Historical Introduction

Question 1

Definitions matter

Answer 1

· Allport (1954):
- “With few expectations, social psychologists define their discipline as an attempt to understand and explain how thoughts, feelings and behaviour of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others” (p. 5)
- Interested in/concerned with what makes social psychology
· Cartwright (1979):
- “Social psychology is that branch of the social sciences, which attempts to explain how society influences the cognition, motivation, development, and behaviour of individuals, and in turn, is influenced by them” (p. 91)
- Allows for reciprocal influence

Question 2

Allport’s view of progress (1954)

Answer 2

· Irrationalist theories -> rationalist theories
· Simple theories -> pluralistic theories
- Observational methods -> experimental methods

Question 3

Critical views of Allports history

Answer 3

· Samuelson (1974) - accuses Allport of creating an “origin myth” through excessive focus on Comte
· Haines and Vaughan (1979) - challenge Allport’s identification of “the first social psychology experiment” (Triplett, 1898).
· Danziger (2000) - suggests that Allport trivialised a historically important question about the origins of social psychology (for partly personal reasons…)

Question 4

The other Allport

Answer 4

· The observationalists were a bit offended by Allport’s discussion of progress (Danziger, 2000)
· SP existed in universities and in textbooks before the turn to experimentalism.
· 20th century experimentalism initially viewed as inappropriate for exploring social phenomena, which were viewed as the result of macrosocial influences (e.g., capitalism)
· Danziger (2000) notes that Floyd Allport changed people’s conception of “social” in two ways:
1. Only individuals are real - all institutions only exist in the habits and attitudes of individuals.
2. Distinguished between real social and non-social behaviour - the former involved individuals responding to social stimuli (e.g., concrete physical presence of other people).

Question 5

European influences

Answer 5

• Allport (1954) argued social psychology was ‘born’ in America
  
  • Cartwright (1979) challenges this view:
  • Emphasised the impact of WW2 in transforming the field of American social psychology - increasing output, legitimacy, and altering the composition of the field.
  • Rapid expansion means that most theories, methods and assumptions are the product of a single group of (homogenous) teachers - the American White Middle-Class man.
  • Notes that Nazism resulted in European intellectuals immigrating to America (e.g., Lewin, Heider) who brought different perspectives and influenced the development of the field.