| From the History of Social Psychology
Social psychology is a relatively young discipline. Its origin can be traced to
experiments conducted late in the 19th century. These experiments, conducted
separately by American psychologist Norman Triplett and French agricultural
engineer Max Ringelmann, investigated whether the presence of other people
disrupts or enhances an individual’s performance on various tasks - a question
that is still the subject of research today. The first textbooks on social psychology
were published by British psychologist William McDougall and American
sociologist Edward Alsworth Ross in 1908. Another important textbook, published
by American psychologist Floyd Allport in 1924, extended the principles of
conditioning and learning to account for a wide range of social behaviours.
In the 1930’s German-American psychologist Kurt Lewin introduced the notion that people are largely influenced by how they perceive the world around them. Lewin proposed that behaviour is a unique function of the interaction between a person and his or her environment. Lewin conducted pioneering studies of leadership styles. He also advocated the practical application of social psychology in the workplace, the classroom, and other settings. Today, Lewin is considered by many to be the founder of modern social psychology.
A new era of social psychology began after World War II (1939–1945). Driven by a need to understand the horrors of war, many researchers began to study competition and conflict between groups, aggression, stereotypes and prejudice, leadership, group dynamics, obedience to authority, conformity, and the use of propaganda to change attitudes. Others soon became interested in a broader
range of topics, such as affiliation with groups, interpersonal attraction, love,
the development of close relationships, and the influences of gender, culture, and
evolution on social behaviour. Still others went on to apply social psychology
to studies of physical and mental health, education, business, law, political
behaviour, and advertising.
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