The Analysis of Situational Fields in Social Psychology

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Abstract

IN COMMON with many others operating in the vague and complex field of social psychology, I find it impossible at this juncture to produce a logically rigorous system of assumptions and concepts with which to analyze and interpret human social interaction. Notwithstanding the rickety condition of the present formulation, I deem it worthwhile to expose it for critical examination by fellow workers in the hope of gaining new perspectives on it myself.' There are no essentially new terms in this formulation. I am particularly aware of the influence on my own thinking of the work of Charles H. Cooley, George H. Mead, Ellsworth Faris, Sigmund Freud, and Kurt Lewin. Those familiar with recent developments in social psychology will also see that the present statement is in line with a general current which is also manifest in the work of H. S. Sullivan, H. D. Lasswell, J. L. Moreno, Karen Horney, Erick Fromm, W. L. Warner and many others. In what follows, I shall be taking the position, familar to most sociologists, (i) that any item of social behavior is understood only as it is seen as a functional part of a situation composed of interacting selves; (2) that in functioning in an interactive system, the organism not only develops the response patterns representing its part in such an interact but actually incorporates the response patterns of the other(s) in its reactive system; and (3) that when one elaborates the two foregoing assumptions into a working system of social psychology, he finds it necessary to modify radically the atomistic methods of traditional psychology which treat of reflexes, traits, motives, and various other behavioral syndromes which are referred to the individual with a minimum of attention to precise specification of the interactive context.2 I. Illustrative Material. I shall begin this discussion by introducing some very simple concrete materials to which it may be convenient to refer later. These materials will also serve to indicate a few of the problems of interpretation for which I believe the situational approach offers a possible solution.

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