SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY. A term used to describe the branch of investigation which deals with those modifications of consciousness that result from the reciprocal relations of individ uals in a community. As used at present, the term includes only human groups or societies. It adds few if any new mental processes, but it examines a host of new functions which the in dividual consciousness fulfills by virtue of its relation to other minds more or less like itself. This branch of psychology is to be distinguished from the science of sociology, which deals with the formation, structure, and development, as well as the practical betterment of society. Sociology studies society objectively as an or ganization with certain laws of growth and change. Social psychology, on the other hand, regards the phenomena of society subjectively; i.e. it studies the springs of action which deter mine the movements of society, and also the conscious modifications which individual minds produce in one another. It inquires into the state of mind in R mob. and the causes which produce it; the mental disposition of the crimi nal and the motives which lead him to criminal acts; the mental eharacteristies of different peo ples and races; the effects of climate and of scenery upon the temper of a community; the analysis of imitation, of invention, and of sug gestion, and the part that these factors play in developing and maintaining society. The prob
lem of social psychology may be regarded either (I) genetically or (2) statically. One may (1) trace the development of society by the inter pretation of language, religion, myths, customs, arts, and laws in various stages of development from the earliest primitive peoples down to the present time. Such an investigation produces both psychological and sociological results. The problem which is of interest to the social psy chologist concerns the modification of percep tion, idea, feeling, emotion, sentiment, and ac tion which is traceable directly to the social environment and the reciprocal effect of these mental formations upon the community as a whole. One may (2) take society as one finds it at present and analyze the mental factors which control the complex interrelations of men. See , LANGUAGE ; MYTHOLOGY; CUSTOM ; LAW ; SOCIOLOGY.
Consult: Wundt, Hunia-n mid .1 iinal Psy chology, translated (New York, 1894) ; Le Bon, The Crowd (ib.. 1896) : id., The Psychology of Peoples (ib., 189S) ; Baldwin, Social and Ethical Interpretations in Mental Derclopment (ib., 1897) ; Tarde, Etudes de psychologic socialc (Paris, 1S98).