From Social Psychology: What?

Abstract

Decades ago, Kurt Lewin and his students conceived of dynamic interpersonal (between people) processes to account for behavior. This work initiated the field of group dynamics and indeed much of social psychology, and inspired the initial extrapolations to counseling, conceived of as a process that occurred between counselors and clients. Mainstream social psychology has shifted to a focus on intrapersonal (within people) processes. Thus, as is apparent in the papers in this special issue, translations of currently popular social psychological concepts do not address interpersonal counseling processes. Developments akin to Lewin 's work that address the interpersonal processes of counseling are occurring at the fringe, not in the mainstream, of social psychology.