Applications of social psychology – Applied Social Psychology

The best way to define what is Social psychology is to use the definitions made by great psychologists. Proshansky: “Applied Social Psychology includes research that, while focusing on a specific problem, is carried out in the real contexts in which events occur, and seeks to obtain the theoretical and empirical knowledge necessary to understand the factors that intervene in the possible solution of the problem”. Oskamp: “Applications of research methods, theories and principles or findings to the solution of real problems.” White and Cut: Ways to approach the reality of the various aspects and manifestations of human social behavior

The most studied specific applications in the manuals are:

  • Environmental.
  • Legal.
  • Policy
  • Educational.

In the magazines, the fundamental topics have been: Health, basic processes and sexuality. Other application areas: Education, community, environment, media, military, prejudice, discrimination and racism. Division made by Semin and Fiedler:

  • Specific behaviors (health behaviors and decision making).
  • Social institutions (politics, legal and organizations).
  • Social issues (relation to violence, aggression, discrimination, immigration and similar problems).

Political Psychology

Castellani: “Discipline that studies the mental functioning and actions of political actors, that is, of any subject (potential or current) seen as a citizen, leader or member of a group or movement, whose objective is public or collective.” Evolution of the studies carried out (follows the dominant currents in social psychology):

  • Role of personality factors in the exercise of political activity.
  • Voting attitudes and behaviors.
  • Mechanisms underlying information processing.
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Today, an important part of political psychology is more genuinely social than political cognition. The political cognition has given rise to a large number of important studies: The perception of politicians, political knowledge, political skills, political attitudes and beliefs.

Legal Psychology The importance of activity in legal psychology is valued by the appearance of manuals and the activity of psychologists as experts or experts. However, the legislation only allows the psychologist to act, within very limited frameworks (Bernal). Lösel identified these trends:

  1. Increase in empirical research.
  2. Emphasis on theoretical support.
  3. Increase in research on conduct of the legal system and legal practice.
  4. Extension of research on criminal law to civil law.

Most notable work areas The most classic studies: They try to find variables that are related to crime. Sobral: Aspects related to crime consistently:

  1. Impoverishment and social disorganization.
  2. Aspects of personality: Social intelligence.
  3. Psychosocial factors: school failure, inadequate family model, inadequate family control patterns, parental unemployment.
  4. Susceptibility to immediate reward.
  5. Lack of social skills: Training in social competence of offenders.

Interrogations in criminal investigation, reliability and credibility of visual witnesses, decision-making processes of judges and juries, effects of the media and consequences of crime for victims, prison as an organization and treatment of the offender.