HISTORY OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

The discipline of social psychology began in the United States at the dawn of the 20th century.

The first published study in this area was an experiment in 1898 by Norman Triplett on the phenomenon of social facilitation.

Attitudes and small group phenomena were the most commonly studied topics in next era.

During World War II, social psychologists studied persuasion and propaganda for the U.S. military.

After the war, researchers became interested in a variety of social problems, including gender issues and racial prejudice.

In the sixties, there was growing interest in new topics, such as cognitive dissonance, bystander intervention, and aggression.

By the 1970s, however, social psychology in America had reached a crisis. There was heated debate over the ethics of laboratory experimentation, whether or not attitudes really predicted behavior, and how much science could be done in a cultural context.

This was also the time when a radical situationist approach challenged the relevance of self and personality in psychology.

Social psychology reached a more mature level in theories and methods during the 1980s and 1990s.

Modern researchers are interested in many phenomena, but, social cognition, and the self-concept are perhaps the greatest areas of growth in recent years. Social psychologists have also maintained their applied interests with contributions in health, environmental and legal psychology.

Important dates

• 1897 - The term Social psychology - James Mark Baldwin
• 1908 - The first two publications directly on social psychology

• 1924 - Floyd Alport: Textbook of Social Psychology (conformity, attitudes, emotions and facial expressions)