Brief Introduction of Social Psychology And Personality Psychology

Psychology is a huge categorize in which various subjects and fields are included. For example, there are clinical psychology that studies and treats people with mental and psychological disorders, school psychology that studies students behavior and mental process and summaries how to help students to be successful in school, developmental psychology that study psychological and physical paths and changes of human beings and ect.. This paper will focus on two different branches of psychology, social psychology and personality psychology.

Social psychology studies how people are influenced by others. (cite 1) For example, if a person practices self-mutilation, social psychologists will look at the social factors, such as non-mainstream culture, that stimulate such behavior, while psychoanalysts will focus on what personal unconscious tendency such as childhood tragedy or a abuse. In this area, B.A/B.S, M.A/M.S, and Ph.D/Psy.d are offered, and it depends on personal study field to decide what types of program are needed.

The interests of this field are varied from discrimination to interpersonal relations, including prejudice, bullying, criminal activity, community health problem, substance abuse, family and domestic problems and so on.() For example , social psychologists study discriminations and prejudice such as racism, sexism, feminism, heterosexism and so on. Heterosexism is a controversial topic in society nowadays. In western countries, homosexuality is more acceptable as personal sexual orientation. On the contrary, in Asia and Middle East countries, homosexuality is considered sins and crimes. If a person born in Asia but grow up in America, his or her opinion about homosexuality is distinguished from opinions of civilians of his or her original country. Social psychologist study what social influences cause him or her think so differently. Other popular topic in social psychology field is interpersonal relationship. Social psychologists study what the factors are influencing romance and attraction. For example, in William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet are bonded with each other so strong that they would rather die than giving up their love. Social psychologist call it Romeo and Juliet effect, or reactance theory.(cite) In this theory, social psychologists believe that under certain circumstance, resistances from parents or elder relatives actually enhance the bond between couples.

People who choose to study social psychology could work in different workplaces. If students like to explore and research social psychology, they could do research for private or government facilities in a controlled surrounding. They could also work for universities and schools, where they could do their research and teach students at the same time. Also, social welfare organization is a good choice. People work there have more access to certain group of peoples so that they could get first-hand materials and information they need in their research. For those who want to apply their knowledge to work, marketing and advertising are good choices. Social psychologies study how environment and society shape individuals. Therefore, they have understanding under which situation, people tend to buy more.

Another field of psychology the paper would talk about is personality psychology. Personality psychology focuses on individual personalities and traits, and what shapes individuals’ personalities. Comparing with social psychology, personality psychology tend to focus more on individual differences. Similar to social psychology, it offers B.A./B.S., M.A./M.S., Ph.D., Psy.D., M.D to students who are interested in this field.

Some general topics of this field are trait theory, type theories, psychoanalytic theories, biopsychological theories and so on. For example, in type theory, psychologist Meyer Friedman propose that there are Type A and Type B personalities. Type A personality has “a high risk for coronary disease” because they are always stressed., while on the contrary, Type B tend to more relax, less competitive and low in risk.

People who study personality psychology could be professional research. In addition, they could also train people and help them improve leaderships. Sometimes, some personality psychologists give vital advises and information to government institutions. Furthermore, they could advise different organization to adopt strategies that help their staffs improve mentally. Also, some personality psychologies do public speaking to encourage people to do certain things. Sometimes, because they know human characteristics very well so they could help design goods for customers’ needs.

In order to work related to social psychology and personality psychology, students at least have to have a bachelor’s degree in general psychology. If they want to become social psychologists and personality psychologist, they need to have a PhD or a Psy. D degree in the fields. In order to do that, after they receive their bachelor’s degree, they need to take GRE test, and sometimes GRE Psychology test based on graduate schools they want to go to.


51Due网站原创范文除特殊说明外一切图文著作权归51Due所有；未经51Due官方授权谢绝任何用途转载或刊发于媒体。如发生侵犯著作权现象，51Due保留一切法律追诉权。