Can you tell us what the differences are between social psychology and sociology?Although they’re similar, they’re not. On the other hand, they share certain elements in their definition and the emergence of one depends in part on the other, initially there was only sociology and psychology, part of psychology has been interested in social and group processes and, therefore, social psychology has emerged, so the names are linked. Social psychology was born from the integration of psychology with sociology.
Sociology, for its part, was also interested in the individual processes studied by psychology, the interaction between people and their environment has become the object of reflection for sociologists, moving away from other macro-ological approaches, so it can be said that it has been a great influence from one to the other and vice versa.
- Today both areas of knowledge tend to specialize.
- Each has invested its efforts in increasingly specific and specific aspects.
- The result was that the two eventually isolated themselves.
- For example.
- Sociologists have focused on macrovariables.
- Such as social structure (Bourdieu.
- 1998) or migration (Castles.
- 2003).
- While social psychology has focused on microvariables such as group identity (Tajfel and Turner.
- 2005) or influence (Cialdini.
- 2001).
We can point out that the two sciences share a common object of study: human behavior, however, social psychology would become a branch of psychology that studies how the environment directly or indirectly influences human behavior (Allport, 1985). it is a social science dedicated to the systematic study of society, social action and the groups that make up it (Furfey, 1953). It can be said that both study the relationships between people, but from different angles.
The fact that each has its own point of view can enrich the other, while the differences between the two increase. One of the main differences between social psychology and sociology is that psychology studies the effect of the social on the individual, while sociology focuses on the collective phenomena themselves. In other words, social psychology studies human behavior as an individual and sociology at the group level.
The ultimate goal of social psychology is to analyze the interaction between the individual and society (Moskovici and Markova, 2006), these interaction processes occur at different levels, which are usually divided into intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup and intergroup processes.
In short, they are processes between people and groups, in the field of interpersonal processes we study the differences between people, the processing of information and how this information is used within groups, in terms of intergroup processes the focus is on studying the role of groups in building the identity of people.
Social psychology takes into account social phenomena, but does not focus on them, but examines how these social phenomena affect the individual; social psychology seeks to understand how most individuals are affected by social factors, regardless of their personality differences.
Sociology, in its research, studies how the organizations and institutions that make up the social structure are created, maintained or modified (Tezanos, 2006). In turn, it also studies the effect of different social structures on the behavior of groups and individuals; and the changes that occur in these structures with social interactions (Lucas Maron, 2006).
In other words, Richard Osborne (2005) said, “Sociology is about explaining something that seems obvious (how our society works), to people who think it’s simple and don’t understand how complicated it really is. “The actions we take in sometimes have daily explanations that we would never have thought of.
Although there are millions of researchers in social psychology and sociology, some have stood out from the rest. Since we cannot name all the great researchers who have left their mark, here are some of the theories and methods left by two of the most famous representatives of the two fields and that will help us understand the differences between the two sciences:
While Bourdieu proposes that the patterns from which we perceive the world will determine our behavior, Tajfel interprets that group membership will determine our behavior according to the rules of the group. As we have already mentioned, the subject studied is the same, but through different perspectives.