SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Social Psychology

Abstract

The benefits of a healthy diet are myriad and long lasting and the sooner we start eating more healthily, the better we will feel and the longer we will stay fit and well. It is prudent, therefore to try to encourage a healthy diet in children from as early as possible so as to establish and ingrain habits which will become a way of life. Social Psychology is a very broad subject but the definition that Gilbert and Fiske believe describes it best is the scientific study of the way in which people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by real or imagined presence by other people. There are many contributing factors and situations that support the theory of Social Psychology.

Introduction

Research has shown that fear is an ineffective device in health promotion. Freud would contend that fear may lead to denial and avoidance, while Banyard's research has shown that fear can lead to feelings of helplessness which mar the likelihood of recipients' implementation and adherence to healthy modes of behaviour. It is therefore thought inadvisable, in promoting healthier eating patterns to children, to use the kind of lurid examples, -eg/autopsy slides of furred pericardia and film stock of cripplingly obese patients in the throes of serious digestive and coronary illness- which has traditionally accompanied similar campaigns, such as relatively recent initiatives for the prevention of smoking and drug abuse.

Discussion

Handbook Of Social Psychology not just a handbook, this can be advised the bible on communal psychology. The two volumes comprise of three parts: "The Science of Social Psychology," "The communal being," and "The Social World." Fiske (psychology, Princeton Univ.), Daniel T. Gilbert (psychology, Harvard Univ.), and the late Gardner Lindzey (former leader, American Psychological Assoc.) encompass 37 comprehensive items in writing by world-renowned professionals on such topics as the annals of communal psychology, communal cognitive neuroscience, motivation, strong feeling, brain insight, ethics, connections, leverage and authority, and heritage psychology.

Gilbert believes by understanding these contributing factors better we can learn to better lead our own lives rather than other outside influences leading our behaviors. The most prominent factors Fiske found included the following: Social behavior, Social cognition and how we use it, Self concept and Image and its importance, Attitudes and how they effect our behavior, Groups and how size effects our behavior, Types of attraction and relationships, Prosocial behavior and how the previous knowledge of Social Psychology helps us in helping others. Gilbert and Fiske believe that being aware of these influences, understanding and acknowledging consciously their influences on our behavior can better help us to understand the influence that others have on our daily actions.

A model of the limited effectiveness of fear in health promotion is provided by Janice & Feshback (1953), their study showed that 36% of participants (in this case a sample of university students) were shown to have changed their behaviour positively, and with greater conformity after having been shown a film of minimal fear appeal, compared to only 8% of participants whose behaviour ...