I. What is Social Psychology?

A. Defining Social Psychology

1. Scientific study
2. How individuals think, feel, and behave
3. Other people—the social element

B. Social Psychological questions and Applications

C. The Power of the Social Context: An Example of a Social Psychology Experiment

D. Social Psychology and Related Fields: Distinctions and Intersections

1. Social psychology and sociology
2. Social psychology and clinical psychology
3. Social psychology and personality psychology
4. Social psychology and cognitive psychology

E. Social Psychology and Common Sense

II. From Past to Present: A Brief History of Social Psychology

A. The Birth and Infancy of Social Psychology: 1880s-1920s

B. A Call to Action: 1930s-1950s

1. Muzafer Sherif

2. Kurt Lewin

a) social perception
b) the interactionist perspective
c) applications of social psychology

C. Confidence and Crisis: 1960s-Mid-1970s

1. Stanley Milgram’s research on obedience
2. Critiques of experiments

D. An Era of Pluralism: Mid-1970s-1990s

1. “Hot” versus “cold” perspectives
2. Social cognition
3. International and cultural perspectives

III. Social Psychology in a New Century

A. Integration of Emotion, Motivation, and Cognition

B. Biological and Evolutionary Perspectives

1. Behavioral genetics
2. Evolutionary psychology

C. Sociocultural Perspectives

1. Cross-cultural research
2. Multi-cultural research

D. New Technologies