The Rise and Fall of Social Psychology: An Iconoclast's Guide to the Use and Misuse of the Experimental Method

by Augustine Brannigan

This unflinching effort critically traces the attempt of social psychology over the past half century to forge a scientific understanding of human behavior based on the systematic use of experiments. Having examined the record from the inception of the field to the present, Brannigan suggests that it has failed to live up to its that social psychologists have achieved little consensus about the central problems in the field; that they have failed to amass a body of systematic, non-trivial theoretical insight; and that recent concerns over the ethical treatment of human subjects could arguably bring the discipline to closure. But that is not the disastrous outcome that Brannigan hopes for. Rather, going beyond an apparent iconoclasm, the author explores prospects for a post-experimental discipline. It is a view that admits the role of ethical considerations as part of scientific judgment, but not as a sacrifice of, but an extension of, empirical research that takes seriously how the brain represents information, and how these mechanisms explain social behaviors and channel human choices and appetites. What makes this work special is its function as a primary text in the history as well as the current status of social psychology as a field of behavioral science. The keen insight, touched by the gently critical styles, of such major figures as Philip Zimbardo, Morton Hunt, Leon Festinger, Stanley Milgram, Alex Crey, Samuel Wineburg, Carol Gilligan, David M. Buss--among others--makes this a perfect volume for students entering the field, and no less, a reminder of the past as well as present of social psychology for its serious practitioners.

Genres: Psychology

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Augustine Brannigan is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Calgary, Canada. In his career as a professor in the Department of Sociology he taught social psychology, social theory, criminology, and criminal justice.

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book caught my eye because I've frequently been asked whether Stanley Milgram's work was sound. Milgram's work has, after all, frequently been cited by those who emphasize the importance of environment instead of genetics on personality. I never had a good answer, because I'd never seen or even heard of criticism of Milgram's work. Wow--did this book ever open my eyes, not only to criticism of Milgram's work, but to methodological flaws in the entire field's approach to experimental work!

What I love about this book is just how skilled Dr. Brannigan is at finding and pointing out critical flaws in many of the classic studies of social psychology. He has done an unbelievably thorough review of the critical literature. (And it's not like that's easy, because most criticism of the classical studies somehow seems to never appear in the textbooks that have made those studies into "classics." Brannigan must have spent years sleuthing amongst the journals.)

I had never really thought about the fact that many, if not most, studies in social psychology really just don't apply at all to real life. For example, the subjects in Milgram's "shocking" studies often kept turning up the power on the (ostensive) electrical shocking equipment because they truly believed that it was a university setting and no one could really be being shocked. Well, they were right! And that's just one of many issues Brannigan points out with the studies.

The book culminates in a description of how social psychology can be put onto far more solid and useful a footing. This book should be essential reading for anyone with an interest in psychology or human nature--or wishing to learn how to *not* do experimental work in psychology.

[Adam Calhoun · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although Brannigan clearly has a lot of interesting things to say, this book is unfortunately not worth the time. Her rebuttals are nice although incredibly one-sided (unnecessarily so), and her love of psychoanalysis is troublesome. But it's her complete rejection of the experimental method that is ridiculous. What Brannigan wants social psychology to be is a version of sociology - that's a fine topic to study, but it's not social psychology.