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Social Psychology What It Means: Examples

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Social Psychology What it Means: Examples
Mickey Stroda
November 19, 2012
University of Phoenix
General Psychology | Psy/300
Instructor: Amy Pillote

Social Psychology What it Means: Examples
Social psychology looks at how human behavior is influenced by others and the social context in which it occurs or understanding individual behavior within the social context (McLeod, 2007). It is a hybrid discipline merging other aspects of psychology into one; a melding of Sociology and psychology, therefore known as social psychology (Social psychology, 2012). Social psychology takes into account the fact that human behavior has many aspects and while people would like to think they are who they are and nothing can ever change that, in most instances; they would be incorrect in their thinking. Social psychologists show that people tend to change based on the situation they are in or the people they are around at the moment as well as how our thoughts, feelings and beliefs affect our interactions with others.
Group think occurs when two or more people come to the same consensus even if one member may disagree. Such as when Brandon Teena, a female to male transgendered person, was raped and murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska on December 31, 1993 by two men simply so they could avoid prosecution for attacking Brandon earlier. Society saw Brandon as a female although he had lived as a male for years, in fact when Brandon had reported the earlier attack the police basically laughed it off because they thought Brandon was just another ‘freak’ trying to get attention. Brandon was born Teena Brandon but had known for a long time that he was a male trapped in a female body. He knew many people did not and would not ever accept him in his hometown so he moved to another town and lived solely as a man. He fell in love with a girl and it was her friends who ended up killing

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