THE METHODOLOGY OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: I. THE GESTALT METHOD OF THOUGHT.

This article focuses on the methodology of social psychology. It follows from the foregoing description of the etiology and solution of social conflict that the essential service which psychology can perform in resolving such conflict is--the discovery of the causes of the actions of persons; the formulation of those causes into general laws of conduct; and then the reiteration of those laws until they become generally accepted by the public. In proportion as one person understands another his wrath against the other cools. The former person even approaches the conviction that under similar conditions he himself would have done as the other has. And in confidence of a fair hearing from the now understood person, the former person will frankly present the reasons for his own actions, and so make himself understood by the latter. The final result of this process of explanation is mutual understanding and so the elimination of conflict. It has been important to explain the value of social psychology per se in settling social conflicts because a belief is now current that the only social psychology of value to that end is a psychology of classes.