Social Psychology: Effects on Development in Infancy and Adolescence

This essay provides an overview of social psychology and its impact on human development, specifically focusing on infancy and adolescence. It explores how social interactions and mental states influence behavior. The essay delves into key concepts such as emotional development, stranger wariness, and self-awareness in infancy, and career consciousness and decision-making in adolescence. It highlights the influence of cultural, social, and socio-economic contexts on development, emphasizing the importance of understanding these factors in shaping an individual's psychological journey. The conclusion summarizes the significant role social psychology plays in understanding human behavior across different stages of life, emphasizing the interplay of internal mental states and external social influences.

Social psychology is scientific study of people
thoughts, feelings and behaviour influenced by
actual, imagination or presence with others and the
study of attitudes is main topic in social psychology
(Anderson and et.al., 2019). This explains human
behaviour as result of interaction of mental states.
This bridges the gap between psychology and
sociology to the extent and this scientific study of
how human is feeling and behave in its life. In this
it is being discussed about the how social
psychology influences the development in infancy,
childhood and adolescence and many different
observations are there that support the effect.
•Stranger wariness- This reflects the brain development
and improving cognitive abilities have taken place as
infant’s memory is developed, they now able to
separate the people that they know. They tend to
recognize by their facial expression and that could be
expressed in terms of smiling and crying. They usually
catch the different faces and make it realize in short
period of time (Barranti, Carlson and Côté, 2017).
•Self-awareness- This is indicating the second year of
life, as children begin to recognize themselves as they
achieve the senses of self-object. This concern with
individual realization of one's mind, body and activities
that is distinct from those of other people. They were
able to understand the feelings and actions that were
used to feed and bathe him and make it more easy to
interact with others and ensure good communication.
Identifying the Social Psychology influence the
Development in infancy
Psychology development occurs as children from the
relationship, interaction with others and
understanding and managing the feelings. This
emotional attachment is very important and major
milestone of infancy. In some followings ways social
psychology effect the development of infants and
how this has become essential part of this stage are
as follows-
•Emotional Development- This exhibit two
emotional responses such as attraction and
withdrawal. At around two months they indulge in
social engagement in way of social smiling and got
positive attention. Infants also the feel reactive pain
and pleasure to complex pattern of socio emotional
awareness that is transits from basic feelings into
learned responses.
2017).
Social psychology
INTRODUCTION

Evaluating the effect of Social Psychology in
childhood
In childhood then there are many influences that used to
contribute to child development and also leads to
psychological problems during childhood. This stage is
very important role in course of rest of life and also
greater role in development (Wilson and Wixted, 2018).
Some of the context in child psychology are as follows-
•Cultural context- This concern with the set of values,
customs, shared assumptions as way of living that
influence majorly on the development throughout the
lifespan. This depends on the type of culture in which
children is brought up and type of education that they
receive. It impacts deeply as it relates with somewhere
with spirituality and values that become the roots of
future life and stay for so long.
•Social context- This refers to the relationship with
friends and adults has also impact the development of
childhood thinking, learn and develop their personality.
Families, schools and peers are important part of social
context (Vallacher, Read and Nowak, 2017).
•Socio economic context- Social class has also play
major role in child development and it based on the
numbers of different factors that includes the how much
education they have and how they are earnings
Assessing the impact of Social Psychology on
Adolescence
Social psychology used to impact the adolescence in
very different way and that leads to certain
development in the growth of this stage, As, this is
crucial stage that has various changes and leads to
many diversifications in this time period. Some of the
impact of social psychology in adolescence are as
follows-
•Decision making- This is main factor that impact the
psychology of adult as they were able to take important
decision in their life and leads to certain changes. Some
important differences were defining by past decisions
and knowledge. In this stage, they were able to take
active decisions and also leads to success in many times
and sometime they used to fail in their decisions. Their
generally take immature decisions and that sometimes
will create the problems in their life (Verkuyten, 2018).
•Career consciousness- This concern with the developing of
feeling for the career and that makes an individual impact so
much on the development of adolescence. Social psychology
has come with different terms and needs to be treated
accordingly. Adults were become very curious about career
and take many decisions to be successful in nature.
From the above report it is concluded that Social psychology
is human behaviour that results to mental state and social
changes, studying the condition under thoughts, feelings and
behaviour. In this report it has been discussed about the
impact on infancy such as Emotional development, Stranger
Wariness, Self-awareness. Social psychology effects the
childhood in Social context, Socio-economic context and
cultural context as this is learning period of individual so it
hugely influences by such factors. Apart from that in the stage
of adolescence the factors of social psychology have impact
the in some ways like becoming career consciousness and
Decision making.
Conclusion