Timeline of Social Psychology

Social psychology is labelled (at a simplistic level) as the ‘scientific investigation of how thoughts, feelings and behaviours of the individual are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others’ (Allport, 1935 as sited in Vaughan and Hogg, 2005). Moreover it is the study of individual’s thoughts, actions and feelings as a function of personal and situational influence.
With this in mind you would presume that social psychology is a very old science, since for our entire existence we have been social animals that have survived by living in groups. But this is not the case; social psychology is a relatively new field of psychology that has derived from current psychology field’s behaviourism and psychoanalytical psychology. Whilst humanity has existed social psychology topics such as conformity, persuasion, obedience, prejudice, social conflict amongst many others have always existed. It was only a century ago that we began to recognisee and record, or politely put began to understand the complexity of human thought, feelings and behaviour in the group dynamics.

Hence the timeline of major developments and their implications on psychology will begin a century ago. Perhaps the most influential turn-of-the-century force for social psychological thought was Herbert Spencer, who in 1874 extended Darwin's notions from the biological realm into the social. It was Spencer--not Darwin--who coined the phrase "survival of the fittest." Simplified, the survival of a species is dependent on its ability to compete and gain resources over one another, and that the successful species genes are passed on. In fact, Social Darwinism became quite influential in the thought of many early American psychologists.

In 1897, Norman Triplett carried out what is usually described as the first experimental study of social psychology, a study of competition and how groups improved the pace for individual performance. Triplett found individuals reeled fishing lines faster when working against other individuals apposed to against a clock, a term commonly known now as ‘social facilitation’.
In contrast to this Max Ringelmann discovered the opposite in the late 1890’s. He measured how much force was exerted onto a rope when individuals worked alone or in a group. He found that in the group situation individuals did not exert as much force as when working alone, a term now referred to as ‘social loafing’. Again the complexity of group dynamics is evident; in one experiment the group increases effort in another it decreases effort. Triplett and Ringelmann experiments showed that more research is needed to understand the individual and the group.

Early 20th century sociologist Edward Ross published a textbook introducing social psychology within sociology in 1908. Meanwhile a handful of psychologists began to explore the field as well after the growing recognition of a greater understanding into human interaction needed. Among the psychologists was William McDougall, who published his popular "Social Psychology" in 1908. His book looked at primary emotions, nature of sentiments and moral conduct which are still modern topics in present textbooks. Both Ross and MacDougal not only brought Social psychology to the English speaking world but began to formally publish written understanding of the human complexity in individual’s thoughts, actions and feelings as a function of personal and situational influence.

It wasn't until the mid-1920s that social psychology would take a firm hold in psychology. A watershed event was the 1924 publication of Floyd Allport's "Social Psychology," a book that became widely used in social psychology classes at American universities.
In 1923 Gardner Murphy defined social psychology as an experimental discipline, which separated social psychology from the naturalistic observational techniques used in sociology, his textbook “Experimental Social Psychology helped to initiate the separate field within Psychology for the Social Being.

La Pierre in 1934 fuelled the importance of understanding the complexity between human behaviour and attitude; La Pierre along with a Chinese couple drove around the United States visiting restaurants and hotels. All establishments provided services to the group; however when La Pierre sent questionnaires on housing Chinese couples to the establishment’s months later, they replied that they would not accommodate Chinese guests. Hence La Pierre was able to prove the American Attitude at the time that they did not like Chinese immigrants. Yet the behaviour of the establishments differed from their attitude. La Pierre made aware again the difference between attitudes and behaviour, and the need to further pursue an understanding of the complex differences within human attitudes and behaviour.

Muzafer Sherif in 1935 again studied the relationship between attitude and behaviour. On a different level Sherif looked to explore wether the presence of others would change an individual’s behaviour in a social setting. Through his study with light flash he found that even when an individual; had witnessed a certain number of flashes if the group (who were confederates in the experiment) purposely stated a different number that the individual would change there answer to suit the group, a term known as norm formation or group norms.

Solomon Asch in 1951 received great attention for his insight to group pressure and conformity. Through his line measuring task Asch found similar findings to Sherif in that the group will affect the behaviour of the individual. Asch published his findings in his Textbook “Social Psychology’ which allowed again further understanding into the group processes.

In 1954, Muzafer Sherif worked with Caroline Sherif to further understand group processes, first and foremost to look at Intergroup conflict and group dynamics of a group of children on a camping trip. There findings on cooperation, competition and the “Realistic Conflict Theory (theory of groups fighting for resources to survive) was monument in the field of social psychology. Sherif and Sherif made evident that how with group formation competition and conflict are certain. Testimony to these finding is war, when groups are formed no matter the background conflict seems to be a common occurrence.

The work of Kurt Lewin and Gestalt psychology on democratic and autocratic groups, as well as on frustration and its resulting aggressive behaviour in children, became classics in Social Psychology. Also, Lewin's work on group dynamics and conflict resolution would establish his field from the 1940s through the 1970s. Lewin was regarded as a father of experimental social psychology and was criticised for his theoretical viewpoint, to which his famous line “ there is nothing as a practical as a good theory’ was his defence. Lewin’s work on the person situation theory is still one of the most taught theories throughout Universities and schools.

Leon Festinger in 1954 founded the social comparison theory. A theory that saw human learning as a process in which people learn about themselves by comparing themselves to others. With further study Festinger also founded cognitive dissonance, a term given to when inconsistencies produce psychological discomfort, leading people to rationalise their behaviour or change their attitudes.

Gordon Allport in the 1950’s did extensive work on stereotypes and prejudice. His work on heuristics proved that prejudice could occur due to the human brain taking less effort if it uses schemas to judge people. Hence Allport was able to show how whilst heuristics are vital to survival, they are a major component in the formation of prejudice.

In the early 1960s, a major reappraisal of social psychology occurred in reaction to Stanley Milgram's controversial research on obedience. Milgram set up a situation where subjects believed they were shocking an unknown individual for incorrect responses. Milgram’s study showed that even when inflicting pain onto individual’s people are likely to obey. A study that supports the atrocities in Nazis Germany in WWII, along with other wartime examples even today in Africa and Europe. A further implication of the Milgram's study was the use of deception in experiments and allied methodological problems leading universities to create committees to examine ethical concerns in experiments.

Darly and Latatne in 1968 brought prosocial behaviour to the social psychology table. After the murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964 Darly and Latatne looked to understand why people would not help someone in a critical situation such as life and death. As Kitty Genovese was murdered over thirty- five people heard her screams for hep or saw her struggle from her captives and yet not one person helped. A term later called the bystander effect, where in social setting individuals will not help or act as they presume that someone else will.

The Stanford university prison study by Phillip Zimbardo in 1971 gave further meaning to social psychology. Zimbardos finding on deindividuation in the study proved to again support how atrocities on human life can come about through individuals submerging their identity into the group.

Modern studies and reality TV has brought social psychology to a new level. A program by Jane Elliot called “Blue Eye, Brown eye” is a very popular education tool used by many institutions dealing with prejudice. Jane Elliot gives and takes away human value based upon the colour of an individual’s eye. Through her studies Elliot was able to show that even in the present world that is said to be ‘fair and just’ prejudice, and deindividuation along with many other attributes of social psychology studies are still evident.





References

Baumeister, R and Bushman, B (2008) Social Psychology and Human Nature.
Vaughan, G and Hogg, M (2005). Introduction to Social Psychology.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/lists/timeline.html