The Five Unifying Themes In Social Psychology

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The purpose and focus of this assignment is to examine and discuss the five unifying themes in social psychology, also known as core social motives. The five themes that will be discussed in this paper is as followed; belonging, understanding, controlling, enhancing self, and trusting. However, each theme will be examined and discussed as it relates to the motivation of human interaction based on the key topic. I will select the belonging theme that listed above and discussed it further than the other four motives.
According to Fiske, (2010) “core social motives are the psychology processes that drive the motivation of human interactions based on their behavior, attitude, and feelings toward others involve in their present a situation” (Fiske, 2010, p.14). Based on Fiske (2010) theory of core social motives, there are five important motives that involve the long-term influence of group interaction (Fiske, 2010, p.16).
In the outline below is a brief definition of each of the five core motives and they include; belonging, understanding, controlling, enhancing self, and trusting is shown in the outline below:
• Belonging: This represents one’s desire to be part of a group, or in a secure relationship.
• Understanding: Based on the text, understanding is the ability one has to predict uncertain situation as well as the ability to make sense of it (p.18).
• Controlling: This motive involves the need for one to dominate or show authority over something or someone (The American Heritage Science Dictionary, n.d.).
• Enhancing Self: One’s ability to improve his or her self-esteem, confidence, appearance, or behavior can be referred to as self enhancement.
• Trusting: Trust is the act of believing in or depending on something or som...

... middle of paper ...

...ts. Therefore, these individuals will most likely avoid joining any type of social groups. While on the other hand, some individuals that are already involved in social groups may develop all or some of these issues because of peer-pressure. Peer-pressure can affect a person’s mental and emotional state.
In conclusion, I have examined and discussed the five unifying themes in social psychology, also known as core social motives. The following five themes has been briefly discussed in this paper; belonging, understanding, controlling, enhancing self, and trusting. Each theme was carefully examined and discussed as it relate to the motivation of human interaction. After examining and briefly discussing each theme, I selected the theme that I believe was the most essential one and discussed it more in details based on the key topic which is social psychology.

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