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The article discusses the subject matter and methods of social psychology. In the days when psychologists were directing their thoughts toward the 1936 meeting of their national association, the happy suggestion was made by researcher Steuart H. Britt that the time had come for social psychologists to hold a round table to discuss the subject matter of their science. The suggestion was well received; and at the request of Britt and the Secretary of the Association, the author has allowed himself the privilege of serving as Chairman of such a gathering. In planning this meeting, it was decided to steer a middle course between haphazard discussion from the floor and long theoretical orientations presented by a few. The plan was adopted of selecting a list of topics representing the most active research areas of social psychology, and asking specialists in these topics to present brief papers, each of which was to be followed by discussion. In the array of topics selected, as shown by the papers following, conspicuous omissions occur.

ABSTRACT Sociologists in the main define their field as the scientific or systematic study of human groups, human societies, or human social behavior, a formulation that does not imply any spatial limit upon its scope. In practice, most sociological studies are conducted within one society, and few theoretical propositions can find support in research results based on comparable data from many societies. To counter such undesirable parochialism, this paper calls urgently for recognition of the need for much more emphasis on cross-societal comparative research and proposes ways in which such an expansion can be facilitated. Science... is not, as is sometimes thought, a way of building a solid indestructible body of immutable truth, fact laid precisely upon fact in the manner of twigs in an anthill. Science is not like this at all: it keeps changing, shifting, revising, discovering that it was wrong and then heaving itself explosively apart to redesign everything. It is a living thing, a celebration of human fallibility (Thomas, 1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Increasingly, sociologists concerned with occupational mobility and the changes in the occupational distribution are turning their attention to the structural conditions for such changes. One important change has been industry shifts, particularly the decline of agriculture and the growth of services. In this paper we argue that industry shifts have an important effect on changes in the occupational structure. Using a shift-share approach, changes in the occupational structure of the U.S. between 1960 and 1970 are decomposed into an industry shift effect, an occupational composition effect, and an interaction effect. These effects vary for major occupational categories, but for total U.S. employment the industry shift effect accounted for about two-thirds of the change in occupational structure, the composition effect for one-third, and the interaction effect was negligible. It is not likely that there will be as important shifts in the industry structure during the next 30 years as in the last 30 years. But it has been the industry shifts that have mostly contributed to an expansion of the higher status occupations, particularly professionals and managers. Therefore, unless the occupational composition changes in such a way as to compensate for the diminishing effects of the industry structure, structural opportunities will either remain at current levels or even decline in the years to come. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Few sociologists have investigated, systematically and empirically, the concept of freedom, as such. In this paper, freedom is explored as it is viewed and experienced by people rather than as a philosophical construct. Three dimensions of freedom are identified: ego, discipline, and conditional. These types of freedom are examined in six types of groups and in relation to feelings of loss of freedom. Finally, we approach a theory of freedom, its dimensions, and the manner in which it is experienced by actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article throws light on the concept of complexity in sociology. The concept of social phenomenon is based on two misconceptions: first, as to the nature of consciousness; second, as to the nature of knowing the old philosophical problems of mind and epistemology. It is the thesis of this paper that social phenomena are no more "complex" than other types of natural phenomena, and in some respects, less complex; that is, they are less numerous, at least as stable and orderly, are more tangible, and therefore easier to "understand," both popularly and scientifically. Complexity merely means the non-existence of scientific categories describing relatively stable uniformities. Also, it is assumed that the assertion of the greater complexity of social phenomena is largely a defense mechanism of sociologists, a rationalization of their failure to deliver the scientific goods. The moral of the tale is that sociologists should spend less time pleading complexity and more time doing the research that changes "complexity" into simplicity. In many respects the task is much simpler, more tangible, less tedious, and more dramatic than the tasks of astronomers and bio-chemists.

For a number of years the evidence has been accumulating that American sociologists are moving from the Philosophical to the empirical stage of their thinking. More and more generally social phenomena have come to be regarded as "natural," that is, as phenomena that must be described before they can be evaluated or explained. Recent advances in social theory, in social psychology, in genetic psychology and in general linguistics are creating a situation in which there is at least an implied challenge to the sociologist to push on beyond the empirical level to the level of definitely controlled experiment. The theoretical change becomes apparent when one recalls that as recently as ten years ago most social theorists were still thinking in terms of instincts, institutions, conflict, accommodation, or similar vague rubrics. Unfortunately, of course one cannot expect to do very much in the way of discovery until more adequate means of record are available. Despite this, however, the venture is not without its intriguing aspects merely as an experiment in methods of teaching. Experience indicates that the experiments in social psychology should generally precede the interaction experiments instead of being interspersed with them as was the case this year.