Needed Research in Social Psychology on Problems of War and Peace

Abstract

general question of needed research in social psychology relevant to problems of war and peace. This is for me a familiar area of great personal interest. From 1937 to 1941 I was chairman of a committee set up by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (a kind of analogue of the Society for the Study of Social Problems) on the psychology of war and peace. This committee labored manfully between 1937 and 1941 to produce an integrated psychological analysis of the factors leading to the occurrence of international warfare. Unfortunately, events caught up with us and most of the work of the committee has never reached formal publication. Since 1941, and particularly since 1946, there have been substantial changes in the research interest and theoretical developments among social psychologists which well justify a new look at the field. Rather than rehash any of the old materials which our committee collected and about which I have talked at other gatherings, I should like this afternoon to pick up what I consider to be three important trends in the development of modern social psychology, and relate these to the problems of research on war and peace. These three trends are as follows: 1. studies of social perception; 2. studies of group norms and group goals; and 3. studies of leadership. It seems to me that if *A paper read at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems held at Urbana, Illinois, September 8-11, 1954.