When one thinks of social influence, the usual type of example that readily comes to one’s mind is a direct attempt at persuasion, which is when one person deliberately tries to change another person’s behavior or attitude. However, to social psychologists, social influence has a broader meaning. For them, social psychology is a scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people such as parents, friends, employers, teachers, and strangers— indeed, by the entire social situation.
The study of direct attempts at social influence is a major part of social psychology, and it is usually discussed, as well as in the book chapters, on conformity, attitudes, and group processes. These influences may conflict with one another, and social psychologists are especially interested in what happens in the mind of an individual when they do.
Sometimes it happens that individuals are influenced merely by the presence of other people, even if they do not know them and do not interact with them (for example, perfect strangers also affect their behavior). The presence of other individuals may influence their feelings and thoughts as well as their overt acts and takes many forms other than deliberate attempts at persuasion.
Different types of psychologists approach this task in different ways, and the book shows how social psychologists do it. The main task of a psychologist is to try to understand and predict human behavior. In fact, other people do not even have to be present since individuals are governed by the imaginary approval or disapproval of their parents, friends, and teachers and by how they expect others to react to them.