Crises in the Two Social Psychologies: A Critical Comparison

Sociological social psychology (SSP) and psychological social psychology (PSP) have both generated literatures of self-criticism and disciplinary crisis. These respective literatures have quite different origins. Critiques of sociology in general have been applied to SSP in particular. In PSP the crisis began with methodological and ethical issues. An analysis of the two ensuing crisis literatures reveals a common concern with (a) a perceived tendency for social psychological research to be increasingly generated and subsumed by non-social psychological areas in both parent disciplines, and, (b) the cultural and historical specificity of research dealing with processes in social interaction. A review of how various commentators define the main issues and account for perceived shortcomiings leads to the suggestion that the central challenge for social psychology is the development of an interdisciplinary theoretical account of interactive social processes.