I am pursuing Second Year BA (SYBA) Course from Mumbai University. I have chosen Sociology Discipline for this Course. So can anyone provide notes of SYBA Sociology Course of Mumbai University?

As you are looking for notes for SYBA Sociology Course of Mumbai University, so here I am providing important notes:

Mumbai University Second Year BA Sociology Course Notes
Unit Structure:
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Social Psychology: A working definition
1.2.1 Social Psychology : Scientific Nature
1.2.2 Focus on Individual Behaviour
1.2.3 Understand Causes of Social Behaviour and Thought
1.2.4 Brief History of Social Psychology : what we learnfrom it?
1.3 Social Psychology on Cutting Edge
1.3.1 Cognition and Behaviour
1.3.2 Social Neuroscience
1.3.3 Role of Implicit Process
1.3.4 Social Diversity
1.4 Let us sum up
1.5 References

OBJECTIVES :
By the end of this unit you should be able to understand :
The scientific nature of Social Psychology.
Causes of social behaviour and thought.
Understand current trends in the study of Social Psychologysuch as role of cognition, social neuroscience, socialdiversity, etc.

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY : AN INTRODUCTION :
Human beings are essentially social beings. We stay withother and our actions, thoughts, and feelings are affected by thepresence of others. At the same time we influence the behaviour ofother individuals. This consists of large amount of humanbehaviour. Social psychology is a discipline that tries to understandthe human social behaviour. As is the case with psychology, evensocial psychology has a past which is less than 100 years. Thiscourse will help you to learn and answer many questions. You willlearn theoretical perspectives in various areas of social psychology.You will understand that the scope of social psychology is wide andit is ever widening. Social cognition, social perceptions, attitudes,self, stereotype, prejudice and discrimination, interpersonalattraction, close relations, social influence, pro-social behaviour,aggression, group and individuals, applications of socialpsychology, and many more are the topics of social psychology.Most of the important topics are covered in this course. This coursewill equip you to understand social behaviour and will also motivateyou to work in the area of social psychology and to become socialpsychologist.

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY : A DEFINITION :
Defining any field is a very difficult task. So is the case withsocial psychology. Here are some examples:

According to Gordon Allport (1954) social psychology isbest defined as the discipline that uses scientific methods in “anattempt to understand and explain how the thought, feeling and
behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, orimplied presence of other human beings”.

Myers and Spencer (2006) define social psychology as the“scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate toone another”.

Barron and Byrne (2007) defined social psychology as “thescientific field that seeks to understand the nature and cause ofindividual behaviour and thought in social situations”.

Social Psychology: It’s Scientific Nature :
For many students, the word science means physics,chemistry biology, genetics, etc. They and many others wouldwonder whether social psychology is science. To understand the
scientific nature of social psychology, we need to understand whatwe mean by science. In reality science is not a label for certainfields of advanced studies in natural sciences. It has set of valuesand methodology. Accuracy, objectivity, scepticism, and openmindedness
are the values of science. The data collection, analysisand inferences are drawn in most error-free manner. The collectionof data and interpretation is as free as possible from the humanbiases. Only those scientific conclusions are accepted that havebeen proved time and again. The views are open to change, nomatter how strong they are. The principles that are determinants ofscience are Empiricism; Objectivity; Parsimony; and Convergingevidence. Empiricism means human experience, so the scientificenquiry should be human experience and not beyond and withoutit. Parsimony means simple explanations are preferred over
complex (also known as Occam’s Rezor). Considering all theseparameters, science differs from the non science.

Social Psychology: Focus on individual Behaviour :
The social thoughts and actions are taken by individuals.They might be influenced by the society. But the thought andactions are of the individuals, and not groups. The social
psychology has a very strong focus on individuals, and tries tounderstand the behaviour of individuals. It also tries to understandvarious environmental influences on social thought and actions,viz., Culture, social norms, etc. Still the focus of the socialpsychology enquiry is individual.

Understand Causes of Social Behaviour and Thought :
Human social behaviour and thoughts are caused by manythings. Social psychology would try to understand them. Let’s seesome of the important ones:

Actions and Characteristics of Other Persons :
We are affected by various actions of others. For example,you are standing in the queue for a local train ticket and somebodytries to break the queue. In no time, you would get upset with theperson and shout at him. This and many other instances would helpyou to understand that your behaviour is affected by the actions ofother individuals. Similarly, certain haracteristics of people alsochange your behaviour. For example, you are waiting at bus-stop,and you realize that a blind man wants to cross a road. You wouldquickly move ahead and help him. These and many other physicalpsychological and social characteristics of people are responsiblefor our actions.

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