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1.2.

4 Brief History of Social Psychology :

Social psychology has an interesting history. It can be traced back to 1895 when Le Bon

theorized crowd behaviour. Triplett’s

(1897) experiment on "social facilitation" effects, Ross and

McDougall’s (1908) first textbook of social psychology, were the

early events. Social psychology started as "Experimental" science. Sherif (1936) studies on

development of norms, Lewin's field theory

(1935), and Lewin, Lippitt, and White’s (1939) three leadership

styles test were early important studies. Lewin trained many

famous social psychologists, like, Festinger, Schachter, Deutsch,

Kelley, Thibault, etc. Three Influential Gestalt Psychologists are

Kurt Lewin, Solomon Asch, Fritz Heider.

The World War II was a major event in the history of social

psychology. Many social psychologists fled Europe and went to

USA. They have started working in the auspicious funding

atmosphere. The topics they chose were related to American

problems, e.g., to combat moral warfare strategies during the time

of war. Then studies by Milgram on obedience, Festinger studies

on cognitive dissonance and social comparisons, Heider’s work on


balance theory and attribution theory dominated 1940’s and late

1950’s. In the decade of 1960’s Stereotyping and Prejudice, School

Desegregation, Aggression, Altrusim, Bystander Intervention,

Interpersonal Relations, Attraction, became topics of modern

research. The decade of 1970’s saw the emergence of Kahneman-

Tversky model of heuristics, models of schemas and increasing

cognitive trends.

There are many other disciplines that have emerged in the

social psychology. Evolutionary social psychology, neuroscience

perspective in social psychology, studies on implicit processes,

cross-cultural research, are the new methods that lead to the

development of modern social psychology.

The history of social psychology also teaches us interesting

lessons. Because of the World War II, most of the social

psychology initially developed in USA. Most of the social

psychologists at the time were white, men, upper-middle class,

Americans dealing with the problems of America. So the field

initially was subservient to American social problems. In last three

decades the picture is changing. Social constructivism, and

feminism have also made a mark in changing this picture. Similarly,


in India, social psychologist, partly, have studied phenomenon that

cannot be considered as science because of their political, religious

preferences. Indeed, science and religion are two different

epistemological views, and both can’t be done together. On the

positive note, Indian psychologist have also studied issues of

poverty, discrimination, deprivation, religious tensions, gender

issues, etc.

The Indian Heritage The rich Indian tradition of analyzing and interpreting social

relationships goes back to more than 1500 B.C., and much can be traced in the Vedic and

post-Vedic literature. This treasurehouse is a rich source of discovering concepts and theories

which guided social life without discontinuity uptill the present times. One thing which is

common to all these scholarly pursuits was that no distinction was made between psychology,

philosophy and religion in analyzing social behaviour which encompassed the totality of

human existence. It dealt with all life domains and all stages of human development. At the

core is the concept of dharma. First mentioned in the Rigveda and later elaborated in

Gautam's Dharmashastra (about 600 B.C.), Dharma is vaguely translated in English as 'proper

action', 'moral duty', 'law of human nature'. Shared by most Indians and enduring with

remarkable continuity, Dharma has greatly influenced ways of thinking, perceiving and

categorising experiences. As Kakar (1979) stated, "In its social implication, dharma is an

inherent force in human being which holds the individual and society together, or going one

step further, the force which makes 'individual and society hold each other together'."(p.6)

The Dharma of a person is believed to be contingent on four factors : (a)desh (country,


region), (b) Kala (period of history), (c) shrama (work, occupation), and (d) guna (biomental

attributes). The concept of Dharma is part of the broader Hindu theory of life cycle

As the field of psychology matured, researchers began to focus on specialized aspects of the

mind and behavior. This gave rise to subcategories of psychology, including social

psychology.

Social psychology has been a formal discipline since the turn of the 20th century. An early

study in 1898 of “social facilitation” by Indiana University psychology researcher Norman

Triplett sought to explain why bicycle racers seemed to exceed their solo performances when

they competed directly against others.

Later experiments sought to explain how and why certain artists and performers seemed to

shine in front of an audience, while others faltered. During World War II, researchers

conducted studies into the effects of propaganda on the behavior of entire populations.

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