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!