Social Psychologists (social + psychologist)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


The simultaneous consideration of between-participants and within-participants analyses in research on predictors of behaviours: The issue of dependence

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 6 2004
Dr David Trafimow
Although there is wide acceptance among personality and social psychologists of the importance of performing both between-participants and within-participants analyses to obtain a more complete picture of the phenomena under investigation, such analyses are rare (Mishela, 1990). Research on the predictors of behaviour, particularly concerning variables such as attitude, subjective norm, affect, cognition, and intention provides an exception, where the results from within-participants analyses are sometimes compared to the results from between-participants analyses. These comparisons raise the issue of whether the two types of analyses are independent of each other (and whether they can be validly compared), which is the topic of the present paper. Although we show that there is dependence, which suggests that it is a bad idea to compare both kinds of analyses, we also show that the degree of dependence approaches zero as the number of participants and items increase. Thus, with a sufficiently large design, the degree of dependence is unimportant, and therefore is no obstacle to the simultaneous consideration of both within-participants and between-participants analyses. How large is large enough? A set of computer simulations suggests that 15 participants and 15 items is sufficient, though we provide data from which researchers can designate their own criteria. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Reconciling situational social psychology with virtue ethics

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT REVIEWS, Issue 3 2008
Surendra Arjoon
For the past four decades, debate has occurred in respect of situational social psychology and virtue ethics. This paper attempts to reconcile this debate. Situationists propose a fragmentation theory of character (each person has a whole range of dispositions, each of which has a restricted situational application) and do not subscribe to a regularity theory of character (behaviour is regulated by long-term dispositions). In order to support this view, they cite a number of experiments. It is proposed that the substantive claims made by situationist social psychologists, for the most part, do not undermine or disagree with an Aristotelian virtue ethics perspective, but stem from a misunderstanding of concepts of moral character, faulty conclusions and generalizations in respect of experimental results. Situationists take a narrow view of character and morality. Evidence from organizational behaviour and managerial research literature supports the view that both situational (organizational) features and inner characteristics (including virtues) are powerful influences and determinants of morally upright and morally deviant behaviour. The role of practical judgement in bridging these views is discussed. As a way forward in reconciling situational social psychology with virtue ethics, the paper proposes an Aristotelian,Thomistic framework to overcome some of the problems associated with inadequate regulative ideals in building a normative moral theory. [source]


What Happened to the "Social" in Social Psychology?*

JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 1 2004
John D. Greenwood
This article describes the historical abandonment of the distinctive conception of the social dimensions of cognition, emotion and behavior embraced by American social psychologists in the early decades of the twentieth century. It is suggested that part of the reason why the original conception of the social was abandoned by American psychologists was because of its association with theories of the "group mind," the apparent threat it posed to cherished principles of rationality and autonomy, and the impoverished conception of the social inherited from European crowd theorists that came to inform the experimental study of social groups. It is suggested that while these factors partly explain the neglect of the social in American social psychology, none represent particularly good reasons for abandoning the original conception of the social. Consequently there are in principle no impediments to the revival of the theoretical and experimental study of the social dimensions of cognition, emotion and behavior in contemporary American social psychology. [source]


Sexuality, intimacy and subjectivity in social psychoanalytic thought of the 1920s and 1930s

JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2008
Naoko Wake
Abstract Homosexuality has been one of the most contested issues in the history of social psychoanalysis. To better understand the issue's medical and social significance, we need a micro-historical analysis illuminating doctor-patient interactions in changing historical contexts. This paper sheds light on the clinical practice of the well-known founder of interpersonal theory, Harry Stack Sullivan (1892,1949), with a focus on four patients: two from the 1920s and two from the 1930s. During these decades, many psychiatrists, including neo-Freudians like Sullivan, considered homosexuality a mental illness. But Sullivan himself was a gay man, and he attempted to create efficacious therapeutic relationships amid a generally homophobic medicine. This comported with his effort to create professional coalitions with social psychologists and sociologists. In both clinical and non-clinical settings, he tried to find solutions to individual problems by redefining a limiting socio-cultural environment of therapy. Ambitious as this plan was, his patients' response to his approach varied from cautious cooperation to apparent rejection, as his actions became more immersed in the ambiguous realm of sexual subjectivity. In examining this change, I raise the question of what constituted ethically sound, professionally acceptable behaviours and efficacious therapeutic relationships, particularly in the historical context of the emerging collaboration between psychoanalysis and social psychology. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


The Exercise of Authority to Prevent Communal Conflict

PEACE & CHANGE, Issue 2 2001
Joseph G. Bock
This article attempts to bridge the gap between research on the role of leaders in conflict prevention, on the one hand, and studies on obedience to authority, on the other. The former has been the focus of political scientists and international relations specialists while the latter has been researched extensively by social psychologists. Studies of obedience provide an explanation of the potential role of authority in conflict prevention. This article discusses investments in peace that focus on building inter-communal harmony, and compares them to investment in a business setting. It argues that peace research could benefit from a focus on obedience studies comparing the role of conflict-promoting authority figures to that of conflict-preventing authority figures. It supports the view that aid agencies that train community leaders in communal conflict preemption techniques are making effective investments in peace. [source]


Three Concepts of Causation

PHILOSOPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 3 2007
Christopher Hitchcock
I distinguish three different concepts of causation: The scientific concept, or causal structure, is the subject of recent work in causal modeling. The folk attributive concept has been studied by philosophers of law and social psychologists. The metaphysical concept is the one that metaphysicians have attempted to analyze. I explore the relationships between these three concepts, and suggest that the metaphysical concept is an untenable and dispensable mixture of the other two. [source]


Asian social psychology: Achievements, threats, and opportunities

ASIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2007
Kwok Leung
A scan of citation impact suggests that Asian social psychologists have made significant contributions in three areas: indigenous research, culture and social behaviour, and in several topics in social psychology. An analysis of the most cited articles published in Asian Journal of Social Psychology (AJSP) in 1998,2002 in March 2005 reveals that most papers are concerned with culture, with a focus on either popular topics in the West or indigenous concepts. Asian social psychology seems to be closely associated with cultural issues, but it still lacks unique theoretical contributions, and the number of internationally visible scholars is limited and is mostly confined to East Asia. However, Asian cultures provide a fertile ground for identifying new constructs. Many Asian universities are now under pressure to internationalize, which will motivate more academics to participate in Asian conferences and publish in AJSP. To develop Asian social psychology, effort should be focused on nurturing the next generation of Asian social psychologists, who not only need an international perspective, but also ambition and creativity. [source]