From Level of Aspiration to Cognitive Dissonance, or, What the Middle Class Worries About

Abstract

Social psychological theory has to a large extent been the psycho logy of the 'social' and not the sociological explaination of psycho logical phenomena and processes. In this article we attempt an analysis of the societal conditions seen as the neglected context of social psychological theories ranging from level of aspiration to cognitive dissonance. Three reasons for the choice of these theories are given (1) the author's own research in the field, (2) the coherence in these theoretical frameworks, and (3) the neglect of the societal relevance of the processes studied.A main thesis is that the people who developed these theories be lieved they were about human beings in general. when they reflected the problems of an academic middle class in a highly competitive social setting, in which man is viewed as the sole proprietor of his capacities which he tries to exchange on the academic market place for a fair remuneration. The ideology of individualistic and competi tive liberalism is implicit in all these mentioned psychological theo ries. They are assumed as 'natural' and accepted without reflexion. Had this pre-theoretical bias been understood by those who devel oped the psychological theories their worries would have been different and their theories may have had a critical function and therefore an impact on society. The article therefore is not so , much a criticism of social psychological theories, as an attempt at criticism of ideology.