Outline the benefits and shortcomings of traditional and constructionist accounts of social influence.

Social psychology is the scientific study of how our behaviors, thoughts and emotions are affected by the real or imagined presence of other people. This broad definition encompasses the wide range of phenomena including how people form attitudes, how people attempt to persuade and are persuaded by others, and how people understand each other and themselves. This definition however does not include the most recent branch of social psychology. This essay aims to introduce critical social psychology, the constructionist perspective, into the discussion of social influence and examine both the the shortcomings and benefits of the two perspectives.
Traditional social psychology focuses on and identifies the power of one or more persons to change and shape individual behavior, a presumed negative social influence. Traditional social psychology views the individual in his/her natural state of existence, the rational moral being existing separately from an objective social world. They ...