Levels of explanation in the European Journal of Social Psychology

The nature of explanation in experimental social psychology is the subject of much controversy. To advance the debate, the present article provides a grid of analysis allowing a more [thorough study of experimental social psychologists] work. Four levels of explanation are distinguished as works can be seen as studying intra-individual processes (level 1), interindividual but intra-situational dynamics (level 2), effects of social position in a situational interaction (level 3) and intervention of general beliefs (level 4). An important characteristic of experimental work is the possibility of combining different levels of analysis in the same study, and of surpassing, in this way, the old dichotomy between [psychologizing] and [sociologizing] explanations. Experiments published in the first seven volumes of the European Journal of Social Psychology were explored within this framework.