Evolution of Social Psychology

Social psychology is considered by some to have begun in 1895 with the work of Norman Triplett (1897), who examined the impact of fellow cyclists on the performance of an individual cyclist. Triplett observed that the mere presence of other cyclists improved an individual’s performance. Since Triplett’s pioneering work, social psychologists continue to examine the powerful impact of situationism—that is, the importance of examining people’s surroundings when trying to understand individual behavior. According to one of social psychology’s founders, Gordon Allport (1954), “[S]ocial psychology is the scientific attempt to explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings.” According to Fiske (2014), there are five core motives for our behavior, which are the product of human interaction with our respective context: belonging, understanding, controlling, enhancing the self, and trusting.