Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

136 P. F. Lazarsfeld
terminology of our Section I, we may say that Moore wishes to study the
relative weight of collective and individual variates and their interplay over time.
As a way to organize this material, he suggests a number of categories in which
social structures can be described : their prevailing value system, their social
stratification, certain 'statistical' categories, such as age, sex and ethnicity, over
which the individual has little control, and finally, time sequences which charac-
terize every society - seasonal variations, ageing, career patterns as dictated by
the nature of jobs, etc. Having established the major dimensions along which he
proposes to characterize given social structures, he then raises the question of
how they affect human behaviour. (I omit a number of valuable observations -
p. 288 to p. 297 - in which he refutes extreme sociologism A la Durkheim or
extreme psychological reductionism, as probably best represented by the Pole
Malewski,Ig6 who derives some of his inspiration from the American Homans.)
In considering that a society has a prevailing system of norms, Moore puts
such questions as: by what mechanisms is compliance with these norms
achieved? What may be said of deviant behaviour outside these norms? H ow
consistent are these normative systems ? A considerable number of conventional
topics fall into place in this way, revealed by the intersection between the indi-
vidual and the social world. Thus, within the concept of social differentiation,
one can categorize the vast literature on social differences in child-rearing prac-
tices, effects of class position on perception of the outside world, role of social
differences in motivation or level of aspiration in the maintenance of a poverty
culture, etc.
The interrelation between social sequences and individual behaviour raises
especially interesting questions. The personal experience of a career corresponds
to the social phenomenon of succession. As new cohorts of individuals move
into roles which are only loosely described, they will produce considerable
social change. Technological progress, the sequence of which is partly deter-
mined by intrinsic intellectual rules, might far outrun the ability of any one indi-
vidual. (Think of the medial doctor 20 years after graduation.) Thus, again the
intertwining of the life cycle and social change locate another group of research
topics relating sociology and social psychology.
It cannot be the purpose of this short review to improve on the systematic
presentation of the problems on hand. My aim is rather to select what I con-
sider the most noticeable recent trends in the relation between both disciplines.
On various levels social psychologists have, over the past IO or 15 years, turned
their attention to certain processes which promise to provide underpinning for
some sociological problems without tending to displace them. A preliminary
evaluation of the general state of social psychological skills will be helpful
before attempting to identify such processes.
me state of the art
The most striking impression is the tremendous expansion of the field. In 1954
Gardner Lindzey, an American psychologist, published a Handbook of Social
Psychology in two volumes, which thoroughly covered all areas of the discipline.
The second edition (1968/1969) has just appeared in five equally compre-