Social Psychology Current Events - 1003 Words

Christen See Social Psychology: The Economic Recession According to the financial definition, a recession is a significant decline in activity spread across the economy, lasting longer than a few months. It is visible in industrial production, employment, real income, and wholesale-retail trade. The technical indicator of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth as measured by a countrys GDP. (Dictionary.com) A less official and more realistic definition of an economic recession is the social perception of the state of the economy at a given time. The collective beliefs of the public, mainly businesses and consumers, drive the social perception of whether things are seen as positive or negative. Unfortunately†¦show more content†¦(Newman, Lesson 6) Currently, even the wealthiest people in our country have been keeping their wallets tight because of the fear of losing their wealth. This fear is driven by the fact that even people well off have lost everything. E ventually people’s self awareness will create a need to focus on their ideals and move around the fear and begin spending money again. Studies conducted by Roy Baumeister have shown that our capacity for self-control is like a muscle; if you tire it out; you are less able to control yourself in the future and may even react more extremely. (Newman, Lesson 6) These phenomenons have been given the terms ego depletion and rebound effect. I think this applies to the people with jobs and the people with wealth in our country. Eventually this group of people will begin to feel bad for all of the people struggling and their spending self control muscle will weaken causing them to go out and begin spending money again. The rebound effect may influence people to go out and spend money on big ticket items, such as homes and cars that will also have a positive effect on the economy. The social perceptions surrounding the recession are strong influences on every individual’s perso nal economic decision making. Taking into consideration other influences such as the media, possible psychological errors, and personal self awareness and control it is easy to see how the current mood is fairlyShow MoreRelatedFritz Heiders Influence Of Social Psychology884 Words   |  4 PagesAt the beginning of the 1900s, Social Psychology was in its infancy as psychologists studied individuals and how they thought, felt, and behaved in their social environment. Scientific methods were developed to describe, capture, and measure social relationships and their influence. Fritz Heider was such a psychologists and his work still influences social psychology and its research today. Judgement of conduct, a current study by Dr. Wong Yee Cheung, is influenced by the work of Heider. The workRead MoreEvolution of Social Psychology Essay1668 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction Social Psychology is one of the younger sub disciplines within the field of Psychology. In the short span in which social psychology has existed, began with the work of the Norman Triplett in the late 1890s. Tripletts work at Indiana University was primarily experimentation with people in competitive settings. Gordon Allport followed Tripletts experimentation with his observations the attitudes of individuals and the study of the self. 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