Many authors have argued that applying social psychology to the solution of real world problems builds better theories. Observers have claimed, for example, that of human behavior applied social psychology reveals more accurate principles because its data are based on people in real-life circumstances (Helmreich, 1975; Saxe & Fine, 1980), provides an opportunity to assess the ecological validity of generalizations derived from laboratory research (Ellsworth, 1977; Leventhal, 1980), and discloses important gaps in existing theories (Fisher, 1982; Mayo & LaFrance, 1980). Undoubtedly, many...
Many authors have argued that applying social psychology to the solution of real world problems builds better theories. Observers have claimed, for ex...