Thinking in society

Verena Aebischer

pp. 237-242

in: Michael E. Hyland, William J. Baker, René van Hezewijk, Terwee (eds), Recent trends in theoretical psychology, Berlin, Springer, 1990

Abstract

The crisis of social psychology in the sixties reflected a dissatisfaction with the implicit ideas governing methods and theories of rigorous experimental research and with its neglect of the social nature of human beings. New research consequently considered the individual as part of a group positioned in relation with other groups. In Europe the idea of a group in social psychology has been expanded beyond the physical individuals that constitute a group to get at what may be called an ideology, a belief system, a Weltanschauung or a community of thoughts and of deeds. In this kind of research an attempt is made to study the cognitive strategies used when treating information. These strategies or perception mechanisms are not comparable to information processing by computers. They are embedded in a community of thoughts and of deeds and follow certain observable patterns, but they are differently pruned by individuals depending on their context and the relevance of the topic for the individual.