Social Psychology and Human Values: Documenting History, Charting Progress, and Exploring the World

ISBN-13: 9780202308920 / Angielski / Miękka / 2006 / 448 str.

M. Brewster Smith

Opis

Reflecting the contributions of M. Brewster Smith to social psychology and personality study, this selection includes not only his best known essays but also previously unpublished material. Professor Smith's consistent striving for a psychology both scientific and humane unifies the collection; it is a valid and valuable overview of the relevance of social psychology to human experience and societal problems by a man at the midstream of his career.An introductory essay traces the major themes in Professor Smith's work. Part I discusses the interdisciplinary relations of social psychology with other behavioral sciences; it shows that social psychology, standing at the crossroads of the social sciences, must articulate its contributions with those of the other disciplines, and it delineates the problems involved in this articulation. Part II presents the author's principal contributions to the social psychology of attitudes and values, a central topic in the field, in which he is a major proponent of the functional approach. Part III is devoted to the broader issues of personality theory, focusing on the "self" as the object of personal attitudes and including a classic paper on the phenomenological approach.Parts IV and V probe human effectiveness and "mental health," consider the social development of personal competence, and examine from a social psychological perspective a variety of social problems -foreign students and cross-cultural education, population growth, ethnic prejudice, and student protest. The final group of essays deals with perennial human concerns: the nature of rationality, the ethics of behavioral research, the psychology of literature, and the problems of evil.

Spis treści

Introduction; 1: Social Psychology and Human Values; Some Interdisciplinary Relationships of Sockl Psychology; 2: Personality in Politics: A Conceptual Map, with Application to the Problem of Political Rationality; 3: Anthropology and Psychology; 4: Samuel A. Stouffer; Attitudes and Values; 5: Opinions, Personality, and Political Behavior; 6: Attitude Change; 7: Personal Values in the Study of Lives; 8: An Analysis of Two Measures of “Authoritarianism” among Peace Corps Teachers; The Self, Mental Health, and Competence; 9: The Phenomenological Approach in Personality Theory; 10: The Self and Cognitive Consistency; 11: Optima of Mental Health; 12: Research Strategies Toward a Conception of Positive Mental Health; 13: Mental Health” Reconsidered; 14: Explorations in Competence; 5: Competence and Socialization; Some Social Problems; 16: The Revolution in Mental Health Care— A “Bold New Approach?; 17: Some Features of Foreign-Student Adjustment; 18: Foreign vs. Indigenous Education; 19: Motivation, Communications Research, and Family Planning; 20: The Schools and Prejudice; 21: The Crisis on the Campus; 22: Morality and Student Protest; Humanistic Values and Psychology; 23: Psychology in a Liberal Education; 24: Toward Scientific and Professional Responsibility; 25: Conflicting Values Affecting Behavioral Research with ChUdren; 26: Rationality and Social Process; 27: On Rereading Proust; 28: Some Thoughts on the Legitimation of Evil

O autorze

Anselm L. Strauss