Contemporary Social Psychological Theories

Herausgeber: Burke, Peter J

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

A new edition of the 2006 textbook, presenting the most important and influential social psychological theories and research programs in contemporary sociology.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• 2nd edition
• Seitenzahl: 416
• Erscheinungstermin: 15. Mai 2018
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 254mm x 179mm x 24mm
• Gewicht: 814g
• ISBN-13: 9781503603653
• ISBN-10: 1503603652
• Artikelnr.: 48863603

Autorenporträt

Peter J. Burke is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at University of California, Riverside. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the 2003 winner of the Cooley-Mead Award from the American Sociological Association for lifetime contributions to social psychology.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
1Symbolic Interaction Framework  George J. McCall
chapter abstract
This chapter sets forth the core themes of symbolic interaction as a set of
axioms and postulates, the interpretation of which varies over time, as
differing theories of mind and of communication develop. These core themes
are traced to the work of the Scottish moralists, especially Adam Smith.
Next are examined the interpretation of early American philosophy (the
pragmatism of Charles Peirce and John Dewey), psychology (James Baldwin and
William James), and sociology (Charles H. Cooley, George H. Mead, Robert
Park and W.I. Thomas). The contributions of Herbert Blumer and Everett
Hughes are discussed along with more recent developments in symbolic
interaction (such as identity theory). Finally, author contends that the
symbolic interaction tradition is the root of various special theories
(such as affect control theory and comparison theory, among others).
2Social Exchange Framework  Scott V. Savage and Monica M. Whitham
chapter abstract
The social exchange perspective begins with the premise that in order to
get what they need and value, humans must trade benefits with others. Thus,
the perspective views social interaction as a series of
structurally-bounded exchanges of valued social and material resources
between actors located in larger social networks and groups. This chapter
describes the concepts and assumptions foundational to most social exchange
theories and then provides a history of the social exchange perspective in
sociology. This history details how theorists have used these concepts and
assumptions to explain social life, with a particular focus on how current
trends in the social exchange literature relate to classic theories and
general themes in the tradition.
3Justice Frameworks  Karen A. Hegtvedt
chapter abstract
As a form of "glue" that holds people together, justice concerns permeate
group functioning. This chapter highlights three central questions: What is
justice? How do people perceive injustice? What are responses to perceived
injustice? Addressing these questions involves identification of common
terms, key assumptions, and the motivations that drive the core of research
on distributive, procedural, and interactional justice. The chapter then
analyzes theory and empirical research pertinent to how individual factors
(e.g., characteristics, beliefs, and motivations) combine with situational
factors to produce perceptions of (in)justice. Assessments of injustice
resulting in emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses round out the
chapter and lead to attention to processes that mediate between perceived
injustice and its consequences.
4Identity Theory  Jan E. Stets
chapter abstract
In this chapter, the author provides an overview of identity theory
beginning with its roots in symbolic interaction, followed by a discussion
of the theory as it is currently conceptualized. The internal and external
processes related to an identity are reviewed as well as the relationship
between a single identity and multiple identities. Identity theory
continues to develop beyond its current boundaries, and the author outlines
the theoretical, methodological, and substantive advances that have been
taking place. For example, we now are studying different bases of
identities (person, role, and social/group), devising new ways of measuring
identities, and examining stigmatized and counter-normative identities. The
future is bright for this ever-developing theory, and some directions for
future research are offered.
5Social Identity Theory  Michael A. Hogg
chapter abstract
Social identity theory is a social psychological analysis of the role of
self-conception in group membership, group processes, and intergroup
relations. It describes how social categorization of self and others,
motivated by pursuit of a clear sense of identity (identity uncertainty
reduction) and a favorable self-evaluation (positive social identity),
influences self-conception and social perception, and generates group and
intergroup behaviors; and how this dynamic is in turn influenced by
people's perceptions of the nature of social reality. Since its early
origins in the 1970s social identity theory has developed to become perhaps
social psychology's preeminent midlevel theory of group behavior. It
addresses phenomena such as prejudice, discrimination, ethnocentrism,
stereotyping, intergroup conflict, conformity, normative behavior, group
polarization, crowd behavior, organizational behavior, leadership,
deviance, and group cohesiveness. This chapter describes the theory's
historical origins, metatheoretical framing, conceptual components, and
numerous developments, extensions, and applications.
6Affect Control Theories of Social Interaction and Self  Dawn T. Robinson
and Lynn Smith-Lovin
chapter abstract
Affect control theory is a mathematical, formal theory that describes the
way people import cultural meanings into our everyday social interactions.
It makes predictions about a broad range of social psychological phenomena,
including role behavior, behavioral responses to deviance or undefined
situations, emotional responses, labeling of self and others, attribution
of moods or personal characteristics, and so on. The theory has been tested
using qualitative, experimental, and survey techniques. Several recent
extensions of the theory are described here, including the affect control
theory of self, an affect control theory of institutions, a Bayesian
generalization of affect control theory that allows for analysis under
multiple identities and uncertainty about identities, and a group
application of affect control theory. Three theoretical simulation tools
are described-INTERACT, GroupSimulator, and BayesACT.
7Power, Dependence, and Social Exchange Theory  Karen S. Cook, Coye
Cheshire, and Alexandra Gerbasi
chapter abstract
Power is one of the most fundamental processes of interest in the social
sciences. Emerson's (1962, 1964) theory of power and its link to dependence
has become a citation classic. It reoriented the study of power to the
analysis of social exchange relations and the structures or networks that
connect them. This chapter traces the development of this view of power and
its extension primarily within the social exchange tradition in social
psychology. The theory grew over time to encompass a number of related
social processes beyond power in networks to include analyses of coalition
formation, collective action, commitment, social cohesion and trust. The
chapter concludes with a discussion of future research topics including
those that relate to the rapidly expanding world of online social
exchanges, communities and networks that are far reaching,
8Elementary Theory  Pamela Emanuelson and David Willer
chapter abstract
Elementary theory determines the effects of social structure on actors'
interests, and predicts the effect of their interests on their behavior.
This chapter reviews the major concepts, assertions and applications of
Elementary Theory emphasizing the theory's broad scope and utility for
explaining behavior in a range of past and present social structures. The
chapter starts by providing basic concepts, and then combines defined
concepts to create nuanced and dynamic models of social structure.
Conditions of structure are introduced and their effects for both coercive
and exchange structures are explained. The chapter concludes by examining
prior applications of Elementary Theory to explain behavior in social
structures including bureaucratic organizations and ancient polities.
9The Affect Theory of Social Exchange  Edward J. Lawler
chapter abstract
The affect theory of social exchange treats social exchange as a
prototypical joint task that fosters positive or negative emotions and
feelings. Accomplishing a social exchange makes people feel good, and if
they experience this repeatedly with the same people, they tend to
attribute their feelings in part to the group or organizational context.
This is especially likely if the joint task generates a sense of shared
responsibility. Shared responsibility promotes social unit attributions of
positive emotion, and this helps explain how people involved in repeated
exchange develop emotional or affective commitments to their group or
organizational units. The instrumental ties that underlie exchange thereby
become expressive. Important consequences include greater cooperation,
cohesion, and solidarity.
10The Theory of Comparison Processes  Guillermina Jasso
chapter abstract
When humans reflect on their attributes and possessions, they often compare
what they have, called the actual holding, to a comparison holding that
reflects what they would like to have or expect or think just. These
comparisons generate judgments and sentiments that include self-esteem, the
sense of justice, and happiness. The hallmark of comparison processes (also
known as reference dependent processes) is that the actual holding and the
comparison holding have opposite effects on the outcome. For example, as
actual earnings increase, self-esteem increases, but as expected earnings
increase, self-esteem decreases. The outcomes in turn affect every area of
behavior. Comparison theory systematically yields, from its parsimonious
starting postulates, a broad range of testable predictions, including novel
predictions. Thus, the stage is set for further theoretical development and
concomitantly for empirical test of the predictions. This chapter provides
an introduction to comparison theory and its research agendas.
11Expectations, Status, and Behavior Theories  Joseph Berger and Murray
Webster, Jr.
chapter abstract
Status construction theory describes how structural conditions in society
frame and constrain social encounters among people who differ on a nominal
social distinction such as gender or race/ethnicity, so that these local
contexts of action foster the development and spread of shared status
beliefs about the social difference. Status beliefs are cultural beliefs
that people in one category of a social difference (men, whites) are more
socially esteemed and considered generally more competent than people in a
contrasting category of the difference (women, people of color). Status
beliefs transform social differences into axes of inequality in society.
Empirical tests of the theory's propositions show that the key to this
happening is the unequal distribution between categories of a social
difference of material resources or technology that allows actors from one
category to become more influential in cross-difference encounters than
actors from a contrasting category.
12Status Construction Theory  Cecilia L. Ridgeway
chapter abstract
The authors describe and review several branches of the expectation states
theoretical research program. The theoretical branches reviewed here
include, among others: power and prestige; status characteristics; reward
expectations; legitimation; and double and multiple standards. For each
branch, they describe its theoretical arguments and assumptions, and some
of the relevant empirical research. This chapter also introduces research
on a new branch of the program on the spread of status value. They review a
theory describing how status value spreads and present some of the latest
experimental research on this problem. This chapter shows that the program
has grown considerably over the years. In particular, that growth has
resulted in an increase in the domain that it is applicable to, and an
increase in the precision of the empirical propositions that can be derived
from its major theoretical assumptions.
13Legitimacy Theory  Morris Zelditch Jr.
chapter abstract
Legitimacy theory is a theory of legitimate authority that has subsequently
been extended to the legitimacy of acts, persons, positions, and regimes.
This theory addresses three questions: (1) What is the nature of the
process of legitimation? (2) What are its consequences? (3) What are its
causes and conditions? Two publications since legitimacy theory appeared in
2006 extended its scope to the legitimacy of groups dependent on mobilizing
the resources of their own members, and address three further questions:
(1) What is the effect of the fact that groups are often nested in other
groups on the legitimacy processes in such hierarchies of groups? (2) What
is the effect of the group's legitimacy on its capacity for collective
action and of its capacity for collection action on the group's legitimacy?
(3) What is the effect of the legitimacy of the group on its capacity to
mobilize member resources?
14Social Networks Structural Focus Theory  Scott L. Feld
chapter abstract
This chapter shows how social network focus theory helps to understand how
individuals experience social networks. The chapter begins with basic
assumptions about how social relations arise from repeated joint
participation in activities, and how individuals' participation in multiple
foci of activity imply particular types of patterns of clusters in
networks. Further assumptions about variation in numbers of foci with which
individuals associate and numbers of individuals associated with each focus
lead to implications for the nature and numbers of direct and indirect
connections among people. Further assumptions about homogeneity of
characteristics of people associated with each focus, focused sources of
strengths of ties, and the nature of homophilous choices within structured
contexts lead to further specific implications about the nature of direct
and indirect connections in networks. The chapter concludes with discussion
of possibilities for further extensions and applications of social network
focus theory.
Introduction  Peter J. Burke
chapter abstract
Contemporary Social Psychological Theories contains an overview of three
primary perspectives and ten major theories that serve to guide much
research in sociological social psychology today. Each theory chapter is
selected to cover a major cumulative research program and is authored by
the persons who have played a major role in the development of the theory.