Introduction to Critical Social Psychology

* How and why has social psychology been deconstructed? * Why have some social psychologists turned to language and discourse analysis, and what problems have arisen as a consequence? * Do we need new concepts of self and cognition, and a new way of doing social psychology? This book provides a clear and relatively concise social psychology, drawing together the variety of arguments, controversies and approaches that constitute the field. It is organised around three interrelated aspects of critics' dissatisfaction with social psychology: its methods and claim to be a science (the paradigm crisis); its mental concepts and especially its view of selfhood (the conceptual crisis); and its dehumanising character and the political effects of psychological practices and knowledge (the moral/political crisis). Several critical tools have guided efforts to rethink the discipline, such as sociological and philosophical studies of science, the turn to language, discourse analysis, feminism and poststructuralism. These are described and their usefulness is examined in providing a critique of and alternatives to social psychology's subject and method. The emphasis throughout is on the variety of approaches to deconstructing and reconstructing social psychology, encouraging a broad appreciation of subsequent controversies such as realism and agency. Students will welcome the clarity of the author's approach to a field which has seemed daunting and impenetrable in the past.Widdicombe is the author of 'Introduction to Critical Social Psychology' with ISBN 9780335196517 and ISBN 0335196519.