1.

Social psychological theories tend to focus on the individual or on the group and explains how the
thoughts, feelings and behaviors are influenced by others. Theorists emphasize immediate the social
situation and the interaction between people and situation variables. The research done is quantitave.
Social psychologists use a wide range of specific theories for various kinds of social and cognitive
phenomena. For example, conservationists believe that behavior can be acquired by the observation
and imitation of others. Common sense understandings consist of what people in common would agree
on. It tends to relate to events within the human experience and thus appear complete with human skill.
For example the 3 r's reading writing and arithmetic are the most basic school subjects. If students can
handle those subjects they can handle more difficult ones. It is not always the best idea to rely on
common sense or intuition because it is largely based on past knowledge and occurrences in a specific
area. For example people who have had a lot of experience with children may use their common sense
or intuition to determine how to handle other children when what may work in one situation will not
always work in another. Intuition and common sense can be biased based on inaccurate preconceptions
of a certain situation.

2. Some social scientists have been influenced by Freudian ideas in their studies of social interaction and
motivation. Sigmund Freud believed that social behavior and attitudes are generated by external and
internal emotional needs derived from childhood. Examples of these needs are the need for self-
expression, recognition, and authority. Individuals who were deprived of expressing these needs in
childhood and are given the opportunity to do so in adulthood will sometimes go to graet lengths to
fullfill these needs.

Socialist Max Weber believed that statements of fact and statements of value are two separate things
that should not be confused. He believed that ultimate values cannot be justified since some analysis of
them are partially based on other values. For example when comparing different religions, political or
social systems, one value could not be chosen over another without taking other values into
consideration.

One of the first developers of modern sociology Emile Durkheim believed that sociology is the study of
social facts and the task of social science involves the correlation between social facts and the revelation
of social laws. He further found that sociology would be able to determine whether any given society is
healthy or not. An example of a study he did was a study of suicide rates by examining them in different
police districts. He attempted to demonstrate that Catholic communities had a lower suicide rate than
Protestants something he attributed to social causes.
Sources: www.wikpedia.org
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