social psychologyn.
/ˌsəʊʃl sʌɪˈkɒlədʒi/, U.S. /ˌsoʊʃ(ə)l saɪˈkɑlədʒi/ Social Sciences.
The study of social interactions, including their origins and effects on individuals and groups.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > social psychology > [noun]
social psychology1880
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > social psychology > group psychology > [noun]
psychology1834
collective psychology1898
social psychology1908
1880 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. London 43 146 The author defines the limits of statistics, and its relations with the other social sciences, such as economics, politics, ‘social physiology’, ‘social psychology’, and history.
1891 E. A. Ross Let. 13 Dec. in Amer. Sociol. Rev. (1938) 3 364 Do we not need an Origin of Species in the dawn of Esthetic and Social Psychology?
1908 W. McDougall Introd. Social Psychol. 18 Social psychology has to show how, given the native propensities and capacities of the human mind, all the complex mental life of societies is shaped by them and in turn reacts upon the course of their development and operation in the individual.
1957 P. Lafitte Person in Psychol. v. 62 Reductive tendencies in social psychology can now be considered. The first of these is the tendency to see the person as an object which is pushed around in a field of force.
1977 R. Holland Self & Social Context v. 167 On the other side of psychology stands sociology, sharing with psychology the field of social psychology, since there are sociologically trained and psychologically trained social psychologists.
2006 Jrnl. Res. Mus. Educ. 54 338 The issue of girls' and women's participation in jazz might not be one of ability, skills, or talent but rather one based in social psychology.
Derivatives
ˌsocial-ˌpsychoˈlogical adj. of or relating to social psychology.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > social psychology > [adjective]
social-psychological1897
1897 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 2 797 A certain conscious teleology, in the individual and social psychological sense, cannot be denied.
1978 Language 54 160 It is more surprising..that he does not refer to the rich social-psychological literature on language attitudes.
2002 P. Glick in L. S. Newman & R. Erber Understanding Genocide ii. v. 136 Once people start to act on the ideology, other social-psychological processes perpetuate and increase ideological commitment.
ˌsocial psyˈchologist n. an expert in or student of social psychology.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > social psychology > [noun] > student of
social psychologist1895
1895 Mind 4 129 The Sociologist is a Social Psychologist.
1973 P. F. Lazarsfeld Main Trends in Sociol. iii. 44 A group of social psychologists from Eastern Germany report small group experiments with an emphasis on cooperation.
2004 Independent 24 July 14/4 Baseball hats, so social psychologists say, are all about male bonding.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1880