Understanding that psychology is a social science discipline: How it studies people in society simply explained.

Okay, so I wanted to share how I really got my head around this idea, you know, that psychology is a social science. It wasn’t just reading it in a book. For me, it was more about getting my hands dirty, so to speak.

I started off thinking psychology was mostly about what goes on inside one person’s head. Like therapy, figuring out personal problems, that sort of thing. Seemed pretty individual to me.

My Little Experiment

So, I decided to just watch people. Simple, right? I spent some time hanging around a busy park near my place. Just sat on a bench for a few afternoons and observed.

• First thing I did: I just watched individuals when they were alone. Maybe reading, or on their phones. Pretty standard stuff.
• Then I focused on pairs: Friends chatting, couples. Their body language changed, they laughed more, seemed more animated.
• Next, I watched bigger groups: Families playing, teenagers hanging out. Things got way more complex. You could see leaders emerge, people trying to fit in, little bursts of conflict or cooperation.

It struck me then. How much people changed depending on who they were with. The exact same person acted totally different when they were alone versus in a group of five or six.

Connecting the Dots

I started thinking about this. Why? It wasn’t just their personal psychology changing minute by minute. It was the social situation influencing them. Massively.

So, I dug a bit deeper. I started reading up not just on general psychology, but specifically stuff about group behavior, conformity, social influence. Things I was actually seeing play out right there on the grass.

I even tried a tiny thing myself. One day, I just stood in a relatively clear area and stared up at a specific empty spot in the sky for a solid five minutes. A few people walking past just glanced. But then one person stopped and looked up too. Then another. Within minutes, I had a small cluster of people looking up at absolutely nothing, just because others were doing it.

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The ‘Aha!’ Moment

That little exercise, combined with my park watching and reading, really nailed it for me. Psychology isn’t just about the single brain in isolation. It’s deeply tangled up with how we interact, how groups shape us, how culture sets expectations.

We’re social creatures. Our thoughts, feelings, actions – they’re constantly being shaped by the people around us, by the society we live in. We study individuals, sure, but you can’t really understand an individual without understanding their social world.

So yeah, that’s how I moved from seeing psychology as purely individual to really getting why it’s a social science. It’s because people happen in groups. It’s about the interactions, the dynamics, the shared stuff. You see it once you start looking for it in the real world, not just in textbooks.