Social Psychology Quotes

• Social psychology is especially interested in the effect which the social group has in the determination of the experience and conduct of the individual member.

  George H. Mead

  Determination, Psychology, Groups

  "Mind, Self, and Society". Book by George H. Mead, 1934.

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• Social psychology has, as a rule, dealt with various phases of social experience from the psychological standpoint of individual experience.

  George H. Mead

  Psychology, Phases, Psychological

  "Mind, Self, and Society". Book by George Herbert Mead, 1934.

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• Any psychology of sign systems will be part of social psychology - that is to say, will be exclusively social; it will involve the same psychology as is applicable in the case of languages.

  Ferdinand de Saussure

  Psychology, Language, Social

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• I have been primarily interested in how and why ordinary people do unusual things, things that seem alien to their natures. Why do good people sometimes act evil? Why do smart people sometimes do dumb or irrational things?

  Philip Zimbardo

  Smart, Hero, Unusual Things

  "Emperor of the Edge". Interview with Christina Maslach, www.psychologytoday.com. September 1, 2000.

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• The purpose of psychology is to give us a completely different idea of the things we know best.

  Paul Valery

  Ideas, Giving, Psychology

  "Tel Quel". Book by Paul Valery, 1943.

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• Although the connections are not always obvious, personal change is inseparable from social and political change.

  Harriet Lerner

  Political, Growth, Connections

  Harriet Goldhor Lerner (1996). “Life Preservers: Staying Afloat in Love and Life”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• The line between good and evil is permeable and almost anyone can be induced to cross it when pressured by situational forces.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Hero, Evil, Lines

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• Social action, just like physical action, is steered by perception.

  Kurt Lewin

  Perception, Action, Social

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• Social psychology has found the more you reward people for doing something, the more they tend to lose interest in whatever they had to do to get the reward.

  Alfie Kohn

  People, Psychology, Rewards

  Alfie Kohn (2000). “The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and "Tougher Standards"”, p.107, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Situational variables can exert powerful influences over human behavior, more so that we recognize or acknowledge.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Powerful, Hero, Variables

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• If you put good apples into a bad situation, you’ll get bad apples.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Apples, Situation, Bad Apple

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• Heroes are those who can somehow resist the power of the situation and act out of noble motives, or behave in ways that do not demean others when they easily can.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Hero, Power, Noble

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• Human behavior is incredibly pliable, plastic.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Behavior, Plastic, Humans

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• No very sharp line can be drawn between social psychology and individual psychology.

  George H. Mead

  Psychology, Lines, Individual

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• One of the embarrassing facts from social psychology is that most stereotypes are true, in the only sense that stereotypes are ever true: on average.

  J. Michael Bailey

  Average, Psychology, Facts

  "Stereotypes of homosexuals". Interview with Steve Sailer, www.upi.com. August 23, 2002.

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• He that is good with a hammer tends to think everything is a nail.

  Abraham Maslow

  Thinking, Nails, Hammers

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• Being hurt personally triggered a curiosity about how such beliefs are formed.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Hurt, Curiosity, Belief

  "Emperor of the Edge". Interview with Christina Maslach, www.psychologytoday.com. September 1, 2000.

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• I think sociologists are among the best at thinking about emergence, of thinking about the ways that the society is more than the sum of the individuals. And I've found that much of the wisest writing on human social nature comes from sociology and anthropology, not from my own field of social psychology.

  Jonathan Haidt

  Writing, Thinking, Psychology

  Source: bigthink.com

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• Before I became a film major, I was very heavily into social science, I had done a lot of sociology, anthropology, and I was playing in what I call social psychology, which is sort of an offshoot of anthropology/sociology - looking at a culture as a living organism, why it does what it does.

  George Lucas

  Psychology, Doe, Culture

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• I think the greatest work in social psychology from the 1950s and '60s is enormously important. I wish every high school kid could take a course in social psychology. I think we're making enormous strides in understanding the brain. These aren't yet giving us great insights, but I feel like we're on the verge of it. In five or ten years this basically searching the brain is really going to change things.

  Jonathan Haidt

  Kids, School, Thinking

  Source: bigthink.com

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• You got to have the killer instinct. If you do not have it, forget about basketball and go into social psychology or something. If you sometimes wonder if you've got it, you ain't got it. No pussycats, please.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Psychology, Killers

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• Each individual possesses a conscience which to a greater or lesser degree serves to restrain the unimpeded flow of impulses destructive to others. But when he merges his person into an organizational structure, a new creature replaces autonomous man, unhindered by the limitations of individual morality, freed of humane inhibition, mindful only of the sanctions of authority.

  Stanley Milgram

  Men, Flow, Degrees

  "Obedience to Authority : An Experimental View". Book by Stanley Milgram, p. 188, 1974.

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• The level of shyness has gone up dramatically in the last decade. I think shyness is an index of social pathology rather than a pathology of the individual.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Thinking, Shy, Gone

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• I would in fact tend to have more confidence in the outcome of a democratic decision if there was a minority that voted against it, than if it was unanimous... Social psychology has amply shown the strength of this bandwagon effect.

  Jurgen Habermas

  Decision, Psychology, Minorities

  "Habermas and the Public Sphere". Book by Craig Calhoun, 1993.

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• Time perspective is one of the most powerful influences on all of human behavior. We're trying to show how people become biased to being exclusively past-, present- or future-oriented.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Time, Powerful, Past

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