Social Psy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Social Psy - Essay Example The author will discuss a personal experience, the use by peers of alcohol and later drugs, that resulted in the author breaking free of conformist pressures and emerging stronger and more independent in the author’s social world. Too often, it would seem, individuals progress through life without careful reflection. People would appear to take individual changes for granted while simultaneously remaining oblivious to the events that contribute to or otherwise cause those changes. People sometimes claim feelings of powerlessness and impotence when living their lives, they feel unable to truly control their destiny, and life in many ways begins to feel somewhat random and meaningless. This personal position paper will argue, however, that life is not so random or unpredictable. More specifically, this paper will suggest that individual self-reflection, as it pertains to an individual’s interaction with different groups in the social world, can not only explain to some extant how different behaviors and performances become manifest but also how individuals may begin to control their behavior and destiny to a greater degree. As an initial matter, it is important to note that social psychology is concerned with how individuals fit into or otherwise interact with a social world. The social world concept, however is not monolithic; quite the contrary there are several social spheres, of different social worlds in which an individual does and may interact. The questions posed often relate to how an individual engages in self-perception, how individuals are influenced, as an individual relates and interacts with others in different social circumstances and settings. Generally speaking, therefore, a particular social world may be considered conceptually as the relationship and interaction of individual minds, particular