Liberating Data: Politics of Reality in Interdisciplinary Social Psychology

This paper draws attention to the meaning of data, politics and reality in social psychology. Since social psychological data matters, critical reflection on data handling and interpretations expands the horizon of social psychology beyond the cause-effect nexus. Social psychological enterprise is a political field where the role of structure and power give meaning to the data, and hence construct the reality. This can be further situated in the institutions and the dominant paradigm which regulates the structuring of data and interpretations. The current paper debates the politics of data, human agency, and the way data in social psychology has the potential to be liberating and change-oriented.

Social psychological research on prejudice as collective action supporting emergent ingroup members

Why does social psychological research on prejudice change across time? We argue that scientific change is not simply a result of empirical evidence, technological developments, or social controversies, but rather emerges out of social change-driven shifts in how researchers categorize themselves and others within their larger societies. As mainstream researchers increasingly recategorize former outgroup members as part of a novel ingroup, prejudice research shifts in support of emergent ingroup members against their emergent outgroup opponents. Although social change-driven science results in valuable opportunities for researchers, it also results in significant risks for research - collective, scientific biases in the inclusion and exclusion of social groups in prejudice research that are not readily detected or managed by traditional controls. We present the Emergent Ingroup Model (EIM) to encourage reflection on shared biases, as well as to spark a broader conversation on how to strengthen our field for a rapidly changing and increasingly global world.

Low Hopes, High Expectations: Expectancy Effects and the Replicability of Behavioral Experiments

This article revisits two classical issues in experimental methodology: experimenter bias and demand characteristics. We report a content analysis of the method section of experiments reported in two psychology journals (Psychological Science and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology), focusing on aspects of the procedure associated with these two phenomena, such as mention of the presence of the experimenter, suspicion probing, and handling of deception. We note that such information is very often absent, which prevents observers from gauging the extent to which such factors influence the results. We consider the reasons that may explain this omission, including the automatization of psychology experiments, the evolution of research topics, and, most important, a view of research participants as passive receptacles of stimuli. Using a situated social cognition perspective, we emphasize the importance of integrating the social context of experiments in the explanation of psychological phenomena. We illustrate this argument via a controversy on stereotype-based behavioral priming effects.

Organizational Identity and Organizational Identification

Scholarly research directed toward the analysis of organizational identity and organizational identification is fragmented along disciplinary and subdisciplinary fault lines that mirror the current intellectual and social organization of the management and organization studies field. Adopting a critical realist design science perspective, the author challenges researchers to set aside their own identity concerns to embark on an ambitious program of work that capitalizes on the strengths of the alternative perspectives in play, with a view to generating insights that are truly greater than the sum of the parts. The imperative for doing so, at this critical juncture, is the need to address the pressing challenges that threaten to harm beyond repair the social harmony that is the bedrock of the world economy and society.

A Psicologia Social contemporânea: principais tendências e perspectivas nacionais e internacionais

O presente trabalho faz um balanço do estado atual da Psicologia Social, no plano nacional e internacional. Para tanto, faz uma revisão inicial das principais tendências que marcaram a evolução da Psicologia Social na América do Norte, para, em seguida, apresentar as características atuais mais relevantes dessa disciplina na América do Norte, na Europa e na América Latina. Em seguida, detém-se na análise da recente produção brasileira em Psicologia Social. À guisa de conclusão, discute os desafios futuros que se colocam à produção nacional na área de Psicologia Social, especialmente no que diz respeito a seu impacto no cenário acadêmico internacional.

Predicting Behavior During Interracial Interactions: A Stress and Coping Approach

The social psychological literature maintains unequivocally that interracial contact is stressful. Yet research and theory have rarely considered how stress may shape behavior during interracial interactions. To address this empirical and theoretical gap, the authors propose a framework for understanding and predicting behavior during interracial interactions rooted in the stress and coping literature. Specifically, they propose that individuals often appraise interracial interactions as a threat, experience stress, and therefore cope—they antagonize, avoid, freeze, or engage. In other words, the behavioral dynamics of interracial interactions can be understood as initial stress reactions and subsequent coping responses. After articulating the framework and its predictions for behavior during interracial interactions, the authors examine its ability to organize the extant literature on behavioral dynamics during interracial compared with same-race contact. They conclude with a discussion of the implications of the stress and coping framework for improving research and fostering more positive interracial contact.

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 10 Years On: Development, Impact and Future Directions

The development of this Journal, Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, is reviewed. Throughout its first 10 years, the Journal has been supported by a strong editorial board. It has sustained a significant profile in social psychology in the area of both intergroup and small group processes. Its wider impact includes connection to related disciplines such as organizational behavior and neuroscience, focused special issues, small conferences related to the theme of the Journal and the expansion of group and intergroup research through learned societies. The editors thank authors, editorial board members, editorial assistants, reviewers and readers for their support.