What’s the difference between social psychology and sociology? One is the study of how behaviours are affected by others in social settings. The other is not.
Contrary to what I thought prior to taking the course, social psychology is not like sociology. The two are similar and can have some overlap, but they are the same.
Why? Because one talks about the society as a whole and the other talks about how a person behaves in social settings and how this can have an effect on others (can you guess which definition is for which term?).
So how did I figure this out? Well, the professor said so on the first day of class. Also, the theories and concepts don’t quite connect.
For instance, there’s this theory in social psychology that talks about how our behaviour changes when we are faced with conflicting thoughts or information. The psychological theory, cognitive dissonance, only describes a single person. Though it can be applied to multiple people, it only analyzes one person at a time.
This is the exact opposite of a sociological concept.
In sociology, theories tend to analyze groups of people or sects of society.
Take for example the theory of double consciousness. This theory, which was developed by sociologist W.E.B du Bois, talks about how minorities are able to know who they are as well as know how they are viewed by others. They have a spidey-sense, if you will, for the judgements and negative thoughts that the dominant group may have for them.
As you can see, this theory talks about an entire group of people.
However, even though these two disciplines are different, it doesn’t mean that they can’t work together.
I once had a sociology professor who said that if sociologists and psychologists were to work together instead of trying to separate from each other, they can fix a lot of problems in the world.
READ MORE: What is psychology?
Do you agree with this statement? And how would a group of social scientists combine their theories and knowledge? Share your thoughts on it below in the comments.