Discussion on ‘Interactionism in Personality and Social Psychology: An Integrated Approach to Understanding the Mind and Behaviour’ by Reynolds, Turner, Branscombe, Mavor, Bizumic, and Subašić

Abstract

Reynolds et al. offer a version of interactionism based on social identity theory. Although we applaud both interactionism and the social identity approach, we suspect that the marriage the authors propose is unlikely to succeed. The core problem is that interactionism is optimized when the situation and person are on equal footing and the authors’ model weds robust situational influences to a feckless, empty self. The result is a win for the social identity approach at the cost of what may have been an important new approach to interactionism. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.