Social Psychology
Who are Personality/Social Psychologists?
Personality/social psychologists use a wide variety of theories, techniques and strategies in seeking to understand the influences that govern how a person thinks and feels about other people and acts toward them. The particular theories, techniques and strategies in use change and develop as our knowledge base grows. All personality/social psychologists, however, ascribe to systematic observation, description and measurement of phenomena followed by systematic and often controlled experimental intervention aimed at uncovering cause-effect relationships.
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Many personality/social psychologists work on a problem individually with a small group of research assistants. The research assistant, often an undergraduate or graduate student, is thus an integral part of the research effort, gaining specific experience and helping to decipher the results. Many other professionals find themselves in collaboration with other professionals who have a unique view of a problem area, but who lack the research design and analytic skills that personality/social psychologists possess. It is because of these skills that personality/social psychologists have increasingly found meaningful employment in all work sectors. Untapped applications are ripe for development and personality/social psychologists are well-suited to discover them.
Personality/social psychology is an area of study that specializes in learning how individuals differ in how they affect and are affected by other people and by their social and physical environments. The emphasis is on how people think, feel and act toward one another in society.
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Thus there is a wide spectrum of both applied and basic research:
Applied aspects of personality/social psychology focuses on more narrow arenas of human life, such as health, business, and law. By employing the lessons learned from basic research, and by searching for insights specific to particular domains, applied research often seeks to enhance the quality of our everyday lives. Personality and social psychologists contribute to areas as diverse as health, business, law, the environment, education, and politics.
For example, personality and social psychologists have designed, implemented, and evaluated programs to help employers hire and train better workers; to make it easier for people with cancer to cope successfully with their challenge; to increase the likelihood that people will reduce pollution by relying on public transportation; to reduce prejudices and intergroup conflict in the classroom and in international negotiations; to make computers and other technologies more user-friendly; and to make many other societal contributions as well.
Basic aspects of personality and social psychology tend to focus on fundamental questions about people and their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Where does an individual's personality come from? What causes us to fall in love, hate our neighbor, or join with others to clean our neighborhoods? How are the psychologies of being male and female similar, how are they different, and why? How does culture shape who we become and how we interact with one another? Questions such as these aim at the very heart of human nature.
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Personality/Social Psychology Topics
Self and Social Identity
Group Behavior
- Group Dynamics
- Leadership Studies
Violence, Conflict Resolution, and Peace
- Violence and Aggression
- General Resources
- Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence
- International Conflict
- Negotiation
- Peace and Conflict Resolution
Prosocial Behavior
- Helping, Giving, and Volunteerism
- Social Activism
- General Resources
- Nonprofit Organizations
- Voting and Elections
- Specific Issues
Disciplines Related to Social Psychology
- Industrial Organizational Psychology
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Psychology and Law
- Forensic Psychology
- Human Factors and Ergonomics
- Environmental Psychology
- Sociology
- Social Work
- Other Related Disciplines
Websites of Interest
What is Personality Psychology?
An overview of the field, some of the areas which personality psychologists research, graduate programs specifically geared towards personality theory, and academia.
Critical Journals Relevant to Social Psychology
The professional journals below have established web pages. Articles can be obtained from these sites or through the Rutgers University libraries
Social Psychology-Oriented Societies and Conferences
This page contains links to a variety of psychologically-oriented societies, especially ones geared toward general psychology and social psychology. If you are a student, you might consider joining some of these organizations as a way of building your résumé and plugging into the professional scene. Many groups will offer a discounted membership to you as a "student affiliate," and in most cases you'll begin receiving psychology journals, newsletters, conference materials, and other mailings. Societies in the U.S. as well as internationally are covered here.
Rutgers University's Graduate Program in Social Psychology
The Rutgers Social Psychology Ph.D. Program prepares students for careers as researchers and teachers in both academic and nonacademic settings. Students work closely with faculty members on research projects of mutual interest. Social psychology faculty members use a wide variety of state of the art research methods, including the latest computer based procedures for assessing unconscious beliefs and attitudes, sophisticated computer algorithms for uncovering and displaying personal identity and other cognitive structures, and structural equation modeling of naturalistic and laboratory data. The program has strengths in both health psychology and self, interpersonal and intergroup processes.
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Courses at Rutgers University Related to Social Psychology
Research in Personality Psychology
- Research approaches to major issues in personality psychology. Prerequisite: 01:830:101, 338. Co-requisite: 01:830:342.
Research in Personality Psychology Laboratory
- 01:830:342. Research projects designed and conducted in personality psychology. Participation in ongoing personality research programs. Prerequisite: 01:830:112, 115, or tested placement in calculus. 01:830:200. Co-requisite: 01:830:341.
Psychological Approaches to Social Problems
- 01:830:372. How social problems are defined. Theories and methods used to study social problems such as crowding, poverty, education and race relations. Prerequisite: 01:830:321.
Health Psychology
- 01:830:377. Relationships between behavior and health. Stress, personality and lifestyle as disease causes; modifying high-risk behaviors; coping with serious illness. Prerequisite: 01:830:101.
Advanced Topics in Social Psychology
- 01:830:421. Multi-sectioned course with each section investigating advanced problems and issues in social psychology. Contact Department of Psychology for titles, descriptions and requirements of sections.