Handbook of Social Psychology
- Author:
Kimball Young,
Frotessor ot Sociology, l^ueen s college, New YorK. Kegan Paul. 1946. Pp. 578. 21s.
The need for a sound social psychology is becoming something in the nature of a necessity. The growing interest in social relations under the pressure of current events, the intrinsic development of psychology itself and the menace to Society from international crisis and the advance in technology, make it a matter of urgency that students of psychology and sociology should have a sound and guiding textbook which should shepherd them through the morass of researches and theories which have grown up during the last half a century. Dr Kimball Young’s book should have been a very timely publication. Does his attempt to bring together within the compass of one book of recent researches and views meet the needs of students?
Dr Young, not unexpectedly, gives much credit to American pioneer work in the field of experimental and observational social psychology and it is true that many valuable researches have been carried out in the States through excellent team work. The author also gives due recognition to the work of MacDougall, and Freud’s hypothesis regarding the Origin of Society and Social Ties is mentioned and the latter’s psychopathology utilized for the explanation of the basic mechanisms of individual behaviour and their social reverberations. The general pattern of the book tends to follow orthodox lines, starting with a consideration of the animal prototypes of human behaviour and followed by an account of the various patterns of personality in relation to culture. Logically, the section on Desires and Emotions should have preceded this, so that the later consideration of social cultural realities, Stereotypes and Myths, would have fallen into an easy sequence. The author’s present arrangement may lead the student into some confusion of thought and the begging of many questions. For in the very nature of the subject it is still a matter for speculation and careful discussion of facts as to whether social or psychological criteria have priority or, as may well be, social requirements do not at all stages impose certain basic patterns upon human conduct.
The author’s manner of dealing with his data is somewhat discursively descriptive and nowhere does he appear to seek for co-ordinating principles which would have bound the subject together, thereby giving it not merely cohesion but laying down a blue-print for further study and research. The whole book contains a wealth of material gathered from contemporary events and problems, as well as from specific researches and the studies of primitive societies. But we get the impression of a loosely patterned mosaic with little suggestion of the large and sweeping processes which dominate human behaviour unfolding itself in time and place. There are few vital subjects which the book does not deal with, sometimes at great length, such as The Psychology of War and Revolution, Civilian Morale and Forms of Mass Behaviour, Fashion, Public Opinion and Propaganda. Because of its chatty and discursive style, it is eminently readable and entertaining It is true that the kaleidoscope of human social life presents a bewildering, changing pattern, but we are not likely to further social research and forge an instrument for social improvement by presenting a glorious technicolour film of the social scene. The present book would have served a much more useful purpose if some matter were cut down and formal discussion of fundamental principles were put forward, even tf tentative in nature.
The book can certainly be recommended for the valuable bibliographies attached to each of the chapters. Emanuel Miller.
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