Social theory

About: Social theory is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 11421 publications have been published within this topic receiving 624898 citations.

Self and Society: Social Change and Individual Development

Abstract: How does his social environment change an individual, and why do these changes occur? Can social institutions be shaped and molded profoundly enough to afford each member of a society his maximum potential for happiness, effective functioning, and complete development? In this new work a distinguished psychologist evolves a theory of personality and society designed to help guide the work of institutions responsible for individual growth and development. Drawing on his vast experience--as an educator, a prison psychologist, a practicing psychoanalyst, and as the director of major studies in child development, personality assessment, the social psychology of higher education, and alcoholism and related problems--Professor Sanford has designed a developmental model intended to guide work in institutions which mold the individual: from family through schools, colleges, child guidance clinics, and mental hospitals. With exceptional lucidity, he examines the central issues in furthering desirable change through intervention in individual and group processes. He achieves notable advances in integrating personality theory and sociological theory: he joins psychoanalytic "ego psychologists" and other personality theorists in developing a dynamic-organismic theory broader than that of classical psychoanalysis and more in keeping with contemporary social theory. The author's clear style and firm grasp of his subject add further to the significance of Self and Society. It will be a stimulating textbook in social psychology, personality, and culture, and personality, and will make indispensable reading for behavioral scientists, psychiatrists, and educators, as well as for all professionals who work to promote mental health, education and social welfare.

Understanding Media Cultures: Social Theory and Mass Communication

Abstract: Introduction Marxism and Mass Communication Research Habermas, Mass Culture and the Public Sphere Critical Perspectives within Audience Research Marshall McLuhan and the Cultural Medium Baudrillard's Blizzards New Media and the Information Society Conclusion

Effects of Explanation and Counter-Explanation on the Development and Use of Social Theories.

Abstract: Social theories-beliefs about relations between variables in the social environment-are often used in making judgments, predictions, or decisions. Three experiments on the role of explanation in the development and use of social theories were presented. We found that explaining how or why two variables might be related leads to an increased belief in and use of the explained theory. A counterexplanation task was found to be effective in eliminating this initial explanation bias (Experiments 2 & 3). These explanation and counterexplanation effects occurred in a variety of theory domains (Experiment I), with simple belief measures (Experiments I & 3), and with complex social judgments involving multiple predictor variables (Experiment 2). Finally, we found that such new, explanationinduced beliefs did not lead to biased evaluation of new data. However, exposure to new data indicating a zero relation between the social variables in question only moderated the explanation-induced theories; it did not eliminate them (Experiment 3). Implications for decision making in real-world contexts and for understanding the cognitive processes underlying explanation effects in the present and in related judgment domains were also examined. Social judgments and decisions, ranging from the trivial to the absolutely crucial, frequently are made using social theories of dubious validity. By social theories we mean beliefs people hold about how and in what way variables in the social environment are related (cf. Anderson, Lepper, & Ross, 1980). Consider the decisions faced by emergency room doctors when presented with a 3-year-old child admitted for treatment of head injuries, bruises, and lacerations possibly due to parental child abuse. Should the attending physicians call the police, or try to get the parents to see the hospital counseling personnel, or simply ignore the evidence of child abuse? The decision will be based on the physicians' social theories about the effects of various interventions on the social, emotional, physical, and intellectual well-being of abused children. Some may believe that legal prosecution of the parents, perhaps resulting in the courts placing the child in a foster or adoptive home, produces the best outcomes for abused children. Others may believe that family counseling, without legal intervention, is best. Still others may feel that legal and psychological interventions are both worse than doing nothing-namely, that the parents will probably not engage in abusive behaviors again, and that they will provide the best environment for their own child. Or consider political decisions concerning national defense issues. Should the United States continue the present massive build-up of nuclear and nonnuclear forces? People's judgments will depend on their social theories relating these actions to the responses of the Soviets. Do threatening gestures promote peace

Addressing Technological Change: The Challenge to Social Theory

Abstract: Technology is central to contemporary theories of social, cultural and economic change, yet its treatment is still predominantly one of technological determinism. This article examines the development of the social studies of science and technology (STS) and its critique of this dominant position. It provides an account of the principal concepts that inform the area, which emphasize that technology is a socio-technical product, patterned by the conditions of its creation and use. Technology and society, rather than being separate spheres, are mutually constituted. In this way, STS adds an important dimension missing in recent social theory, one that is sensitive to the materiality of social relations and the power of objects. Finally, the article explores the contribution of scholars of gender and technology to both STS and feminist theory. For all the diversity to be found within the field, what has emerged is a powerful legacy of theory and research that promises to make a significant contribution to pu...

Against structure : a critique of morphogenetic social theory

Abstract: This article criticises the ontology of Margaret Archer’s morphogenetic social theory, arguing that the concept of autonomous social structure on which she bases this social theory is contradictory. Against the ontological contradictions of Archer’s work, the article tries to re-habilitate the interpretive tradition which Archer dismisses, showing that only this tradition provides a logically coherent and methodologically useful social ontology, which consists only of individuals and their social relations.