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The article comments on the paper of sociologist Serge Moscovici on social psychology. Moscovici believes that social psychology was once becoming an influential crossroads discipline, one that could shape and nurture other social sciences such as economics, anthropology and sociology. Moscovici's solution to the problem of how to become a powerful discipline seems to be along the lines of getting back to basics. Throughout his paper, Moscovici urges other social psychologists to consider the importance of creating rich descriptions garnered through careful, painstaking observations. In various ways an inductivist model of science within a positivist-empiricist framework informs Moscovici's views of the ideal social psychology. Moscovici seems to believe that the positivist-empiricist mode of scientific method is unchallenged within social psychology and sciences more generally. The author stresses the similarities between Moscovici's philosophy of science and that of the most traditional mainstream laboratory social psychologist.

This paper addresses the hypothesis derived from self-categorization theory (SCT) that the relationship between groups and stereotyping will be affected by the social structural conditions within which group interaction occurs. A mixed design experiment (n=56) measured low-status groups' stereotypes and preferences for conflict with a high-status outgroup prior to and after within-group discussion across varying social structural conditions. Over time, participants in [open] conditions consensualized around positive conceptions of the outgroup and endorsed acceptance of their own [low status] position. However, in [closed] conditions participants consensualized around positive conceptions of the ingroup, negative conceptions of the outgroup, and tended towards preferences for collective protest. It is argued that the data support S-CT's contention that stereotyping and group processes are fundamentally interlinked and that neither can be properly understood in isolation from the dynamics of the surrounding intergroup context. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Should stereotyping be characterised as an act of cognitive miserliness of one of rational meaning-seeking? This paper uses a cognitive load paradigm to investigate the adequacy of popular resource-based explanations of stereotyping in comparison to an alternative fit-based or meaning-based explanation. In Experiment 1, load was increased by means of concurrent tasks within a highly fitting context (where targets generally behaved in a stereotype-consistent fashion). A linear decrease in stereotyping resulted as measured by category confusions on a who-said what recognition task (Taylor, Fiske, Etcoff & Ruderman, 1978). This outcome is inconsistent with a resource-based analysis of stereotyping. Experiment 2 manipulated load as stimulus exposure time. Although load was successfully imposed in this second experiment, stereotyping neither increased nor decreased as a function of load. The concept of cognitive load and the importance of fit for the analysis of stereotyping are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates two theoretical statements that are central to Social Identity Theory and Self-Categorization Theory: (1) when people identify as members of a social group, they are motivated to distinguish this group in a positive sense from relevant comparison groups, and: (2) in an hierarchically organized system of possible social identities, people may define their identity at various levels, but two levels cannot be salient in the same situation. Four studies investigate whether these hypothesized processes can be traced in natural social categories. Study 1 (N = 150) found that Polish subjects had a more negative national stereo type than Dutch subjects. Study 2 (N = 160) investigated whether these national stereo types were related to the perceived distinctiveness of national traits, and to differential levels of national and European iden4fication for Polish and Dutch subjects. Contrary to the expectations, it was found that Polish subjects identified more strongly with their national group than Dutch subjects. Both positive and negative national traits were considered more distinctive by Polish subjects than by Dutch subjects. Moreover, Polish subjects expressed a stronger European identity than Dutch subjects. Study 3 (N = 161) replicated the findings of Study 2 under more controlled conditions. The Polish national stereotype was found to be largely based on negatively evaluated trails, and Polish subjects were more motivated to accentuate the distinctiveness of their national traits than Dutch subjects. Again. Polish subjects displayedseronger national and European identities. Furthermore, no support was found for the expectation that Polish subjects would employ some self-protective strategy when such an opportunity was offered in this study. Similarly, in Study 4 (N = 40) we found no evidence that Polish subjects utilized an alternative self-protective mechanism. namely `group-serving' attributions by means of which negative national traits could be ascribed to external circumstances. The results of these four studies are discussed in relation to Social Identity Theory, Self-Categorization Theory and political/historical developments in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three studies were conducted in order to investigate antecedents of individuals' preoccupation with person descriptors, such as personality traits, physical-ethnic characteristics, or external characteristics, in Studies 1 and 2 subjects had to rate, for a given list of traits, how important each of the traits was as a prerequisite for performance within an academic context. Subjects who Here relatively inexperienced in writing term papers (Study 1) or in taking major exams (Study 2) showed a higher mean in rated importance of the traits than did those who were relatively experienced However, no differences between experienced and inexperienced subjects occurred if they had to rate the same trait list with respect to each trait's general desirability, i.e. where the traits were simply rated as such, without any reference to a performance realm. This finding clarifies an important aspect of the theory underlying this work, in the third study subjects were encouraged to make use of overt, visible aspects in describing how to recognize a foreign language speaker. The number of physical ethnic and material characteristics mentioned in subjects' descriptions was positively correlated with the number of mistakes subjects made in a foreign-language translation task, particularly when subjectively felt press with respect to translating was high and subjects' performance in translating was salient. Implications of these findings are discussed within a concept framework dwelling on the societal origins of the use of person-descriptor terms (Wicklund, 1986a,b). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an overview of current evidence for the role of affect in social judgments, and the work represented in this Special Issue in particular. A new integrative theory, the Affect infusion Model (AIM) is outlined as a comprehensive and parsimonious explanation of these effects. The model assumes that the degree of affect infusion into judgments varies along a processing continuum, and identifies four alternative processing strategies: (a) direct access, (b) motivated, (c) heuristic, and (d) substantive processing. Consistent with the empirical material reviewed here, the AIM predicts that judgments requiring constructive, generative processing (heuristic and substantive strategies) are more likely to be 'infused' by affect titan are simple, reconstructive judgments (direct access and motivated processing). The role of target, judge and situational features in recruiting different processing strategies is considered, and evidence supporting the model is reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper starts by outlining a general perspective in social psychology. It may turn out that social constructivism, the perspective outlined in the early sixties is one of the major contributions of European social psychology to social sciences in general. Whatever its fate, some particular points are made: a) physics is not the only model we have to follow b) the existing ways of explanation can and must be upgraded c) more complex theories are required d) changes in methodological and statistical criteria are expected in order to deal with new and complex phenomena. Nevertheless the main problem today is description and not explanation. That is the discovery and observation of a wider range of new social phenomena. How successful we will he in this endeavor decides if social psychology becomes a major science or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moscovici has ushered in the 'era of social representations', widely welcomed as a European alternative to what are increasingly regarded as the shortcomings of mainline' American social psychology. The rapid and enthusiastic adoption by many psychologists of Moscovici's theoretical approach has not so far evoked a great deal of critical appraisal of the ideas he put forward. The present paper seeks to make a start in filling this gap by an examination of the conceptual structure and sonic of its underlying assumptions. There appear to be a number of internal inconsistencies and some doubt concerning the logical status of social representations'. It is suggested that clarification of such issues, together with the establishment of closer links with the findings of neighbouring disciplines, would help to strengthen what is undoubtedly one of the most stimulating new departures in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]