“People have probably been asking social
psychological questions for as long as
humans could think about each other.
Certainly, Plato offered keen insights into
many social psychological issues. But no
systematic and scientific study of social
psychological issues developed until the end
of the nineteenth century.”
- Brehm, Kassin, & Fein (2005)
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Enlightenment, western
conceptualisation of self
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Rapid industrialization in 19th century
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Two World Wars
Herbert Spencer:
“survival of the fittest”
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Social Darwinian, in 1874 extended Darwin's notions from the
biological realm into the social.

Studied evolution in groups, societies & cultures
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Laid important academic foundations for psychology,
sociology, economics

Influenced William McDougall, author of 1st soc psych
textbook, 1908.
Group Mind
Europe & North America late 19th - early 20th c
e.g., Wundt’s Volkerpsychologie:
psychology
‘Folk’ or ‘cultural’
- language, myth, religion, culture, "higher" mental
functions.
-
-
comparative & historical analysis, not experimental
political movement towards German
reunification, national character.
The Crowd
• Pathology of crowd behavior (based on social
upheaval in Europe) (Le Bon, 1895)
• Why do people sometimes lose their rationality when
in groups?
• Lack of intelligence in group action and the organic,
powerful nature of a ‘group mind’
• Influenced Göbbels, Mussolini, Hitler
1st social psychology experiment
Triplett (1898)
Classically attributed as the first
experimental social psychology study illustration of social facilitation
- Ringelmann on social loafing)
• Good candidate for an “origin myth”
(Danziger, 2000)
Post WW1 & Attitude Scaling
• Rise of behaviourism & experimentation
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Social psychology splits off to study mental
constructs, e.g., attitudes (Thurstone,
1930s, Likert)
Development of technology: Statistics
imported into psychology


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National character issue not so important in
US
Central features of US political & economic
culture demand for feedback regarding
aspects of behaviour
Attitude assessment (voting behaviour)
Migration & the Humanitarian crisis


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The most important single influence on the
development of social psychology? WWII
The person who had the greatest impact on
the field? Hitler
Social psychologists as outsiders (Harré
2005).
Hitler and WWII
a.
The Exodus of European Psychologists
fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe
- brings a Gestalt Perspective to American
Psychology (Kurt Lewin, Fritz Heider, Bob
Zajonc, Solomon Asche, Sherif)
- gives rise to Social, Cognitive, and Social
Cognitive Perspectives; experimental method
taken for granted; focus on individual.
The Nazi phenomenon & Holocaust
b. begged explanation, motivation to explain
atrocities
– Authoritarian personality (Allport)
– Obedience (Milgram, shock expt)
– Roles (Zimbardo, prison expt.)
- Conformity (Asche)
- Prejudice reduction (Sherif, boys camps & model
worlds)
- Aggression (Bandura, Buss, Taylor)
War and the Art of Persuasion
c. Nazi Propaganda sparked interest in persuasion research
U.S. military Persuasion Research Unit.
– persuading soldiers to continue the war
– changing soldiers attitudes about integrating the troops.
–Kurt Lewin- The Self Persuasion Effect - getting house wives to serve tripe.
- persuading Americans to eat underused meat products (sweetmeats) and reducing
bigotry.
Yale University Persuasion Research Group
- made up of the ex-military researchers
- studied attitude formation, attitude change and persuasion, and
how attitudes affect behavior.
Post-WWII:
Applied social research
1950’s Cognitive Revolution
• rise of attribution theory (Fritz Heider)
negative behaviour towards outgroups

Cognitive dissonance (Leon Festinger)
no longer straightforward to predict behaviour
from attitudes, concept declined in popularity
Mid-1960’s on: 3 main developments
1.
Information Processing metaphor –
US based primarily
2.
Crisis in social psychology (British
social psychology emerged as distinct
subdivision)
3.
Rise of European social psychology
IP metaphor: Social Cognition
Humans = information processing
devices like computers
Novelty: humans = FAULTY information
processors
Fiske, Taylor
European social psychology
Identification of meanings and rules of
everyday life: intergroup perspective,
strong cultural element

Social identity theory (Tajfel )

Social representations theory (Moscovici)

Discursive psychology (Billig, Potter, Wetherall)
1970’s "Crisis of Confidence"
Methodological concerns: limits of scientific method
Have we discovered "artifacts" only?
• Rosenthal (1969) experimenter bias
• Orne (1962) demand characteristics
Ethical (APA 1972); Socially Relevant?
Epistemological crisis

Social psychology is historical rather than scientific
(Gergen)

Problem with individualistic mechanistic orientation

Insufficient account of context

Joint forces of experimentation & positivism have
led to demise of interest in collective phenomena
Rise of alternative approaches
New paradigms outside the lab


Critical social psychology, Social
Constructionism
Psychological knowledge as socially
constructed, deconstructed to reveal
cultural and political foundations
Field polarised
Cognitivists: Universal laws of social
interaction
vs.
Constructionists: Patterns of social life
as local cultural convention & custom
References
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Danziger, K. (2000). Making social psychology experimental: A conceptual
history, 1930 - 1970. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 36,
329 - 347.
Haslam, S. A., & McGarty, C. (2001). 100 years of certitude? Social
psychology, the experimental method and the management of scientific
uncertainty. British Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 1-21.
Jones, D. & Elcock, J. (2001) History and Theories of Psychology: A Critical
Perspective. London: Arnold. Chapter 7.
Manstead, A. S. R., & Hewstone, M. (1995). The Blackwell Encyclopedia of
Social Psychology. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. (a qualitative summary)
Moghaddam, F.M. (2005) Great Ideas in Psychology: A Cultural & Historical
Introduction. Oxford: One World press.
McGuire, W.J. (1999) Constructing Social Psychology: Creative and Critical
Processes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 10. Psychology
and history.
Richard, F. D., Bond, C. F., Jr., & Stokes-Zoota, J. J. (2003). One hundred
years of social psychology quantitatively described. Review of General
Psychology, 7, 331-336. (a quantitative summary)
Richards, G. (2002) (2nd ed.). Putting Psychology in its Place: A Critical
Historical Overview. London: Routledge. Chapter 12.