Narratives,culture, and folk psychology

In this paper, I aim to determine to what extent contemporary cross-cultural and developmental research can shed light on the role that narrative practices might play in the development of folk psychology. In particular, I focus on the role of narrative practices in the development of false belief understanding, which has been regarded as a milestone in the development of folk psychology. Second, I aim to discuss possible cognitive procedures that may underlie successful performance in false belief tasks. Methodologically, I distinguish between two kinds of narrative practices: ‘mentalistic narrative practice’ (which involves an explicit reference to another person’s mental states), and ‘behavioral-contextual narrative practice’ (which involves an explicit reference to the (normative) behavior of another person in a specific socio-situational context). Whereas the former is more prevalent in Western cultures than in Eastern cultures, the latter is predominantly used by members of Eastern cultures. Mentalistic narrative practices correlate with cultural divergences in the development of false belief understanding throughout ontogeny but do not seem to play the key role. The analysis shows that (i) conceptual change and the acquisition of mental state terms is essential for passing the false belief task, and that (ii) theory is likely to be the cognitive mechanism involved here such as proposed by Theory Theory. However, Hutto’s Narrative Practice Hypothesis trumps over Theory Theory to account for the varieties and ambiguities people typically meet when understanding each other in everyday life.     

Empathy,social psychology,and global helping traits

The central virtue at issue in recent philosophical discussions of the empirical adequacy of virtue ethics has been the virtue of compassion. Opponents of virtue ethics such as Gilbert Harman and John Doris argue that experimental results from social psychology concerning helping behavior are best explained not by appealing to so-called ‘global’ character traits like compassion, but rather by appealing to external situational forces or, at best, to highly individualized ‘local’ character traits. In response, a number of philosophers have argued that virtue ethics can accommodate the empirical results in question. My own view is that neither side of this debate is looking in the right direction. For there is an impressive array of evidence from the social psychology literature which suggests that many people do possess one or more robust global character traits pertaining to helping others in need. But at the same time, such traits are noticeably different from a traditional virtue like compassion.

Distinguishing social and individual psychology

Abstract.— The problem analyzed is how (according to what rules) to disentangle social and individual aspects in, e.g., an act of communication. Taking as point of departure the everyday fact that social relationships as well as individuals may be assessed across variables, an attempt was made to classify variables as either social or individual. It was found, however, that they seem to be distributed along a continuum from individual via relational to social variables; that all variables seem to have both a social and an individual aspect; and that they may be classified along a continuum accordning to how easily they can be made socially relevant or salient. Instead of concluding either that a social psychology proper is impossible, since all variables can be ascribed to the individual(s), or that we are dealing only with social psychology, since all variables have a social potential, a pragmatic solution may be to make clear at each stage of research from which perspective, the social or the individual, one is exploring the variable in focus.     

Ethnicity,culture, and social resources

Assessed social integration (existence or quantity of relationships) and social (specifically, emotional) support in Mexican Americans (MAs) and non-Hispanic whites (NHWs). Ethnic differences were seen as arising from (a) demographic differences between ethnic groups that account for ethnic differences; (b) demographic attributes that have different associations with social resources for each ethnic group; (c) ethnic differences independent of these explanations. Study participants were 538 U.S.-born MA, 706 Mexico-born MA, and 1,149 NHW randomly selected community residents. Immigrants were more often married, and MAs and immigrants reported fewer friends and less emotional support, regardless of demographic attributes. Ethnic differences in demographic attributes accounted for MAs' and immigrants' smaller kin networks. Ethnic differences in demographic correlates of working accounted for MAs' lower employment rates.     

Gestalt in social psychology

Summary Citations superficially suggest that the relationship between Gestalt theory and contemporary social psychology is hardly recognizable if we disregard the occasional homage to Kurt Lewin. Neither Gestalt nor field theory belongs to the present pool of social-psychological theories. On the other hand, it can be shown that basic concepts of Gestalt theory have survived under various names and are still of central importance. The author outlines a model of theory sedimentation according to which Gestalt theory, after a brief period of impact on mainstream social psychology has, by sedimentation, become an implicit theory which still feeds explicit models and theories in contemporary social psychology.     

Constructivism in social psychology

Genetic constructivism developed by Piaget and his school is considered to be a grand theory which is also of great relevance for experimental social psychology. However according to J. M. Baldwin, the founder of genetic psychology, and to contemporary researchers in the area of moral judgement and development social psychology, the notion of social performism should be incorporated in constructivist theory. Deutsch 5 crude law of social relations is cited as a theoretical assumption implying that social preformism can be studied experimentally.     

Discursive social psychology now

This paper reviews the progress of discourse-analytic approaches in social psychology from the late 1980s to the present day, with a particular focus on the way conceptual and methodological contributions from within the Discourse and Rhetoric Group at Loughborough University have negotiated a positive role for innovative studies of language in the discipline of psychology. Social psychology has become a key site for the accumulation of a series of empirical studies that have seen the flourishing of a distinctive form of 'discursive social psychology' that has succeeded in moving from the margins of the discipline to a more accepted position. The paper traces this trajectory of discourse analysis from the limits to the centre of social psychology attending to five features that now characterise its contribution to psychology; an emphasis on everyday conversation, a concern with interpersonal interaction, explication of formal sequences; an insistence on empirical claims; and fidelity to the ethos of its host discipline. The paper concludes with some comments on the wider context of this new approach inside psychology today.     

Individualism and the social in early American social psychology

In this paper an attempt is made to specify the original conception of the social dimensions of cognition, emotion and behavior-and of a distinctively social psychology-that was held by early American social psychologists, but abandoned by later generations of social psychologists committed to Floyd Allport's individualistic experimental program. Two influential forms of "individualism" in the work of Floyd Allport are distinguished and detailed.     

Complexity and social psychology of organizations

This article presents complexity (nonlinearity, chaos, self-organisation, fractals...) as a new and emerging epistemological paradigm, an alternative to an old, simpler, and reductionist paradigm. According to this point of view, we try to view work organizations as complex adaptive systems (CAS). Lastly, we offer a review of the literature on the applications of complexity to Organizational Social Psychology.     

Individual behavior, culture, and social change

The principle of operant selection is examined as a prototype of cultural selection, and the role of the social environment is suggested as the critical element in the emergence of cultural phenomena. Operant contingencies are compared to cultural selection contingencies, designated as metacontingencies. Both of these types of contingency relations result in evolving lineages of recurrences that can become increasingly complex in the number and organization of their elements. In addition to its role in the recurring interlocking behavioral contingencies that constitute cultural organization, operant behavior plays another role in cultures. Although the operants of individuals are functionally independent of one another, the behavior of each person may contribute to a cumulative effect that is relevant to the well-being of many people. Similarly, the outcomes of metacontingencies may also contribute to a cumulative effect. The relation between independently evolving operant lineages, or between independently evolving cultural lineages, and their cumulative effect is identified as a macrocontingency. Macrocontingencies do not involve cultural-level selection per se. Effective cultural engineering requires identifying the macrocontingencies that produce less than desirable effects and altering the relevant operant contingencies or metacontingencies to produce change in the cumulative effects.     

Social psychology and social networks: Individuals and social systems

Social psychology and social network research are both centrally concerned with human sociality. Despite some historically significant interactions between the two, these areas of investigation have not been usefully deployed together in recent research endeavours. The present paper attempts to bring out some points of both theoretical and methodological contentions, to characterize the gap between them, to traverse briefly the trajectories of their historical development, and to provide some concrete instances of these differences. Intellectual resources available to Asian social psychology are reviewed, which may help bridge the gap between the two areas of research. We conclude by calling for a greater integration of social psychology and social network perspectives in future research.     

Promoting a culture of innovation: BJSP and the emergence of new paradigms in social psychology

In this paper, I start by describing the role played by British Journal of Social Psychology (BJSP) in nurturing two important new paradigms in social psychology - the social identity approach and discourse psychology. I then consider the forces in contemporary academia, in general, and psychology, in particular, that militate against innovation. I conclude by suggesting some ways in which individual social psychologists and our journals, particularly BJSP, can contribute to the development of an innovative and intellectually dynamic discipline.