Social psychology (within a school setting) Essay

Social psychology (within a school setting) - Essay ExampleBehaviorism argued that a subject matter of psychology must be firmly grounded in observed human behavior rather than in unobservable mental constructs. This glide slope suggested completely new theoretical structures and empirical approaches.Thus at a time it seemed that the majority of social psychologists were behaviorists, which asserts that human behavior can be still in terms of stimulus response relationship without necessarily referring to underlying mental state.Then Gestalt inspired group dynamics (MCGARTY, 19971-15). He claimed that social milieu is not only made up of things but of relations bettering things, Thus Gestalts tradition promoted a concern with groups as real social entities. Another stylus Attitude Change came in vogue with the end of World War II.The third major Trend that was occurring in 1960s, with the breakdown of the dominance of attitude concept, was the rise of Attribution theory. The grou nd discipline of this theory was laid by Heiders book, 1958 The Psychology of Interpersonal Relation during 1970s and became the most dominant concern in social psychology.Cognitive Dissonance (McGarty, 199720-26) fit to Festinger, theory of Cognitive Dissonance is a deft blend of motivational and cognitive constructs. Cognitive dissonance is a type of psychological discomfort, produced by having attitudes in consistent with behavior, which creates pressure to change those attitudes. When a teacher has to mould or change childrens attitude, most of the occasions, reward and punishment is applied but the previous disreputable behavior is seen to be repeated in some other social context or situation. The application of cognitive dissonance theory can constitute stability and positivism when applied for a purpose of attitude change. Freedman in 1965 conducted an experiment forbidden toy of Aronson and Garlsmith regarding the permanence of dissonance induced persuasion change. Its u tility in school setting is thus If the children become aggressive when punished for touching forbidden things then dissonance should be generated in them with mild threat for that thing. So this cognitive dissonance generated in them makes the forbidden item less attractive. This mild threat will bring in them self persuasion which will lead to neutral attitude for that thing. (MCGARTY, 199720-26) Self-Perception VS. Cognitive Dissonance (Bem 19721-62) Self-perception theory differs from cognitive dissonance theory in that it does not hold that populate experience a negative drive state called dissonance which they seek to relieve. Instead, people simply infer their attitudes from their own behavior in the same government agency that an outside observer might. Self-perception theory is a special case of attribution theory.Attribution Theory (Heider, 1958) This theory is concerned with the ways in which people rationalise (or