​If you like to study interactions within groups (many-to-one), between both groups (many-to-many) and individuals (one-to-many)... you might have a good time here!

 

Social Psychology Theories focus on the study of how individuals’ thoughts, feeling and behaviors are influenced by others presence. This area consists of a large umbrella of theories that pull from a variety of social and cognitive phenomena, which is probably why this area attracts so many scholars to research this areas such as Jonathan Grudin, Bruno Latour, Susanne Bødker, Sherry Turkle and John Law, to name a few. One of the most prominent areas within this umbrella of theories is known as Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), in which the main focus is to discover ways to build better technologies that help groups of people to collaborate and be more efficient in their work.

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Coordination and motivation and two central elements of CSCW. Together, these concepts help to characterize the decline in performance in a group from what a member would otherwise be able to accomplish, which is known as Process Loss. There is another phenomenon known as Social Loafing, in which an individual works less when they are part of a group. These are just a small glimpse into the stimulating and exciting area of CSCW; if you like it here, there is an entire umbrella of interesting theories to explore!