Social psychology (sociology)

About: Social psychology (sociology) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 18151 publications have been published within this topic receiving 907731 citations. The topic is also known as: Social psychology & sociological social psychology.

Social Postmodernism: Feminist encounters: locating the politics of experience

Abstract: Feminist and antiracist struggles in the 1990s face some of the same urgent questions encountered in the 1970s. After two decades of engagement in feminist political activism and scholarship in a variety of sociopolitical and geographical locations, questions of difference (sex, race, class, nation), experience, and history remain at the center of feminist analysis. Only, at least in the US academy, feminists no longer have to contend as they did in the 1970s with phallocentric denials of the legitimacy of gender as a category of analysis. Instead, the crucial questions in the 1990s concern the construction, examination, and, most significantly, the institutionalization of difference within feminist discourses. It is this institutionalization of difference that concerns me here. Specifically, I ask the following question: how does the politics of location in the contemporary United States determine and produce experience and difference as analytical and political categories in feminist “cross-cultural” work? By the term “politics of location” I refer to the historical, geographical, cultural, psychic, and imaginative boundaries which provide the ground for political definition and self-definition for contemporary US feminists. Since the 1970s, there have been key paradigm shifts in Western feminist theory. These shifts can be traced to political, historical, methodological, and philosophical developments in our understanding of questions of power, struggle, and social transformation. Feminists have drawn on decolonization movements around the world, on movements for racial equality, on peasant struggles, and on gay and lesbian movements, as well as on the methodologies of Marxism, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, and poststructuralism to situate our thinking in the 1990s.

The Social Construction of Leadership: A Sailing Guide

Abstract: A growing body of literature now exists concerning the social construction of leadership. This literature draws on a variety of definitions of social constructionism, multiple constructs, and an array of perspectives, approaches, and methods. To identify and understand the differences among them, this article provides a sailing guide, comprising four key dimensions, to the social construction of leadership. It applies the guide to the social constructionist leadership literature, including the articles in this special issue. It then discusses how the guide can act as a reflexive tool when various choice points are revealed and a means by which to chart future paths for social constructionist leadership research.

Eco-clothing, consumer identity and ideology

Abstract: This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of eco-fashion consumption and consumer purchase decisions while constructing one's self with external symbols, such as appearance, clothing and fashion items. This study approaches sustainable clothing from a grounding in design research and the meanings of material culture. The study uses sociology and social psychology; hence, the meaning of appearance and especially clothing and fashion is understood in a social context. This paper also takes an interdisciplinary approach to eco-clothes as cultural and design objects in a social and sustainable development context, objects that intertwine consumers' ethical attitudes and values and how they construct a concept of ‘self’ using external symbols. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

An Introduction to Multilevel Modeling for Social and Personality Psychology

Abstract: Multilevel modeling is a technique that has numerous potential applications for social and personality psychology. To help realize this potential, this article provides an introduction to multilevel modeling with an emphasis on some of its applications in social and personality psychology. This introduction includes a description of multilevel modeling, a rationale for this technique, and a discussion of applications of multilevel modeling in social and personality psychological research. Some of the subtleties of setting up multilevel analyses and interpreting results are presented, and software options are discussed.

Rumor Psychology: Social and Organizational Approaches

Abstract: In "Rumor Psychology: Social and Organizational Approaches", expert rumor researchers Nicholas DiFonzo and Prashant Bordia investigate how rumors start and spread, the accuracy of different types of rumor, and how rumors can be controlled, particularly given their propagation across media outlets and within organizations. Rumors are an enduring feature of our social and organizational landscapes. They attract attention, evoke emotion, incite involvement, affect attitudes and actions - and they are ubiquitous. Rumor transmission is motivated by three broad psychological motivations - fact-finding, relationship-enhancement, and self-enhancement - all of which help individuals and groups make sense in the face of uncertainty. Rumor is closely entwined with a host of social and organizational phenomena, including social cognition, attitude formation and maintenance, prejudice and stereotyping, group dynamics, interpersonal and intergroup relations, social influence, and organizational trust and communication. Organizational rumors, in contrast with natural disaster rumors, tend to be highly accurate, with accuracy being affected by cognitive, motivational, situational, group, and network factors. DiFonzo and Bordia describe how managers can most effectively manage and refute rumors and infer that employee trust in management inhibits rumor activity.