The Beginnings of Social Psychology

Abstract

Social psychology, the science of human nature in interaction, began as a study of collective behavior but now is impartially interested in groups and their individual members. As late as 1890, psychology was concerned with mental facts treated in absolute isolation. Social psychologists at first were concerned with the attempt, now abandoned, to reduce human nature to some basic principle or to a few irreducible elements, such as imitation, instincts, reflexes wishes. There is a strong tendency at present to take "the act" as the unit of study. Wundt and Durkheim greatly influenced American scholars. Contributors in this field include Summer, Dewey, Mead, Cooley, Ross, and many others. A highly important advance is the recognition that qualities exist in nature and that human experiences are natural events. American effort is distinguished by the vast amount of empirical research. Though adequate methods do not yet exist, the record of the first fifty years gives promise that social psychology, though still in its beginnings, may some day take its place alongside physics and chemistry.