Theoretical Approaches to Social Psychology

I chose to analyze the case example of a high school or college campus shooting because these situations, seem to be happening very often.  Since there are no more explanations about the example scene, I am going to assume the guy who executed the shooting was an antisocial and lonely person.  In order  to understand why this guy started a shooting, I will use the cognitive and sociocultural theories.

According to Taylor, Peplau, and Sears (2006), “the cognitive approach emphasizes that a person’s behavior depends on the way he or she perceives the social situation” (p.8). Also behavior also is shaped by the social environment the individual perceives.  The cognitive theory believes people classifies people and objects in categories and emphasizes on current perceptions, rather than past perceptions. With that being said, it could be the guy responsible for the college shooting perceived and categorized people as cruel or fake. He might have had a few unpleasant experiences with some of his classmates. But because he was most likely bullied or ignore, he perceived the entire college community as bullies.

Sociocultural theory emphasizes the impact culture and socialization have on an individual. According to  Taylor, Peplau, and Sears (2006), “the sociocultural perspective is useful in understanding behavior within a particular social or cultural context” (p. 11). Perhaps this guy who feels bullied by his classmates comes from a collectivist culture and does not quite understand how individualism culture works. He might perceive people ignores him because everybody is concentrated in their own goals and individual needs. In contrast, collectivist cultures value its members who fit at ease with the group. Because the guy who started the shooting did not feel a sense for belonging within his college community, he decided to show everybody how frustrated he was.