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Social psychology is the study of why and how people think, feel, and act.
It covers a lot of ground. How people perceive themselves and perceive others. How people interact in relationships and groups. How people’s environments shape their values and behaviours.
One of the first definitions of social psychology appeared in 1921. In the book General psychology in terms of behavior. By Stevenson Smith and Edwin Guthrie. They wrote that, “Social psychology deals with the concerted behavior of groups of individuals, and with the individual’s responses to his fellow man.” Chapters of the book focus on: fellow man as a constant situation, other prevalent situations, formation of habits in common, the spread of tradition, opinion spread from mouth to mouth, and human institutions.
We use a lot of social psychology concepts & data in our ethnographic and prototyping work. When we’re on-the-ground – be it in people’s homes or in their workplaces – we try and identify what might be influencing what people think, feel, and do. And when we’re prototyping new interventions, we’re trying to figure out what actually changes people’s thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors. Which mechanisms enable change, for whom, when and where? Here we draw on the wisdom of Kurt Lewin, one of the early social psychologists. And fathers of action learning.
Watch a social-psychological intervention