Theories in Social Psychology, 2nd Edition

1 Theorizing Social Psychology

Social psychology is relevant today as much as it was over a hundred years ago. But academics would argue that the impetus, and at the core, of any discipline is its theoretical foundation. The genesis to the maturity of social psychology from the early twentieth century to the second decade of the twenty-first century has seen the creation and development of numerous theories intended to conceptualize spheres of reality that were somewhat outside of the range of sociology or general psychology. Many of these theories still meaningfully contribute toward the research and theoretical expansion of the discipline.

Gordon Allport (1968) defined social psychology as “an attempt to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others.” As limited as definitions are, this definition of social psychology captured the dynamism, focus, and direction of the discipline. Important to an understanding of social psychological behavior is taking into consideration not only what is happening socially to the person but also what is occurring internally, including cognitively, to the individual, which, in turn, affects social behavior. From its genesis rooted in the work of William James’s Principles of Psychology to current development of the discipline, there has always been an emphasis on the individual within the social interaction paradigm. Theorization, therefore, ...