Social psychology lies at the junction of two basic sciences - psychology and sociology, so the subject of social psychology is quite difficult to isolate. General psychology is interested in the states, processes, mechanisms occurring in the psyche of personality as such. Psychologists are more likely to focus on differences between individuals. Social psychology, however, is primarily interested in how a social group affects a person , whether there is a reverse process (the influence of a person on a social group), how individuals in one social group interact with people from another social group. Thus, it can be determined that psychology and social psychology coincide in the object of study, which is the individual.
Sociology studies large and small groups of people, leaving individual differences between them outside the brackets. The subject of this science is the study of processes occurring in classes, strata, ethnic groups and other groups of society, the relationship between these groups. The subject of social psychology lies in a more specific plane - the interaction of a single individual with society. That is, sociology and social psychology study how people behave in groups, but social psychology still focuses on psychological issues.
In addition, the subject of social psychology touches those strata of social relations that are not interested in the science of sociology. For example, the relationship “patient-doctor”, “novice-class”, “supervisor-subordinate”, “child-parent”, etc. Thus, it can be determined that social psychology is a science that studies people's ideas about each other, the relations between social groups and the mutual influences between them. Social psychologists are concerned, for example, that they create fashion, that cause panic or enthusiasm in large gatherings of the people, that there is aggression of the gathered crowd, etc.
All of us for one day play different social roles. In the morning, we take turns transforming ourselves from a parent (child) into a passenger of public transport, a leader (performer, but also a member of the work collective), a buyer, a patient in a clinic, a neighbor, a person gathered in a circle of friends, a rally participant, and so on, getting involved in mutual communication with the rest of the world. What affects us, what forms our knowledge and understanding of how to behave with certain representatives of different social groups? Can we influence and change the established order of relations? The subject and tasks of social psychology are precisely to answer these questions.
The individual - whether he wants it or not - is affected by gender, social education, education, fashion, advertising. This is superimposed on the social processes taking place in society: the impoverishment of a huge number of masses, or, conversely, an increase in well-being, growing bitterness or hope, enthusiasm or apathy. The subject of social psychology is the study of human behavior as a participant in social relations. Moreover, a participant in various social groups, both small (family, circle of friends), and medium (individual - collective) and large (class, ethnic group).
Social psychology is also concerned with the very mechanisms of social influence on a person. What makes an individual relate to a particular group of people one way or another? What or who can influence a change in this attitude? What individual characteristics must a person have in order to become a leader or acquire charisma in a given society and influence this or that social situation? And this is also an object of study of social psychology. Thus, the subject of social psychology is the study of the psychological processes, conditions, and properties of an individual, manifested in relationships with other people, the inclusion of this individual in various social groups and in the system of economic, legal, political and other relations of society.