Social psychology can be a difficult concept to master when beginning psychology training. This week, a student in my undergraduate class approached me and asked how he could explain to his friend the difference between psychology, sociology, and social psychology. As I began to explain the differences to him, I quickly remembered going through a similar journey of confusion, clarity, more confusion, to finally conceptually understanding the differences and similarities between the three previously mentioned areas. This process of combining with similar, yet different fields of study was similar to the thought processes I followed when I began my journey of understanding the differences and similarities between behavioral therapy, cognitive therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) was an emerging school of thought from behavior therapy, which followed a social learning theory (Bandura, 1986). Whereas cognitive therapy followed an information processing model (Goldfried, 2003). Behavior therapy was based on classical conditioning and a simple stimulus-response model (Goldfried, 2003). After the addition of cognition to behavioral therapy, CBT, the principle for humans followed a stimulus-organism-response-consequence (SORC) model. Therefore, the SORC model organism allowed humans to be more than just responding to a given stimulus. With the addition of cognition to behavior therapy, theorists began to notice how individuals thought about stimuli which, in turn, affected their behaviors. A person's self-schema, cognitive representations of their past experiences with others, situations and themselves that facilitate their work, and the need to understand how groups affect more than just an individual. , but also how an individual can affect a group. Works CitedBandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Baumeister and Bushman (2011). Social psychology and human nature. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage. Goldfried, M.R. (2003). Cognitive-behavioral therapy: Reflections on the evolving therapeutic focus. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27(1), 53-69.Locke, EA and Kristof, AL (1996). Voluntary choices in the process of achieving goals. In P. M. Gollwitzer & J. A. Bargh (Eds.), The psychology of action: Linking cognition and motivation to behavior (pp. 363-384.) New York: Guilford Press. Locke, EA and Latham, GP (1990). A theory of goal setting and task performance. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.