – Erikson was a German-American developmental psychologist who is well known for his theory of psychosocial development. He was interested in the role of culture in shaping one’s identity.
Ernst Fehr – Fehr is a Swiss social and evolutionary economist. who has made significant contributions to the disciplines of social cultural psychology, as well as other social sciences.
George Herbert Mead – Mead was an American philosopher. who was interested in social interaction and how our culture shapes our identity.
Gordon Allport – Allport was an American psychologist. who conducted pioneering research in the areas of personality, motivation, and the formation of prejudices and stereotypes.
Sociocultural perspective Examples.
Anthropologists and social and cultural psychologists focus on how culture shapes our behaviour and how we shape culture.
This perspective examines how our relationships shape our behaviour. how our identity shapes our behaviour, how our language shapes our behaviour, and how our values shape our behaviour.
– How our relationships shape our behaviour – The way we interact with others shapes our personality and our behaviour.
For example, if you’re shy and reserved. you will act very differently when you are around friends compared to when you are around strangers.
– How our identity shapes our behaviour – Our identity is our sense of who we are and what is important to us. such as our gender, our ethnicity, our sexual orientation, etc. Our identity shapes the types of friends we choose and how we interact with others.
– How our language shapes our behaviour – The words we use have an impact on the way we think, feel, and act. This is called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, or the idea that language influences the way we view the world.
– How our values shape our behaviour – Our values are things that are important to us, such as family, education, or achievement. They can vary across cultures and change over time.
Famous college for social cultural psychology masters.
– Yale University – Yale University is an Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Students can pursue an MA in Cultural Psychology at Yale.
– Stanford University – Stanford University is a top-ranked private research university located in Stanford, California. Students can pursue an MA in Interdisciplinary and Cross-Disciplinary Studies at Stanford.
– University of California, Berkeley – The University of California, Berkeley, also referred to as UC Berkeley or Berkeley is a top-ranked public research university located in Berkeley, California. Students can pursue a MA in Social and Cultural Analysis at UC Berkeley.
– University of British Columbia – The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Students can pursue a MA in Social and Cultural Analysis at UBC.
Conclusion
Social cultural psychology is the study of how culture and society affect human behaviour. and this means it focuses on topics such as how culture influences our sense of identity. How we interpret one another’s behaviour, how social relationships affect our health, how we make decisions and how our culture influences what we value. This is different to other types of social psychology, which are focused on the psychology of groups (social psychology) and individual behaviour in social contexts.
