A Quick Resource on the Traditional Schools of Social Psychology

Social psychology is the study of the behavior of groups in social situations, and the effect of the greater social situation on the individual. There are three major schools of theory that govern social psychology: symbolic interactionism, social cognition, and social exchange.

Symbolic interactionism, based on the works of George Herbert Mead and Max Weber, emphasizes the notion that human life is governed by meaningful interactions between individuals. The term "symbolic interactionism" was termed by Herbert Blumer, one of Mead's students. The main principle of symbolic interactionism is that people behave toward things and situations based on the meaning that those things hold for them. This meaning comes from previous interactions, and each interaction modifies the original meaning. For example, if a person who was raised solely by men meets a woman for the first time and that woman smacks them in the face, they may interpret that women are violent. As they meet more women, women who are nurturing and kind, they will alter the definition accordingly.

With symbolic interactionism, there are two schools. The first, structural symbolic interactionism focuses on social knowledge at the institutional level to explain interactions and psychological processes at the individual level, such as focusing on the law enforcement system to explain individuals behavior when it comes to crime.

Process symbolic interactionism, on the other hand, sees social interactions to be constantly changing and not connected to larger social structures, such as institutions or organizations. Individuals behavior is dependent on what they are personally experiencing each day, and does not depend upon what is happening in larger scale organizations.

Social exchange theory focuses on social change or permanence as based on exchanges between individuals and groups. This theory has a basis in economics, as well as social psychology, and asserts that individuals base decisions and relationship using a cost-benefit system. The idea of evenhandedness, or equality, within the relationship is central to this theory. When individuals are giving and getting equally in a relationship, the relationship is considered to be working and people maintain the relationship. If the relationship becomes unequal, people will remove themselves from the relationship.

The social exchange theory was a derivative theory of the social penetration theory, which asked questions about social exchanges, and their affect on the individual. Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor developed social exchange based on these questions.

The greatest error of the social exchange theory is that it sees human interactions as based on economics, an objective modifier, when in fact individual behavior is generally a highly subjective process.

While symbolic interactionism and social exchange theory hold up enough to remain active theories, the dominant model in mainstream social psychology today is social cognition.

Social cognition is focused on information processing, how people process social information, encode, store, retrieve and apply it to social situations. According to social cognition theory, social objects are placed into schemas, which are basically lists that define a social object's attributes. For instance, a woman holds different social attributes than a man. These schemas are then organized as a network, with similar schemas grouped together, and they serve as reference sources when individuals are in the midst of social interaction.

Social cognition researchers are most interested in how new information, obtained through social interactions, is integrated into existing schemas. They are especially concerned with this process when the new information is contrary to pre-established information. For instance, as mentioned above a woman and man possess different social attributes. We expect a man to be louder, bolder, and a woman to be quieter and more subtle. When we encounter a woman who acts like "one of the guys," it goes against our established schema, and our reactions to the situation must be altered to fit the situation.

The activation of schemas in any given situation is and automatic response. How to behave in front of a woman, or whether to be afraid of a movie you are watching, is reflexive. When we are in a situation, our schema for the situation is activated, and it dictates the way in which we behave.

If something is contrary to the schema, we have to find a way to file it without disturbing our original schema. For instance, a woman who likes sports may be considered an exception and not a rule, and it will be filed as such without disturbing our pre-existing notion that women do not like sports. It doesn't affect our schema, and the next time we are talking to a woman, we will not just assume that she likes sports.

While the study of social psychology is alive and well, and new schools of study may arise at any time, as of now, these three schools, symbolic interactionism, social exchange, and social cognition, are the leading theories in the field.