Social Psychology in the 21st Century: Movements, Developments, Changes
Building a new psychology
Professor Wendy Stainton Rogers
Mainstream quantitative social psychology
The new social psychology
Critical social psychology
Critical psychology’s criticisms of mainstream psychology
Logic of enquiry (positivism) Methods (quantitative) Consevatism (in support of traditional
power structures) Prejudices (such as sexism) Propping up injustices (such as
treating social class as a ‘variable’)
The new social psychologyFrom Natural science
approaches to explain cause and effect
An exclusive psychology that assumes white, western men are the norm
Servicing the establishment
To Interpretative approaches to
gain understanding and insight
An inclusive psychology that recognises diversity as the norm
Benefit people and improve social justice
The cycle of change
Early psychology
Mainstream psychology
The new psychology
Many methods
Exploratory
Real life
Social justice
Experimental Method
Hypothesis testing
Abstract
Apolitical
Many methods
Exploratory
Real life
Social justice
Methodological diversity
Ethnography Community Psychology Participatory Action Research
Memory Work Internet-based research Visual methods
Diversity of analysis
Ethnological
Discourse Conversational Narrative Grounded Theory Phenomenological Computer aided
Exploration
Zimbardo’s prison study Sherif’s summer camp study of
groups
Telling stories,role play Exploring the internet – blogs, social
spaces and virtual worlds
Real life – understanding
Authoritarianism Obedience to authority
Changing heath-related behavior Reducing anti-social behaviour
Social Justice
Racism
Feminist psychology Reducing health inequalities Empowering marginalised and
oppressed groups Postcolonial psychology
Example: Understanding risky behaviour
Mainstream psychology
Attitudes Behaviour
The discursive alternative
Identity is enacted through action
I’m a rebel
so of course I smoke
Identity 1 – Saint or sinner?
In the Christian approach, a person often communicates with God inside, but also with … I know it sounds absurd… with the Satan… in terms… there is often used the word temptation, but also seducing, which is actually the inner dialogue… where I am enticed to do something that is against my conscience…
But it’s hard to be a saint not a sinner
You know, it’s like ‘don’t go there’ because it’s a slippery slope. You’ve been good all week and it’s Friday and you say “just one won’t hurt you”, but you know it’s a slippery slope, and before you know it, you can’t stand up.
So you avoid temptation …
I have to say at first that my reaction is, when I feel any possibility of sexual seducing, which is not pleasant to me, I usually run away before something happens
Giving in to temptation is fun
Having been brought up a Catholic, but now very much a lapsed Catholic, in Ireland, temptation was a word which was always thrown at you as a child either from the testament of the bible. (…) Temptation to me was a rather attractive alternative; it was a way of breaking the rules. That’s my association with temptation. It’s a way of rejecting certain parts of culture and breaking certain rules.
Identity 2: the clever chooser
If you completely abstain from temptation (…) you
are going to be a very unhappy and very boring
person, because you haven’t done anything that
you’re not supposed to do. (…) But the person who
always gives into temptation has no idea of self-
control and no idea of limits (…) [T]he aim of the
game as far as I see it is to strike a balance between
abstinence and giving into temptation.
It’s about what you are not
What’s the temptation?
You always grin. Temptation – you just know you shouldn’t be doing it, but the first thing that springs into my mind is you shouldn’t be doing this but it’s going to be so much fun.
New insights?
People are not stupid, they have a reason for their actions
Intervention must be consistent with identity aspirations
Behaviour change may mean a change of identity
Barriers to changing identity must be removed
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
NICE is the UK government sponsored body responsible for providing national guidance on the promotion of good health and the prevention and treatment of ill health.
Why we need the new psychology – messages to take away
The stakes are high – having an impact and getting funding
Increasingly funding is awarded for practical outcomes
We need to show we can produce ‘evidence’ for evidence-based practice
Satisfaction comes from making a difference Have courage and be adventurous Do it your way!