An applied social psychologist is a generalist. They use all the theories that social psychologist come up with to better understand what causes the social problems that they need to solve. There are three areas that the applied social ppsychologists work in:
Research: this group studies what the activators are that cause the problems.
Consultants: this group work for individuals & organizations or communities to fix whatever their problem might be. They are managers, work in marketing, PR & communications.
Policy advisors: This group are involved in government, non-profit organizations, business groups, etc. They are the real agents of change.
The applied social psychologist works in the field, mostly. They use theories to understand social thinking, social influence & social relationships. The theories are phenomenal! And they use many different theories to arrive at their interventions.
One of my favorite theories is cognitive dissonance theory. This theory states that people want their beliefs and actions to be in harmony. Therefore if their behavior isn't in harmony with their attitudes, values and beliefs they will do one of two things to avoid the disharmony. They will change their actions to coincide with their beliefs or they will change their beliefs. My other favorite theory is reactance theory. This is when someone is told they can't do something and the person will do it just to show that they still have their freewill to do so. Reactance is reacting to the threat of losing freedom.
So there you have it bumper sticker style.
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