Introduction: Reclaiming theSocialin Social Psychology

Abstract

The articles in this special issue cover a range of critical issues and approaches in social psychology. Two of their common features are: (a) their restatement—in various forms—of the unresolved epistemological problems that continue to inform critical discussions of social psychology; and (b) the rarely debated question of just what makes social psychology social. These two questions are interlocking: the undecided nature of the latter eventually creates an impassable barrier to resolving the former. Focusing on a cross-section of issues derived from the social psychology literature presented in this issue, I introduce the problematic and contested nature of the domain of social psychology.