The Importance Of Cognitive And Social Psychology

Cognitive and Social psychology are two branches of Psychology, analysing how human internal mental processes functions and the study of human interaction, feelings and relationships within groups and individuals in society. Both branches of psychology are helpful and relevant towards communication studies. Communication studies are an academic field that processes human communication, which explores the different ways humans, negotiate and create meaning. Communication topics range from mass media outlets to face-to-face conversation (IowaState.org, 2014). This essay explains how social and cognitive psychologies differ in their relevance towards communication studies and identifies which approach offers the most powerful insights.

Social psychology is the study of human relationships, and how humans behave. It is also the scientific study of how humans, thoughts, feelings and behaviours are influenced by the presence of others. Social psychology applies the ideas and information from cognitive psychology to society (PsychologyAbout.org, 2014). …show more content…
Cognitive and social psychology are both deeply effected by one another, as the mind needs to be able to internally process information before the mind is able to establish and form a behaviour. Both psychology approaches are beneficial for the field of communication studies and without either one; a proper understanding of how humans communicate might not be established as effectively, therefore it would be challenging to only focus and apply one approach when studying