Psychologists who study social psychology are into understanding behavioral aspects such as aggression, altruism, social influence, cognitive dissonance and attitudes, which are all related to interpersonal behaviors rather than just an individual state of mind.
Social psychology is a form of psychology that studies the relationship between people in a group. They are responsible for studying human behavior at the social level and also check out how people interact with one another in a given environment. Though there is a similarity between sociological researchers and psychological researchers, there is a difference in the way both function, especially in arenas such as approach used, methodology and career goals.
Those who are interested in taking up a career in social psychology must have done a bachelors degree in the subject and having a master degree would be an ideal choice. Having a Doctorate Degree can help them get work faster. Doing a doctorate in psychology is an extensive task, as it involves undertaking a complete one-year research project, writing out a dissertation, passing oral exams, and handling experimental research work.
A career is social psychology is challenging and one that expects the psychologist to make use of latest research techniques to handle problems in the real-world. It is vital to have good communication skills and make use of high level of analytics to carry forward successfully in this career path as the psychologist has to look into various aspect and conduct extensive research to carry out their work activities. Academic social psychologists conduct research and they teach social psychology and also publish articles in academic journals.
Social psychologists are able to tale by work as researchers in universities and private organizations, as consultants, or work in government agencies and non-profit organizations. Organizations employ the services of a social psychologist for the purpose of conducting personality tests, solving problems and in implementing organizational policy changes.
By Chris Cornell
Editor: Social Psychology
