History
History
History
Social psychology has an interesting history. It can be traced back to 1895 when Le Bon
early events. Social psychology started as "Experimental" science. Sherif (1936) studies on
cognitive trends.
issues, etc.
The Indian Heritage The rich Indian tradition of analyzing and interpreting social
relationships goes back to more than 1500 B.C., and much can be traced in the Vedic and
post-Vedic literature. This treasurehouse is a rich source of discovering concepts and theories
which guided social life without discontinuity uptill the present times. One thing which is
common to all these scholarly pursuits was that no distinction was made between psychology,
philosophy and religion in analyzing social behaviour which encompassed the totality of
human existence. It dealt with all life domains and all stages of human development. At the
core is the concept of dharma. First mentioned in the Rigveda and later elaborated in
Gautam's Dharmashastra (about 600 B.C.), Dharma is vaguely translated in English as 'proper
action', 'moral duty', 'law of human nature'. Shared by most Indians and enduring with
remarkable continuity, Dharma has greatly influenced ways of thinking, perceiving and
categorising experiences. As Kakar (1979) stated, "In its social implication, dharma is an
inherent force in human being which holds the individual and society together, or going one
step further, the force which makes 'individual and society hold each other together'."(p.6)
attributes). The concept of Dharma is part of the broader Hindu theory of life cycle
As the field of psychology matured, researchers began to focus on specialized aspects of the
mind and behavior. This gave rise to subcategories of psychology, including social
psychology.
Social psychology has been a formal discipline since the turn of the 20th century. An early
Triplett sought to explain why bicycle racers seemed to exceed their solo performances when
Later experiments sought to explain how and why certain artists and performers seemed to
shine in front of an audience, while others faltered. During World War II, researchers
conducted studies into the effects of propaganda on the behavior of entire populations.
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